Society of Friends:

THE BOOK OF DISCIPLINE, AGREED ON BY THE YEARLY-MEETING OF FRIENDS FOR NEW-ENGLAND. CONTAINING EXTRACTS OF MINUTES, CONCLUSIONS AND ADVICES, OF THAT MEETING; AND OF THE YEARLY-MEETINGS OF LONDON, PENNSYLVANIA AND NEW-JERSEY, AND NEW-YORK; FROM THEIR FIRST INSTITUTION. ALPHABETICALLY DIGESTED.

Providence: John Carter, 1785. 4to. Bound in original calf [some warping of the boards, raised spine bands, spine and hinges rubbed]. xii, 155, [1 blank] pp. Spotting, generally in the margins. Supplemental information, in neat ink manuscript, on pages 71-72 [concerning marriage], 117, 119-120 [on several Queries], 133-134 [on Spirituous Liquors]. Good+.

This is the first edition of the first compiled guidance for New England Quakers, summarized from Epistles dating to the 17th century, The book is a manual of rules, procedures, and dispute resolution methods governing members of the Society. Topics include everything from appeal and arbitration to conduct at meetings, freemasons [they're bad], lotteries, marriage, slavery, war, and women's meetings. The section on Marriage is annotated in ink at the end with over thirty lines of additional rules, from the Rhode Island meeting in June 1791; as is the section on Spirituous Liquors.
The Section on "Negroes and Slaves" warns that Quakers must "avoid being any way concerned in reaping the unrighteous profits of that Iniquitous practice of dealing in Negroes, and other slaves; whereby, in the original purchase, one man selleth another as he does the beast that perishes, without any pretension to a property in him than that of superior force, in direct violation of the gospel rule..." Immediate emancipation of slaves is required.
FIRST EDITION. Evans 19014. Alden 1009. ESTC W4586 [10 locations]. Item #37855

Price: $950.00