Piety Promoted BY FAITHFULNESS Manifested by several TESTIMONIES Concerning that true Servant of God Ann Whitehead The Righteous shall be had in everlasting remembrance Printed in the Year 1686 George Whitehead HIS Epistle and Account Concerning The Life and Death of Ann Whitehead his dear Wife To be Communicated to Friends especially those who knew her in Truth and Faithfulness MY dear and tender hearted Friends who truly love the Name of the Lord and the precious and living Unity and Society of his holy Spirit whereunto he hath called and gathered us by his invisible Power you are truly dear unto me in that life which shall never die and in that love which is stronger then Death and therein my Soul truly loves all the Faithful in Christ Jesus and such have been and are my Joy and Crown of rejoycing in him and such can sympathize one with another and bear one anothers Burdens in all Afflictions Tryals and Sorrows which befall the Righteous in this short time of our Pilgrimage here on Earth And my dear and tenderly beloved Friends though my Spirit be greatly bowed down and my Heart daily broken before the Lord under my present Exercise and Affliction in parting with so dear and true a Companion and faithful Servant of Christ and his Church as my dear wife was well known to be yet I feel secret peace and acceptance with the Lord in an humble submission to his blessed Will and in being reconciled to him in all his Ways and Dealings with us under all such Tryals as he sees meet to bring upon us as well knowing that precious to the Lord is the death of his Saints and that the Lord who gives he takes away at his pleasure none can hinder him nor may we say to him What dost thou But whâ—re Friends so nearly related have so long lived together in that sincere love unity concord and tender heartedness one to another as we have done 't is a tryal to part 't is a day of exercise and heaviness and requires some time to get thorow it 't is the Lord alone that can effectually relieve comfort and bind up the broken hearted in such Cases and distressed Conditions Yet we sorrow not as those that have no hope of Immortality or of meeting together in immortal Glory and Felicity hereafter for Life and Immortality is revealed and come to light in a good measure and therein have all the faithful Members of the Church of the first Born some spiritual Sense and Union with the Spirits of all just Men and Women who have faithfully served the Lord in their Generation and finished their course with Joy and the real sense of the Sincerity Love and Zeal of my dear Wife for the Name of the Lord lives and has deep impression upon my Heart and upon the Hearts of many more She truly loved Truth and Righteousness and hated Wickedness and Deceit Loosness and Pride She was plain hearted and true and of a right Mind sound Judgment and near and dear to the Lord and therefore I always valued her in Truth esteemed her as one whom God had effectually endued and qualified with Wisdom for her Service which was required of her She truly and tenderly considered the Poor the Widows and Fatherless and spared not her self to serve them that were in distress She was faithful and kept her integrity to the end and the Lord has taken her to himself her Spirit is received into rest with God in Christ She has obtained that blessed end that Crowns all her Labours Sufferings and Service I cannot forget her lively Testimonies and Expressions upon her dying Bed nor be clear without communicating something of the substance thereof unto you my dear and tender Friends who knew and truly loved her as she did you my Soul hath been and still is deeply affected in the sense and seeling of that tender Love and Union that is among you and was between you and her in her Life time and with your tender heartedness towards her and in remembrance of her Life and Testimony and Service for Truth she had among you and therefore recommend unto you some of her living Testimonies Expressions and Desires to Almighty God for his People upon her dying Bed and near her latter end in testimony of her real and tender love in Christ Jesus unto Friends as followeth viz Upon some discourse which a Friend had with Ann Whitehead of the great service which her Husband was in and had done for suffering Friends she answered The Lord has blessed and prospered my Husband in his Service which is great satisfaction to me and this I shall leave behind me as that which is satisfaction to me thâ—â— I never did detain him one quarter of an hour out of the Lord's service c. On the 23d 5th Month 1686 in the presence of several Friends she declared as followeth viz. I would not have you too much concerned about me as to my going hence I am in the hand of the Lord c. and with respect to Friends I desire the God of Peace and Love may be among all Friends and that they may be kept in Love and Peace and Concord unto which we were gathered in the Beginning that the same that gathered us in the beginning may always preserve Friends in the spirit of Love and of a sound Mind these words she expressed several times over so as the God of Peace and Love may continue with them and be with them to the end and as for me however the Lord shall please to dispose of me I am content in his will And Friends Visits she several times acknowledged as their great kindness and love to her though her weak Condition for some time could not bear much Company at once She further declared after this manner viz. And as to my Husband I have signified my mind as to what I would have done and leave it to him to do as he sees meet Hee 'l do what s just and right In our first coming together I had an Eye to the Lord that I might do nothing but what might be accerding to his will and that I might serve the Lord and his Church and the Lord has answered my desire and he has been a tender and true Husband to me in all respects c. I have nothing desireable to me in this World save my Husband but I am content given up in the will of God however he shall please to dispose of me c. On the 24th 5th Month 86 being asked how she was she said I am well I know nothing in this World nor that to come but all 's well Implying that all was well with her A little after again expressing how well she was and given up in the will of the Lord and signified her unity with all faithful Friends as being a living Member of the Body of Christ with them and her great love to all Friends in the Truth
and though she signified that a sadness had come over her Spirit for two or three Weeks insomuch that she was ready to Weep as she said when any Friends looked upon her or spake to her and that she had been something troubled at it as not knowing any thing by her self as the reason thereof but that she was naturally Pensive as she said being then clearly got over all that Sadness of Spirit and over all her Affliction and Pain insomuch that the more near she drew towards her end the more chearful she was her Spirit being greatly revived and comforted in the great love of God and his tender mercies to her whose mercies endure for ever to them that fear him This faithful Servant of our Lord Jesus Christ was in such Patience such Contentedness such Subjection of Spirit and holy resignation to the will of the Lord that she appeared no ways burdened with the thoughts of Death nor concerned nor in the least troubled about it Life immortal was over all But still she was given up in the will of God desiring others not to be concerned nor troubled about her if the Lord pleased to take her away saying Let me go away quietly Upon the 25th 5th Month 1686 when her antient and faithful Friend Mary Stout of Hartford came to visit her towards evening being asked if she knew her she said Yes very well 't is Mary Stout I have my Memory very well and my Understanding is clear though I am very Weak but I am given up into the will of the Lord whether to Die or Live for I have been faithful to him in what I knew both in Life and Death When she discerned any Friends troubled she was concerned would say There 's no cause for you to be troubled or concerned for I am well and in peace and have nothing to do c. with several more words to the same purpose Besides the many seasonable tender Christian Exhortations and Counsel which on her dying Bed she gave in the love of God to particular Friends which I pray God may be truly remembered and practiced and her many weighty and apt expressions in discourse on several occasions relating to Truth c. On the 26th 5th Month 86. in the evening Ann Whitehead said to her Husband c. The Lord is with me I bless his Name and I am well It may be you are afraid I should be taken away and if I be the will of the Lord be done Do not trouble your selves nor make any great ado about me But my dear go to Bed go to Rest and if I should speak no more words to thee thou knowest the everlasting love of God c. The next morning being the 27th 5th Month 1686 near three in the morning she quietly departed this Life at Briget Austil's at Southstreet in Middlesex her Husband Sister Ann-Mary Freeman Ann Cox Mary Stout and Briget Austil being present at her departure And now dear Friends the great tenderness gravity and solemnity among our tender and loving Friends accompanying her Body to the Burial on the 29th of the 5th Month 1686 did very deeply affect my Heart Friends love was felt beyond utterance Thus having given you my dear Friends this naked account I tenderly recommend you all to the grace of God to preserve you in the unity of his holy Spirit faithful to serve out your Generation in the love of God and blessed concord therein I pray God keep you comfort and supply you with all that 's needful for you to the end of your days and in the end crown all your labours of Love for his Names sake with a Crown of Life and Glory that fades not away Amen Your assured Faithful Friend and Brother G. Whitehead Written in the 5th and 6th Months 1686. Ann-Mary Freeman HER Testimony for her dear Sister Ann Whitehead AS to my dear Sister Ann Whitehead who was greatly beloved in the Lord by all that knew her aright in the blessed Truth of God for that she was always given up as a true and faithful Member of his Church to serve him in constant sincere Obedience in her Generation and Day on all accounts as is well known whose practice and manner of Life Conversation being not only Blameless but of good Report and Savour amongst Men from her Youth up when I was but a Child she took me unto her care and tenderly educated and helped me many Years and though young in Years then yet this I can testifie that her desires and inclinations were always religiously bent to serve the Lord both in Private and Publick in that way of Worship her Understanding reached to being so given up and devoted to his Service that her Zeal for the same hath carried her through much hardship of Body early and late and in due time the Lord answered the desires of her Soul in visiting her with his Gospel Day and powerful Testimony of the glorious Light thereof which she willingly imbraced through the Lords goodness and love to her and gave up to walk in the Light of the Living and was a Sufferer for bearing Testimony to the Truth and found great Peace and Satisfaction and the Lords presence and blessings in her Faithfulness and Perseverance and indeed as a natural Sister I can say and that in true thankfulness to God I have had great cause to bless the Lord in her behalf for she was a Treasure to me of great Value and I can truly say I honoured her as my Mother and she was not only a blessing to me but also to my Fathers House and the Memorial of her is pretious to me and will be blessed to Generations to come and now as it hath pleased the Lord to take her hence and I am deprived of so dear and near a Relation I am though in the bowed-downness of my Spirit before him subjected and reconciled to his will as knowing he giveth and taketh and in his own time and pleasure in whose hand the breath of all is So she is gone to Rest and I am fully satisfied her Soul is in Peace and Joy with the Lord eternally Much more might be said of her by me but her daily Care and Service being so well known by Rich and Poor Old and Young I shall forbear inlarging knowing her Reward is with her and her Works follow her for she did spend and was spent to serve the Lord faithfully in Truth and Righteousness to the end of her days and this I am a Witness of though one of the meanest in Gods Vinyard who am by Name Ann-Mary Freeman A Testimony for my dear and wel-beloved Friend Ann Whitehead whom I dearly loved in the Lord and that for her Works sake and for what the Lord had done for her I Had a true knowledg of her in the blessed Truth according to my measure she was a blessed Instrument in the hand of the Lord about some twenty seven Years ago it was my lot
oppose In Males or Females All Are one in Christ and those oppose His Work shall surely fall God will raise up and furnish more For to supply her Place Vessels of honour sanctifi'd And season'd by his Grace To carry on that blessed Work Of Righteousness which He Will cause to spread and prosper still To all Eternitie Benjamin Antrobus A Short TESTIMONY Concerning our dear Friend Ann Whitehead A Dear and Precious Holy and Upright Woman was she in her day loved Truth and Righteousness and hated all Iniquity she was a Mother in Israel indeed O how did she make it her great Care and Business to serve the Lord his Truth and his People the Widow Fatherless and Stranger she was a good Steward in the House of the Lord her care was that none should suffer Want that all things might be keep Sweet and Clean and in good Order she was a Valiant Woman in her day my Soul loved her my Life was knit unto her how did she travel before the Flock in great Wisdom and Power of the Almighty O when I consider the many blessed sweet and heavenly opertunities that we have had together with her in our retired waitings upon the Lord I am ready to mourn apart for her methinks I feel a miss of her more and more O how did she wait at Wisdom's Gate to be endued with it and when through the operation of the same divine Life and Power opened in her she spoke in Power and demonstration of the Spirit and great Wisdom so that she was a Comfort Refreshing and Edifying unto all to the building of us up in our most holy Faith so it oft rose in me That the Words of the Wise are as Apples of Gold in Pictures of Silver and Wisdom is Justified of her Children for so it was indeed for as she Lived so she Dyed in universal Love to all but more especially to the Houshould of Faith for whom her Prayers was Night and Day that they might be keep pure and clean without Spot or Wrinkle or any such thing O she was an upright Woman in her day and the Lords powerful presence was with her from the beginning unto the end to the laying down of her Head in Peace and is at rest with the Lord and I am fully satisfied concerning it and my Soul blesses the Lord on her behalf and magnifies his Name who is worthy of all Praises and Glory and Honour forever Amen amen Ann Mackett A TESTIMONY concerning Ann Whitehead Dear Friends THere was a concern upon me in a short Testimony to give in amongst you with whom my Soul hath Unity concerning our dear and tender Friend Ann Whitehead that she was a Woman whom the Lord greatly honoured with a large measure of his heavenly Wisdom and Power and in that she was made able to speak aword in season to the strengthening of the Weak and the bowed down one and many living Testimonies she bore amongst us in brokenness of Spirit and in that heart melting love of God in which I can truly say my Soul hath often been livingly refreshed with the Souls of many more Friends my Heart is overcome and my Spirit bowed down at this time in a living sence of our loss which indeed is very great the Lord make it up unto us in continuing his presence amongst us and in a sence thereof strength will be administred to do the VVork of the Lord acceptably fot this was the Labour and Travel of our dear and wel-beloved Friend whilst she was amongst us That all be done in Love in the blessed order of Truth and where any thing hapned contrary it became her Burden for she delighted in the prosperity of Truth and in them that lived in it this is my Testimony from a certain knowledg of her in my measure though one of the least amongst you yet as one whom the Lord had reached unto in visiting my Soul in his everlasting Love and Power in the day of my Affliction and hour of Temptation which my Soul was under then did the Lord appear in his unlimitted power for my preservation and limitted the power of Sathan so that deliverance was witnessed to my Soul And this Servant and Handmaid of the Lord travelled amongst us whom he hath removed from amongst us but to her great advantage for she rests from her Labours and her Works follow her the memorial of whom will Live forever in the Hearts of all the Faithful O Lord that it may be thus with me and with all thy whole Heritage is the cry of my Soul This lay as a weight upon me being eased I desire to rest fully satisfied in the will of the Lord London 25th of October 1686. Elizabeth Haynes Senior A short TESTIMONY for Ann Whitehead COncerning dear Ann Whitehead and my truly loving Friend whom I have kown above 20 Years I have this in my Heart to say That she was a Good Woman fearing God and doing that which was right in his sight having a Tender Heart and a Charitable Mind being a Help to the Poor and a Strength to the Weak doing always what she did for the Lord his blessed Truth-sake Oh how good hath her Counsel been and how sweet and refreshing were her Words unto me many a time which begat great Love in my Heart towards her and a true Sorrow for her removal because of the great loss and miss I know there will be of her among Friends Well but the will of the Lord must be submitted to and we therewith contented for she is at Rest and Peace with our God there to abide in everlasting Happiness forever and evermore Dear Ann is gone unto her Rest Of Women sure one of the Best True Wisdom had she from above Filled with Vertue and true Love So that to us her loss was such Caus'd Tears and Sorrow very much But since it doth to us befall And God did to himself her call Let us beg of him that he will Our Women with his Spirit fill And make them able to withstand Truth 's Opposers on ev'ry hand Till they Gods Work have finished And all in Peace laid down the head And Crown'd with Glory in Heaven So let it be O Lord Amen Jane Sowle A TESTIMONY concerning Ann Whitehead COncerning our dear and wel-beloved Friend Ann Whitehead whom I truly Loved and Honoured in the Lord for the Truth 's sake This Testimony arises in my Heart It was her faithfulness to the Truth that made her truly honourable that is her Crown and is now set upon her Head for evermore She having set her House in order the Lord hath gathered her by his gentle hand into Rest and Peace where her Reward is sure with him and through her Faith in Christ Jesus and her steadfastness in the Truth she hath obtained a good Report in her Day and Generation She truly Loved Feared and Served the true and living God being made subject to the Truth through the mighty Power
of God She was adorned and furnished by the Truth with a good Understanding true Wisdom and sound Judgment to discern between things that differ whereby she was made a very serviceable Member in the Church of Chrst and a Mother in Israel to many Children ministring the Word in due season sutable to every State and Condition and I can truly say we have been often Refreshed and Comforted together in the Lord and one in another in our Women's Meetings where the Weak and Feeble have been strengthened and that which was heady high abased and brought low and Truth over all exalted and we as Members of that one Body of which Christ Jesus our Lord is the Head build up together a spiritual Houshhold unto God And this was the Labour Travel of our dear Friend and faithful Labourer in the Work Service of the Lord who was therein drawn forth to visit us at our Quarterly-Meeting at the Bull and Mouth the 5th of 5th Month 86. and it was the last publick Meeting she was at amongst us for she was then weak in Body yet she was strong in the Lord and in the power of his might was she enabled to bear a faithful Testimony for the Truth against all such that made a profession of it and was high and lifted up above the pure fear of the Lord and that measure of Truth which many had received and been partakers of in the beginning also signifying of what little value all the Glory Pride vain Fashions Customes and Friendships of this World are and how they all pass away and will not stand any one in stead in the day of account which will certainly overtake all therefore she exhorted and laboured in the Word of Truth that all might be warned against awakened out of all those things which grieves the good Spirit of the Lord are contrary to the pure mind will of God that so your Souls might live to God through your obedience to the Truth and the operation of his Power which works in them that believe to do those things which are acceptable in his Sight that God over all may be glorified for he alone is worthy of all Glory and Praise for evermore Oh that we which yet remain may be found following the footsteps of this our dear Friend as she followed Christ leaving us a good example in all manner of god-like Conversation She was a pattern of Wisdom and Sobriety and her Integrity to God was manifested through her labour of Love and faithful Service for the Truth's-sake In her Life time she sought the good of all and at her Death manifested her Love the same to all being sweetly kept in a living Injoyment of true Peace and Rest with the Lord her Love flowed forth uoto all the whole Flock and Family of God desiring that we might all live in Love And the God of Peace said she be with you preserve you and keep you all in true Love Peaece and Unity with himself and one with another And in this peaceable frame of Spirit I am satisfied that this our dear Friend resigned and gave up to the will of the Lord as in her Life time so at her Death having fought the good Fight finished her Course and kept the Faith and is at Rest with the Lord and her Memory is blest forever Susanna Dew AND I was truely glad I had an oppertunity to visit her in the time of her weakness for I was Comforted and well refreshed with the rest of my Friends then present in the feeling and injoyment of that Love Life which still lives and will remain with all the upright in Heart And altho her Body be removed from us her memory lives in that which is beyond words So unto that pure everlasting Power which works in us and for us both to will and to do according to his good pleasure be all Glory and Honour with Everlasting pure holy Prayses it ascends and is ascribed and given unto him that lives for ever and for evermore S. D. A TESTIMONY FOR Ann Whitehead A Living Testimony springeth in my Heart concerning that worthy Friend and Sister yea Mother for so she was to many Anne Whitehead who was endued with much Wisdom from above and one of great Courage with godly Zeal in the Work and Service of the Lord and a godly care she had over the Flock and Family of the Lord oh often would she come forth in our Womens-Meeting with a living Testimony which hath much refreshed my Heart and Soul and I doubt not but many more can say the same with me stirring up the pure Mind in many and often did exhort all to see how and in what they were gathered often did the Spirit of God move on her Heart to put all in mind that they might have their Minds exercised in their own Gift oh the great care she had to exalt the Name and Power of the Lord over all and that all might come to feel the Power to administer Life to their Souls Blessed be the Lord and Magnified be his pure and holy Name I have often felt him in the midst of our Assembles as an overflowing Fountain and that our own have overflowed to the praise and glory of his Name this is not to adore the Creature but that as she was a faithful Follower of our Lord and Master Jesus Christ so we may be found walking in her steps that as I am fully satisfied this dear and wel-beloved one hath finished her Course and laid down her Head in perfect Peace with the Lord and is enrered into her Rest it may be so with us Dear Ann is fallen asleep yet doth her memorial live and will be had in everlasting remembranee So dear Friends let us be diligent in our places and be found good Examples as dear Ann was in her Day being nursing Mothers and Patterns of Gravity to those Young Ones that are coming up that they may have cause to praise the Lord on our behalfs as a remnant hath on behalf of her that is gone and we must follow the Lord knows how soon therefore dear and wel-beloved let us in all things be careful that we set no bad example to any neither in our Habit or Behaviour I have seen much in my time since the Lord convinced me of his ever blessed Truth that lawful things have not been expedient in Apparel as well as other things So dear Friends this is the true desire of my Heart and Soul and the breathing of my Spirit that we may walk so circumspect in our Day Age and Generation so that when our Change cometh we may lay down our Heads in Peace also to the Praise and Glory of the great Name of the Lord our God who is worthy of all Honour Glory and living Thanksgiving not only at this time but henceforth and for evermore Amen Mary Plumsted MAny are the Testimonies concerning our dear Friend and Sister Ann Whitehead