_Of the discipline and practice of this people_, _as a religious
society_. _The church power they own and exercise_, _and that which they
reject and condemn_: _with the method of their proceedings against erring
and disorderly persons_.
This people increasing daily both in town and country, a holy care fell
upon some of the elders among them, for the benefit and service of the
church. And the first business in their view, after the example of the
primitive saints, was the exercise of charity; to supply the necessities
of the poor, and answer the like occasions. Wherefore collections were
early and liberally made for that and divers other services in the
church, and intrusted with faithful men, fearing God, and of good report,
who were not weary in well doing; adding often of their own in large
proportions, which they never brought to account, or desired should be
known, much less restored to them, that none might want, nor any service
be retarded or disappointed.
They were also very careful, that every one that belonged to them,
answered their profession in their behaviour among men, upon all
occasions; that they lived peaceably, and were in all things good
examples. They found themselves engaged to record their sufferings and
services: and in the case of marriage, which they could not perform in
the usual methods of the nation, but among themselves, they took care
that all things were clear between the parties and all others: and it was
then rare, that any one entertained an inclination to a person on that
account, till he or she had communicated it secretly to some very weighty
and eminent friends among them, that they might have a sense of the
matter; looking to the counsel and unity of their brethren as of great
moment to them. But because the charge of the poor, the number of
orphans, marriages, sufferings, and other matters, multiplied; and that
it was good that the churches were in some way and method of proceeding
in such affairs among them, to the end they might the better correspond
upon occasion, where a member of one meeting might have to do with one of
another; it pleased the Lord, in his wisdom and goodness, to open the
understanding of the first instrument of this dispensation of life, about
a good and orderly way of proceeding; who felt a holy concern to visit
the churches in person throughout this nation, to begin and establish it
among them: and by his epistles, the like was done in other nations and
provinces abroad; which he also afterwards visited, and helped in that
service, as shall be observed when I come to speak of him.
Now the care, conduct, and discipline, I have been speaking of, and which
are now practised among this people, is as followeth.
This godly elder, in every county where he travelled, exhorted them that
some, out of every meeting of worship, should meet together once in the
month, to confer about the wants and occasions of the church. And, as
the case required, so those monthly meetings were fewer or more in number
in every respective county; four or six meetings of worship, usually
making one monthly meeting of business. And accordingly, the brethren
met him from place to place, and began the said meetings, viz. For the
poor, orphans, orderly walking, integrity to their profession, births,
marriages, burials, sufferings, &c. And that these monthly meetings
should, in each county, make up one quarterly meeting, where the most
zealous and eminent friends of the county should assemble to communicate,
advise, and help one another, especially when any business seemed
difficult, or a monthly meeting was tender of determining a matter.
Also that these several quarterly meetings should digest the reports of
their monthly meetings, and prepare one for each respective county,
against the yearly meeting, in which all quarterly meetings resolve;
which is held in London: where the churches in this nation, and other
nations {43a} and provinces, meet by chosen members of their respective
counties, both mutually to communicate their church affairs, and to
advise, and be advised in any depending case, to edification. Also to
provide a requisite stock for the discharge of general expenses for
general services in the church, not needful to be here particularized.
{43b}
At these meetings any of the members of the churches may come, if they
please, and speak their minds freely, in the fear of God, to any matter;
but the mind of each quarterly meeting, therein represented, is chiefly
understood, as to particular cases, in the sense delivered by the persons
deputed, or chosen for that service by the said meeting.
During their yearly meeting, to which their other meetings refer in their
order, and naturally resolve themselves, care is taken by a select
number, for that service chosen by the general assembly, to draw up the
minutes {44} of the said meeting, upon the several matters that have been
under consideration therein, to the end that the respective quarterly and
monthly meetings may be informed of all proceedings; together with a
general exhortation to holiness, unity, and charity. Of all which
proceedings in yearly, monthly, and quarterly meetings, due record is
kept by some one appointed for that service, or that hath voluntarily
undertaken it. These meetings are opened and usually concluded in their
solemn waiting upon God, who is sometimes graciously pleased to answer
them with as signal evidences of his love and presence, as in any of
their meetings of worship.
It is further to be noted, that in these solemn assemblies for the
churches' service, there is no one presides among them after the manner
of the assemblies of other people; Christ only being their President, as
he is pleased to appear in life and wisdom in any one or more of them, to
whom, whatever be their capacity or degree, the rest adhere with a firm
unity, not of authority, but conviction, which is the divine authority
and way of Christ's power and Spirit in his people: making good his
blessed promise, "that he would be in the midst of his, where and
whenever they were met together in his name, even to the end of the
world." So be it.
Now it may be expected, I should here set down what sort of authority is
exercised by this people, upon such members of their society as
correspond not in their lives with their profession, and that are
refractory to this good and wholesome order settled among them: and the
rather, because they have not wanted their reproach and sufferings from
some tongues and pens, upon this occasion, in a plentiful manner.
The power they exercise, is such as Christ has given to his own people,
to the end of the world, in the persons of his disciples, viz. To
oversee, exhort, reprove, and, after long suffering and waiting upon the
disobedient and refractory, to disown them, as any longer of their
communion, or that they will stand charged with the behaviour of such
transgressors, or their conversation, until they repent. The subject
matter about which this authority, in any of the foregoing branches of
it, is exercised, is, first, in relation to common and general practice.
And, secondly, about those things that more strictly refer to their own
character and profession, and which distinguish them from all other
professors of Christianity; avoiding two extremes upon which many split,
viz. persecution and libertinism, that is, a coercive power to whip
people into the temple; that such as will not conform, though against
faith and conscience, shall be punished in their persons or estates; or
leaving all loose and at large, as to practice; and so unaccountable to
all but God and the magistrate. To which hurtful extreme, nothing has
more contributed than the abuse of church power, by such as suffer their
passion and private interests to prevail with them, to carry it to
outward force and corporal punishment: a practice they have been taught
to dislike, by their extreme sufferings, as well as their known principle
for a universal liberty of conscience.
On the other hand, they equally dislike an independency in society:--an
unaccountableness, in practice and conversation, to the rules and terms
of their own communion, and to those that are the members of it. They
distinguish between imposing any practice that immediately regards faith
or worship, which is never to be done or suffered, or submitted unto; and
requiring Christian compliance with those methods that only respect
church-business in its more civil part and concern; and that regard the
discreet and orderly maintenance of the character of the society as a
sober and religious community. In short, what is for the promotion of
holiness and charity, that men may practise what they profess, live up to
their own principles, and not be at liberty to give the lie to their own
profession without rebuke, is their use and limit of church power. They
compel none to them, but oblige those that are of them to walk suitably,
or they are denied by them: that is all the mark they set upon them, and
the power they exercise, or judge a Christian society can exercise, upon
those that are members of it.
The way of their proceeding against such as have lapsed or transgressed,
is this. He is visited by some of them, and the matter of fact laid home
to him, be it any evil practice against known and general virtue, or any
branch of their particular testimony, which he, in common, professeth
with them. They labour with him in much love and zeal, for the good of
his soul, the honour of God, and reputation of their profession, to own
his fault and condemn it, in as ample a manner as the evil or scandal was
given by him; which, for the most part, is performed by some written
testimony under the party's hand: and if it so happen, that the party
prove refractory, and is not willing to clear the truth they profess,
from the reproach of his or her evil doing or unfaithfulness, they, after
repeated entreaties and due waiting for a token of repentance, give forth
a paper to disown such a fact, and the party offending: recording the
same as a testimony of their care for the honour of the truth they
profess.
And if he or she shall clear their profession and themselves, by sincere
acknowledgment of their fault, and godly sorrow for so doing, they are
received and looked upon again as members of their communion. For as
God, so his true people, upbraid no man after repentance.
This is the account I had to give of the people of God called Quakers, as
to their rise, appearance, principles, and practices, in this age of the
world, both with respect to their faith and worship, discipline and
conversation. And I judge it very proper in this place, because it is to
preface the journal of the first, blessed, and glorious instrument of
this work, and for a testimony to him in his singular qualifications and
services, in which he abundantly excelled in this day, and which are
worthy to be set forth as an example to all succeeding times, to the
glory of the most high God, and for a just memorial to that worthy and
excellent man, his faithful servant and apostle to this generation of the
world.