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deavours have not been in vain, in that the ministers of the county where I lived were very many of such a peaceable temper, and a great number more through the land, by God's grace (rather than any endeavours of mine), are so minded. But the sons of the cowl were exasperated the more against me, and accounted him to be against every man that called all men to love and peace, and was for no man as in a contrary way.

JOHN OWEN.

ings, &c., took him for an excellently righteous moral to call men that are within my hearing to more peaceman; but I, who heard and read his serious expres-able thoughts, affections, and practices. And my ensions of the concernments of eternity, and saw his love to all good men, and the blamelessness of his life, thought better of his piety than my own. When the people crowded in and out of my house to hear, he openly showed me so great respect before them at the door, and never spake a word against it, as was no small encouragement to the common people to go on; though the other sort muttered, that a judge should seem so far to countenance that which they took to be against the law. He was a great lamenter of the extremities of the times, and of the violence and foolishness of the predominant clergy, and a great desirer of such abatements as might restore us all to serviceableness and unity. He had got but a very small estate, though he had long the greatest practice, because he would take but little money, and undertake no more business than he could well despatch. He often offered to the lord chancellor to resign his place, when he was blamed for doing that which he supposed was justice. He had been the learned Selden's intimate friend, and one of his executors; and because the Hobbians and other infidels would have persuaded the world that Selden was of their mind, I desired him to tell me the truth therein. He assured me that Selden was an earnest professor of the Christian faith, and so angry an adversary to Hobbes, that he hath rated him out

of the room.

[Observance of the Sabbath in Baxter's Youth.]

I cannot forget, that in my youth, in those late times, when we lost the labours of some of our con

DR JOHN OWEN (1616-1683), after studying at Oxford for the church of England, became a Presbyterian, but finally joined the Independents. He was highly esteemed by the parliament which executed the king, and was frequently called upon to preach before them. Cromwell, in particular, was so highly pleased with him, that, when going to Ireland, he insisted on Dr Owen accompanying him, for the purpose of regulating and superintending the college of Dublin. After spending six months in that city, Owen returned to his clerical duties in England, from which, however, he was again speedily called away by Cromwell, who took him in 1650 to Edinburgh, where he spent six months. Subsequently, he was promoted to the deanery of Christ-church college in Oxford, and soon after, to the vice-chancellorship of the university, which offices he held till Cromwell's death. Clarendon, who offered him a preferment in the After the Restoration, he was favoured by Lord formable godly teachers, for not reading publicly the church if he would conform; but this the principles book of sports and dancing on the Lord's Day, one of of Dr Owen did not permit him to do. The persemy father's own tenants was the town piper, hired by him to emigrate to New England, but attachment to cution of the nonconformists repeatedly disposed the year (for many years together), and the place of the dancing assembly was not an hundred yards from his native country prevailed. Notwithstanding his our door. We could not, on the Lord's Day, either decided hostility to the church, the amiable disposiread a chapter, or pray, or sing a psalm, or catechise, tions and agreeable manners of Dr Owen procured or instruct a servant, but with the noise of the pipe him much esteem from many eminent churchmen, and tabor, and the shoutings in the street, continually among whom was the king himself, who on one occasion sent for him, and, after a conversation of two Even among a tractable people, we were the common scorn of all the rabble in the streets, and hours, gave him a thousand guineas to be distributed called puritans, precisians, and hypocrites, because we among those who had suffered most from the recent rather chose to read the Scriptures than to do as they persecution. He was a man of extensive learning, did; though there was no savour of nonconformity in and most estimable character. As a preacher, he our family. And when the people by the book were was eloquent and graceful, and displayed a degree of allowed to play and dance out of public service time, moderation and liberality not very common among they could so hardly break off their sports, that many the sectaries with whom he was associated. His a time the reader was fain to stay till the piper and extreme industry is evinced by the voluminousplayers would give over. Sometimes the morris-dan-ness of his publications. which amount to no fewer cers would come into the church in all their linen, than seven volumes in folio, twenty in quarto, and and scarfs, and antic-dresses, with morris-bells jing- about thirty in octavo. Among these are a collecling at their legs; and as soon as common prayer was tion of Sermons, An Exposition on the Epistle to the read, did haste out presently to their play again. Hebrews, A Discourse of the Holy Spirit, and The Divine Original and Authority of the Scriptures.

in our ears.

[Theological Controversies.]

My mind being these many years immersed in studies of this nature, and having also long wearied myself in searching what fathers and schoolmen have said of such things before us, and my genius abhorring confusion and equivocals, I came, by many years' longer study, to perceive that most of the doctrinal controversies among Protestants are far more about equivocal words than matter; and it wounded my soul to perceive what work both tyrannical and un skilful disputing clergymen had made these thirteen hundred years in the world! Experience, since the year 1643, till this year, 1675, hath loudly called me to repent of my own prejudices, sidings, and censurings of causes and persons not understood, and of all the miscarriages of my ministry and life which have been thereby caused; and to make it my chief work

The style of Dr Owen merits little praise. He wrote too rapidly and carelessly to produce compositions either vigorous or beautiful. The graces of style, indeed, were confessedly held by him in contempt; for in one of his prefaces we find this plain declaration, Know, reader, that you have to do with a person who, provided his words but clearly express the sentiments of his mind, entertains a fixed and absolute disregard of all elegance and ornaments of speech.' The length of his sentences, and their intricate and parenthetical structure, often render them extremely tedious, and he is far from happy in the choice of the adjectives with which they are encumbered. In a word, his diction is, for the most part, dry, heavy, and pointless, and his ideas are seldom brought out with powerful effect. Robert Hall entertained a decided antipathy to the writings of this celebrated divine. I can't think how you

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like Dr Owen,' said he to a friend; 'I can't read him with any patience; I never read a page of Dr Owen, sir, without finding some confusion in his thoughts, either a truism or a contradiction in terms.' 'Sir, he is a double Dutchman, floundering in a continent of mud.' For moderation in controversy, Dr Owen was most honourably distinguished among the theological warriors of his age. As a controversial writer,' says his excellent biographer, Mr Orme, Owen is generally distinguished for calmness, acuteness, candour, and gentlemanly treatment of his opponents. He lived during a stormy period, and often experienced the bitterest provocation, but he very seldom lost his temper.'

EDMUND CALAMY.

EDMUND CALAMY (1600-1666) was originally a clergyman of the church of England, but had become a nonconformist before settling in London as a preacher in 1639. A celebrated production against Episcopacy, called Smectymnuus, from the initials of the names of the writers, and in which Calamy was concerned, appeared in the following year. He was much in favour with the Presbyterian party; and, in his sermons, which were among the most popular of the time, occasionally indulged in violent political declamation; yet he was, on the whole, a moderate man, and disapproved of those forcible measures which terminated in the death of the king. Having exerted himself to promote the restoration of Charles II., he subsequently received the offer of a bishopric; but, after much deliberation, it was rejected. The passing of the act of uniformity in 1662 made him retire from his ministerial duties in the metropolis several years before his death. The latter event was hastened by the impression made on his mind by the great fire of London, a view of the smoking ruins having strongly and injuriously affected him. His sermons were of a plain and practical character; and five of them, published under the title of The Godly Man's Ark, or a City of Refuge in the Day of his Dis. tress, acquired much popularity.

JOHN FLAVEL.

JOHN FLAVEL (1627-1691) was a zealous preacher at Dartmouth, where he was greatly molested for his nonconformity during the persecutions. His private character was highly respectable, and in the pulpit he was distinguished for the warmth, fluency, and variety of his devotional exercises, which, like his writings, were somewhat tinged with enthusiasm. His works, occupying two folio volumes, are written in a plain and perspicuous style, and some of them are still highly valued by persons of Calvinistic opinions. This remark applies more particularly to his Husbandry Spiritualised, and Navigation Spiritualised, in which the author extracts a variety of pious lessons from natural objects and phenomena, and the common operations of life. Many of his sermons have been published.

MATTHEW HENRY.

MATTHEW HENRY (1662-1714) was the son of Philip Henry, a pious and learned nonconformist minister in Flintshire. He entered as a student of law in Gray's Inn; but, yielding to a strong desire for the office of the ministry, he soon abandoned the pursuit of the law, and turned his attention to theology, which he studied with great diligence and zeal. In 1685 he was chosen pastor of a nonconformist congregation at Chester, where he officiated about twenty-five years. In 1711 he changed

the scene of his labours to Hackney, where he con tinued till his death in 1714. Of a variety of the logical works published by this excellent divine, the largest and best known is his Commentary on the Bible, which he did not live to complete. It was originally printed in five volumes folio. The Com mentary on the Epistles was added by various divines. Considered as an explanation of the sacred volume, this popular production is not of great || value; but its practical remarks are peculiarly interesting, and have secured for it a place in the very first class of expository works. Dr Olinthus Gregory, in his Memoir of the Rev. Robert Hall, mentions, respecting that eminent preacher, that for the last two years of his life he read daily two chapters of Matthew Henry's Commentary, a work which he had not before read consecutively, though he had long known and valued it. As he proceeded, he felt increasing interest and pleasure, greatly admiring the copiousness, variety, and pious ingenuity of the thoughts; the simplicity, strength, and pregnancy of the expressions. The following extract from the exposition of Matthew vi. 24, may be taken as a specimen of the nervous and pointed remarks with which the work abounds.

Ye Cannot Serve God and Mammon. Mammon is a Syriac word that signifies gain, so that whatever is, or is accounted by us to be gain, is mammon. Whatever is in the world-the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye, and the pride of life'-is mammon. To some, their belly is their mammon, and they serve that; to others, their ease, their sports and pastimes, are their mammon; to others, worldly riches; to others, honours and preferments: the praise and applause of men was the Pharisees' mammon in a word, self-the unity in which the world's trinity centres-sensual secular self, is the mammon which cannot be served in conjunction with God; for if it be served, it is in competition with him, and in contradiction to him. He does not say we mad not, or we should not, but we cannot serve God and mammon; we cannot love both, or hold to both, or hold by both, in observance, obedience, attendance, trust, and dependence, for they are contrary the one to the other. God says, 'My son, give me thine Be content with such things as ye have ;' Mammot heart;' Mammon says, No-give it me.' God says, says, 'Grasp at all that ever thou canst “Rem, rem, quocunque modo, rem"-money, money, by fair means or by foul, money. God says, Defraud not; never lie; be honest and just in thy dealings;' Mammen says, Cheat thy own father if thou canst gain by it.' 'Be charitable;' Mammon says, Hold thy ful for nothing; Mammon says, Be careful for every own; this giving undoes us all.' God says, 'Be care thing.' God says, Keep holy the Sabbath day Mammon says, Make use of that day, as well as any other, for the world.' Thus inconsistent are the commands of God and Mammon, so that we cannot serve both. Let us not, then, halt between God and Baal, but choose ye this day whom ye will serve,' and abide by your choice.

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GEORGE FOX.

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GEORGE FOX, the founder of the Society of Friends, or, as they are usually termed, Quakers, was one of the most prominent religious enthusiasts in an age which produced them in extraordinary abundance. He was the son of a weaver at Drayton, in Leices tershire, and was born in 1624. Having been ap prenticed to a shoemaker who traded in wool and cattle, he spent much of his youth in tending sheep, an employment which allowed him to indulge his

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propensity for musing and solitude. When about nineteen years of age, he was one day vexed by a disposition to intemperance which he observed in two professedly religious friends whom he met at a fair. I went away,' says he in his Journal, and, when I had done my business, returned home; but I did not go to bed that night, nor could I sleep; but sometimes walked up and down, and sometimes prayed, and cried to the Lord, who said unto me, "Thou seest how young people go together into vanity, and old people into the earth; thou must forsake all, young and old, keep out of all, and be a stranger to all." This divine communication, as in the warmth of his imagination he considered it to be, was scrupulously obeyed. Leaving his relations and master. he betook himself for several years to a wandering life, which was interrupted only for a few months, during which he was prevailed upon to reside at home. At this time he seems to have been completely insane. In the course of his melancholy wanderings, he sometimes, for weeks together,

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the most solemn occasion. Acting upon these views, he sometimes went into churches while service was going on, and interrupted the clergymen by loudly contradicting their statements of doctrine. By these breaches of order, and the employment of such unceremonious fashions of address, as, 'Come down, thou deceiver!' he naturally gave great offence, which led sometimes to his imprisonment, and sometimes to severe treatment from the hands of the populace. At Derby he was imprisoned in a loathsome dungeon for a year, and afterwards in a still more disgusting cell at Carlisle for half that period. To this ill-treatment he submitted with meekness and resignation; and out of prison, also, there was ample opportunity for the exercise of the same qualities. As an illustration of the rough usage which he frequently brought upon himself, we extract this affecting narrative from his Journal :—

[Fox's Ill-treatment at Ulverstone.]

the steeple-house before his [Justice Sawrey's] face, The people were in a rage, and fell upon me in

passed the night in the open air, and used to spend entire days without sustenance. My troubles,' knocked me down, kicked me, and trampled upon says he, continued, and I was often under great temptations. I fasted much, walked abroad in soli- me. So great was the uproar, that some tumbled tary places many days, and often took my Bible and over their seats for fear. At last he came and took sat in hollow trees and lonesome places until night me from the people, led me out of the steeple-house, came on; and frequently in the night walked mourn other officers, bidding them whip me, and put me out and put me into the hands of the constables and fully about by myself; for I was a man of sorrows of the town. Many friendly people being come to the in the first workings of the Lord in me.' On another market, and some to the steeple-house to hear me, occasion, I was in a fast for about ten days, my divers of these they knocked down also, and broke spirit being greatly exercised on truth's behalf.' At this period, as well as during the remainder of his their heads, so that the blood ran down several; and life, Fox had many dreams and visions, and sup- would do with me, they threw him into a ditch of Judge Fell's son running after, to see what they posed himself to receive supernatural messages from water, some of them crying, Knock the teeth out of above. In his Journal he gives an account of a par- his head.' When they had haled me to the common ticular movement of his mind in singularly beauti-moss side, a multitude following, the constables and ful and impressive language: One morning, as I other officers gave me some blows over my back with was sitting by the fire, a great cloud came over me, willow-rods, and thrust me among the rude multitude, and a temptation beset me, and I sate still. And it who, having furnished themselves with staves, hedgewas said, All things come by nature; and the Ele-stakes, holm or holly-bushes, fell upon me, and beat ments and Stars came over me, so that I was in a moment quite clouded with it; but, inasmuch as I me upon the head, arms, and shoulders, till they had sate still and said nothing, the people of the house deprived me of sense; so that I fell down upon the wet common. When I recovered again, and saw myperceived nothing. And as I sate still under it and self lying in a watery common, and the people standlet it alone, a living hope rose in me, and a true ing about me, I lay still a little while, and the power voice arose in me which cried, There is a living God of the Lord sprang through me, and the eternal rewho made all things. And immediately the cloud freshings revived me, so that I stood up again in the and temptation vanished away, and the life rose over strengthening power of the eternal God, and stretching it all, and my heart was glad, and I praised the liv-out my arms amongst them, I said with a loud voice, ing God.' Afterwards, he tells us, the Lord's power broke forth, and I had great openings and prophecies, and spoke unto the people of the things of God, which they heard with attention and silence, and went away and spread the fame thereof.' Conceiving himself to be divinely commissioned to convert his countrymen from their sins, he began, about the year 1647, to teach publicly in the vicinity of Duckenfield and Manchester, whence he travelled through several neighbouring counties, haranguing at the market-places against the vices of the age. He had now formed the opinions, that a learned education is unnecessary to a minister; After Captain Drury had lodged me at the Merthat the existence of a separate clerical profession maid, over against the Mews at Charing-Cross, he is unwarranted by the Bible; that the Creator of went to give the Protector an account of me. When the world is not a dweller in temples made with he came to me again, he told me the Protector rehands; and that the Scriptures are not the rule either quired that I should promise not to take up a carnal of conduct or judgment, but that man should follow sword or weapon against him or the government, as 'the light of Christ within.' He believed, moreover, it then was; and that I should write it in what words that he was divinely commanded to abstain from I saw good, and set my hand to it. I said little in taking off his hat to any one, of whatever rank; to reply to Captain Drury, but the next morning I was use the words thee and thou in addressing all persons moved of the Lord to write a paper to the Protector, with whom he communicated; to bid nobody good-by the name of Oliver Cromwell, wherein I did, in the morrow or good-night; and never to bend his knee to any one in authority, or take an oath, even on

Strike again! here are my arms, my head, and cheeks!' Then they began to fall out among themselves.

In 1635, Fox returned to his native town, where he continued to preach, dispute, and hold conferences, till he was sent by Colonel Hacker to Cromwell, under the charge of Captain Drury. Of what followed, his Journal contains the subjoined particulars.

[Interview with Oliver Cromwell.]

presence of the Lord God, declare, that I did deny the wearing or drawing of a 'carnal sword, or any

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other outward weapon, against him or any man; and answering objections both verbally and by the pubthat I was sent of God to stand a witness against all | lication of controversial pamphlets. In the course violence, and against the works of darkness, and to of his peregrinations he still suffered frequent imturn people from darkness to light; to bring them prisonment, sometimes as a disturber of the peace, from the occasion of war and fighting to the peaceable and sometimes because he refused to uncover his Gospel, and from being evil-doers, which the magis- head in the presence of magistrates, or to do violence trates' sword should be a terror to.' When I had to his principles by taking the oath of allegiance. written what the Lord had given me to write, I set After reducing (with the assistance of his educated my name to it, and gave it to Captain Drury to hand disciples Robert Barclay, Samuel Fisher, and George to Oliver Cromwell, which he did. After some time, Keith) the doctrine and discipline of his sect to a Captain Drury brought me before the Protector himmore systematic and permanent form than that in self at Whitehall. It was in a morning, before he which it had hitherto existed, he visited Ireland and was dressed; and one Harvey, who had come a little the American plantations, employing in the latter among friends, but was disobedient, waited upon nearly two years in confirming and increasing his him. When I came in, I was moved to say, 'Peace followers. Ile afterwards repeatedly visited Holland, be in this house; and I exhorted him to keep in the and other parts of the continent, for similar purposes. fear of God, that he might receive wisdom from him; He died in London in 1690, aged sixty six. that by it he might be ordered, and with it might That Fox was a sincere believer of what he order all things under his hand unto God's glory. I preached, no rational doubt can be entertained; and spoke much to him of truth; and a great deal of dis- that he was of a meek and forgiving disposition course I had with him about religion, wherein he towards his persecutors, is equally unquestionable. carried himself very moderately. But he said we His integrity, also, was so remarkable, that his quarrelled with the priests, whom he called ministers. word was taken as of equal value with his oath. I told him, 'I did not quarrel with them, they quar- Religious enthusiasm, however, amounting to mad-|| relled with me and my friends. But, said I, if we ness in the earlier stage of his career, led him into own the prophets, Christ, and the apostles, we cannot hold up such teachers, prophets, and shepherds, as the many extravagances, in which few members of the respectable society which he founded have partaken. prophets Christ and the apostles declared against; The severities so liberally inflicted on him were oribut we must declare against them by the same power ginally occasioned by those breaches of the peace and spirit.' Then I showed him that the prophets, Christ, and the apostles, declared freely, and declared already spoken of, and no doubt also by what in his speeches must have appeared blasphemous to many against them that did not declare freely; such as preached for filthy lucre, divined for money, and of his hearers. His public addresses were usually preached for hire, and were covetous and greedy, like prefaced by such phrases as, "The Lord hath opened the dumb dogs that could never have enough; and to me; I am moved of the Lord; I am sent of that they who have the same spirit that Christ, and the Lord God of heaven and earth.' In a warning the prophets, and the apostles had, could not but to magistrates, he says, ' All ye powers of the earth, declare against all such now, as they did then. As Christ is come to reign, and is among you, and ye I spoke, he several times said it was very good, and know him not.' Addressing the seven parishes at I told him, That all Christendom (soChrist,' he tells them, 'is come to teach his people the Land's End,' his language is equally strong: called) had the Scriptures, but they wanted the power himself; and every one that will not hear this proand spirit that those had who gave forth the Scriptures, and that was the reason they were not in fellow- phet, which God hath raised up, and which Moses ship with the Son, nor with the Father, nor with the spake of, when he said, “Like unto me will God Scriptures, nor one with another.' Many more words raise you up a prophet, him shall you hear;" every I had with him, but people coming in, I drew a little one, I say, that will not hear this prophet, is to be back. As I was turning, he catched me by the hand, cut off.' And stronger still is what we find in this! and with tears in his eyes said, 'Come again to my passage in his Journal: From Coventry I went to house, for if thou and I were but an hour of a day Atherstone, and, it being their lecture-day, I was together, we should be nearer one to the other;' add- moved to go to their chapel, to speak to the priest ing, that he wished me no more ill than he did to his and the people. They were generally pretty quiet; own soul. I told him, if he did, he wronged his own only some few raged, and would have had my rela soul, and admonished him to hearken to God's voice, tions to have bound me. I declared largely to them, that he might stand in his counsel, and obey it; and that God was come to teach his people himself, and if he did so, that would keep him from hardness of to bring them from all their man-made teachers, to heart; but if he did not hear God's voice, his heart hear his Son; and some were convinced there.' In would be hardened. He said it was true. Then I conformity with these high pretensions, Fox not went out; and when Captain Drury came out after only acted as a prophet, but assumed the power of me, he told me the lord Protector said I was at liberty, working miracles-in the exercise of which he claims and might go whither I would. Then I was brought to have cured various individuals, including a man into a great hall, where the Protector's gentlemen whose arm had long been disabled, and a woman were to dine. I asked them what they brought me troubled with King's Evil. On one occasion he ran thither for. They said it was by the Protector's order, with bare feet through Lichfield, exclaiming, ‘Wo that I might dine with them. I bid them let the to the bloody city of Lichfield!' and, when no calaProtector know I would not eat of his bread, nor drink mity followed this denouncement as expected, found of his drink. When he heard this, he said, 'Now I no better mode of accounting for the failure than see there is a people risen that I cannot win, either discovering that some Christians had once been slain with gifts, honours, offices, or places; but all other there. Of his power of discerning witches, the folsects and people I can.' It was told him again, 'That lowing examples are given in his Journal-As I we had forsook our own, and were not like to look for was sitting in a house full of people, declaring the such things from him.' word of life to them, I cast mine eyes upon a woman, and I discerned an unclean spirit in her; and I was moved of the Lord to speak sharply to her, and told her she was a witch; whereupon the woman went out of the room. Now, I being a stranger there, and knowing nothing of the woman outwardly, the

it was truth.

The sect headed by Fox was now becoming numerous, and attracted much opposition from the pulpit and press. He therefore continued to travel through the kingdom, expounding his views, and

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people wondered at it, and told me afterwards I had discovered a great thing, for all the country looked upon her as a witch. The Lord had given me a spirit of discerning, by which I many times saw the states and conditions of people, and could try their spirits. For, not long before, as I was going to a meeting, I saw women in a field, and I discerned them to be witches; and I was moved to go out of my way into the field to them, and to declare unto them their conditions, telling them plainly they were in the spirit of witchcraft. At another time, there came such an one into Swarthmore Hall, in the meeting time, and I was moved to speak sharply to her, and told her she was a witch; and the people said afterwards, she was generally accounted so.'

The writings of George Fox are comprised in three folio volumes, printed respectively in 1694, 1698, and 1706. The first contains his Journal, largely quoted from above; the second, a collection of his Epistles; and the third, his Doctrinal Pieces.

ROBERT BARCLAY.

ROBERT BARCLAY (1648-1690), a country gentleman of Kincardineshire, has already been mentioned as one of those educated Quakers who aided Fox in systematising the doctrines and discipline of the sect. By the publication of various able works in defence of those doctrines, he gave the Society of Friends a much more respectable station in the eyes

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of people of other persuasions than it had previously occupied. His father, who was a colonel in the army, had been converted to Quakerism in 1666, and he himself was soon after induced to embrace the same views. In taking this step, he is said to have acted chiefly from the dictates of his understanding; though, it must be added, the existence of considerable enthusiasm in his disposition was indicated by a remarkable circumstance mentioned by himself-namely, that, feeling a strong impulse to pass through the streets of Aberdeen clothed in sackcloth and ashes, he could not be easy till he obeyed what he supposed to be a divine command. His most celebrated production is entitled An Apology for the True Christian Divinity, as the Same is held forth and Preached by the People in Scorn called Quakers. This work, which appeared in Latin in 1676, and in English two years after, is a learned and methodical treatise, very different from what the world expected on such a subject, and it was therefore read with avidity both in Britain and on the continent. Its most remarkable theological feature is the attempt to prove that there is an internal light in man, which is better fitted to guide him aright in religious matters than even the Scriptures themselves; the genuine doctrines of which he asserts to be rendered uncertain by various readings in different manuscripts, and the fallibility of translators and interpreters. These circumstances, says he, and much more which might be alleged, puts the minds, even of the learned, into infinite doubts, scruples, and inextricable difficulties; whence we may very safely conclude, that Jesus Christ, who promised to

be always with his children, to lead them into all truth, to guard them against the devices of the enemy, and to establish their faith upon an unmoveable rock, left them not to be principally ruled by that which was subject, in itself, to many uncertainties; and therefore he gave them his Spirit as their principal guide, which neither moths nor time can wear out, nor transcribers nor translators corrupt; which none are so young, none so illiterate, none in so remote a place, but they may come to be reached and rightly informed by it.' It would be erroneous, however, to regard this work of Barclay as an exposition of all the doctrines which have been or are prevalent among the Quakers, or, indeed, to consider it as anything more than the vehicle of such of his own views, as in his character of an apologist he thought it desirable to state. This ingenious man,' says Mosheim, appeared as a patron and defender of Quakerism, and not as a professed teacher or expositor of its various doctrines; and he interpreted and modified the opinions of this sect after the manner of a champion or advocate, who undertakes the defence of an odious cause. How, then, does he go to work? In the first place, he observes an entire silence in relation to those fundamental principles of Christianity, concerning which it is of great consequence to know the real opinions of the Quakers; and thus he exhibits a system of theology that is evidently lame and imperfect. For it is the peculiar business of a prudent apologist to pass over in silence points that are scarcely susceptible of a plausible defence, and to enlarge upon those only which the powers of genius and eloquence

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