Like the Mennonites, the Quakers did not believe the Seed to have any vitality apart from the Spirit of God. Neither the early Friends nor any of their successors have ever believed in any natural power in man, by which he could savingly know God, or work out his soul's salvation. The seed or light was the gift of God; it was not the soul, as Barclay is careful to explain, but a "substance"[31] divinely given to every man, not naturally, but by grace. The seed was not separable from Christ, and when it was quickened, Christ was formed in the heart, and became the life of the soul.[32]
[31] Barclay uses the term in its scholastic sense as opposed to "attribute."
[32] The following extract will assist in correcting one mistaken idea of the "Light within." It is from a speech made in the Yearly Meeting of 1861, by my respected former tutor, Isaac Brown, whose solid learning and sound judgment have won him the greatest confidence amongst Friends. The notorious "Essays and reviews" were under discussion, and he said, "Some thought the work ought to be hailed by our Society, because of the views it advanced on the doctrine of the 'inward light.' He believed this idea was a misconception. The opinion of the Essayists appeared to coincide rather with those of the Hicksite body in America, than with those preached by George Fox and now held by our Society. It was not the 'inward light' (by which our early Friends clearly stated that they meant nothing else than the light of the Spirit of Christ) to which these writers referred us, but the 'enlightened reason.' He thought it was time for us to discontinue the use of this term 'the inward light,' as it had been grievously misinterpreted out of the Society, and was not found in Scripture."
Let me here say that any one may find the essentials of Quakerism without the Platonising doctrine of the "Seed," in J. J. Gurney's "Distinguishing Views and Practices of the Society of Friends."
Another peculiar feature of the Quaker view of the Divine In-dwelling is developed by Barclay in his chapter on Perfection. He has before claimed that justification is all as one with sanctification; he now explains that, in the view of Friends, regeneration implies the possibility of perfection in this life. He contends earnestly for a lofty view of the power of Christ in the believer. His proposition runs thus:--"Proposition VIII. In whom this pure and holy birth is fully brought forth, the body of death and sin comes to be crucified and removed, and their hearts united and subjected to the truth, so as not to obey any temptation or suggestion of the evil one, to be free from actual sinning and transgressing of the law of God, and in that respect perfect; yet doth this perfection still admit of a growth, and there remaineth always in some part a possibility of sinning, where the mind doth not most diligently attend unto the Lord."