in which, know this, I feek you not in the words of man's wisdom, nor to raife controverfy, nor for victory, nor any by-ends, but for the fake of that precious fellowship and feamless garment, in which the truth clothed us all in the beginning, and with which it will clothe and comfort all its faithful fervants and true friends to the end.

First, I fhall begin with the difference, and what you have, both in conference and writing, alleged for the ground of your diffatisfaction and diffent: next, I fhall confider the nature and merit of it; and laft of all, give my fenfe upon the whole matter, in order to a better understanding for the future.

That there is a difference, is but too plain; for it has in fome parts proceeded to a feparation, as well to places of worship, as in matters of difcipline. The ground of this diffatisfaction, upon which fo great a distance has been raised, you fay is,Requiring your compliance with fome practices relating to difcipline, particularly womens meetings about marriages, before they are admitted to be folemnized among us; ⚫ fome of you thinking, that there is No fervice for womens meetings at all;' others, No fervice in their being distinct from mens meetings,' at leaft; No neceffity for either, and therefore no neceffary compliance to be required and infifted upon, but every one left to their liberty in Chrift, left impofition and formality fhould prevail among us, as they have done in other religious focieties,' In this, I think, I have truly and fairly ftated the cafe on your part, and given your objection to our practice, and the reason why you diffent from it.

Now, friends, I fhall confider the nature and merit of this diffatisfaction and diffent, wherein I beseech your attention, patience, and candour, and I hope you will find, that we are clear of the impofition and formality you object or fear.

In the first place, I do not find that you have any just cause to fear, in general, an infringement on your Christian liberty; fince it has been, and is, most sin

cerely

cerely declared by the brethren chiefly concerned in the good order and fervice of the church, that they have no thought or defign of impofing any thing upon the confciences of friends; or, that friends ought to have now, any more than at the beginning, any other reafon or measure of compliance or conformity in matters relating to God, than the conviction of the light and fpirit of Christ in every confcience. But there is this diftinction to be confidered well of, that the matters in difference are not fuch as require fuch an exercise and conviction of confcience as is pleaded, becaufe they relate not to faith or worship. Did they require faith, or did they appertain to worship, as if you were obliged to worship God only in fuch a place, time, gefture, raiment, with fuch words and forms of Speech, &c. (which has been the cafe of the Diffenters from the national church) your objection and plea were good but this about which your diffatisfaction arifes, is purely difcipline in government, and not in worship; formality in order, and not in religion: it is about methods of regulating ourselves, as to the civil or outward part of the church, as we are a fociety; how we may avoid diforder, and preferve the credit of our fociety from cenfure and scandal.

<ers.'

For instance, To keep the neceffitous; as poor, aged, fick, and orphans: to reconcile differences: to take care of births, marriages, and burials: in fine, to prevent, rebuke, and reftore disorderly walkTo all which, I conceive, there is no need of an act of faith, or other exercise of confcience, than as the apostle exhorts, "To be ready to every good word "and work :" I mean, here is nothing required to be believed as an article of faith; here is no novelty or formality in worship introduced, or any thing propofed as an end or fervice for our mens and womens meetings, that can reasonably admit of the raifing of fuch a fcruple of confcience; fince the things propofed are duties, that all civil focieties, as well as church-fellowships, agree in, as requifite to the fupport of the reputation of fellowships and focieties.

Ee 4

Now

Now this being the great and true end, ufe and fervice of our mens and womens meetings, and that it is the end that always denotes and conftitutes the nature of the means, it cannot justly be thought to be of the nature of impofition and formality, as the words are commonly taken in an ill fenfe, to expect the compliance of members of a fociety to fuch methods of order as the elders thereof have exhorted to, and the generality of the people have embraced, and which the most confiderable part of those that diffent, declare they diffent from, rather for fear of fuffering an infringement of their Chriftian liberty, than any diflike to the practice itself; I fay, this cannot be called, or accounted, fuch an impofition upon confcience, be cause they are expedients of order, and methods of rule about things univerfally agreed upon: the thing will not bear the word: for inftance; because I may say it is against my confcience to confefs fuch an article or doctrine of faith, or to worship God after fuch a prefcribed form, that therefore it would found reasonable for me to fay, It is againft my confcience to fubmit <to the counfel of the church for ending of differences; and it is against my confcience, after having once told the brethren I intend to marry fuch a woman, to come again a fortnight, or a month after, to afk if they have informed themfelves of mine and the woman's clearness, both towards parents and ⚫ other perfons, before we folemnize it?" Surely this would look, to reafonable people, an over-tender, or an over-righteous, or rather, indeed, an over-free and large confcience, that would fcruple at twice or thrice publishing the banns, to prevent undutifulness to parents, and injury to pre-engagements, when those we profefs to exceed, require in their communion that it be thrice done. In like manner it would look very ftrange in me, to call a church-care of circumfpect walking up to the religious principles of the fociety that I have voluntarily embraced, An impofing, or over-driving me.'

But

But you object, Why must we go before women? < and, Why women apart from men? This ftill, friends, can be no impofition, as is before expreffed, because it is no matter of faith, nor practice of worship, but a referring still to our external order of life: and we fay, • Women as well as men,' because they are concerned, for they are part of the church of Chrift; and the common banns that are published in churches (fo called) or markets, exclude not women to make their exception any more than men. • But why women

apart? fay you. We think for a very good reafon; the church increaseth, which increases the business of the church; and women, whose bashfulness will not permit them to fay or do much as to church-affairs before the men, when by themselves may exercise their gifts of wisdom and understanding, in a difcreet care for their own fex, at leaft; which makes up not the least part of the business of the church; and this while the men are upon their proper business also. So that as men and women make up the church, men and women make up the business of the church; and therefore it is very reasonable they fhould be helpers together, in doing the church's bufinefs. This way women are made useful and ferviceable in and to the church, as were the " holy women of old," that were fo much commended by the apoftle, for deaconeffes indeed. And, as I faid before, their bufineffes being hereby diftinct, two bufineffes are doing at one and the fame time, and confequently, there must needs be a greater difpatch; which in country places, and winter feafons, where friends come ten or fifteen miles to meetings, muft needs be very convenient and comfortable. I may add, that there are divers things that feem peculiar to women, that were not fit for men, and in which men did, and would, find themselves often at a lofs; which renders their diftinct meetings farther convenient.

These are the reafons and motives to the prefent practice of the church of Christ, without infringing Chriftian liberty, by compelling confcience to any mat

ter

ter of faith and practice, relating to women; we meaning, by our whole order and government, no other thing than a careful eye and check upon practice; an expediency against irregularity in converfation, whether towards them that are without, or those that are within the fame communion, to which the ftrong will fubmit for the fake of the weak.

My own fenfe upon this whole matter is, That a mifapprehending the intention of the brethren, and an undiftinguishing zeal againft impofitions on the one hand; and a fear, on the other fide, that those who fo miftook and mifrendered the design of the brethren, were either high-minded and unruly, or prone to undue liberty, or that they, not being the first promoters of this difcipline in government, detracted from them that were, and fo would leffen the credit and authority of their endeavours, with fuch as were peculiar favourers; and that, in fine, their diffent tended to the breach of brotherly love and unity in the church; I fay my fenfe is, that this on each fide, with the heats that followed, perhaps < much worse than the thing itself, gave life to the <division, that thofe that fear the Lord have truly • mourned for.' And fince I have hinted the heats that may have attended the management of this difference, be not offended that I fay, the difference, through those heats, is now more in Spirit than fact, in mind than matter: it is come in fact to this, Whether the care of converfation fhould belong to women as well as men, especially relating to their own fex, 'the women being fo great a part of the church ?' And over this, I think, you are got for the most 2. Whether the women may meet feparately part. from the men?' And for anfwer to this, be pleased to take notice of your own unavoidable conceffions: you allow meetings of care in general, and do not deny women abfolutely their fhare among the men, and that particular members must be accountable to the Society they are of, in point of converfation, according to the rules embraced by the faid fociety. I fay,

you