5to Mensis 3tii [16] 84. Dono misi per Robtum Jones 5 solidos cuidam Pauperi (nomine Kingham) qui se affirmavit mutuò dedisse 3 solidos sex asses patri meo paulo antequam decumbebat. Quod equidem feci, non quod paterna debita in me solvenda suscipio, sed ne quis (pauper præsertim) qui erga Patrem meum benevolentiam aliquem exercuisset immuneratum a me, pro Posse meo, abiret."

It appears by this Memorandum that Thomas Ellwood had paid on this occasion, for the shroud 3s. 6d.; for the coffin 7s.; for digging and making up the grave 1s. 6d.; to the four bearers 4s.; to the two women who stripped the dead 2s.; to one of these who deposed to the fact of his being buried in woollen 6d.; to the people of the house, for the hire of a nurse and their trouble £1 5s.; to their three children 3s.; to the messenger who brought the account of his father's illness 2s. 6d.; to the poor of the parish 10s.

Also, to the messenger sent by his father, lying sick, to his sister, 10s.: and on the 5th of 3rd Month, 1684, by Robert Jones to a poor man named Kingham, who, in like manner, made a claim for money advanced to his father a little before he was taken ill, 3s. 6d. This he says he paid, not as taking upon himself his father's debts, but because he would not suffer any one (a poor man especially) who had rendered him any service, to go away unrewarded. [The whole expence is £3 17s. 6d. Ed.]

ART. III-ANTIENT QUERIES OF THE SOCIETY: with considerations on a 'growth in the truth.'

The following document (which I had from the same Friend) appears likewise to be in the hand-writing of Thomas Ellwood. It is a specimen of the simplicity and brevity of the antient form of queries of the Society; at a time when Friends had, notwithstanding, matters of the greatest moment to ascertain and attend to, through them.

Answers to the Questions.
[Bucks: 1708.]

1. Whether any Friend be now a prisoner on Truth's account, or has been this year: Who and for what?

desepultura in lana

Paki Makios familias ubi onubuit ?

Epler dom numy labords &c.

Jodi hibus dorum liberis

00:00:06

Nuntio udfornti Patris egritudinem_00:02:06

Dedi Pauperibus loci illius_

Nuusio quem Pater &grotans

дият

5to mensis 3 th 84.

00:10:00

02:19:00

misit sononi -cu-10 - vo

3.

84. Dono misi & Robtum Jouds misig. cuidam Pauperi (nomine Kingham) qui affirmavit mutuò dedisse 3d 6. patri moo paulo ante quam dombebat. Quod equide fori, yo paterna Debita in mesohendu suscipio sed ne quis (pauper prosertion) qui erga Patrem meum benevolentiam aliquid exernichtet, im mundatum à me,

non

moo, abizot

a

'Answ: Friends prisoners (in the Sheriff's custody) viz. John Pennington, Thomas Ellwood, William Catch, Abraham Butterfield, (c) and John Babbington: all for Tithes.

2. Whether any Friend hath died a prisoner this year ?

،Answ: No.

3. Whether any Friend that hath a public testimony [as a minister] died this year: Who, and when?

'Answ. Mary Ellwood (wife of Thomas Ellwood) who had for many years had a public testimony for Truth amongst Friends, departed this life on the 9th of the 2nd Mo: 1708, in the 85th year of her age; and hath left a good report behind her.

'4. Whether any new Meeting be settled, and where?

'Answ. No.

5. Whether any New Meeting House be built this year, and where? 'Answ. No.

The brief notice of the decease and character of a female Minister, here given, is valuable as an evidence of the modesty of the writer, and (to me) worth any whole-sheet modern ، Testimony ' that can be shewn. We have now (in all and for men and women) five and thirty Queries, on all possible subjects, it should seem, on which a superior Meeting can wish to have information from an inferior: the Answers to these (or such of them as belong to the season) are formally read from the gallery by the Representatives at Quarterly Meetings, and take, together with the discussions upon them, a great deal of time; seldom less than an hour, often more. The little Report here exhibited lies in the compass of five inches by three, on a piece of the back of a letter, and may be read in one minute. And to increase the difficulty and spend time, we put a grave question on a subject on which, as it is understood (or rather spoken of without an understanding) by most Friends, it is morally impossible that a correct and proper answer should be given ! ، Is there among you any growth in the Truth? Second query. Let us examine this as it stands now isolated, by successive changes deemed improvements in our discipline. A growth in the Truth, abstractedly considered, is a growth in grace. In Ephes. iv. 14-16, and ii. 21. we have the thing expressed in the words of an Apostle; as to the general, and also as to the particular.

1. [Jesus Christ, ver. 20.] in whom all the building fitly framed together groweth unto a holy temple in the Lord. 2. That we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive; but speaking the truth in love, may grow up into him in all things, even Christ: from whom the whole body, fitly joined together, and compacted by that which every joint supplieth, according to the effectual working in the measure of every part, maketh increase of the body, unto the edifying of itself in love.' I have endeavoured to give a clearer version of this latter passage, in my 'Remarks on Scripture Passages' (Volume III. p. 302) but we have here enough as it stands, to shew that a growth in the truth,

(c) See Vol. 2, p. 323, for this name to a Certificate of Marriage in 1703. Ed.

whether in the body or in individuals, is something which, spiritually taken, is a subject for spiritual contemplation, and rejoicing by men and angels: (I Cor. iv. 9.) and, viewed practically, a thing to be determined on by any church, or other body, according to the evidence before it. Now, this evidence, or the fruit of a supposed growth in grace, is to be found (if any where) in the answers to the rest of the queries, those I mean of a practical nature, and which are not mere Church-observances.

But how do we proceed to our answer? After learning that Meetings are kept up, and that Friends attend them duly-things very much in our own power, where there is a motive—we enter, being asked this question, into our own minds, and there divine the answer. And according as things have happened to ourselves, and look bright or gloomy in the retrospect, so do we reply-sometimes owning to some little growth, at others pretending to none at all. Surely, if the question was meant to be dealt with on the plain evidence of the facts before the Meeting (as to the body, and who is the judge of his brother in the case?) it should have come last in order: the answer would then have been a general acknowledgment of the apparent state of things among us, as just before exhibited in detail.

The truth is, however, that the Query has been mutilated, and stands imperfect. It used to be put (so my father informed me) on this wise: What is the state of your Meeting: is there among you any growth in the Truth; and doth any convincement appear since last year; and is love and unity preserved amongst you?' I say, mutilated by the extinction of the leading clause; not heeding so much the circumstance of the third and fourth being detached, and made new queries of. In this mutilated state, however, and thrown out as a subject of actual divination, it is stoutly defended, on occasion, even in this sense, by such as love to be the oracles of their meetings, on the strength of a presumed deeper sense of things: and having been thus placed in the New Code of discipline, of last year's date, I am obliged here to leave it : having perhaps here bestowed more of my pages on the subject than its actual merits would claim. Ed

ART. IV.-Derivations and Meanings of Words. Continued.

Worship: reverence: respect: regard: homage: loyalty.

The first of these terms we have, unchanged save in the spelling, from our proper stock the Saxon. It is strictly the compound worthshape; originally a noun; afterwards a verb, by the omission of the proper verb do, before it. See Vol. II, p. 362.

It denotes the outward form and appearance, the state and carriage, the dignity and preeminence of worth: which is BEING, as the Greeks would say kat' exochen, or as the French par excellence. This is what we ascribe to another, when we bow or kneel and, so, do worth-shape to him. A reason, surely, why we should do such acts with some