James W. Mott 1842 JOURNAL OF THOMAS CHALKLEY. TO WHICH IS ANNEXED, COLLECTION OF HIS WORKS, Blessed is the man who walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor PSALM i. 1, 2. New-York: PRINTED AND SOLD BY SAMUEL WOOD, NO. 362, PEARL-STREET. 1808. THE TESTIMONY OF THE MONTHLY-MEETING OF FRIENDS, IN PHILADELPHIA, CONCERNING OUR ANCIENT, WORTHY FRIEND, THOMAS CHALKLEY, DECEASED. THE christian experiences of the faithful, being useful to direct such as are desirous of following them in the paths of true religion and virtue, and their good examples shining with the greatest clearness, when they have, with the flesh, put off all human infirmities; justice to the memory, and a concern for the benefit of their survivors, demand our grateful remembrance of them, and the contributing our endeavours to render their labours useful to posterity. These considerations engage us to preface the writings of this our esteemed friend and elder in the truth, with this testimony concerning him. He was a member of our monthly-meeting above forty years, so that some of us had opportunities of being intimately acquainted with him, and of knowing his fidelity and diligence in promoting the cause of truth, and the edification of the church of Christ; this having been the principal engagement and concern of his mind, and which he preferred to any other consideration; as will evidently appear to those, who with an honest and unprejudiced intention, peruse the journal of his life and travels. By this it will appear, that he was, in the early part of his life sensibly affected with the visitation of divine life and grace, and, by adhering thereunto, was preserved from the vanities and follies which often diyert and alienate the minds of youth from the due remembrance and awful regard of their Creator; so that he was enabled to bear a testimony of christian patience and self-denial in his youthful days, and, by keeping under that exercise, as he advanced in years, attained to further knowledge and experience in the work of religion, in which he had a sight of the necessity of keeping in a state of humility, and of bearing the cross of Christ, which mortified him to the world; so that the loss many sustain by the anxious pursuit of the lawful things thereof appearing to him, he was concerned to avoid it, and in obedience to the precept of Christ, to seek first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness, having faith in his promise, that all things (necessary for him) should be added. Thus the love of God influencing his mind, and opening his understanding, he became concerned for the general good of mankind, and received a gift of the ministry of the gospel of Christ, before he had attained the age of twenty-one years; in the public exercise of which, he soon after travelled through many parts of England, and into Scotland, and the next year, 1697, he came to visit friends in this and the adjacent provinces of America, where his ministry and conversation were to the comfort and edification of the faithful, (as some of us can with satisfaction declare, from our knowledge and remembrance of him at that time); and the near fellowship and union he then had with friends here, (we believe) contributed to his more speedy determination of settling among us, which he afterwards thought it his duty to do, though the leaving his parents and relations (as he afterwards expressed was no small cross to him, being of a dutiful and affectionate disposition. After fixing his residence among us, he persevered in his concern and labour for the edification of the churches, |