town and country, a holy care fell
upon some of the elders among them, for the benefit and service of the
church. And the first business in their view, after the example of the
primitive saints, was the exercise of charity; to supply the necessities
of the poor, and answer the like occasions. Wherefore collections were
early and liberally made for that and divers other services in the
church, and intrusted with faithful men, fearing God, and of good report,
who were not weary in well doing; adding often of their own in large
proportions, which they never brought to account, or desired should be
known, much less restored to them, that none might want, nor any service
be retarded or disappointed.

They were also very careful, that every one that belonged to them,
answered their profession in their behaviour among men, upon all
occasions; that they lived peaceably, and were in all things good
examples. They found themselves engaged to record their sufferings and
services: and in the case of marriage, which they could not perform in
the usual methods of the nation, but among themselves, they took care
that all things were clear between the parties and all others: and it was
then rare, that any one entertained an inclination to a person on that
account, till he or she had communicated it secretly to some very weighty
and eminent friends among them, that they might have a sense of the
matter; looking to the counsel and unity of their brethren as of great
moment to them. But because the charge of the poor, the number of
orphans, marriages, sufferings, and other matters, multiplied; and that
it was good that the churches were in some way and method of proceeding
in such affairs among them, to the end they might the better correspond
upon occasion, where a member of one meeting might have to do with one of
another; it pleased the Lord, in his wisdom and goodness, to open the
understanding of the first instrument of this dispensation of life, about
a good and orderly way of proceeding; who felt a holy concern to visit
the churches in person throughout this nation, to begin and establish it
among them: and by his epistles, the like was done in other nations and
provinces abroad; which he also afterwards visited, and helped in that
service, as shall be observed when I come to speak of him.

Now the care, conduct, and discipline, I have been speaking of, and which
are now practised among this people, is as followeth.

This go