Extracts from the Minutes and Advices of the Yearly Meeting of Friends held in London

Quaker Yearly Meeting Book

W Phillips, 1802.

Bound in contemporary smooth leather. xvi, 308 pages 24 cm. Front hinge cracked, but holding. Contemporary inscription to D. Outram from S. Galton. Some marginalia.  Includes 3 pages of hand written notes on Quaker religion, beginning with 1 Corinthians 11:31 "For if we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged."  The book itself contains contemporary Quaker doctrine.  Different topics are divided by subjects. Of particular historical relevance are the Quaker community's decisions against the  trade and ownership of slaves (beginning 1727).  (pp. 176-180) 

The London Meeting came out clearly in favor of abolitionism.  Also, the role of women is dealt with (many Quakers were later prominent in the woman's sufferage movement).  Modern Quakers would find agreement and communion with this work.  Quaker principles of love, kindness to the poor, forgiveness and acceptance of former convicts, and the relation of civil power are laid out here.  The work, like most Quaker works has no one author, but rather is the result of a concensus of the Quaker Yearly Meeting.  (I read the book and was struck by how similar it was to current Quaker thinking.)