ssary questions, {25} 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 inquire of their
conversation and clearness from all others, and whether they have
discharged their duty to their parents or guardians; and to make report
thereof to the next monthly meeting, where the same parties are desired
to give their attendance. {26} In case it appears they have proceeded
orderly, the meeting passes their proposal, and so records it in their
meeting book. And in case the woman be a widow, and hath children, due
care is there taken that provision also be made by her for the orphans,
before the meeting pass the proposals of 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 promise reciprocally, love and fidelity,
after the manner before expressed. Of all which proceedings, a narrative
in way of certificate is made, to which the said parties first set their
hands, thereby confirming it as their act and deed; and then divers
relations, spectators, and auditors, set their names as witnesses of what
they said and signed. And this 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 good marriage, where it has been by cross and ill people disputed and
contested, for want of the accustomed formalities of priest and ring,
&c.--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