“Several monthly meetings compose a quarterly meeting. At the quarterly meeting are produced written answers from the monthly meetings, to certain queries respecting the conduct of their members, and the meetings' care over them. The accounts thus received are digested into one, which is sent also in the form of answers to queries, by representatives, to the yearly meeting. Appeals from the judgment of monthly meetings are brought to the quarterly meetings, whose business also it is to assist in any difficult case, or where remissness appears in the care of the monthly meetings over the individuals who compose them.
“The yearly meeting has the general superintendence of the society in the country in which it is established; and therefore, as the accounts which it receives discover the state of inferior meetings, as particular exigencies require, or as the meeting is impressed with a sense of duty, it gives forth its advice, makes such regulations as appear to be requisite, or excites to the observance of those already made, and sometimes appoints committees to visit those quarterly meetings [pg 073] which appear to be in need of immediate advice. Appeals from the judgment of quarterly meetings are here finally determined; and a brotherly correspondence, by epistles, is maintained with other yearly meetings.
“In this place it is proper to add that, as we believe women may be rightly called to the work of the ministry, we also think that to them belongs a share in the support of our Christian discipline, and that some parts of it, wherein their own sex is concerned, devolve on them with peculiar propriety; accordingly, they have monthly, quarterly, and yearly meetings of their own sex, held at the same time and in the same place with those of the men, but separately, and without the power of making rules; and it may be remarked that, during the persecutions, which, in the last century, occasioned the imprisonment of so many of the men, the care of the poor often fell on the women, and was by them satisfactorily administered.
“In order that those who are in the situation of ministers may have the tender sympathy and counsel of those of either sex, who, by their experience in the work of religion, are qualified for that service, the monthly meetings are advised to select such, under the denomination of elders. These, and ministers approved by their monthly meetings, have meetings peculiar to themselves, called meetings of ministers and elders, in which they have an opportunity of exciting each other to a discharge of their several duties, and of extending advice to those who may appear to be weak, without any needless exposure. Such meetings are generally held in the compass of each monthly, quarterly, and yearly meeting. They are conducted by rules prescribed by the yearly meeting, and have no authority to make any alteration or addition to them. The members of them unite with their brethren in the meetings for discipline, and are equally accountable to the latter for their conduct.
“Thus have we given a view of the foundation and establishment of our discipline; by which it will be seen that it is not, as hath been frequently insinuated, merely the work [pg 074] of modern times, but was the early care and concern of our pious predecessors. We cannot better close this short sketch of it, than by observing that, if the exercise of discipline should in some instances appear to press hard upon those, who, neglecting the monitions of divine counsel in their hearts, are also unwilling to be accountable to their brethren, yet, if that great, leading, and indispensable rule, enjoined by our Lord, be observed by those who undertake to be active in it,—‘Whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them,’—it will prevent the censure of the church from falling on any thing but that which really obstructs the progress of truth. Discipline will then promote, in an eminent degree, that love of our neighbor which is the mark of discipleship, and without which a profession of love to God, and to his cause, is a vain pretence. ‘He,’ said the beloved disciple, ‘that loveth not his brother, whom he hath seen, how can he love God, whom he hath not seen? And this commandment have we from him, that he who loveth God, love his brother also.’ ”
The Friends are divided in sentiment; there are, in fact, two sects, denominated Orthodox and Hicksites.
Some opinion of Elias Hicks's sentiments, in regard to the Trinity, may be formed by an extract from one of his publications, (Sermons, vol. iv. pp. 288, 289.)
“He that laid down his life, and suffered his body to be crucified by the Jews, without the gates of Jerusalem, is Christ, the only Son of the most high God. But that the outward person which suffered was properly the Son of God, we utterly deny. Flesh and blood cannot enter into heaven. By the analogy of reason, spirit cannot beget a material body, because the thing begotten must be of the same nature with its father. Spirit cannot beget any thing but spirit: it cannot beget flesh and blood. ‘A body hast thou prepared me,’ said the Son: then the Son was not the body, though the body was the Son's.”