THE LIFE OF WILLIAM DEWSBURY, AN EARLY AND EMINENT MINISTER OF THE GOSPEL IN THE SOCIETY OF FRIENDS; INTERSPERSED WITH MANY PARTICULARS RELATING TO THE AND THE SUFFERINGS OF ITS MEMBERS FOR THE TESTIMONY OF A GOOD CONSCIENCE. BY THE LATE EDWARD SMITH. With a Prefatory Address by John Barclay. LONDON: DARTON AND HAR VE Y, GRACECHURCH-STREET. 1836. THE EDITOR'S PREFATORY ADDRESS. "the THE Author of this volume having gone way of all the earth," and yielded up his spirit to the God of the spirits of all flesh, it becomes my duty, as the individual into whose hands the manuscript was by him in a very peculiar manner consigned, not only to lay before my readers some of the circumstances under which the work now makes its appearance; but also to give some brief account of my beloved and lamented Friend, whose unlooked-for translation from this state of being to a better, I trust will prove on the minds of many as a seal to his labour of love. However liable we all are in the present probationary condition, to be mistaken in our estimates of men and things, and even by the soothing snares of friendship in its purest forms, to be led away from that unerring balance of the sanctuary, the judgment of truth; yet surely there is some call upon me on the present occasion, to bear my testimony to the riches of that grace, by which my Friend was what he was: and therefore I trust, that in attempting to perform this debt of love, I shall be preserved from speaking unduly of the creature, as well as from neglecting to ascribe the glory of every good word and work to that Divine Source, whose workmanship at the best we are, created in Christ Jesus unto good works. Eph. ii. 10. 66 Died Abner as a fool dieth ?" said David, when he lamented the death of a valiant man. And it has, in my best moments, when greatly divested of personal or selfish considerations of my own loss, even been cause of joy and gratitude to the Lord, who gives and takes away in his admirable discretion and good pleasure, that he saw meet to remove my dear friend, while "his bow abode in strength," while he had his armour so evidently girt about him, when the spiritual weapons of the Christian's warfare were even in his hands,-in the strength of his time, in the clearness of his spirit; having been thus manifestly carried through to the precise completion of an undertaking that appeared to be laid upon him as his appointed duty, and about which he had thought it due to the cause of the gospel of truth to lay out the energies and the prayers of his soul. And how was it, he was thus devotedly engaged in an almost unremitting manner for some months together, abridging himself of every lawful indulgence, and putting all other claims than this, of whatever kind they might be, into the smallest compass that duty would allow of; without knowing, but as though he knew, the very hours of his time were to be just barely sufficient for this his last day's work? Truly, "the Lord's ways are higher than our ways, and his thoughts than our thoughts;" he knows the end from the beginning, and ordereth all things in harmony and wisdom; nor will he permit his upright, faithful, simplehearted children, who look up to him for counsel and strength in all their steppings, materially to contravene his purposes, or widely to deviate from fulfilling, even in the midst of all their manifold weaknesses, his holy will. He keepeth them in the hollow of his hand, he hideth them under the shadow of his wing, he healeth all their backslidings, he overrules every thing that concerns them for their good, turning all to his own glory. These musings of a mind, that has abundant cause to observe and extol the mercies of Him, who is "wonderful in counsel and excellent in working," will not I trust be deemed irrelevant or unseasonable. Ever since I have been capable of appreciating the purity and excellence of " the Truth as it is in Jesus," the character and productions of those de |