They were not Speculative Voluntaries, waiting for the abolition of the National Church, and paying tithes meanwhile.

They were Separatists who would at once and in every way assert their Separatism.

They would pay no tithes; they called every church "a steeple-house"; and they regarded every parson as the hired performer in one of the steeple-houses.

Then, in their own meetings for mutual edification and worship, all their customs were in accordance with their main principle.

They had no fixed articles of congregational creed, no prescribed forms of prayer, no ordinance of baptism or of sacramental communion, no religious ceremony in sanction of marriage, and no paid or appointed preachers.