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A Description of the Qualifications Necessary to a Gospel Minister-Quaker Ministry in the Eighteenth Century
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 21 March 2016
Extract
In 1750 Samuel Bownas, then aged about seventy-four, published A Description of the Qualifications necessary to A Gospel Minister, a manual of advice to ministers and elders in the Religious Society of Friends. In 1738 the church discipline of the Society was codified and made available to Friends’ meetings, first in manuscript form and then from 1783 in print, providing rules and advice covering aspects of Quaker life from administration at national level to personal conduct.
In the earliest days of the Society the appearance in print of such advice would have been considered superfluous. A Friend received his call to minister directly from the Spirit once he was in a receptive state as a result of turning to the light, then found the direction of his particular ministry. This call bore no relation to the education or status of the recipient, it was not recognized by any external rite, it could be of short duration, and it could take varied forms.
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- Research Article
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- Copyright © Ecclesiastical History Society 1989
References
1 Samuel Bownas, A Description of the Qualifications Necessary to a Gospel Minister, containing Advice to Ministers and Elders, how to conduct themselves in their Conversations, and various Services according to their Gifts in the Church of Christ (London, 1750).
2 Christian and Brolherly Advices Given forth from time to time by the Yearly Meeting in London (unpublished manuscript, 1738); Extracts from the Minutes and Advices of the Yearly Meeting of Friends held in London (London, 1783). For the early history of the books of discipline see Hall, David J., ‘Christian and Brotherly Advices’, The Friends’ Quarterly, 22 (1981), pp. 506–15 Google Scholar.
3 A helpful recent discussion of the early development of Quaker ministry is in Donald S. Nesri,
4 Grace and faith: the means to salvation (Pittsburgh, 1975), pp. 285–307. William Dewsbury, The Faithful Testimony of that Antient Servant of the Lord and Minister of the everlasting Gospel William Dewsbery… (London [1689]), p. 1.
5 I Corinthians 14 v. 4a
6 An Account of the Lift, Travels, and Christian Experiences in the Work of the Ministry of Samuel Bownas (London, 1756).
7 For example: Scripture Truths Demonstrated in Thirty-Two Sermons or Declarations of Mr Stephen Crisp … (London, 1707); Sermons preached by Samuel Fothergill, taken down in Shorthand … (Dublin, 1783); Twelve Discourses by the late Thomas Letchworth (London, 1787). See also for an account of the style of ministry Lucia K. Beamish, Quaker Ministry 1691 to 1834 (Oxford, 1067).
8 Robert Barclay, An Apology for the True Christian Divinity as the same is held forth, and preached by the people, Called, in Scom, Quakers … (Aberdeen, 1678).
9 Bownas, Life, p. 107. Rufus M. Jones, The Later Periods of Quakerisms vols (London, 1921), 1, chapter 7 gives a number of examples of Friends in the travelling ministry.
10 George, Crosfield, Memoirs of the life and gospel labours of Samuel Fothergill… (Liverpool, 1843),Google Scholar
11 John Rutty, A Spiritual Diary and Soliloquies, 2 vols (London, 1776), i, pp. in, 113.
12 A number of copies of this manuscript exist in libraries, Quaker archives and record offices. Given possible variations in pagination page references have not been provided here.
13 Bownas, Life, p. 10.
14 The old Friend was Edward Bourne, identified by Cadbury, Henry J. in George Fox’s ‘Book of Miracles’ (Cambridge, 1948), p. 47 n. 4Google Scholar.
15 Bownas, Life, pp. 17–18. A similar, earlier example at Doncaster is recorded on p. 13.
16 Under ‘Morning Meeting of Ministers and Elders’. Significantly ‘and Elders’ is a later addition in the manuscript heading.
17 Extracts, pp. 149—50.
18 The classic account of the elders in the eighteenth century suggests that they neglected this aspect, see Jones, Later Periods, 1; pp. 125–7.
19 Griffith, John, Some BriefRemarks upon Sundry Important Subjects … (London, 1765), p. 71 Google Scholar.
20 Extracts, p. 159.
21 Braithwaite, W. G., The Second Period of Quakerism (London, 1919, 2 edn., Cambridge,1961), p. 504 cites Chesterfield 1607, Oxfordshire 1701. Harold W. Brace.ed., The First Minute Book of the Gainsborough Monthly Meeting of the Society of Friends, 3 vols (Lincoln Record Society, 1949), 2, p. 125 cites Gainsborough Monthly Meeting, 1703Google Scholar.
22 Extracts, p. 37.
23 Extracts from the Minutes and Advices of the Yearly Meeting of Friends… (2 edn., London, 1802), p. 109.
24 Jones, Later Periods, 1, pp. 183–7 describes the office of clerk but says nothing of its history and development.
25 For the latter see J., William Frost, ed.. TheRecords and Recollections of James Jenkins (New York, 1984)Google Scholar.
26 Bownas, Life, pp. iii, vi—vii.
27 Bownas, Description, p. iii.
28 On journals see Howard H. Brinton, Quaker Journals (Wallingford, Pennsylvania, 1972) and Edward H. Milligan, ‘“Saw dead dog in Went” some reflections on the writing of journals’, The Friends’ Quarterly, 24 (1986), pp. 83–91.
29 Bownas, Description, pp. 23, 26.
30 Bownas, Life, pp. 98–9, 100.
31 Ibid., p. 14.
32 Bownas, Description, pp. 58–9.
33 Bownas, Life, pp. iii-iv.
34 I am most grateful to Edward H. Milligan for his comments on a draft of this paper.