10 QUAKER ASPECTS OF TRUTH 



of James as an ** Epistle of Straw/ ^ and he fearlessly 

 criticised other parts of Holy Writ which did not fit in 

 with his doctrine of justification by faith* Moreover, 

 I believe that the same was in a large measure true of 

 Swingler, Melancthon, and others* Whilst they all 

 held that the words of God were contained in the Bible, 

 they refused to give to the Bible that most misleading 

 and unscriptural title the ** Word of God/' But even 

 during the lifetime of these leaders of the Reformation, 

 the Reformed Churches began to forge the fetters which 

 were, ere long, to enslave them* Roman Catholicism 

 had its infallible Church, and Protestantism felt that it 

 must have something equally infallible to oppose to it* 

 So, having pulled down the infallible Church, Protes- 

 tantism set up in its place the infallible Book, every word 

 of which was regarded as inspired, and therefore literally 

 and eternally true* Not that the doctrine of Verbal 

 Inspiration originated with the Puritans ; they took it 

 over ready-made from the Hebrew Scribes, the only 

 difference being that the Puritans added the New Testa- 

 ment to the Old* Now, much as George Fox and the 

 early Friends loved the Bible, and much as they hated 

 the Papacy, they would have nothing infallible, save 

 God Himself* They taught that His Word was not 

 shut up within the covers of the Bible ; it was something 

 living and vital ; it came not to books, but to men ; 

 not to saints alone, but even to sinners if they would 

 but receive it* No outward authority of Book or 

 Church was to be regarded as final ; the final authority 

 was the Word of God in the heart of men — the Light 

 Within* 



Now it is easy to see how impossible it was for these 

 two doctrines to live together peaceably, and as a matter 

 of fact the antagonism between the doctrine of the Light 

 Within, and the Puritan doctrine of Verbal Inspiration, 

 was the occasion of George Fox's first imprisonment* 



