Conservative Friends
The early Quakers, following Fox, taught that as a result of the New Birth through the power of the Holy Spirit, man could be free from actual sinning if he continued to rely on the inward light and "focus on the cross of Christ as the center of faith".
Historically "ruffles and lace and other forms of ornamentation, as well as unnecessary cuffs and collars and lapels and buttons, were forbidden.
The Discipline includes provisions for business organization; the naming of ministers, elders, and overseers; marriage procedures; and the Advices and Queries.
—The Book of Discipline of Ohio Yearly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends, 2022[8]An example one of the Advices is as follows: Use vigilant care, dear Friends, not to overlook those promptings of love and truth which you may feel in your hearts; for these are the tender leadings of the Spirit of God.
Nor should any of us resist God's workings within us, for it is His redemptive love which strives to show us our darkness, and lead us to true repentance, and to His marvelous light.
[8] It states: In view of the evils arising from the use of tobacco and intoxicating drinks, we urge all to abstain from using them, from offering them to others, and from having any part in their production, manufacture, or sale.
[9]Additionally, Fox taught the doctrine of perfection—"spiritual intimacy with God and Christ, entailing an ability to resist sin and temptation".
[9] Friends have traditionally not observed sacraments, historically citing Jeremiah 31:31–34 and embracing "this experience of a new covenant with God written on their hearts, rather than in outward forms".
Thus, as well as not needing priests...this interpretation of the direct encounter between humanity and God, and the continual nature of the transformation it brought, also meant that churches and outward sacraments could be dispensed with.
Revelation 3:20 talks about Christ supping inwardly with those who respond to his knocking, and Friends thought this communion replaced the passage in 1 Corinthians 11:26 that instructs the believers to break the bread until the Lord comes.
In the mid-1820s, wealthy Friends in leadership positions in Quaker organizations in Philadelphia began to "express disunity" (openly disagree) with the ministry of Elias Hicks, a rural traveling minister from Long Island, New York, whose ministry emphasized direct experience of God over reliance on scripture.
Of particular concern to Hicksite Friends were the notions of the authority of scripture over the Light of the Inward Christ, endorsement of justification and entire sanctification over the sense of gradual convincement, and the use of Trinitarian language.
Both groups were active in traditional Friends social justice movements, such as the abolition of slavery and right ordered care for the mentally ill.
Hicks always maintained that he spoke the words given him by God in what Friends called immediate revelation, but this proved unacceptable to Orthodox Quakers.
The ministers and elders who emphasized the "primitive" Friends testimony became increasingly uneasy with the growing Evangelically-oriented ministry.
One of the evangelical English ministers, Joseph John Gurney, travelled to America to support Bates and to meet with Hicksite Friends.
Gurney had decided as a young man not to wear the traditional Quaker clothing, stating once that he only wore a broad-brimmed hat one day of his life.
A minister-schoolteacher in Rhode Island, John Wilbur, objected to Gurney's use of the early Wesleyan understanding of entire sanctification.
Wilbur wrote an anonymous article that argued for the "primitive" Quaker understanding of continual, daily interaction with the Holy Spirit.
Other opposition to Gurney was based in the two Orthodox yearly meetings already known for their stand on the importance of an inward transformation (Ohio and Philadelphia).
In addition, most Primitive Friends communities at the beginning of the twentieth century in New York, New England, and Pennsylvania, had merged into other Quaker bodies by 1955.
