'Ques. But it would seem this was even practiced by the church of Corinth, after Christ was come inwardly: was it so, that there were certain appointments positively commanded, yea, and zealously and conscientiously practiced by the saints of old, which were not of perpetual continuance, nor yet now needful to be practiced in the Church?
'Ans. If I then your Lord and Master have washed your feet, ye ought also to wash one another's feet. For I have given you an example, that you should do as I have done to you. John xiii. 14, 15.
'For it seemed good to the Holy Ghost and to us, to lay upon you no greater burthen than these necessary things: that ye abstain from meats offered to idols, and from blood, and from things strangled, and from fornication; from which if ye keep yourselves, ye shall do well: Fare ye well. Acts xv. 28, 29.
'Is any man sick among you? let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. James v. 14.
'Ques. These commands are no less positive than the other; yea, some of them are asserted as the very sense of the Holy Ghost, as no less necessary than abstaining from fornication, and yet the generality of Protestants have laid them aside, as not of perpetual continuance: but what other Scriptures are there, to show that it is not necessary for that of bread and wine to continue?
'Ans. For the kingdom of God is not meat and drink; but righteousness and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost. Rom. xiv. 17.
'Let no man therefore judge you in meat or drink, or in respect of an holy day, or of the new moon, or of the Sabbath days. Wherefore if ye be dead with Christ from the rudiments of the world, why, as though living in the world, are ye subject to ordinances (touch not, taste not, handle not: which all are to perish with the using), after the commandments and doctrines of men? Col. ii. 16, 20-22.
'Ques. These Scriptures are very plain, and say as much for the abolishing of this, as to any necessity, as aught that can be alleged for the former: but what is the bread then, wherewith the saints are to be nourished?
'Ans. Then Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Moses gave you not that bread from heaven, but my Father giveth you the true bread from heaven,' etc.
Then follows the whole section, John vi. 32-35, 48-58.
[1655] I can not find the term Trinity in Fox's Journal nor in Barclay's Apology, but both teach very clearly that Christ is God, and that the Holy Spirit is God, that all knowledge of the Father comes through the Son, and all knowledge of the Son through the Holy Spirit.
[1656] He understood soma and haima to be the subject, and touto the predicate.
[1657] See Erbkam, Geschichte der protest. Sekten im Zeitalter der Reformation, pp. 357 sqq., and Kadelbach, Geschichte K. v. Schwenkfeld's, etc. (Lauban, 1861). The German Catechism of the Schwenkfeldians of Pennsylvania, by Christopher Schultz, Senior (translated by Daniel Rupp, Stippackville, Pa. 1863), teaches Schwenkfeld's peculiar doctrine of the Lord's Supper, but not the deification of Christ's flesh.
[1658] Penn (in the Preface to Fox's Journal, p. xiv.) calls it 'the fundamental principle which is as the corner-stone of their fabric, and, to speak eminently and properly, their characteristic or main distinguishing point or principle, viz., the light of Christ within, as God's gift for man's salvation. This is as the root of the goodly tree of doctrines that grew and branched out from it.' Fox's Journal is full of it; see the list of passages in Vol. II. pp. 551 sq. of the 6th ed. (Leeds, 1836).
[1659] Barclay (Apol. p. 74) rejects the errors of Pelagians and Socinians, and teaches the corruption of human nature in consequence of the fall, but maintains, in opposition to Augustine, Luther, and Calvin, that God does not impute sin to infants until they commit actual transgression. Gurney says (l.c. p. 6): 'Never did they [the Quakers] dare to consider this light as a part of fallen man's corrupt nature; never did they hesitate to ascribe it to the free and universal grace of God through Christ Jesus our Lord.'
[1660] John i. 9. The difference in the construction of erchomenou eis ton kosmon does not affect the universality, which is sufficiently sustained by panta anthropon but the question is whether John means the light of reason or the light of grace, and in the latter case whether it is sufficient for salvation or merely preparatory to it. When Fox, on his second visit to Cromwell (in 1656), quoted this passage, he was met with the objection that John meant 'the natural light;' but he 'showed him the contrary--that it was divine and spiritual, proceeding from Christ, the spiritual and heavenly man' (Journal, Vol. I. p. 383).
[1661] Titus ii. 11. Other passages quoted by Quakers for their favorite doctrine are, Gen. vi. 3; Deut. xxx. 14; Rom. x. 3; Luke ii. 10; Rom. ii. 14, 15; Col. i. 23; Eph. v. 13; Acts x. 35.
[1662] Apol. Soc. He calls his daimonion (in Jowett's translation) 'a voice which comes to me and always forbids me to do something which I am going to do, but never commands me to do any thing, and which stands in the way of my being a politician.' He goes on to say that in politics he would have perished long ago without doing any good either to the people or to himself. The case of Socrates is not mentioned by Barclay, but by Gurney, p. 42: 'When Socrates, as compared with his fellow-countrymen, attained to an eminent degree of disinterestedness, integrity, justice, and charity; when he obeyed the counsels of that unknown monitor who so frequently checked him in the hour of temptation; when he bore so clear a testimony to virtue as to be persecuted to death for virtue's sake--on what scriptural grounds can any man deny that he was made a partaker, to a certain degree, of a divine influence?'
[1663] Gurney, p. 42.
[1664] Hence their name, 'Professors of the Light,' 'Friends of Light,' 'Children of Light.'
[1665] See them in full, Vol. III. p. 749.
[1666] Penn (Preface to Fox's Journal, p. xiv.) says that the Friends 'never held a perfection in wisdom and glory in this life, or from infirmities or death, as some have with a weak or ill mind imagined and insinuated against them.'