people in so plain an appearance; for it was a close and distinguishing test upon the spirit of those they came among; showing their insides and what predominated, notwithstanding their high and great profession of religion. This, among the rest, sounded so harsh to many of them, and they took it so ill, that they would say, "Thou me, thou my dog: if thou thouest me, I'll thou thy teeth down thy throat," forgetting the language they use to God in their own prayers, and the common style of the Scriptures, and that it is an absolute and essential propriety of speech and what good had their religion done them, who were so sensibly touched with indignation for the use of this plain, honest, and true speech ?

VIII. They recommended silence by their example, having very few words upon all occasions: they were at a word in dealing; nor could their customers with many words tempt them from it; having more regard for truth than custom, to example than gain. They sought solitude; but when in company, they would neither use, nor willingly hear unnecessary as well as unlawful discourses; whereby they preserved their minds pure and undisturbed from unprofitable thoughts and diversions: nor could they humour the custom of "Good night, Good morrow, God speed;" for they knew the night was good, and the day was good, without wishing of either; and that in the other expression, the holy name of God was too lightly and unthinkingly used, and therefore taken in vain. Besides, they were words and wishes of course, and are usually as little meant, as are love and service in the custom of cap and knee; and superfluity in those as well as in other things, was burthensome to them; and therefore they did not only decline to use them, but found themselves often pressed to reprove the practice.

IX. For the same reason they forebore drinking to people, or pledging of them, as the manner of the world is: a practice that is not only unnecessary, but they thought evil in the tendencies of it; being a provocation to drinking more than did people good, as well as that it was in itself vain and heathenish.

X. Their way of marriage is peculiar to them; and is a distinguishing practice from all other societies professing Christianity. They say that marriage is an ordinance of God, and

that God only can rightly join man and woman in marriage. Therefore they use neither priest nor magistrate, but the man and woman concerned take each other as husband and wife in

the presence of divers credible witnesses, "promising unto each other with God's assistance, to be loving and faithful in that relation till death shall separate them." But, antecedent to all this, they first present themselves to the Monthly Meeting for the affairs of the church, where they reside, there declaring their intentions to take one another as man and wife, if the said meeting have nothing material to object against it. They are constantly asked the necessary questions,* as in case of parents, or guardians, if they have acquainted them with their intention, and have their consent, &c. The method of the meeting is to take a minute thereof, and to appoint proper persons to enquire of their conversation and clearness from all others, and whether they have discharged their duty to their parents or guardians; and make report thereof to the next Monthly Meeting; where the same parties are desired to give their attendance. In case it appears they proceeded orderly, the meeting passes their proposal, and so records it in their meeting book; and in case the woman is a widow and hath children, due care is there taken that provision also be made by her for the orphans before the said marriage; advising the parties concerned to appoint a convenient time and place, and to give fitting notice to their relations, and such friends and neighbours, as they desire should be the witnesses of their marriage: where they take one another by the hand, and by name promising reciprocally after the manner before expressed. Of all which proceedings, a narrative, in a way of certificate, is made, to which the said parties first set their hands, thereby making it their act and deed; and then divers of the relations, spectators, and auditors set their names as witnesses of what they said and signed; which certificate is afterward registered in the record belonging to the meeting where the marriage is solemnized. Which regular method has been, as it deserves, adjudged in courts of law a

* Instead of being asked those questions, the present practice is to produce the needful certificates of consent.

This second attendance is not now required.

good marriage, where it has been disputed and contested, for want of the accustomed formality of priest and ring, &c. which ceremonies they have refused, not out of humour, but conscience reasonably grounded, inasmuch as no Scripture example tells us, that the priest had any other part of old time, than that of a witness among the rest, before whom the Jews used to take one another and therefore this people look upon it as an imposition, to advance the power and profits of the clergy. And for the use of the ring, it is enough to say that it was a heathenish and vain custom, and never in practice among the people of God, Jews, or primitive Christians. The words of the usual form, as "With my body I thee worship," &c. are hardly defensible in short, they are more careful, exact, and regular than any form now used, and it is free from the inconveniences other methods are attended with; their care and checks being so many, and such, that no clandestine marriages can be performed among them.

XI. It may not be unfit to say something here of their births and burials, which make up so much of the pomp and solemnity of too many called Christians. For births, the parents name their own children, which is usually some days after they are born, in the presence of the midwife (if she can be there) and those that were at the birth, &c. who afterward sign a certificate, for that purpose prepared, of the birth and name of the child, or children, which is recorded in a proper book, in the Monthly Meeting, to which the parents belong; avoiding the accustomed ceremonies and festivals.

XII. Their burials are performed with the same simplicity. If the corpse of the deceased be near any public meeting place, it is usually carried thither, for the more convenient reception of those that accompany it to the ground they bury in, and it so falls out sometimes, that while the meeting is gathering for the burial,* some or other have a word of exhortation, for the sake of the people there met together: after which, the body

* This hardly describes the present practice. It is not during the gathering only, if at all, that exhortation takes place. If the corpse be conveyed to a meeting-house, the meeting is held like any other; and what is here called "Exhortation,” takes place or not, as any minister present believes him or her

is borne away by the young men, or those that are of their neighbourhood, or that were most of the intimacy of the deceased party: the corpse being in a plain coffin, without any covering or furniture upon it. At the ground, they pause some time before they put the body into its grave, that if any one there should have any thing upon them to exhort the people, they may not be disappointed, and that the relations may the more retiredly and solemnly take their last leave of the corpse of their departed kindred, and the spectators have a sense of mortality, by the occasion then given them to reflect upon their own latter end. Otherwise, they have no set rites or ceremonies on those occasions; neither do the kindred of the deceased ever wear mourning,* they looking upon it as a worldly ceremony and piece of pomp; and that what mourning is fit for a Christian to have, at the departure of a beloved relation or friend, should be worn in the mind, which is only sensible of the loss; and the love they had to them, and remembrance of them, to be outwardly expressed by a respect to their advice, and care of those they have left behind them, and their love of that they loved. Which conduct of theirs, though unmodish or unfashionable, leaves nothing of the substance of things neglected or undone and as they aim at no more, so that simplicity of life is what they observe with great satisfaction, though it sometimes happens not to be without the mockeries of the vain world they live in.

These things gave them a rough and disagreeable appearance with the generality; who thought them turners of the world upside down, as indeed in some sense they were; but in no other than that wherein Paul was so charged, viz. to bring things back into their primitive and right order again. For these and such like practices of theirs were not the result of humour, as some have fancied, but a fruit of inward sense, which God, through his fear, had begotten in them. They did not consider how to contradict the world, or distinguish themself influenced. The usage at the burial ground is still as here described. Interments often take place without any previous meeting.

* The collective sense and judgment of the church, herein, remains the same, as is manifest by the frequent advices given forth from their yearly and other meetings.

selves; being none of their business, as it was not their interest, no, it was not the result of consultation, or a framed design to declare or recommend schism or novelty. But God having given them a sight of themselves, they saw the whole world in the same glass of truth; and sensibly discerned the affections and passions of men, and the rise and tendency of things; what gratified "the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye, and the pride of life, which are not of the Father, but of the world.” And from thence sprang, in that night of darkness and apostacy, which hath been over people, through their degeneration from the Light and Spirit of God, these and many other vain customs; which are seen by the heavenly day of Christ which dawns in the soul, to be, either wrong in their original, or, by time and abuse, hurtful in their practice. And though these things seemed trivial to some, and rendered this people stingy and conceited in such persons' opinions; there was and is more in them than they were aware of. It was not very easy to our primitive friends to make themselves sights and spectacles, and the scorn and derision of the world; which they easily foresaw must be the consequence of so unfashionable a conversation in it. But herein was the wisdom of God seen in the foolishness of these things; first, that they discovered the satisfaction and concern that people had in and for the fashions of this world, notwithstanding their pretences to another; in that any disappointment about them came so very near them; that the greatest honesty, virtue, wisdom, and ability were unwelcome without them. Secondly, it seasonably and profitably divided conversation; for making their society uneasy to their relations and acquaintance, it gave them the opportunity of more retirement and solitude, wherein they met with better company, even the Lord God, their Redeemer, and grew strong in his love, power, and wisdom, and were thereby better qualified for his service ; and the success abundantly showed it: blessed be the name of the Lord.

And though they were not great and learned in the esteem of this world (for then they had not wanted followers upon their own credit and authority) yet they were generally of the most sober of the several persuasions they were in, and of the most