Creation-centred Elements

Husbandry as Metaphor

One of the simplest manifestations of a creation-centred element in the dialectic amongst early Quakers, was their use of biblical images from husbandry as metaphors to describe the work of God in the human soul. Margaret Fell, for example, likened those redeemed by the light to:

living plants in the garden of the Lord which now he is dressing & watering &

pruning that to him fruit may be brought forth [,] who is Lord of the vineyard,

& the husbandman which purgeth every plant which beareth fruit, that it may bring forth more fruit, & every branch which beareth not fruit he taketh away…¹⁷⁸

In her ‘letters’, Fell frequently used metaphors of this kind, which would have been familiar to her readers.¹⁷⁹ Their effectiveness, however, was based partly on her readers’ experience or knowledge of such practices and partly on their knowledge of the Bible. Arguably this is one of the very few examples of natural theology (2.6.2) amongst Friends at this time.

The Creation as a Witness to God

More robust evidence for this side of the dialectic comes in the form of statements about the personal experience of creation by the restored believer. Fox asserted that those who were renewed in the light of Christ would come to realise that all of creation celebrated its creator. Whilst those who were ‘out of the light’ would complain about the weather and the seasons:

178 Margaret Fell, ‘To Friends, Brethren and Sisters’ (1656) in Undaunted Zeal: The Letters of Margaret Fell (Richmond, IN: Friends United Press, 2003), 212.

179 See Michael Birkel, The Messenger that Goes Before: Reading Margaret Fell for Spiritual Nurture Pendle Hill Pamphlet 398 (Wallingford, PA: Pendle Hill Publications, 2008), 14-28.

…such as are turned to the Light which comes from him who is the Heir of all things, which upholds all things by his word and power; these come to see how all the works of the Lord praise him, his works praise him, day and night praise him; Summer and Winter praise him; Ice and Cold, and Snow praise him…Seed-time and Harvest praise him; and all things that are created praise him. This is the language of them who learn of him...¹⁸⁰

Adams has researched the ‘praise poems’ and other material written by several early Friends to celebrate the new vision of the creation (see also 3.4.1).¹⁸¹ James Nayler, for example, described how he was shown the wonders of creation by God, and at the same time the works of creation demonstrated the power of God:

When I look back into thy Works I am astonished and see no End of thy Praises: Glory, Glory to thee, faith my Soul and let my Heart be ever filled with Thanksgiving; whilst thy Works remain they shall shew forth thy Power;

then didst thou lay the Foundation of the Earth, and led’st me under the

Waters, and in the Deep did’st thou shew me Wonders, and the Forming of the World.¹⁸²

Fox’s Creation ‘Parables’

For Fox, the inward light could also reveal meaning in the outward creation in another way. The creation was a rich source of outward pointers to inward truths.¹⁸³ Nature had long been looked upon as an allegory of the spiritual world,¹⁸⁴ but Fox saw in the outward creation a resource specifically for people to gain an understanding of their own spiritual condition as a prelude to the process of restoration and salvation in Christ:

As the light opens and exerciseth thy conscience, it will open to thee parables and figures, and it will let thee see invisible things…which are clearly seen since the creation of the world, that doth declare the eternal power and

180 George Fox, Concerning Good-Morrow, and Good-Even; the World’s Customs…(London: Thomas Simmons, 1657), 11-12.

181 Adams, ‘Early Friends and Creation’, 148.

182 James Nayler, ‘And in the day when God lifted my feet out of the pit was this given forth’ (1659), in A Collection of Sundry Books, Epistles, and Papers… (London: J.Sowle, 1716).

183 See Gwyn, Apocalypse of the Word, 114-5.

184 See, for example, Keith Thomas, Man and the Natural World: Changing Attitudes in England 1500-1800 (London: Allen Lane, 1983), 64.

Godhead….All who mind the measure [of the light] which God hath given you, it will open unto you these outward figures which God spake, and will teach you…¹⁸⁵

However, Fox’s examples from the outward creation were derived not from the observation of nature, but from scripture: in Gwyn’s words, Fox found ‘the realities of the outward world described in scripture to be the types of the inwardly revealed new world’.¹⁸⁶ He quotes Fox: ‘the light of God which gave forth the scripture, this light of God according to its measure will open the scripture to thee’.

Fox cited numerous examples of such ‘outward figures’, such as

thorny ground without thee, so thy heart is as thorny ground…as forests within thee, so the wilderness in thy heart…as swine without thee, thou art a swine wallowing in the mire…as tall cedars without thee, thou wilt see thyself a tall cedar, who livest without the truth, spreading thyself...¹⁸⁷

Thus nature could, when seen through the inward light, communicate scriptural truths to ordinary men and women who, being ‘unlearned in the letter’, were unable to read in scripture for themselves.¹⁸⁸ Fox explained that, in this way, God spoke to man and woman in their fallen condition through the creation, whose ‘figures and parables’ of the inward state of man and woman could be read everywhere by those who ‘hearken to the light within’:¹⁸⁹

for man being drove into the earth, and the earth being above the seed; so as the earth without thee, so the earth within thee; the Lord speaking low things, comparisons like to that nature in man; that man may look upon the creation with that which is invisible, and there read himself; there thou mayest see wherever thou goest…¹⁹⁰

185 George Fox, ‘A Word from the Lord, to all the World, and all Professors in the World, spoken in Parables’ (1654), in Works 4: 36.

186 Gwyn, Apocalypse of the Word, 114.

187 Fox, Works, 4:34. See also Gwyn, Apocalypse of the Word, 113-5.

188 Fox, Works, 4: 36.

189 Ibid., 36-7.

190 Ibid., 37 .