N02150:39
Religious societies. Proposals for the revival of dying religion, by well ordered societies for…
Religious societies. Proposals for the revival of dying religion, by well ordered societies for that purpose. : With a brief discourse, offered unto a religious society, on the first day of their meeting. : [One line from I Thessalonians]
Boston: printed by S. Kneeland for John Phillips, 1724
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
VI. ONCE in three Months, Let there be, if need be, a Collection, out of which the necessary Charges of the Society shall be defrayed, and the rest be employed upon such Pious Uses as may be agreed upon.
VII. ONCE in two Months, Let the whole Time of the Meeting be devoted unto Supplications for the Conversion and Salvation of the Rising Generation in the Land; Particularly, For the Success of the Gospel in that Congregation, whereto the Society belong.
VIII. LET the whole Society, be exceedingly Careful, that their Discourse while they are together, after the other Services of Religion are over, have nothing in it, that shall have any Taint of Backbiting or Vanity, or the least Relation to the Affairs of the Government, or to things which do not Concern them, and do not serve the Interests of Holiness in their own Conversation. But let their Discourse be wholly on Matters of Religion, and those also, not the Disputable and Controversial Matters, but the Points of Practical Piety. They may propose Questions upon this Intention, and every one in an orderly manner, take his Liberty to answer them, or they may go through the Catechism, and one at one Time, another at another, heat all the rest Recite the Answers thereof. Or they may be otherwise directed by their Pastors, to spend their Time together Profitably.
VIII. LET the whole Society, be exceedingly Careful, that their Discourse while they are together, after the other Services of Religion are over, have nothing in it, that shall have any Taint of Backbiting or Vanity, or the least Relation to the Affairs of the Government, or to things which do not Concern them, and do not serve the Interests of Holiness in their own Conversation. But let their Discourse be wholly on Matters of Religion, and those also, not the Disputable and Controversal Matters, but the Points of Practical Piety. They may propose Questions upon this Intention, and every one in an orderly manner, take his Liberty to answer them, or they may go through the Catechism, and one at one Time, another at another, heat all the rest Recite the Answers thereof. Or they may be otherwise directed by their Pastors, to spend their Time together Profitably.