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.
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