Compiled by Marshall Massey
When Simon Gray asked in February 2004 what the "unique selling point" of Quakerism was, Marshall Massey answered not with his own words but with the words of the earliest Friends. The central Quaker message, he wrote, was "the tremendous emphasis on the transformative presence of Christ within us. Not the idea, the emphasis on the idea: the treatment of it as the beating heart of the path of life."
Massey then assembled five first-hand expressions of that message from the founding generation of Friends, spanning 1653 to 1692. The voices are not Quakers alone: the first witness is a hostile Puritan minister who, even in the act of attacking Friends, captures the heart of what they were teaching. What follows is an anthology of the evangelical core of Quakerism — not as it came to be domesticated and institutionalized in later centuries, but in the fire of its original proclamation.
The tremendous emphasis on the transformative presence of Christ within us. Not the idea, the emphasis on the idea: the treatment of it as the beating heart of the path of life.
— Marshall Massey
Francis Higginson, 1653
Francis Higginson was a Puritan minister who wrote against the early Quakers. Even in opposition, his account of their teaching is precise.
The matter of the most serious and ablest of their speakers, is ... for the most part of this nature. They exhort people to mind the light within, to hearken to the voice and follow the guide within them, to dwell within, and not to look forth; for that which looketh forth tendeth to darkness. They tell them that the Lord is now coming to teach his people himself alone....
— Francis Higginson (Puritan minister), A Brief Relation of the Irreligion of the Northern Quakers (1653)
Isaac Penington, 1658
Isaac Penington (1616–1679) was among the most profound of the early Quaker theologians. His mystical writings on the inward Light are central documents of the tradition.
The first way of meeting with the Spirit of God, is as a convincer of sin. Here is the true entrance; this is the key that opens into life eternal; he that can receive it, let him. It is not by soaring aloft into high imaginations ... but by coming down to this low thing.
— Isaac Penington, The Way of Life and Death Made Manifest and Set Before Men... (1658)
Elizabeth Stirredge, 1680
Elizabeth Stirredge (1634–1706) was a Quaker minister and writer from Gloucestershire, England. This passage is from a letter she addressed to the mayor and city officials of Bristol.
The Lord hath placed a measure of his good spirit in your hearts, that never consented to sin; which, if you give up to be guided by it, will make you happy forever. It would teach you to do unto all men, as you would all men should do unto you. This is a good lesson for you to learn, and would make you honourable in the sight of the nations, and beautify you in the sight of the people.
— Elizabeth Stirredge, letter to the mayor and city officials of Bristol (1680)
Benjamin Bangs, 1683
Benjamin Bangs (1652–1741) was an English Quaker minister. This passage comes from his Memoirs, recounting a conversation with a group of Protestants in Ireland.
I directed them to the great heavenly School-master, who said, "Learn of me, for I am meek and lowly in heart; follow me, and ye shall find rest unto your souls." Thus I laboured to bring them from their hireling teachers, to the teaching of God and Christ in themselves, by which they might come to the knowledge of God, and walk in the ways of his salvation; "for a manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man to profit withal." I advised them to turn their minds inward, and mind the secret operation of it, which checks and reproves for bad words and actions; and as they turned to it, they would find it would lead them into all Truth.... They were well pleased with this discourse....
— Benjamin Bangs, Memoirs of the Life and Convincement: recounting an encounter with a group of Protestants in Ireland in 1683
John Banks, 1684
John Banks (1637–1710) was a Quaker minister from Cumberland, England. This passage comes from a message he wrote from prison to his son John.
God in his love, according to his Divine wisdom, hath given thee a measure or manifestation of his good spirit, grace, or light, which he hath placed in thy heart and conscience, as a witness against every appearance of evil: this in some degree thou art come to the knowledge of; whereby thou knowest thou shouldest do that which is good, and eschew the evil. ... This is that, my child, which thou must own and love; and then it will not only discover all sin, and every evil to thee, but as thou takest heed to its checks, reproofs, and manifestations, thou wilt receive power over those things, one after another, which the light makes manifest unto thee ... to have thy mind kept in the fear of God, to serve him.
— John Banks, message from prison to his son John (1684)
William Penn, 1692
William Penn (1644–1718), founder of Pennsylvania, here restates the inward Light doctrine as the foundation of true Christianity.
It is not opinion, or notions of what is true, or assent to or the subscription of articles and propositions, though never so soundly worded, that ... makes a man a true believer or a true Christian. But it is a conformity of mind and practice to the will of God, in all holiness of conversation, according to the dictates of this Divine principle of Light and Life in the soul which denotes a person truly a child of God.
— William Penn, A key opening a way to every common understanding, marginal note (1692)
Colophon
Six testimonies compiled by Marshall Massey and posted to soc.religion.quaker on February 10, 2004, in response to a question from Simon Gray about what makes Quakerism distinctive. Witnesses: Francis Higginson (1653), Isaac Penington (1658), Elizabeth Stirredge (1680), Benjamin Bangs (1683), John Banks (1684), William Penn (1692).
Preserved from the Usenet archive for the Good Work Library by the New Tianmu Anglican Church, 2026. Original Message-ID: [email protected]
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