ABSTRACT
This view of Quaker prose and speech, though written by a hostile, but contemporary ob server, touches on several matters that are noteworthy for any analysis of Friends' pamphleteering. The significance of the inner light as a metaphor for the possible union between the believer and Christ (or the holy spirit) is evidenced in this account of the theological features thought to be particularly distinctive to Quakerism. The light is the 'very substance' of Quaker theology, and it relates to an inwardly experienced connection to the godhead that the believer might profess to be manifest 'within' their being. Friends' emphasis on the spirit, which, we will see, is typical of their writing, emerges even in this anti-sectarian account of their most trenchantly held values. The anti-Quaker writer (Ephriam Pagit) recognises the 'inward' character of Quaker worship as the feature leading most to prophetical inspiration, in turn producing biblically inflected writing. This, too, marries with Friends' own accounts of their relationship, firstly, to the inner, living god, and, secondly, to the prophetie mode that allows them to speak as did biblical prophets or apostles - from a direct understanding of the godhead. Their involved explanations of prophetie inspiration will be one of the matters to consider in this chapter. Pagit's other contention, that the Quakers assigned their works a parallel importance to the bible, may be overstating the case somewhat; Friends were unlikely to state such an idea, in print? However, the development within Quakerism of a episteme that valued inner authority over external sourees, even the scripture, will be seen to ring true, overall, for many Friends who were writing at this time.
