Research Notes, George Fox, Enthusiasm, Outward Rule, Sufficiency of Light, Scripture not Sufficient, aversion of outward ecclesiastical forms.



In 1776, Daniel Neal published “The History of the Puritans or Protestant Non-Conformists.” In the fourth volume of his history on pages 32-36, he writes these two paragraphs about the Quakers:

“It can’t be expected that such an unsettled People should have an uniform System of rational Principles. Their first and…

Research Note, Inshining Light sufficiency, Outward Forms, excommunication, I AM

In The Quakers Spiritual Court Proclaimed published in 1669, Nathaniel Smith writes:

... all Sects, Formes, or other Dispensations, it thou please to call them so (or by what Name soever) after they have raised to themselves a considerable number of People, then they go about to set up themselves, and make to themselves Laws, whereby they may Govern, and bear Rule…

In 1669 Nathanial Smith wrote a tract entitled “The Quakers Spiritual Court” wherein he documents the Quaker use of outward ecclesiastical forms and leaders to rule over the conscience of others in the gathering. Smith became a Quaker at 19 years of age and remained so for about fourteen years. It seems he was among those of the first Quakers. Smith calls himself a “Physick.” Samuel Johnson’s Dictionary (1792) defines Physick as “originally signifying natural philosophy, has been transferred…

In 1655 a tract was publish entitled “To all that would know the way to the Kingdom, whether they be in forms, Without Forms, or Got above all Forms ...” Authorship was “Given forth by those whom the world in scorn calls Quakers.” This usually means there were multiple people who contributed to the writing of the tract. In 1706 a compilation of some of George Fox’s writings was published under the title “Gospel-Truth Demonstrated, in a Collections Of Doctrinal Books, Given forth by that…

I’m going to start with some theological basics. Because what we’re seeing happen is a manifestation of Satan’s power. When I say that word, I’m talking about the mysterious something or somebody in the universe that creates enmity between people. So when I attribute agency to Satan, I’m not saying there’s a little red man with a pitchfork running around, but simply that some mysterious inevitability creates systemic hostility in human relations. For…

The Witness that Stunned ...

I empathize with people who are come out of or who are coming out of a conscience and consciousness anchored in and informed by outward forms and are come into a conscience and consciousness anchored in and informed by the direct and unmediated impulse of immanent Presence itself in itself. Sometimes I find myself sharing the message of the sufficiency of the inshining Light itself in itself to guide and nurture human relationships on the…

The Mystery - I am the Light

Introduction

An important part of my experience or witness of the inshining motion of Presence is self-awareness being led out of dependency upon outward forms and into an embracement of and a growing into dependency upon immanent Presence itself in itself. This dependency is the experience of awareness…

The Infallible Mark

Studies from "The Christian Quaker ..." by William Rogers (1680).

Note: The spelling and sentence structure from the quoatations of Rogers behold has not been modernized.

"For though the Apostle saith, Gal. 5. 2. I Paul say unto you, if ye be Circumcised, Christ shall profit you nothing, and Gal. 4. 9, 10, 11. But now after ye have known God, or rather are known of God, how turn ye again to the Weak and…

A Response to a piece at Transition Quaker: https://transitionquaker.blogspot.com/2017/02/stories-and-values.html?showComment=1488212565150&m=1#c6609527395080306459

It happens that people's meaning, purpose, and identity, are in relation to outward things like occupation, family, country, political and religious ideology and affiliation,…

Source: http://infiniteoceanoflightandlove.blogspot.com/2017/01/in-midst-of-quaker-meeting-fragmentation.html

It is curious to me the author does not recognize the Quaker way wherein those gathered in the sufficiency of the inshining Light in the conscious and conscience are come out of these "types" or forms ("the mystical, the evangelical, the rational,…