The TESTIMONY of Friends in Yorkshire at their Quarterly Meeting, held at Yorkthe 24th and 25th of the Third Month, 1773, concerning John Woolman, of MountHolly, in the Province of New Jersey, North America, who departed this life atthe house of our Friend Thomas Priestman, in the suburbs of this city, the 7thof Tenth Month, 1772, and was interred in the burial-ground of Friends the 9thof the same, aged about fifty-two years.
THIS our valuable friend having been under a religious engagement for some timeto visit Friends in this nation, and more especially us in the northern parts,undertook the same in full concurrence and near sympathy with his friends andbrethren at home, as appeared by certificates from the Monthly and QuarterlyMeetings to which he belonged, and from the Spring Meeting of ministers andelders held at Philadelphia for Pennsylvania and New Jersey.
He arrived in the city of London the beginning of the last Yearly Meeting,and, after attending that meeting, traveled northward, visiting the QuarterlyMeetings of Hertfordshire, Buckinghamshire, Northamptonshire, Oxfordshire, andWorcestershire, and divers particular meetings in his way.
He visited many meetings on the west side of this country, also some inLancashire and Westmoreland, from whence he came to our Quarterly Meeting inthe last Ninth Month, and, though much out of health, yet was enabled to attendall the sittings of that meeting except the last.
His disorder, which proved the smallpox, increased speedily upon him, and wasvery afflicting, under which he was supported in much meekness, patience, andChristian fortitude. To those who attended him in his illness, his mindappeared to be centred in divine love, under the precious influence whereof webelieve he finished his course, and entered into the mansions of everlastingrest.
He was a man endued with a large natural capacity, and, being obedient to themanifestations of divine grace, having in patienct and humility endured manydeep baptisms, he became thereby santified and fitted for the Lord's work, andwas truly serviceable in His Church. Dwelling in awful feel and watchfulness,he was careful in his public appearences to feel the putting forth of thedivine hand, so that the spring of the gospel ministry often flowed through himwith great sweetness and purity, as a refreshing stream to the weary travellerstowards the city of God. Skilful in dividing the Word, he was furnished by Himin whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge, to communicatefreely to the several states of the people where his lot was cast. His conductat other times was seasoned with like watchful circumspection and attention tothe guidance of divine wisdom, which rendered his whold conversation uniformlyedifying.
He was fully persuaded that, as the life of Christ comes to reign in theearth, all abuse and unnecessary oppression, both of the human and brutecreation, will come to an end; but under the sense of a deep revolt and anoverflowing stream of unrighteousness, his life has often been a life ofmourning.
He was deeply concerned on account of that inhuman and iniquitous practice ofmaking slaves of the people of Africa, or holding them in that state, and onthat account we understand he hath not only written some books, but travelledmuch on the continent of America, in order to make the negro masters(especially those in profession with us) sensible of the evil of such apractice; and though in this journey to England he was far removed from theoutward sight of their sufferings, yet his deep exercise of mind and frequentconcern to open the miserable state of this deeply injured people remained, asappears by a short treatise he wrote in this journey. His testimony in the lastmeeting he attended was on this subject, wherein he remarked that we as aSociety, when under outward sufferings, had often found it our concern to lay them before those in authority, and thereby, in the Lord's time, had obtainedrelief, so he to our notice, that we may, as way may open, represent theirsufferings in an individual if not in a Society capacity to those in authority.
Deeply sensible that the desire to gratify people's inclinations in luxuriesand superfluities is the principal ground of oppression, and the occasion ofmany unnecessary wants, he believed it to be his duty to be a patter of greatself-denial with respect to the things of this life, and earnestly to labourwith Friends in the meekness of wisdom, to impress on their minds the greatimportance of our testimony in these things, recommending to the guidance ofthe blessed truth in this and all other concerns, and cautioning such as areexperienced therein against contenting themselves with acting by the standardof others, but to be careful to make the standard of truth manifested to themthe measure of their obedience. For, said he, "that purity of life whichproceeds from faithfulness in following the spirit of truth, that state whereour minds are devoted to serve God, and all our wants are bounded by Hiswisdom; this habitation has often been opened before me as a place ofretirement for the children of the light, where they may stand separated fromthat thwich disordereth and confuseth the affairs of society, and where we havea testimony of our innocence in the hearts of those who behold us."We conclude with fervent desires that we as a people may thus by our examplepromote the Lord's work in the earth, and, our hearts being prepared, may unitein prayer to the great Lord of the harvest, that as in His infinite wisdom Hehath greatly stripped the Church by removing of late divers faithful ministersand elders, He may be pleased to send forth many more faithful labourers intoHis harvest.