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Isaac Penington

Isaac Wulff

A Weekend with Isaac Penington

Quaker Culture: Understanding

• Authored by:
• Isaac Penington

Oh, that men could . . . not lean to their own understandings, nor idolize their own apprehensions and conceivings, but wait to receive understanding from God, who giveth liberally of the true wisdom to those that ask and wait aright! . . . He that will be truly wise must first become a fool, that he may be wise; that is, he must not strive to learn in the comprehensive way of man’s wisdom and prudence the things of God’s kingdom; but feel the begettings of life in his heart, and in that receive somewhat of the new and heavenly understanding . . .

On Secrets (July 2020)

Quaker Culture: Humble Waiting

• Authored by:
• Isaac Penington

And thus have we learned of the Lord: to wit, not by the high striving, aspiring mind; but by lying low, and being contented with little. If but a crumb of bread, (yet if bread,) if but a drop of water, (yet if water,) we have been contented with it, and also thankful to the Lord for it: [for it is not] by thoughtfulness, and wise searching, and deep considering with our own wisdom and reason have we obtained it; but in the still, meek, and humble waiting have we found . . . the mysteries of God’s kingdom . . .

On Insight (March 2017)

Quaker Culture: Direct Experience

• Authored by:
• Isaac Penington

[The] Lord opened my spirit . . . [and] gave me the certain and sensible feeling of the pure, which had been with me from the beginning . . . such an inward demonstration and feeling of the seed of life, that I cried out in my spirit, “. . . there is not another, there never was another.”

On Perception (March 2023)

The Meaning of Life in Twenty Words

• Authored by:
• Bob Runyan

“There is that near you, which will guide you; oh! wait for it, and be sure ye keep to it.” - Isaac Penington (1616-1679)

On Deception (November 2013)

That Spark of Connection

• Authored by:
• Julie Peyton

Back in the days of my Dark Night Journey, I worked hard to define what I meant by “spirit” and “spiritual.” What my reasoning mind came up with was an analogy: Just as our eyes are physical organs of sight, designed or evolved to detect certain frequencies of electromagnetic radiation, our spirits are as-yet-unidentified organs of relationship. (I hear Isaac Penington raising a Friendly alarm against this rationalistic formulation.)

On Normality (July 2022)

David Wilson

Our Life is Love - Review

• Authored by:
• Carol Chatfield

The title of Marcelle Martin’s newly published book, Our Life is Love, echoes Isaac Penington’s well-known 1667 quotation, “Our life is love, and peace, and tenderness; and bearing one with another, and forgiving one another, and not laying accusations one against another; but praying one for another, and helping one another up with a tender hand . . . ” Martin’s book is about the transformative path taken by fervent men and women refined by the fire of truth, and the tender help from one another they receive along their way. It is the sharing of the many struggles and rewards experienced by early seekers of the Spirit, as well as contemporary followers of the Light.

On Heritage (July 2016)