1747 FEMALE PREACHING. Unpublished 4pp "Epistolary" Sermon by Quaker, Susanna Appleby.

A fascinating 1747 epistolary sermon by local Quaker exhorter, Susanna Appleby of Durham, England. A wonderful document echoing the deeply experimental pneumatic language of the mid-18th century Quaker revivalists. In common with other documents of the era, there is a growing sense that the financial wealth of many in the Quaker community was leading to worldliness, best exemplified by their "superfluous" dress. 

The text in full:

To my Fellow Citizens of the City of Durham whose Eternal Welfare I have much desired (as well as theirs of my own profession) and therefore believed it my duty to put you in mind (when I exposed my self in so publick a manner) how you are coming up in the fulfilling of your vows, and promises, in such a way as that you may of a Truth find Acceptance with the Almighty, who we Read is not Respecter of persons, but in Every Nation Tongue and Kindred, they that fear the Lord and work Righteousness, (remember the terms) are accepted of him; therefore mind the Holy divine Manifestation or Measure of Grace bestowed upon Every one of you, so as to Walk Answerable to the teaching thereof in your Hearts and then you will not walk after the flesh to fullfill the lusts thereof, but Shall through the Spirit know a mortifying the deeds of the Body, and so Obtian Life Everlasting, which happy Situation Doubt not you would all be Glad to attain unto at the Last, and that you may so live in this World by Obeying the divine Grace in your Hearts, as to have your Accounts in Readiness whensoever the Bridegroom Calls is the fervent prayer of my Soul for you, but Remember Dear Nieghbours that we have an unwearied adversary, who Endeavours by all Way sand Means to divert our Minds from Regarding the Reproofs of Instructions, the divine inward Manifestations of Light and Grace in our hearts which so long as we Continue to disregard and disobey, we remain Children of Wrath and in that Condition not fit, neither can Enter the Kingdom of Heaven, for by Grace we are Saved through Faith, and that not of our selves it is the Gift of God. So let us Regard this Gift and have faith in it, that we may be enabled thereby to Resist the Devil and all his works, with all the pomps and vanities of this wicked World and all the Sinful Lusts of the Flesh and so have a Right to Call God our Father and his Son the Lord Jesus Christ our Saviour, who Came to save us from our Sins, not in our Sins, and therefore, Let none of us be deceiving ourselves, because the Loss will be Irreparable.

And in order to be more Clear and not at all to Stir up a spirit of Malice & Envy, I must say my mind hath been more than Commonly grieved when I have seen the Wives and Children of the Teachers dressed in as Superfluous a way as the Hearers, which is a very great pity, to be sure it behoveth them and their House to be Examples of Moderation in all things appertaining to this life, so that I wish in a more Extraordinary Manner that a Reformation was begun in them and Manifested by them so as to be Good Examples to them they take upon them to teach, which it very Greatly behoveth them all to be.

With these LinesI present you with this Little Book as a pledge of my Regard for your Information, both Teachers and Hearers, for I have nothing but love for all in the best sense and remain your well-wishing friend.

Susa. Appleby.
1747

P.S. As I cannot give this little book to so many as I would might Read it I therefore desire them that hath one may lend to their Neighbour who may not have ***

4pp, removed from either a sammelband or mounted in an album. Minor loss at lower inner hinge, not impacting legibility. Complete.