[Footnote 141: Gal. 4. 10.]
For the latter reason also they do not assemble for worship on those
days which their own government, though they are greatly attached to it,
appoint as fasts. They are influenced also by another reason in this
latter case. They conceive as religion is of a spiritual nature, and
must depend upon the spirit of God, that true devotion cannot be excited
for given purposes or at a given time. They are influenced again by the
consideration, that the real fast is of a different nature from that
required. [142] "Is not this the fast, says Isaiah, that I have chosen,
to loose the bands of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, and to let
the oppressed go free, and that ye break every yoke? Is it not to deal
thy bread to the hungry, and that thou bring the poor that are cast out,
to thy house? When thou seest the naked, that thou cover him, and that
thou hide not thyself from thy own flesh?" This the Quakers believe to
be the true fast, and not the work of a particular day, but to be the
daily work of every real Christian.
[Footnote 142: Isaiah 58. 6. 7.]
Indeed no one day, in the estimation of the Quakers, can be made by
human appointment either more holy or more proper for worship than
another. They do not even believe that the Jewish Sabbath, which was by
the appointment of God, continues in Gospel times, or that it has been
handed down by divine authority as the true Sabbath for Christians.
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