INTRODUCTION.

FRIENDS of New-England Yearly Meeting have for several years past, had it in contemplation to publish Memorials concerning deceased Friends that have been preserved on the records of the Meeting; or, at least, to make a selection for this purpose, from such as have not already appeared in print; but way has not opened for it till the present time, when the Meeting for Sufferings, having appointed a Committee to examine said memorials, have united with their report, recommending the publication of those which are contained in the present volume. It has been matter of regret to them, on this occasion, that of many who were bright and shining lights in their day, no memorial has come down to us; but the loss is ours, not theirs. Many were the trials and afflictions that awaited these devoted servants of the Lord, from which we are free. Many the privileges we enjoy, which were not extended to them.

And here it may not be amiss to inquire what those principles were, which thus sustained our early Friends through all the vicissitudes of time, and enabled them to look forward with a cheering hope, and to feel an undoubted assurance, that when "their earthly house of this tabernacle was dissolved, they had a building of God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens." As touching doctrines, they declared, in the language of Isaac Penington, "We have no new doctrines to hold forth.

The doctrines held forth in the Holy Scriptures, are