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This (famous) quote from Margaret Fell includes,

... and I did as the apostle saith, I ‘received the truth in the love of it’.

Does "the apostle" there imply that's a quote from the New Testament?

I tried Google -- receive "the truth in the love of it" -- and with that I only saw the phrase being used in sermons and commentaries (including John Locke).

The first few search results seem to be contemporary with Margaret Fell's quote, i.e. 17th century.

Is a phrase like that in an edition of the Bible? Otherwise I wonder what she's quoting (apparently quoting rather than paraphrasing)? Or is it a contemporary paraphrase of a biblical reference?

ChrisW
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It is probably a reference to 2 Thessalonians 2:10

...which includes:

they received not the love of the truth

...the implication being that the speaker of "received the truth in the love of it" has acquired something that the subject of 2 Thessalonians 2:10 did not because they lacked a "love of it" (i.e. no "love of the truth").

That says nothing to where the original specific quote comes from, but this is the most likely allusion.

David Coffron
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There are several texts in the Bible to which this might be referring or alluding to:

  • 2 Thess 2:10 - all the deception of wickedness for those who perish, because they did not receive the love of the truth so as to be saved.
  • Zech 8:19 - … so love truth and peace.

There may also be a general allusion to several ideas on which these are based:

  • John 8:44 (NLT) - For you are the children of your father the devil, and you love to do the evil things he does. He was a murderer from the beginning. He has always hated the truth, because there is no truth in him.
  • 1 Cor 13:6 - Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.
  • Eph 4:15 - Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will grow to become in every respect the mature body of him who is the head, that is, Christ.
  • 1 John 3:18 - Dear children, let us not love with words or speech but with actions and in truth.