Indeed the Quakers have no notion of a human
qualification for a divine calling. They reject all school divinity, as
necessarily connected with the ministry. They believe that if a
knowledge of Christianity had been attainable by the acquisition of the
Greek and Roman languages, and through the medium of the Greek and
Roman philosophers, then the Greeks and Romans themselves had been the
best proficients in it; whereas, the Gospel was only foolishness to many
of these. They say with St. Paul to the Colossians,[109] "Beware lest any
man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of
men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ." And they
say with the same Apostle to Timothy,[110] "O Timothy! keep that which
is committed to thy trust, avoid profane and vain babblings, and
oppositions of science falsely so called, which some professing have
erred concerning the faith."
[Footnote 109: Coloss. 2. 8.]
[Footnote 110: 1 Tim. 6, 20, 21]
This notion of the Quakers, that human learning and academical honours
are not necessary for the priesthood, is very ancient. Though George Fox
introduced it into his new society, and this without any previous
reading upon the subject, yet it had existed long before his time. In
short, it was connected with the tenet, early disseminated in the
church, that no person could know spiritual things but through the
medium of the spirit of God, from whence it is not difficult to pass to
the doctrine, that none could teach spiritually except they had been
taught spiritually themselves.
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