"While much attention was focused then (and still is now) on the personal morals and theological speculations of the Ranters, their general outlook is more important for our present concerns. The Ranters included some of the most brilliant and perceptive young thinkers of the day, including Joseph Salmon, Jacob Bauthumley, and Abiezer Coppe. Their writings breath despair over circumstances offering no apparent way forward. Like the unemployed ranks of punks in England of the 1970's snarling 'no future,' the Ranters were a disturbed and disturbing presence within a receding utopian horizon."
(p88 "The Covenant Crucified-Quakers and the Rise of Capitalism" by Douglas Gwyn. Pendle Hill Publications, Wallingford, Pennsylvania, Amerika 1995)
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