A Touchstone or Tryall of Faith

by Isaac Penington

  • Year 1648
  • Type Treatise
  • Genre devotional
  • Tradition Quaker
  • Original language English

Authorship Traditional — the long-standing attribution, not questioned in the sources consulted.

Length About 12,200 words, about an hour.

Should I read this?

Rated by AI during research.

For the general reader
1 of 5 specialist interest
For the researcher
3 of 5 worth your time
Difficulty
4 of 5 hard

His first book (1648), before he joined the Quakers: an exposition of John 1:12-13 and 3:1-6 testing faith by its origin, with a piece on the practice of the first Christians.

How it proceeds
  • Philosophic 2 of 5
  • Scriptural 5 of 5
  • Experiential 3 of 5
  • Sociological 0 of 5
  • Historical 0 of 5

Independent intensities, 0–5 — what the work is made of, not how good it is.

Penington's first book, printed in 1648, before he joined the Quakers: a Touchstone or Trial of Faith that tests faith by its origin, set out as an exposition of John 1:12-13 and John 3:1-6. The Spiritual Practice of Christians in the Primitive Times is added.

Editions

External off-site sources

Free to read or hear elsewhere

  • A Touchstone or Tryall of Faith (Quaker Heritage Press)
    The Quaker Heritage Press online text, from volume 4 of their edition of Penington's Works, transcribed from the fourth edition of 1863 without modernizing its language; only some punctuation and the form of Scripture references were changed. Their print edition's page numbers are marked in the text. Free to read in the browser.
    📄 View on Quaker Heritage Press ↗

    Catalog IDE.SZ46RR.EReport

  • PDF A Touchstone or Tryall of Faith (Internet Archive (first printing, 1648)) PD
    1648
    A scan of the first printing of 1648, from the Early English Books microfilm on the Internet Archive: the original type, page images with rough machine-read text.
    Harder than the work: Original printing: seventeenth-century spelling and type, with the long s.
    📄 View on Internet Archive (first printing, 1648) ↗

    Catalog IDE.CFK06B.HReport

  • PDF A Touchstone or Tryall of Faith (Internet Archive (Works, 1863, vol. 4)) PD
    1863
    Volume 4 of the fourth edition of the Works (four volumes, 1863), where this piece is printed among others. A Google scan of a library copy on the Internet Archive.
    📄 View on Internet Archive (Works, 1863, vol. 4) ↗

    Catalog IDE.JP86DW.AReport

Report an Issue or Suggest an Edition

Catalog IDW.F7P3PF.8

Edition details and descriptions on this page were compiled with the aid of AI research tools. Readers are encouraged to verify specifics (publisher, translator, edition year) against the originating source before citing them.

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