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Today's passages via BibleGateway
* Exodus 8:1-9:35
* Matthew 19:13-30 (
Quaker Bible Index)
* Psalm 24:1-10
* Proverbs 6:1-5
Quaker references from today's Matthew reading via the Quaker Bible Index:
Rebecca Travers, 1669: when he came ... that said, Good master, what shall I do that I may inherit eternal life? he doth not say come, handle and feel this person; but, saith he, Why callest thou me good? There is none good but God; for Christ knew then and now, none could sell all for him [Mat 19:16-22 ||], but who in Spirit learned him to be God blessed forever [Rom 9:5], and therefore he knoew his going from them was expedient, that the promise of the Father's Spirit of Life might be more fully poured out upon them, in which he promised to be with them to the end of the world [Mat 28:20]....
William Penn, 1669: If he that had loved God, and his neighbor, and kept the commandents from his youth, was excluded from being a disciple because he sold not all and followed Jesus; with what confidence can you call yourselves Christians, who have neither kept the commandments, nor yet forsaken anything to be so? And if it was a bar betwixt him and the eternal life he sought; that notwithstanding all his other virtues, love to money, and his external possessions could not be parted with; what shall be your end, who cannot deny yourselves many less things, but are daily inventing vanities to your fleshly appetites? .... But such a Christian this young man might have been, who had more to say for himself, than the strictest Pharisee living dare pretend to; yet he went away sorrowful from Jesus [Mat 19:16-22 | Mar 10:17-22 | Luk 18:18-23].
Job Scott, 17–: when one called Christ, "Good Master," he refused to accept the title, as applied to himself, independently of the one only real goodness, the goodness of God; and makes this return: "Why callest thou me good? There is none good but one, that is, God." [Mat 19:17 | Mar 10:18 | Luk 18:19] This must hold good forever; for the moment any other independent source of real goodness is admitted, another God is at that moment admitted; or good is admitted, which the one God is not the source and author of.
Isaac Penington, 167-: [In the Seed] true poverty of Spirit [Mat 5:3] is witnessed. He is poor indeed, who hath sold all [Mat 19:21 ||], and hath nothing left him but this seed, and the appearance and help of God in this seed; which is not in his own hands neither, but in the will and disposal of God.
John Woolman, 17–: When our Saviour said to the rich youth, "Go sell that thou hast and give to the poor" [Mat 19:21 | Mar 10:21 | Luk 18:22], though undoubtedly it was his duty to have done so, yet to confine this of selling all as a duty on every true Christian would be to limit the Holy One [Psa 78:41].
John Woolman, 17– : Here our Lord uses an instructing similitude, for as a camel considered under that character cannot pass through a needle’s eye, so a man who trusteth in riches and holds them for the sake of the power and distinction attending them cannot in that spirit enter the kingdom. [Mat 19:24 | Mar 10:25 | Luk 18:25] Now every part of a camel may be so reduced as to pass through a hole as small as a needle’s eye, yet such is the bulk of the creature, and the hardness of its bones and teeth, that it could not be completed without much labour. So man must case from that spirit which craves riches, and be reduced into another disposition, before he inherits the kingdom, as effectually as a camel must cease from the form of a camel in passing through the eye of a needle.
William Penn, 1694: ... in all human probability they must have been swallowed up quick of the proud and boisterous waves [Job 38:11] that swelled and bear against them, but that the God of all their tender mercies was with them in his glorious authority; so that the hills often fled, and the mountains melted [Nah 1:5] before the power that filled them; working mightily for them as well as in them, one ever following the other. By which they saw plainly, to their exceeding great confirmation and comfort, that all things were possible with him with whom they had to do [Mat 19:26 ||].
John Woolman, 1757: We may see ourselves crippled and halting and from a strong bias to things pleasant and easy find an impossibility to advance forward; but things impossible with men are possible with God [Mat 19:26 ||], and our wills being made subject to his, all temptations are surmountable.
James Nayler, 1655: this ... is our boldness in the day of judgment, that as he is, so are we in this world; herein is our love perfected [1 Jn 4:17] in him because we are of him and one with him in his righteousness; and that measure we have of it is freely ours without upbraiding [Jas 1:5], and an inheritance we have in it, wherefore we leave all to follow him [Mat 19:27 ||] who is our fulness, and cannot but call to all who love their souls to come to us, knowing his freeness.
Ann Crowley, 18– : though I had the unspeakable trial of leaving my sister..., and to hear the sorrowful tidings of her final departure, a short time after my leaving home, yet I dared not repine, or think it a hard allotment, that I had been willing to leave all that was near and dear, in natural ties, to follow my Lord and Master [Mat 19:27 | Mar 10:28 | Luk 18:28]....
Margaret Fell, 1700: And he hath shined from the throne of his glory [Mat 19:28], in our hearts; in his spiritual light, and hath given us the true knowledge of himself, in the face & image of Jesus Christ [2 Cor 4:6], he hath made us partakers of his divine nature [2 Pet 1:4], and he hath given us his good and holy Spirit [Neh 9:20] to lead us, and to guide us, into all truth, in all things [John 16:13].
Isaac Penington, 167-: There is a following Christ in the regeneration [Mat 19:28], and there is a conformity to him in his death [Phil 3:10], and in his life too. It is not good ... to be speaking much concerning that state, but rather to wait to be led into it, and to arrive at it in the true travel [travail].... But he that is in that state hath witnessed the holy calling [2 Tim 1:9], and faithfulness to him that called, and the election, and is one of the chosen, or elect of God; and Christ saith, such are beyond fallibility; for speaking of false Christs, he saith, "If it were possible, they should deceive the very elect," Mat 24:24, plainly signifying that it is impossible.
George Fox, 1659: P. Such as forsake husband and wife, to do the will of God, this he calls "a breaking of relations." A. And thus ignorantly speaks evil of those things he knows not [Jude 1:10]. Thus, ignorant of the command of the scriptures, he hath showed himself to be a member of the world, and not of Christ, who saith, "he that doth not forsake father and mother, wife and children, is not worthy of me" [Mat 19:29 /10:37].
David Ferris, 1768: The Truth hath appeared beautiful in thy sight; and those who are travelling in the way of peace, have ben objects of thy near affection. I much desire that thou mayest be made a partaker with them in the joys that abide forever. These are they that receive "an hundred fold" of enjoyment in this life, and in that which is to come, life everlasting [Mat 19:29 | Mark 10:29f | Luke 18:29f].