§ 107. The Society of Friends, or Quakers.

§ 107. The Society of Friends, or Quakers.

Literature.

I. Sources.

Geo. Fox (founder of the Society of Friends, d. 1690): Works (containing his Journal, Letters, and Exhortations), London, 1694-1706, in 3 vols. fol.; also Philadelphia, in 8 vols. 8vo.

Robert Barclay (the standard divine of the Quakers, d. 1690): Works, edited by William Penn, London, 1692, under the title, 'Truth Triumphant through the Spiritual Warfare, Christian Labors and Writings of that Able and Faithful Servant of Jesus Christ, Robert Barclay,' etc. The principal of these works are: Apologia Theologiæ vere Christianæ, first in Latin, Amst. 1675; then in English, by the author himself; also in German, Dutch, French, and Spanish. The full title of the English edition is, 'An Apology for the True Christian Divinity, being an Explanation and Vindication of the Principles and Doctrines of the People called Quakers.' (I have a very elegant copy of the eighth edition, Birmingham, 1765.) A Catechism and Confession of Faith, approved of and agreed unto by the General Assembly of the Patriarchs, Prophets, and Apostles, Christ himself Chief Speaker in and among them. (The answers wholly biblical.) 1673. The same, in Latin (Catechesis et Fidei Confessio, etc.). Rotterdam, 1676. Treatise on Christian Discipline, etc.

William Penn (d. 1718): A Summary of the History, Doctrine, and Discipline of Friends (London, 1692); Brief Account of the Rise and Progress of the People called Friends (London, 1694); 'Quakerism a New Nickname for Old Christianity;' 'The Great Case of Liberty of Conscience Debated and Defended,' etc. Some of Penn's tracts were translated into German by Seebohm (Pyrmont, 1792 and 1798).

II. historical.

Gerard Croese: History of the Quakers, containing the Lives, Tenets, Sufferings, Trials, Speeches, and Letters of all the most Eminent Quakers from the First Rise of the Sect. London, 1696, 8vo.

William Sewel (d. 1725): History of the Rise, Increase, and Progress of the Christian People called Quakers. London, 1725, fol.; 6th edition, 1834, in 2 vols.; also in Dutch and German. (Charles Lamb pronounced this book 'far more edifying and affecting than any thing of Wesley and his colleagues.')

Joseph Besse: Collection of the Sufferings of the People called Quakers, for the Testimony of a Good Conscience. London, 1753, 2 vols. fol.

John Gough: The History of the Quakers. Dublin, 1789, 4 vols. 8vo.

Sam. M. Janney: History of the Friends. Philadelphia, 1859-1867, 4 vols.

Biographies of G. Fox, by Jonah Marsh (1848), S. M. Janney (1853), W. Tallack (1868).

Biographies of W. Penn, by Marsiliac (1791), Clarkson (1813), Ellis (1852), Janney (1852), Hepworth Dixon (1856).

III. Explanatory and Apologetic.

Thos. Clarkson (d. 1846): A Portraiture of Quakerism. London, 1806; 2d ed. 1807, 3 vols.

Joseph John Gurney (d. 1847): Observations on the Distinguishing Views and Practices of the Society of Friends. 7th edition, London, 1834; 2d American from the 7th London edition, New York, 1869.

Thos. Evans: An Exposition of the Faith of the Religious Society of Friends. Philadelphia, 1828. Approved by the Quakers at a meeting held in Philadelphia, Oct. 19, 1827, and often printed. (Manchester edition, 1867.)

The Ancient Testimony of the Religious Society of Friends,... revived and given forth by the Yearly Meeting held in Philadelphia in the Fourth Month, 1843. Philadelphia, at Friends' book-store. A summary of orthodox Quakerism, chiefly from the writings of Barclay.

W. I. Allinson: Art. Friends, in M'Clintock and Strong's Cyclop., Vol. III. pp. 667 sqq. (New York, 1870).

Friends' Review, a Religious, Literary, and Miscellaneous Journal. Philadelphia, so far twenty-nine vols. till 1876 (edited by Henry Hartshorne).

IV. Polemical and Critical.

For a full account of the literature against the Quakers, see Jos. Smith's Bibliotheca anti-Quakeriana; or, A Catalogue of Books adverse to the Society of Friends. Alphabetically arranged. With Biographical Notices of the Authors, together with the Answers which ham been given to some of them by Friends and others. London, 8vo, pp. 474.

Möhler (R. C.): Symbolik, pp. 488-532; Rud. Hofmann: Symbolik, pp. 514-520; Schenckenburger, Lehrbegriffe der kleineren protest. Kirchenparteien, pp. 69-102.