by Robert Barclay

“ To seek our divinity merely in books and writings, is to seek the living among the dead; we do but in vain many times seek God in these, where his truth is too often not so much enshrined as entombed. ”

“ But all these worketh that one and the self-same Spirit, dividing to every man severally as he will. What would now these great masters of reason, the Socinians, judge, if we should place the scriptures here instead of the Spirit? Would it answer their reason, which is the great guide of their faith? Would it be good and sound reason in their logical schools, to affirm that the scripture divideth severally as it will, and giveth to some the gift of healing, to others the working of miracles? ”

“ But if we make a right definition of a Christian, according to the scripture, That he is one who hath the Spirit and is led by it, how many Christians, yea, and of these great masters and doctors of Christianity, so accounted, shall we justly divest of that noble title? ”

“ Thus Christianity is become as it were an art, acquired by human science and industry, like any other art or science; and men have not only assumed the name of Christians, but even have procured themselves to be esteemed as masters of Christianity by certain artificial tricks, though altogether strangers to the spirit and life of Jesus. ”

“ For after the light and glory of the Christian religion had prevailed over a good part of the world, and dispelled the thick mists of the heathenish doctrine of the plurality of gods, he that knew there was no probability of deluding the world any longer that way, did then puff man up with false knowledge of the true God; setting him on work to seek God the wrong way, and persuading him to be content with such a knowledge as was of his own acquiring, and not of God's teaching. ”

“ And for my part, as I have never a whit the lower esteem of the blessed testimony of the holy scriptures, nor do the less respect any solid tradition, that is answerable and according to truth; neither at all despise reason, that noble and excellent faculty of the mind, because wicked men have abused the name of them, to cover their wickedness, and deceive the simple; so would I not have any reject or doubt the certainty of that unerring Spirit which God hath given his children, as that which can alone guide them into all truth, because some have falsely pretended to it. ”

“ Can it be thence inferred, or will the Socinians, those great reasoners, allow us to conclude, because many, and those very wise men, have erred, by following, as they supposed, their reason, and that with what diligence, care and industry they could, to find out the truth, that therefore no man ought to make use of it at all, nor be positive in what he knows certainly to be rational? ”

“ A conjecture of truth differeth from the truth itself; a similitude of a thing differeth from the thing itself; it is one thing that is acquired by exercise and discipline; and another thing which, by power and faith." Lastly, the same Clemens saith, "Truth is neither hard to be arrived at, nor is it impossible to apprehend it; for it is most nigh unto us, even in our houses, as the most wise Moses hath insinuated." ”

“ It is strange then that men should render that so uncertain and dangerous to follow, upon which alone the certain ground and foundation of their own faith is built; or that they should shut themselves out from that holy fellowship with God, which only is enjoyed in the Spirit, in which we are commanded both to walk and live. ”

“ Yea, all those who apply themselves effectually to Christianity, and are not satisfied until they have found its effectual work upon their hearts, redeeming them from sin, do feel that no knowledge effectually prevails to the producing of this, but that which proceeds from the warm influence of God's Spirit upon the heart, and from the comfortable shining of his light upon their understanding. ”

“ Hereunto have all true Christians, in all ages, attributed their strength and life. It is by this Spirit that they avouch themselves to have been converted to God, to have been redeemed from the world, to have been strengthened in their weakness, comforted in their afflictions, confirmed in their temptations, imboldened in their sufferings, and triumphed in the midst of all their persecutions. ”

“ For all which no other cause was principally given, than the precepts of the scripture. If we then compare these actings with those of Munster, we shall not find great difference; for both affirmed and pretended they were called, and that it was lawful to kill, burn, and destroy the wicked. We must kill all the wicked, said those Anabaptists, that we, that are the saints, may possess the earth. We must burn obstinate heretics, say the Papists, that the holy church of Rome may be purged of rotten members, and may live in peace. ”

“ For as to the first it is acknowledged, that many learned men may be, and have been, damned. And as to the second, who will deny but many illiterate men may be, and are, saved? Nor dare any affirm, that none come to the knowledge of God and salvation by the inward revelation of the Spirit, without these other outward means, unless they be also so bold as to exclude Abel, Seth, Noah, Abraham, Job, and all the holy patriarchs from true knowledge and salvation. ”

“ If then this Spirit, a manifestation whereof is given to every man to profit withal, be no other than that Spirit of truth before-mentioned which guideth into all truth, this Spirit of truth cannot be the scripture. I could infer an hundred more absurdities of this kind upon this sottish opinion, but what is said may suffice. For even some of themselves, being at times forgetful or ashamed of their own doctrine, do acknowledge that the Spirit of God is another thing, and distinct from the scriptures, to guide and influence the saints. ”

“ What shall I say of the Episcopalians, Presbyterians, Independents, and Anabaptists of Great Britain, who are continually buffeting one another with the scripture? To whom the same argument might be alleged, though they do all unanimously acknowledge it to be the rule.
[3. Of reason. The debates hence arising betwixt the old and late philosophers.] And Thirdly, as to reason, I shall not need to say much; for whence come all the controversies, contentions, and debates in the world, but because man thinks he follows right reason? ”

“ How much then are they deceived, who, instead of making the gospel preferable to the law, have made the condition of such as are under the gospel far worse? For no doubt it is a far better and more desirable thing to converse with God immediately, than only mediately, as being an higher and more glorious dispensation: and yet these men acknowledge that many under the law had immediate converse with God, whereas they now cry it is ceased. ”

“ I say, thou shalt feel the new man, or the spiritual birth and babe raised, which hath its spiritual senses, and can see, feel, taste, handle, and smell the things of the Spirit; but till then the knowledge of things spiritual is but as an historical faith. [28] But as the description of the light of the sun, or of curious colours to a blind man, who, though of the largest capacity, cannot so well understand it by the most acute and lively description, as a child can by seeing them; so neither can the natural man, of the largest capacity ”

“ Are not the islands of Great Britain and Ireland, yea, and all the Christian world, a lively example hereof, which were divers years together as a theatre of blood; where many lost their lives, and numbers of families were utterly destroyed and ruined? ”

“ Those who hear only an outward and bodily voice, hear the creature; but God is a Spirit, and is neither discerned, nor known, nor heard, but by the Spirit; and therefore to hear the voice of God, to see God, is to know and hear the Spirit. [3] By the Spirit alone God is known and perceived. Which also the more serious to this day do acknowledge, even all such who satisfy themselves not with the superficies of religion, and use it not as a cover or art. ”

“ Have not many forsaken, do not many deride and reject, this inward and immediate guide, this Spirit that leads into all truth, and cast up to themselves other ways, broken ways indeed, which have not all this while brought them out of the flesh, nor out of the world, nor from under the dominion of their own lusts and sinful affections, whereby truth, which is only rightly learned by this Spirit, is so much a stranger in the earth? ”

“ But Jesus Christ hath promised us better things, though many are so unwise as not to believe him, even to guide us by his own unerring Spirit, and hath rent and removed the veil, whereby not only one, and that once a year, may enter; but all of us, at all times, have access unto him, as often as we draw near unto him with pure hearts: he reveals his will to us by his Spirit, and writes his laws in our hearts. ”

“ He then that acknowledges himself ignorant and a stranger to the inward inbeing of the Spirit of Christ in his heart, doth thereby acknowledge himself to be yet in the carnal mind, which is enmity to God; to be yet in the flesh, where God cannot be pleased; and in short, whatever he may otherways know or believe of Christ, or however much skilled or acquainted with the letter of the holy scripture, not yet to be, notwithstanding all that, attained to the least degree of a Christian; yea, not once to have embraced the Christian religion. ”

“ And this device hath proved the more successful, because accommodated to the natural and corrupt spirit and temper of man, who above all things affects to exalt himself; in which exaltation, as God is greatly dishonoured, so therein the devil hath his end; who is not anxious how much God is acknowledged in words, provided himself be but always served; he matters not how great and high speculations the natural man entertains of God, so long as he serves his own lusts and passions, and is obedient to his evil suggestions and temptations. ”

“ But when the Spirit of truth shall come, he shall lead you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear he shall speak, and shall declare unto you things to come. We have here first, who this is, and that is divers ways expressed, to wit, The Comforter, the Spirit of truth, the Holy Ghost, the sent of the Father in the name of Christ. And hereby is sufficiently proved the sottishness of those Socinians, and other carnal Christians, who neither know nor acknowledge any internal Spirit or power but that which is merely natural ”

“ We must cut off seducing separatists, say the Prelatical Protestants, who trouble the peace of the church, and refuse the divine hierarchy, and religious ceremonies thereof. We must kill, say the Calvinistic Presbyterians, the Profane Malignants, who accuse the Holy Consistorial and Presbyterian government, and seek to defend the Popish and Prelatic hierarchy ”

“ For I shall prove by an inevitable argument, ab incommodo, i.e. from the inconveniency of it, that if the Spirit be not to be followed upon that account, and that men may not depend upon it as their guide, because some, while pretending thereunto, commit great evils; that then, neither tradition, nor the scriptures, nor reason, which the Papists, Protestants, and Socinians do respectively make the rule of their faith, are any whit more certain. ”

“ Seeing no man knoweth the Father but the Son, and he to whom the Son revealeth him; and seeing the revelation of the Son is in and by the Spirit; therefore the testimony of the Spirit is that alone by which the true knowledge of God hath been, is, and can be only revealed ”

“ Luther, in his book to the nobility of Germany, saith, "This is certain, that no man can make himself a teacher of the holy scriptures, but the holy Spirit alone." And upon the Magnificat he saith,"No man can rightly know God, or understand the word of God, unless he immediately receive it from the Holy Spirit; neither can any one receive it from the Holy Spirit, except he find it by experience in himself ”

“ This knowledge then of Christ, which is not by the revelation of his own Spirit in the heart, is no more properly the knowledge of Christ, than the prattling of a parrot, which has been taught a few words, may be said to be the voice of a man; for as that, or some other bird, may be taught to sound or utter forth a rational sentence, as it hath learned it by the outward ear, and not from any living principle of reason actuating it ”

“ I am bold to say, as bad, if not worse things, have been committed by those that lean to tradition, scripture, and reason wherein also they have averred themselves to have been authorized by these rules. ”

“ No man can say that Jesus is the Lord, but by the Holy Ghost. This scripture, which is full of truth, and answereth full well to the enlightened understanding of the spiritual and real Christian, may perhaps prove very strange to the carnal and pretended follower of Christ, by whom perhaps it hath not been so diligently remarked. [11] Here the apostle doth so much require the Holy Spirit in the things that relate to a Christian, that he positively avers, we cannot so much as affirm Jesus to be the Lord without it ”

“ And as by forsaking iniquity thou comest to be acquainted with that heavenly voice in thy heart, thou shalt feel, as the old man, or the natural man, that savoureth not the things of God's kingdom, is put off, with his evil and corrupt affections and lusts ”

“ That which all professors of Christianity, of what kind soever, are forced ultimately to recur unto, when pressed to the last; that for and because of which all other foundations are recommended, and accounted worthy to be believed, and without which they are granted to be of no weight at all, must needs be the only most true, certain, and unmoveable foundation of all Christian faith.
But inward, immediate, objective revelation by the Spirit, is that which all professors of Christianity, what kind soever, are forced ultimately to recur unto, &c. ”

“ Seeing then we have already proved that Christ hath promised his Spirit to lead his children, and that every one of them both ought and may be led by it; if any depart from this certain guide in deeds, and yet in words pretend to be led by it into things that are not good, it will not from thence follow, that the true guidance of the Spirit is uncertain, or ought not to be followed; no more than it will follow that the sun showeth not light, because a blind man, or one who wilfully shuts his eyes, falls into a ditch at noon-day for want of light ”

“ And some geometrical demonstrations are by all acknowledged to be infallible, which can be scarcely discerned or proved by the senses; yet if a geometer be at the pains to certify some ignorant man concerning the certainty of his art, by condescending to measure it, and make it obvious to his senses, it will not thence follow, that that measuring is so certain as the demonstration itself, or that the demonstration would be uncertain without it. ”