Isaac Penington
1616-1679 17th century
Long inward searching resolved into simplicity, courage to leave comfort and status behind, testimony to the Light that needs no institution to be true.
Who was Isaac Penington?
An English gentleman of the 17th century, well-read and comfortable, he spent years restless, searching through one religious group after another, never finding rest. When he first heard the early Quakers preach, something in him recognized what he had been circling for so long: not a new doctrine but an immediate, inward encounter with the Light. He joined them, was imprisoned repeatedly for it, and wrote some of the most searching testimonies of what that inward light demands and gives.
In their own words
The Light is that which discovers and makes manifest, and it is also that which unites the heart to God.