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I was walking in the city of London, with a concern on my mind, in beholding the abominable pride of the people; it opened upon my mind in this wise: Wo, wo! to the crown of pride! And then I was deeply bowed in my spirit before the Lord, and it was said to me, I will yet spare a little longer; I have sheep which I will gather home to me, and there shall be one shepherd and one sheepfold. Then I said in my heart, Oh! Lord, shall I be one of thy sheep belonging to thy sheepfold of eternal rest. And again it was answered me, My sheep hear my voice, and they follow me. Then a cry was raised in me, Cause me to hear thy voice; and not only so, but enable me to obey the same. And then this charge was returned to me, Be thou faithful."]

Soon after I was married, I had a concern to visit friends in the counties of Surry, Sussex, and Kent, which I performed in about two weeks time, and came home and followed my calling, and was industrious therein; and, when I had gotten something to bear my expenses, and settle my wife in some little business, I found an exercise on my spirit to go over to Ireland, to visit our friends and brethren on that island, in which William Townshend accompanied me, and friends in that nation were generally satisfied with our service among them. When we had been from home about ten weeks, and had visited most parts of that nation, having had many meet. ings among friends, and others, we found freedom in our minds to return home, which we did, being comforted in our service, and blessed the name of the Lord.

After some few months, I acquainted my wife and my father, with her father and mother, that I thought it my duty to go over and live in America. To which propo sal my father consented, though with tenderness of heart, considering that I must be so far separated from him. İ also laid it before the monthly meeting of friends, at Horsley-down, in Southwark, of which meeting I was a member, who consented to it, though somewhat unwilling to.past with us, and gave us their certificate, to let our brethren know that we were in love and unity with them, and walked according to our profession. And when we

were ready, and in order for going, we agreed for the freight of our goods and servants, with John Snowden, and shipped them on board the Josiah, bound for Maryland. When the ship was at Gravesend, and ready to sail, several of our dear relations and friends accompanied us to the ship, on board of which we had a good meeting, and took our solemn leave of one another, as never expecting to see each other any more in this world. It was a solemn time indeed! We prayed for one another, and so parted, our ship sailing that evening, and we got to Margate-road, where we anchored, and the wind sprung up very fresh, and blew tempestuously, so that we broke our cable, and lost our best bower anchor, and drove violently towards the Goodwin Sands. We let go our sheet anchor, and three more, which were all we had, but they did not stop her; upon which the master ordered the carpenters to stand by the mainmast, with their axes upon their shoulders, and when he gave the word, then they were to cut the mast. The people in the ship (there being divers passengers), were in a great consternation, expecting nothing but death: but, for my part, being exceedingly sea sick, and having been in many storms, was not so much surprized with this, the sailors sometimes making a great noise when there is but little danger; but there was more danger than I was aware of, as appeared afterwards. One of the passengers came weeping, and said, our case was very bad. The doctor also came in the same manner; and cried, Oh! Mr Chalkley we are all dead men! Then I thought with myself, I would go out on deck, and see what the matter was; and when on deck, I went to the pilot, who had the lead in his hand, and he sounded, and cried out, Lord have mercy upon us! she is gone, she is gone, she is gone! by which I perceived that we were very near the Goodwin "Sands, on which many ships have been lost with all their crews. In this sense of danger I sent for the passengers into the cabin, and told them that I thought it would be well for us to sit still together, and look unto, and wait upon God, to see what he would please to do for us; that, if death came, we might meet him in as good a frame of

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mind as we could, and that we might not be surprised beyond measure; and as we were thus composed in our minds, a concern came upon my dear wife, and she prayed to God, the Father, in the living power and sense of his Son; and he heard from his holy habitation, and answered the prayer: for immediately after the wind abated, and our anchors held us. This was a great deliverance, which is not to be forgotten. When we saw the longed-for morning, we were very near the sands and the sea ran prodigiously high, and broke upon them mightily, so that we were forced to leave our cables and anchors, and make the best of our way to Deal, as well as we could. One of the owners being on shore, and seeing us in distress, sent off a cable and anchor to us; and we anchored before Deal with our new cable and anchor, and sent a boat for our other anchors and cables, when it was calm, which brought them to us. And after we had supplied ourselves with what we wanted, we put to sea again, and had fair winds till we got as far as the Western-Islands, where captain Cant, being in company with us, spoke with our captain in the evening, and the two captains concluded it would be stormy that night, which happened accordingly. They took in their sails, and we all but our mainsail; notwithstanding which, the storm was such, that we lost our main-mast, sprung the head of our fore-mast, and broke our cross-jack yard, and thus lay rolling upon the sea for about two weeks: the ship Bristol-merchant coming by in that time, lent us a spare top-mast, of which we made a main-mast, and a top-mast of our top-gallant-mast, and so refitted out as well as we could, and had a pretty good passage afterwards. We were about eight weeks from the Land's-End to the capes of Virginia; had meetings twice a week on board, and they helped to stay our minds on our Maker, though our bodies were tossed to and again on the mighty waters. We went on shore at Patuxent river, and went by land to Herring-bay, where I, my wife, and family, tarried that winter; and I, with my three servants followed my calling. In the spring we

transported ourselves, our goods, and servants, from Maryland to Pennsylvania, where we intended to settle, when we came from our native country. At Philadelphia I bought a lot of ground upon the river Delaware, and there I followed my calling that summer; and in the fall I had an inward call to visit friends in Barbadoes, which I proposed to our monthly meeting, and they cer. tified on my behalf that they had unity with me in my pro posal, conversation, and ministry; so I took ship at Philadelphia, about the twentieth of the seventh month, 1701, on board the Abraham, Street, commander, and

was about a month on our voyage; (Josiah Langdale was with me). We had several good meetings in the ship to our satisfaction; and were well received, and had many meetings at Barbadoes, which were often very large and open, and some of the people loving and tender. We had several meetings at Bridge-town, Speight's town, the Spring, and the Thickets, and at Pumpkinhill; and after being there about six weeks, we went in a sloop to Bermuda, where we found but very few friends, yet had meetings in several places, and at the houses of some people who were not of our profession; and the longer we tarried, the larger our meetings were; and many began to be affected and spoke well of us and our devotion, but some were disturbed, and spoke to the governor to break up our meetings; which at the desire of one of the inhabitants we had appointed at his house: upon which he sent orders by one of his colonels to break up our meeting, which troubled divers sober people. After this I met with the governor at the house of one judge Stafford; and he being a moderate man, we had the following discourse, viz.

Gov, How do you like our country? We are but a little spot in the sea.

T. C. I like it well for its moderate climate. If the people were moderate also, it would be well.

Gov. Doth it answer your end in coming?

T. C. My end in coming, was to visit the people in christian love.

Gov. Do you think the people will be brought over? T. C. If they are brought to truth and righteousness, It will be well for them. That is the end of our coming. Gov. If you had acquainted me with your design, when you first came, you had done well. It was your duty.

T. C. If we had known the governor's will herein, or that thou wouldest have spoken with us, we should have readily answered it: but knowing nothing of it, we could not tell but that it might be taken for rudeness in us, considering our homely way and manner of addressing such

men.

Gov. Then your design in coming here was to preach. Had you no other end?

T.C. Yes.

As we found a concern upon us to preach, and a desire in the people to hear.

Gov. Why do you not tarry with them? that looks strange. Here the people are affected with you, and you go away and leave them: upon my word I blame you for that.

T. C. We do not direct them to men, but to the Lord Jesus Christ, their teacher, and bishop of their souls. And why should our leaving them look strange to the governor? for it was the practice of the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ, and his own practice and command to his followers. And further, the apostles (which word signifies ambassadors or messengers) say, follow us, as we are followers of Christ. And they travelled up and down the world preaching the gospel; and our great Lord himself had not whereon to lay his head.

Gov. The apostles were inspired men: inspired by the Holy Spirit to preach the gospel. I suppose you do not pretend to be inspired.

T. C. Every true christian ought to pray for the pouring out of the Holy Spirit, or Holy Ghost upon him. The church of England * also prays for it, the receiving of which is inspiration.

** Of which church the governor was a member.

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