Concerning the Sum or Substance of Our Religion

by Isaac Penington

  • Year 1667
  • Type Treatise
  • Genre apologetics
  • Tradition Early Quaker (17th-century Radical Protestant)
  • Original language English

Length About 6,600 words, under an hour.

Should I read this?

For the general reader
3 of 5 worth your time
For the researcher
3 of 5 worth your time
Difficulty
3 of 5 demanding

A short statement of 'the sum or substance' of the Quakers' religion: to feel and discern the two seeds, of the flesh and of the Spirit.

How it proceeds
  • Philosophic 2 of 5
  • Scriptural 3 of 5
  • Experiential 4 of 5
  • Sociological 2 of 5
  • Historical 0 of 5

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

A short statement, about 1667, of 'the sum or substance' of the Quakers' religion: to feel and discern the two seeds, of the flesh and of the Spirit, and the exercises of spirit that follow.

Editions

External off-site sources

Free downloads

  • OTHER Concerning the Sum or substance of our Religion who are called Quakers (Quaker Heritage Press)
    The Quaker Heritage Press online text, from volume 2 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.Q8MG0Q.HReport

  • PDF Concerning the Sum or substance of our Religion who are called Quakers (Internet Archive (1666)) PD
    1666
    A scan of the 1666 printing, 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 (1666) ↗

    Catalog IDE.GQ1X1H.PReport

  • PDF Concerning the Sum or substance of our Religion who are called Quakers (Internet Archive (Works, 1863, vol. 2)) PD
    1863
    Volume 2 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. 2) ↗

    Catalog IDE.1FZ3WV.8Report

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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 purchase or citation.

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