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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A30895	An apology for the true Christian divinity, as the same is held forth, and preached by the people, called, in scorn, Quakers being a full explanation and vindication of their principles and doctrines, by many arguments, deduced from Scripture and right reason, and the testimony of famous authors, both ancient and modern, with a full answer to the strongest objections usually made against them, presented to the King / written and published in Latine, for the information of strangers, by Robert Barclay ; and now put into our own language, for the benefit of his country-men.; Theologiae verè Christianae apologia. English	Barclay, Robert, 1648-1690.	1678 (1678)	Wing B721; ESTC R1740	415,337	436

by some citations out of them hereafter to be mentioned will appear though this Doctrine hath not since the Apostacy so far as ever I could observe been so distinctly and evidently held forth according to the Scriptures Testimony as it hath pleased God to reveal it and preach it forth in this day by the witnesses of his Truth whom he hath raised to that end Which Doctrine though it be briefly held forth and comprehended in the Thesis it self yet I shall a little more fully explain the state of the Controversie as it stands betwixt us and those that now oppose us § III. First then as by the explanation of the former Thesis appears we renounce all natural power and ability in our selves in order to bring us out of our lost and faln condition and first Nature and confess that of our selves we are able to do nothing that is good so neither can we procure remission of sins or justification by any act of our own so as to merit it or draw it as a debt from God due unto us but we acknowledg all to be of and from his Love which is the original and fundamental cause of our acceptance Secondly God manifested this love towards us in the sending of his Beloved Son the Lord Jesus Christ into the world who gave himself for us an Offering and a Sacrifice to God for a sweet smelling savour and having made peace through the blood of his Cross that he might reconcile us unto himself and by the Eternal Spirit offered himself without spot unto God and suffered for our sins the Just for the unjust that he might bring us unto God Thirdly then forasmuch as all men who have come to man's estate the Man Jesus only excepted have sinned therefore all have need of this Saviour to remove the Wrath of God from them due to their offences in this respect he is truly said to have born the Iniquities of us all in his Body on the Tree and therefore is the Only Mediator having qualified the Wrath of God towards us so that our former sins stand not in our way being by vertue of his most satisfactory Sacrifice removed and pardoned Neither do we think that remission of sins is to be expected sought or obtained any other way or by any works or Sacrifice whatsomever though as has been said formerly they may come to partake of this remission that are ignorant of the History So then Christ by his death and sufferings hath reconciled us to God even while we are Enemies that is he offers reconciliation unto us we are put into a capacity of being reconciled God is willing to forgive us our iniquities and to accept us as is well expressed by the Apostle 2 Cor. 5.19 God was in Christ reconciling the World unto himself not imputing their trespasses unto them and hath put in us the Word of Reconciliation And therefore the Apostle in the next verses treats them in Christs stead to be reconciled to God intimating that the Wrath of God being removed by the obedience of Christ Jesus he is willing to be reconciled unto them and ready to remit the sins that are past if they repent We consider then our Redemption in a two fold respect or state both which in their own Nature are perfect though in their application to us the one is not nor cannot be without respect to the other The first is the Redemption performed and accomplished by Christ for us in his Crucified Body without us The other is the Redemption wrought by Christ in us which no less properly is called and accounted a Redemption than the former The first then is that whereby man as he stands in the fall is put into a capacity of Salvation and hath conveighed unto him a measure of that Power Vertue Spirit Life and Grace that was in Christ Jesus which as the free Gift of God is able to counter-ballance overcome and root out the Evil Seed wherewith we are naturally as in the fall leavened The second is that whereby we witness and know this pure and perfect Redemption in our selves purifying cleansing and redeeming us from the power of Corruption and bringing us into unity Favour and Friendship with God By the first of these two we that are lost in Adam plunged in the bitter and corrupt Seed unable of our selves to do any good thing but naturally joyned and united to evil forward and propense to all iniquity servants and slaves to the Power and Spirit of Darkness are notwithstanding all this so far reconciled to God by the death of his Son while Enemies that we are put into a capacity of Salvation having the glad tidings of the Gospel of peace offered unto us and God is reconciled unto us in Christ calls and invites us to himself in which respect we understand these Scriptures He stew the enmity in himself He loved us first seeing us in our blood he said unto us live he who did not sin his own self bare our sins in his own Body on the Tree and he died for our sins the just for the unjust By the second we witness this capacity brought into act whereby receiving and not resisting the purchase of his death to wit the Light Spirit and Grace of Christ revealed to us we witness and possess a real true and inward Redemption from the power and prevalency of sin and so come to be truly and really redeemed justified and made righteous and to a sensible union and friendship with God Thus he died for us that he might redeem us from all iniquity and thus we know him and the Power of his Resurrection and the fellowship of his Sufferings being made conformable to us This last follows the first in order and is a consequence of it proceeding from it as an effect from its cause So as none could have enjoyed the last without the first had been such being the will of God so also can none now partake of the first but as he witnesseth the last Wherefore as to us they are both causes of our Justification The first the procuring efficient the other the formal cause Fourthly we understand not by this Justification by Christ barely the good works even as wrought by the Spirit of Christ for they as Protestants truly affirm are rather an effect of Justification than the cause of it But we understand the formation of Christ in us Christ born and brought forth in us from which good works as naturally proceed as Fruit from a Fruitful Tree It is this inward Birth in us bringing forth Righteousness and Holyness in us that doth Just●fie us which having removed and done away the contrary Nature and Spirit that did bear rule and bring condemnation now is in dominion over all in our hearts Those then that come to know Christ thus formed in them do enjoy him wholly and undivided who is The LORD our RIGHTEOVSNESS Jer. 23.6 This is to be cloathed with Christ and to have put

own condemnation he that resists it not it becomes his Salvation so that in him that is saved the working is of the Grace and not of the man and its a passiveness rather than an act though afterwards as man is wrought upon there is a will raised in him by which he comes to be a co-worker with the Grace For according to that of Augustine he that made us without us will not save us without us So that the first step is not by mans working but by his not contrary working And we believe that at these singular seasons of every mans visitation above-mentioned as man is wholly unable of himself to work with the Grace neither can he move one step out of the natural condition until the Grace lay hold upon him so it is possible to him to be passive and not to resist it as it is possible for him to resist it So we say the Grace of God works in and upon mans nature which though of it self wholly corrupted and defiled and prone to evil yet is capable to be wrought upon by the Grace of God even as Iron though a hard and cold Metal of it self may be warm'd and softned by the heat of the Fire and wax melted by the Sun And as Iron or Wax when removed from the Fire or Sun returneth to its former condition of coldness and hardness so mans heart as it resists or retires from the Grace of God returns to its former condition again I have often had the manner of God's working in order to Salvation towards all men illustrated to my mind by one or two clear examples which I shall here add for the information of others The First is of a man heavily diseased to whom I compare man in his faln and natural condition I suppose God who is the great Physician not only to give this man Physick after he hath used all the Industry he can for his own health by any skill or knowledg of his own As those that say If a man reprove his reason or natural faculties God will super add Grace Or as others say that he cometh and maketh offer of a remedy to this man outwardly leaving it to the Liberty of man's will either to receive it or reject it But he even the Lord this great Physician cometh and poureth the remedy into his mouth and as it were layeth him in his Bed so that if the Sick-man he but passive it will necessarily work the effect but if he be stubborn and untoward and will needs rise up and go forth into the cold or eat such fruits as are hurtful to him while the Medicine should operate then though of its nature it tendeth to cure him yet it will prove destructive to him because of those obstructions which it meeteth with Now as the man that should thus undo himself would certainly be the cause of his own death so who will say that if cured he owes not his health wholly to the Physician and not to any deed of his own seeing his part was not any action but a passiveness The Second example is of divers men lying in a dark pit together where all their Senses are so stupified that they are scarce sensible of their own misery To this I compare man in his natural corrupt falln condition I suppose not that any of these men wrestling to deliver themselves do thereby stir up or engage one able to deliver them to give them his help Saying with himself I see one of these men willing to be delivered and doing what in him lies therefore he deserves to be assisted As say the Socinians Pelagians and Semi-Pelagians Neither do I suppose that this deliverer comes to the top of the Pit and puts down a Ladder desiring them that will to come up and so put them upon using their own strength and will to come up As do the Jesuits and Armenians yet as they say such are not delivered without the Grace seeing the Grace is that Ladder by which they were delivered But I suppose that the deliverer comes at certain times and fully discovers and informs them of the great misery and hazard they are in if they continue in that noysom and pestiferous place yea forces them to a certain sense of their misery for the wickedest men at times are made sensible of their misery by Gods visitation and not only so but lays hold upon them and gives them a pull in order to lift them out of their misery which if they resist not will save them only they may resist it This being applied as the former doth the same way Illustrate the matter Neither is the Grace of God frustrated though the effect of it be divers according to its object being the ministration of mercy and love in those that reject it not but receive it John 1.12 but the ministration of Wrath and Condemnation in those that do reject John 3.19 Even as the Sun by one act or operation melteth and softeneth the Wax and hardeneth the Clay The nature of the Sun is to cherish the Creation and therefore the Living are refreshed by it and the Flowers send sorth a good favour as it shines upon them and the Fruits of the Trees are ripened yet cast forth a dead Carcase a thing without Life and the same reflection of the Sun will cause it to stink and putrefie it yet is not the Sun said thereby frustrate of its proper effect So every man during the day of his visitation is shined upon by the Sun of Righteousness and capable of being influenced by it so as to send forth good Fruit and a good Savour and to be melted by it but when he has sinned out his day then the same Sun hardeneth him as it doth the clay and makes his wickedness more to appear and putrefie and send forth an Evil Savour § XVIII Lastly As we truly affirm that God willeth no man to perish and therefore hath given to all Grace sufficient for Salvation so we do not deny but that in a special manner he worketh in some in whom Grace so prevaileth that they necessarily obtain Salvation neither doth God suffer them to resist For it were absurd to say that God had not far otherwise extended himself towards the Virgin Mary and the Apostle Paul than towards many others Neither can we affirm that God equally loved the beloved Disciple John and Judas the Traitor In so far nevertheless as none wanted such a measure of Grace by which they might have been saved all are justly inexcusable And also God working in those to whom this prevalency of Grace is given doth so hide himself to shut out all security and presumption that such may be humbled and the free Grace of God magnified and all reputed to be of the Free Gift and nothing from the strength of it self Those also who perish when they remember those times of God's Visitation towards them wherein he wrestled with them by his Light and Spirit

If there be any such thing as vain Oblations or Prayers that are abomination which God heareth not as is certain there are and the Scripture testifies Isa. 66.3 Jer. 14.12 certainly such Prayers as are acted in man's will and by his own strength without God's Spirit must be of that number § XXIV Let this suffice for probation Now I shall proceed to answer their objections when I have said something concerning joyning in prayer with others Those that pray together with one accord use not only to concur in their spirits but also in the gesture of their body which we also willingly approve of It becometh those who approach before God to pray that they do it with bowed knees and with their heads uncovered which is our practice Obj. But here ariseth a controversie Whether it be lawful to join with others by those external signs of reverence albeit not in heart who pray formally nor waiting for the motion of the Spirit nor judging it necessary Answ. We answer Not at all and for our testimony in this thing we have suffered not a little for when it hath faln out that either accidentally or to witness against their worship we have been present during the same and have not found it lawful for us to bow with them thereunto they have often persecuted us not only with reproaches but also with stroaks and cruel beatings for this cause they use to accuse us of pride profanity and madness as if we had no respect or reverence to the worship of God and as if we judged none could pray or were heard of God but our selves Unto all which and many more reproaches of this kind we answer briefly and modestly that it sufficeth us that we are found so doing neither through Pride nor Madness nor Prophanity but meerly lest we should hurt our Consciences the reason of which is plain and evident for since our Principle and Doctrine obligeth us to believe that the Prayers of those who themselves confess they are not acted by the Spirit are abominations how can we with a safe Conscience joyn with them Obj. If they urge that this is the heighth of uncharitableness and arrogancy as if we judged our selves always to pray by the Spirits motion but they never as if we were never deceived by Praying without the motions of the Spirit and that they were never acted by it seeing albeit they judg not the motion of the Spirit always necessary they confess nevertheless that it is very profitable and comfortable and they feel it often influencing them which that it sometimes falls out we cannot deny Answ. To all which I answer distinctly if it were their known and avowed Doctrine not to Pray without the motion of the Spirit and that seriously holding thereunto they did not bind themselves to Pray at certain prescribed times precisely at which times they determine to Pray though without the Spirit then indeed we might be accused of uncharitableness and pride if we never joyned with them and if they so taught and practised I doubt not but it should he lawful for us so to do unless there should appear some manifest and evident hypocrisie and delusion But seeing they profess that they pray without the Spirit and seeing God hath perswaded us that such Prayers are abominable how can we with a safe Conscience joyn with an abomination That God sometimes condescends to them we do not deny albeit now when the Spiritual Worship is openly proclaimed and all are invited unto it the case is otherwise than those old times of Apostasie and Darkness and therefore albeit any should begin to pray in our presence not expecting the motion of the Spirit yet if it manifestly appear that God in condescension did concur with such a one then according to God's will we should not refuse to joyn also but this is rare lest thence they should be confirmed in their false Principle And albeit this seem hard in our profession nevertheless it is so confirmed by the Authority both of Scripture and right Reason that many convinced thereof have embraced this part before other among whom is memorable of late Years Alexander Skein a Magistrate of the City of Aberdeen a man very modest and very averse from giving offence to others who nevertheless being overcome by the Power of Truth in this matter behoved for this cause to separate himself from the publick Assemblies and Prayers and joyn himself unto us Who also gave the reason of his change and likewise succinctly but yet substantially comprehended this controversie concerning Worship in some short questions which he offered to the publick Preachers of the City which I think meet to insert in this place 1. Whether or not should any act of God's Worship be gone about without the motions leadings and actings of the Holy Spirit 2. If the motions of the Spirit be necessary to every particular duty whether should he be waited upon that all our acts and words may be according as he gives utterance and assistance 3. Whether every one that bears the name of a Christian or professes to be a Protestant hath such an uninterrupted measure thereof that he may without waiting go immediately about the duty 4. If there be an indisposition and unfitness at some times for such exercises at lest as to the Spiritual and lively performances thereof whether ought they to be performed in that case and at that time 5. If any duty be gone about under pretence that it is in obedience to the external command without the Spiritual Life and Motion necessary whether such a duty thus performed can in Faith be expected to be accepted of God and not rather reckoned as a bringing of strange Fire before the Lord seeing it is performed at best by the strength of natural and acquired parts and not by the strength and assistance of the Holy Ghost which was typified by the Fire that came down from Heaven which alone behoved to consume the Sacrifice and no other 6. Whether duties gone about in the meer strength of natural and acquired parts whether in publick or private be not as really upon the matter an image of man's invention as the popish worship though not so gross in the outward appearance And therefore whether it be not as real superstition to countenance any worship of that nature as it is to countenance popish worship though there be a difference in the degree 7. Whether it be a ground of offence or just scandal to countenance the worship of those whose professed principle it is neither to speak for edification nor to pray but as the Holy Ghost shall be pleased to assist them in some measure less or more without which they rather chuse to be silent than to speak without this influence Unto these they answered but very coldly and faintly whose answers likewise long ago he refuted Seeing then God hath called us to his spiritual worship and to testifie against the humane and voluntary worships of

and rule man in things Natural For as God gave two great Lights to rule the outward World the Sun and Moon the greater Light to rule the Day and the lesser Light to rule the Night So hath he given Man the Light of his Son a Spiritual Divine Light to rule him in the things Spiritual and the light of Reason to rule him in things Natural And even as the Moon borrows her Light from the Sun so ought Men if they would be rightly and comfortably ordered in natural things to have their Reason inlightned by this Divine and pure Light Which inlightned Reason in those that obey and follow this true Light we confess may be useful to man even in Spiritual things as it is still subservient and subject to the other even as the animal life in man regulated and ordered by his Reason helps him in going about things that are rational We do further rightly distinguish this from man's natural Conscience for Conscience being that in man which ariseth from the natural faculties of man's Soul may be defiled and corrupted it is said expresly of the Impure Tit. 1.15 That even their mind and conscience is defiled But this Light can never be corrupted nor defiled neither did it ever consent to evil or wickedness in any for it is said expresly that it makes all things manifest that are proveable Eph. 5.13 and so is a faithful witness for God against every unrighteousness in Man Now Conscience to define it truely comes from conscire and is that knowledg which ariseth in man's heart from what agreeth contradicteth or is contrary to any thing believed by him whereby he becomes conscious to himself that he transgresseth by doing that which he is perswaded he ought not to do So that the mind being once blinded or defiled with a wrong belief there ariseth a conscience from that belief which troubles him when he goes against it As for Example a Turk who hath possess'd himself with a false belief that it is unlawful for him to drink Wine if he do it his conscience smites him for it But though he keep many Concubines his conscience troubles him not because that his judgment is already defiled with a false Opinion that is lawful for him to do the one and unlawful to do the other Whereas if the Light of Christ in him were minded it would reprove him not only for committing Fornication but also as he became obedient thereunto inform him that Mahomet is an Impostor as well as Socrates was informed by it in his day of the falsity of the Heathens Gods So if a Papist eat Flesh in Lent or be not dilligent enough in adoration of Saints and Images or if he should contemn Images his Conscience would smite him for it because his judgment is already blinded with a false belief concerning these things whereas the Light of Christ never consented to any of those Abominations Thus then man's Natural Conscience is sufficiently distinguished from it for Conscience followeth the judgment doth not inform it But this Light as it is received removes the blindness of the judgment opens the understanding and rectifies both the Judgment and Conscience So we confess also that Conscience is an excellent thing where it is rightly inform'd and inlightened Whereof some of us have fitly compared it to a Lanthorn and the Light of Christ to the Candle A Lanthorn is useful when a clear Candle burns and shines in it but otherwise of no use To the Light of Christ then in the Conscience and not to man 's Natural Conscience it is that we continually commend men this not that is it which we preach up and direct people to as to a most certain Guide unto Life Eternal Lastly this Light Seed c. appears to be no power or natural faculty of man's mind because a man that 's in his health can when he pleases stir up move and exercise the Faculties of his Soul he is absolute master of them and except there be some Natural cause or impediment in the way he can use them at his pleasure But this Light and Seed of God in man he cannot move and stir up when he pleaseth but it moves blows and strives with man as the Lord seeth meet For though there be a possibility of Salvation to every man during the day of his Visitation yet cannot a man at any time when he pleaseth or hath some sense of his misery stir up that Light and Grace so as to procure to himself tenderness of heart but he must wait for it which comes upon all at certain times and seasons wherein it works powerfully upon the Soul mightily tenders it and breaks it at which time if man resist it not but close with it he comes to know Salvation by it Even as the Lake of Bethsaida did not cure all those that washed in it but such only as washed first after the Angel had moved upon the Waters so God moves in love to mankind in this Seed in his heart at some singular times setting his Sins in order before him and seriously inviting him to repentance offering to him remission of Sins and Salvation which if man accept of he may be Saved Now there is no man alive and I am confident there shall be none to whom this Paper shall come who if they will deal faithfully and honestly with their own hearts will not be forced to acknowledg but they have been sensible of this in some measure less or more which is a thing that man cannot bring upon himself with all his pains and industry This then O Man and Woman is the day of God's gracious Visitation to thy Soul which thou shalt be happy for ever if thou resist not This is the day of the Lord which as Christ saith is like the Lightening which shineth from the East unto the West And the Wind or Spirit which blows upon the heart and no man knows whither it goes nor whence it comes § XVII And lastly this leads me to speak concerning the manner of this Seed or Lights operation in the Hearts of all men which will shew yet more manifestly how we differ vastly from all those that exalt a natural power or light in man and how our Principle leads above all others to attribute our whole Salvation to the meer Power Spirit and Grace of God To them then that ask us after this manner How do ye differ from the Pelagians and Armenians For if two men have equal sufficient Light and Grace and the one be saved by it and the other not is it not because the one improves it the other not is not then the will of man the cause of the one's Salvation beyond the other I say to such we thus answer that as the Grace and Light in all is sufficient to save all and of its own Nature would save all so it strives and wrestles with all for to save them he that resists its striving is the cause of his