The Light upon the Candlestick

The Light upon the Candlestick is an anonymous mystical tracts

published in Holland in 1662. Translated into English in 1663, it
The Light upon the
became a popular text among English Quakers. Candlestick
Author Adam Boreel
The tract promotes the idea that the Light of God can be found (probable); Peter
within each individual. Personal experience of the Divine is the
Balling (supposed);
only authentic path to Truth.
William Ames
(attributed)
History Country Holland and
England
Authorship of the text is unclear. It was possibly originally
composed in Latin as Lucerna Super Candelabrum by Adam Language Latin translated to
Boreel, translated into Low-Dutch by Peter Balling in 1662[1] and Low-Dutch
into English by B.F. (Benjamin Furly) in 1663. The English title translated to
page reads, English
Subject Finding the Light of
“The LIGHT upon the Candlestick. Serving for God within
Observation of the principal things in the Book called; Genre Christian mysticism
The Mysteries of the Kingdom of God, &c against
Publisher Robert Wilson,
several Professors, Treated of, and written by Will.
Ames…Printed in Low-Dutch for the Author, 1662. London
and translated into English by B.F.”[2] Publication 1662
date
Published in 1663
This has led to the supposition that William Ames was the author English
of The Light upon the Candlestick, but the wording means that The
Light upon the Candlestick agrees in principle with the work The Media type Religious Tract
Mysteries of the Kingdom of God by William Ames. As the title
page says it was printed for the Author, it is likely that the tract was printed for the Author of The Mysteries
of the Kingdom of God, William Ames, to support his position “against several Professors” of the
Collegiants with whom he was in disagreement.

In the mid-seventeenth century there was a Quaker community in Holland seeking sanctuary from
persecution in England. There they came into contact with the radical Protestant sect of the Collegiants.
William Ames was a Quaker minister who, after being imprisoned for his beliefs in Ireland, moved to
Amsterdam, where he preached with John Stubbs.[3] William Ames zealously preached to the Collegiants
and they were initially in accord although later they fell out.[4]

Adam Boreel was a Dutch theologian and Hebrew scholar, a leader of the Collegiants and a friend of
Baruch Spinoza; Peter Balling was a member of the Collegiants; Benjamin Furly, associated with John
Locke, George Fox and William Penn, was an English Quaker merchant then living in Rotterdam.

Contents
The Light upon the Candlestick proposes that God is the origin of all knowledge. We can only be aware of
God’s working in the world because we have a prior knowledge of God. One can become aware of the
Light of God only by seeking inward.

“This Light is the inward ear by which alone, and by no other, the voice of God that is the
Truth, can he heard.”[5]

Following this Inward light will result in Union with God.[6]

See also
Christianity portal

Baruch Spinoza
Collegiants
Divine light
Quakers

References
1. William Sewel, The history of the rise, increase, and progress of the Christian people called
Quakers, Third Edition, Philadelphia: Samuel Keimer, 1728 p. 16
2. Anonymous, The Light upon the Candlestick, London: Robert Wilson, 1663, Title Page
3. Sewel, p. 108
4. Sewel, Preface
5. Anonymous, The Light upon the Candlestick, London: Robert Wilson, 1663
6. Rufus M. Jones, Spiritual Reformers in the 16th and 17th Centuries, Boston: Beacon Press,
1959, pp 128-132 (first published by The Macmillan Company, 1914)

External links
The Light upon the Candlestick title page (https://universalistfriends.org/candle-image.html)
The Light upon the Candlestick introduction and full text (https://universalistfriends.org/candl
e.html)
William Sewel, The history of the rise, increase, and progress of the Christian people called
Quakers, Third Edition, Philadelphia: Samuel Keimer, 1728 (https://archive.org/details/histor
yofriseincre00sewe)

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