by Robert Barclay

“ For under the pretence of regulating man's reason into a certain order and rules, that he may find out (as they pretend) the truth, it leads into such a labyrinth of contention, as is far more fit to make a sceptic than a Christian, far less a minister of Christ; yea, it often hinders man from a clear understanding of things that his own reason would give him; and therefore through its manifold rules and divers inventions, it often gives occasion for a man, that hath little reason, foolishly to speak much to no purpose ”

“ Now I ask if it be not impossible that a man can have all these above-named virtues, and be free of all these evils, without the grace of God? If then these virtues, for the producing of which in a man grace is absolutely necessary, be necessary to make a true minister of the church of Christ according to the apostle's judgment, surely grace must be necessary also. ”

“ But how can a man be a minister of the Spirit, who is not inwardly called by it, and who looks not upon the operation and testimony of the Spirit as essential to his call? As he could not be a minister of the letter who had thence no ground for his call, yea, who was altogether a stranger to, and unacquainted with it, so neither can he be a minister of the Spirit who is a stranger to it, and unacquainted with the motions thereof, and knows it not to draw, act, and move him, and go before him in the work of the ministry. ”

“ Since then Christianity cannot be truly enjoyed, neither any man denominated a Christian without the true grace of God, therefore neither can any man be a true and lawful teacher of Christianity without it. ”

“ Out of which church we freely acknowledge there can be no salvation; because under this church and its denomination are comprehended all, and as many, of whatsoever nation, kindred, tongue, or people they be, though outwardly strangers, and remote from those who profess Christ and Christianity in words, and have the benefit of the scriptures, as become obedient to the holy light and testimony of God in their hearts, so as to become sanctified by it, and cleansed from the evils of their ways. ”

“ So we understand not men simply as having grace in them as a seed, which we indeed affirm all have in a measure; but we understand men that are gracious, leavened by it into the nature thereof, so as thereby to bring forth those good fruits of a blameless conversation, and of justice, holiness, patience, and temperance, which the apostle requires as necessary in a true Christian bishop and minister. ”

“ But according to this doctrine, the house of God is a polluted nest of all sorts of wickedness and abominations, made up of the most ugly, defiled and perverse stones that are in the earth; where the devil rules in all manner of unrighteousness. For so our adversaries confess, and history informs, the church of Rome to have been, as some of their historians acknowledge; and if that be truly the house of God, what may we call the house of satan? ”

“ What have they then to boast or glory of any authority, seeing they want that life, virtue, and nourishment from which all authority comes? So such members of Christ as are become dead to him through unrighteousness, and so derive no more virtue nor life from him, are cut off by their sins, and wither, and have no longer any true or real authority, and their boasting of any is but an aggravation of their iniquity by hypocrisy and deceit. ”

“ That righteousness hath fellowship with unrighteousness, that light hath communion with darkness, that Christ hath concord with Belial, that a believer hath part with an infidel, and that the temple of God hath agreement with idols? Moreover no man is called the temple of God, nor of the Holy Ghost, but as his vessel is purified, and so he fitted and prepared for God to dwell in; and many thus fitted by Christ become his body, in and among whom he dwells and walks, according as it is written, I will dwell in them, and walk in them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. ”

“ It is the devil, darkening, obscuring, and veiling the knowledge of God, with his serpentine and worldly wisdom; that so he may the more securely deceive the hearts of the simple, and make the truth, as. it is in itself, despicable and hard to be known and understood, by multiplying a thousand difficult and needless questions, and endless contentions and debates. ”

“ And what a monster would these men make of Christ's body, by assigning it a real, pure, living, quick head, full of virtue and life, and yet tied to such a dead lifeless body as we have already described these members to be, which they allege to have been the church of Christ? ”

“ As every man hath received the gift, even so minister the same one to another, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God. If any man speak, let him speak as the oracles of God: if any man minister, let him do it as of the ability which God giveth; that God in all things may be glorified through Jesus Christ ”

“ The two first they reckon necessary to the being of a minister, so as a man cannot be one without them; the third they say goeth to the well-being of one, but not to the being; so that a man may truly be a lawful minister without it, and ought to be heard and received as such. But we, supposing a natural capacity, that one be not an ideot, judge the grace of God indispensably necessary to the very being of a minister, as that without which any can neither be a true, nor lawful, nor good minister. ”

“ Whatsoever is done in the church, either for ornament or edification of religion, whether in choosing magistrates or instituting ministers of the church, except it be done by the ministry of God's Spirit, which is as it were the soul of the church, it is vain and wicked. For whoever hath not been called by the Spirit of God to the great office of God and dignity of apostleship, as Aaron was, and hath not entered in by the door, which is Christ, but hath otherways risen in the church by the window, by the favours of men, &c. ”

“ The volumes that have been written about it, a man in his whole age could scarce read, though he lived to be very old; and when he has read them all, he has but wrought himself a great deal more vexation and trouble of spirit than he had before. ”

“ Also they who have received this holy and unspotted gift, as they have freely received it, so are they freely to give it, without hire or bargaining, far less to use it as a Trade to get money by: yet if God hath called any one from their employment or trades, by which they acquire their livelihood, it may be lawful for such, according to the liberty which they feel given them in the Lord, to receive such temporals (to wit, what may be needful for them for meat and clothing) as are given them freely and cordially by those to whom they have communicated spirituals. ”

“ Our adversaries do all along go upon externals, and therefore have certain prescribed rules and methods, contrived according to their human and earthly wisdom: we, on the contrary, walk still upon the same foundation, and lean always upon the immediate assistance and influence of that [139] Holy Spirit, which God hath given his children, to teach them all things, and lead them in all things: which Spirit, being the Spirit of order, and not of confusion, leads us, and as many as follow it, into such a comely and decent order as becometh the church of God. ”

“ As death then makes such interruption of an outward natural succession, that no art nor outward form can uphold, and as a dead man, after he is dead, can have no issue, neither can dead images of men make living men: so that it is the living that are only capable to succeed one another; and such as die, so soon as they die cease to succeed, or to transmit succession. ”

“ Now, though the grossest of these abuses be swept away by Protestants; yet the evil root still remains, and is nourished and upheld; and the science kept up, as being deemed necessary for a minister: for, while the pure learning of the Spirit of truth is despised and neglected, and made ineffectual, man's fallen earthly wisdom is upheld; and so in that he labours and works with the scriptures, being out of the Life and Spirit which those that wrote them were in, by which only they are rightly understood, and made use of. ”

“ For the particular churches of Christ, gathered in the apostles' days, soon after beginning to decay as to the inward life, came to be overgrown with several errors, and the hearts of the professors of Christianity to be leavened with the old spirit and conversation of the world. Yet it pleased God for some centuries to preserve that life in many, whom he emboldened with zeal to stand and suffer for his name through the ten persecutions ”

“ But by keeping up of this kind of maintenance [202] for the ministry and clergymen, so called, there is first a bait laid for covetousness, which is idolatry, and of all things most hurtful; so that for covetousness' sake, many, being led by the desire of filthy lucre, do apply themselves to be ministers, that they may get a livelihood by it. If a man have several children, he will allot one of them to be a minister; which if he can get it to be, he reckons it as good as a patrimony: so that a fat benefice hath always many expectants ”

“ And therefore the apostle Paul, who well understood what was good for Christian ministers, and what hurtful, thus exhorted the Colossians, Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit. ”

“ That which we oppose, is the distinction of [160] laity and clergy, which in the scripture is not to be found, whereby none are admitted unto the work of the ministry but such as are educated at schools on purpose, and instructed in logic and philosophy, &c. and so are at their apprenticeship to learn the art and trade of preaching, even as a man learns any other art, whereby all other honest mechanic men, who have not got this heathenish art, are excluded from having this privilege. ”

“ For if a minister be called to minister in a particular place, he ought not to leave it, except God call him from it, and then he ought to obey: for we make the will of God inwardly revealed, and not the love of money and more gain, the ground of removing.
[204] Secondly, From this abuse hath proceeded that luxury and idleness that most of the clergy live in, even among Protestants as well as Papists, to the great scandal of Christianity. For not having lawful trades to work with their hands, and being so superfluously and sumptuously provided for, they live in idleness and luxury ”

“ It is man in his first, fallen, natural state, with his devilish wisdom, pleasing himself with some notions of truth, and adorning them with his own sensual and carnal wisdom, because he thinks the simplicity of the truth too low and mean a thing for him ”

“ The ministers we plead for, are such as act, [214] move, and labour in the work of the ministry, not from their own mere natural strength and ability, but as they are actuated, moved, supported, assisted, and influenced by the Spirit of God, and minister according to the gift received, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God: such were the holy prophets and apostles, 1 Pet. ”

“ For this is the universal or catholic spirit, by which many are called from all the four corners of the earth, and shall sit down with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob: by this the secret life and virtue of Jesus is conveyed into many that are afar off; even as by the blood that runs into the veins and arteries of the natural body the life is conveyed from the head and heart unto the extreme parts. ”

“ That the case is different in constituting a church, and a church constituted, I do not deny it; and therefore there may be a greater measure of power required to the one than to the other, and God in his wisdom distributes the same as he sees meet ”

“ But all this will not make it a necessary qualification to a minister, far less a more necessary qualification than the grace of God and his spirit; because the Spirit and grace of God can make up this want in the most rustic and ignorant; but this knowledge can no ways make up the want of the Spirit in the [114] most learned and eloquent. For all that which man by his own industry, learning, and knowledge in the languages, can interpret of the scriptures, or find out, is nothing without the Spirit ”

“ So in like manner, the true name and title of a Christian, by which he hath right to the heavenly inheritance, and is a member of Jesus Christ, is inward righteousness and holiness, and the mind redeemed from the vanities, lusts, and iniquities of this world; and a gathering or company, made up of such members, makes a church. ”

“ Now what this ability is, is manifest by the former words, to wit, the gift received, and the grace whereof they are stewards, as by the immediate context and dependency of the words doth appear. Neither can it be understood of a mere natural ability, because man in this condition is said not to know the things of God, and so he cannot minister them to others. ”

“ The only way then soundly to reform and remove all these abuses, and take away the ground and occasion of them, is, to take away all stinted [210] and forced maintenance and stipends. And whoever call or appoint teachers to themselves, let them accordingly entertain them: and for such as are called and moved to the ministry by the Spirit of God, those that receive them, and taste of the good of their ministry, will no doubt provide things needful for them, and there will be no need of a law to force a hire for them: for he that sends them, will take care for them ”