Part 2 : The Founders Writings

William Dewsbury wrote: God alone is the teacher of his people. He hath given to everyone a measure of grace, which is the light that comes from Christ. It checks and reproves for sin, in the secret of the heart and conscience. All who wait in that light, which comes from Christ, and which is the free grace of God, for the power of Jesus Christ to destroy sin and to guide them in obedience to the light, shall come to know the only true God and Father of light in Christ Jesus, who is the way to him.

And again, in a letter written from prison in 1655: Dear Friends, whose minds are turned to the effectual light that comes from Christ, all mind your own measure, and be content in what the Lord hath committed to you. With the light, judge that which would draw your minds to look forth at others’ conditions, and in impatience to covet what the Lord hath given to them, before it is manifest to you. Be faithful everyone in your own measure, and in patience wait for the unlimited spirit of Christ, your life, to open the seals of the book, and make known unto you the mystery of eternal life. This he will daily reveal in you that are faithful in your own measures, to follow the Lord in what he makes manifest to you, whom he hath called into his vineyard at the ninth and eleventh hours. Be faithful to the Lord, in walking in obedience to him in the light.

William Penn wrote: they come to Believe in Christ the Light as he doth appear in the Heart and Conscience to save from Sin, destroy the Works of the Devil, finish Transgression, and bring in of his Everlasting Righteousness. Wherefore to Imagine one's self intituled to a State of Salvation, whilst in Rebellion against the Light within, which is Christ's Inward Knocking and Appearance, must needs be a Delusion most pernicious, and destructive to the Souls of Men.

Robert Barclay wrote : Light of nature, the errors of the Socinians and Pelagians, who exalt this light, are rejected, Saving light; Is universal; it is in all. It is a spiritual and heavenly principle. It is a substance, not an accident. It is supernatural and sufficient. It is the gospel preached in every creature. It is the word nigh in the mouth and in the heart. It is the ingrafted word, able to save the soul. Testimonies of Augustine and Buchanan concerning this light. It is not any part of nature or relics of the light remaining in Adam after the fall. It is distinguished from the conscience. It is not a common gift, as the heat of the fire, and outward light of the sun, as a certain preacher said. It may be resisted. By this light or seed , grace and word of God, he invites all, and calls them to salvation. None of those to whom the history of Christ is preached are saved, but by the inward operation of this light. It is small in the first manifestation, but it groweth. It is slighted by the Calvinists, Papists, Socinians, and Arminians. None can put it to silence.

Elizabeth Bathurst wrote : And this Light is elsewhere called the Seed , even that incorruptible Seed , by which we are begotten to God, and born again by his Eternal Word, which liveth and abideth forever.

George Fox wrote : The light within brings to look at Christ, whose name is called the word of God, by whom all things were created; and the light within gives experience of him, which is beyond all created experiences that are changeable; and the scripture doth not tell us of the created word.

Margaret Fell wrote : Where this spirit is, that God is to be worshipped in, if it be not in man? And how it is, or can be attained to, any otherwise than by the light of Christ Iesus with which he hath lighted everyman that cometh into the world, in whom is life, and this life is the light of men? And where this worship of God in the spirit is performed, if it be not in man?

Isaac Penington wrote :
First, WHAT the seed is? Answ. The seed of God is the word of God; the seed of the kingdom is the word of the kingdom. It is a measure of the light and life, of the grace and truth, which is by Jesus Christ, whereof in him is the fulness. It is an heavenly talent, or manifestation of his Spirit in the heart, which is given to man for him, in the virtue and strength of Christ, to improve for God. This which God hath placed in man, to witness for himself, and to guide man from evil unto good (in the pure breathings, quickenings, and shinings of it) this is the seed, which is freely bestowed on man, to spring up and remain in him, and to gather him out of himself, into itself.

Secondly, Who is the sower of this seed? Answ. God, in and through Christ. He is the good husbandman. He, by the word which created all in the beginning, creates anew in Christ Jesus, renews his workmanship in man, and puts a measure of this word or Spirit of life in man's heart, whereby he renews him; and they that are thus renewed by him, are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works.

Thirdly, Where is this seed to be found? Answ. Where God sows it, which is in the inward earth. It is an inward seed, and it is sowed in inward land or earth; that is, in the hearts of men. There the light of the word shines, there the life of the word is felt, stirring secretly in and quickening those that were dead in trespasses and sins. There the voice and call of the word is heard, calling from unrighteousness and sin, to righteousness and holiness.

George Fox wrote : And the Lord is come to teach his people himself by his spirit, and to gather them from all the world's ways, and teachers, to himself, and so all upon the earth which profess Christ's words, the prophets' and apostles', and not in their life, they are raging against their life, which is now manifest, and be raging against Christ, which is now manifest in his saints, Christ the same to-day, yesterday, and forever, so the seed of God is risen, glory to the highest forever, which seed is Christ in the male, and in the female, whereby many males and females are come to confess Christ the seed, in them who have the promise, and so are become heirs of the promise, heirs of God, heirs of life, and heirs of the world that has no end.

“Christ has come to teach his people himself.”