The thirteenth Day of the Month. Was this Day at Richmond, a small Meeting; but, the Town's People coming in, the House was crowded: It was a Time of heavy Labour; and (I believe) was a profitable Meeting.
At this Place I heard that my Kinsman William Hunt, from North-Carolina, who was on a religious Visit to Friends in England, departed this Life on the ninth Day of the ninth Month, Instant, of the Small-pox, at Newcastle.—He appeared in the Ministry when a Youth; and his Labours therein were of good Savour. He travelled much in that Work in America. I once heard him say, in publick Testimony, that his Concern was (in that Visit) to be devoted to the Service of Christ so fully, that he might not spend one Minute in pleasing himself: Which Words, joined with his Example, were a Means of stirring up the pure Mind in me.
On this Visit to England I have felt some Instructions sealed on my Mind, which I am concerned to leave in Writing, for the Use of such as are called to the Station of a Minister of Christ.
Christ being the Prince of Peace, and we being no more than Ministers, I find it necessary for us, not only to feel a Concern in our first going forth, but to experience the renewing thereof, in the Appointment of Meetings.
I felt a Concern, in America, to prepare for this Voyage; and, being, through the Mercy of God, brought safe here, my Heart was like a Vessel that wanted Vent; and for several Weeks, at first, when my Mouth was opened in Meetings, it often felt like the raising of a Gate in a Water-course, where a Weight of Water lay upon it; and in these Labours there appeared a fresh Visitation to many, especially the Youth; but sometimes, after this, I felt empty and poor, and yet felt a Necessity to appoint Meetings.
In this State I was exercised to abide in the pure Life of Truth, and in all my Labours to watch diligently against the Motions of Self in my own Mind.
I have frequently felt a Necessity to stand up, when the Spring of the Ministry was low; and to speak from the Necessity, in that which subjecteth the Will of the Creature; and herein I was united with the suffering Seed, and found inward Sweetness with these mortifying Labours.
As I have been preserved in a watchful Attention to the divine Leader, under these Dispensations, Enlargement at Times hath followed, and the Power of Truth hath risen higher, in some Meetings, than I ever knew it before through me.
Thus I have been more and more instructed, as to the Necessity of depending, not upon a Concern which I felt in America, to come on a Visit to England, but upon the fresh Instructions of Christ, the Prince of Peace, from Day to Day.
Now, of late, I felt a Stop in the Appointment of Meetings, not wholly, but in Part; and I do not feel Liberty to appoint them so quick one after another as I have heretofore.