Title - Preface - Sec. 1 - Sec. 2 - Sec. 3 - Sec. 4 - Sec. 5 - Sec. 6 - Sec. 7 - Sec. 8 - Conclusion
The
PREFACE
TO THE
READER.
Such is the Malignity of man’s Nature in his fallen State, and so averse is he from walking in the Straight and even Path of TRUTH, that at every turn he is inclinable to lean either to the Right hand or the Left; yea, such as by the Work of God’s Grace in their Hearts, and powerful Operation of his Spirit, have obtained an entrance in this Way, are daily molested, and set upon all hands, some striving to draw them one way, some the other; and if through the Power of God they be kept faithful and stable, then are they calumniated on bothsides, each likening or comparing them to the warts of their Enemies.
{Page 2} Those that are acquainted with the holy Scriptures may observe this to have been the Lot of the Saints in all Ages, but especially those whose place it hath been to Reform and Restore the Ruins of the House of God, when decayed, or any considerable time have been lyable to such Censures; hence those that set about Repairing of the Walls of Jerusalem were necessitated to Work with the one hand, and Defend with the other.
Christ is accused of the Jews as a Samaritan, and by the Samaritans quarrelled for being a Jew, The Apostle Paul is whipped & imprisoned by the Gentiles, upbraided with being a Jew, and teaching their Customs; the same Paul is haled and ready to be killed by the Jews for breaking the Law, and defiling the Temple with the Gentiles. The like hath also befaln these faithful Witnesses and Messengers, whom God has raised up in this day to witness for his Truth, which hath long been in a great Measure hid, but now is again revealed, and many bought to be Witnesses of it, who thereby are come to walk in the Light of the Lord.
This People, thus gathered, have not wanted those Tryals that usually accompany the Church of Christ, both on the right hand & on the left each {Page 3} characterizing them in such Terms as they have judged would prove most to their Disadvantage; from whence, as the Testimony of the false Witnesses against their Lord, did not agree, neither do these against us; some will have us to be foolish mad Creatures; others, to be deep subtil Polititions1; some to be illiterate ignorant Fellows; of others, to be learned cunning Jesuites under a meer Vizard; divers Professors will have us to be only Pensioners of the Pope, undoubtedly Papists; but the Papists abhor us as Hereticks: Sometimes we are a disorderly confused Rabble, leaving one to do as they list, against all Good Order and Government; at other times, we are so much for Order, as we admit not men to exercise the Liberty of their own Judgements. Thus are our Reputations tossed by the Envy of our Adversaries, which yet cannot but have this Effect upon sober-minded people, as to see what Malice works against us; and how these men, by their Contradictory Assertions concerning us, save us the Pains, while they Refute one another.
{Page 4} True it is, we have Laboured to walk amidst these Extremities, & upon our appearing for the Truth we have found things good in themselves, abused upon both hands; for such hath alwayes been the Work of an Apostacy, to keep the Shadow of certain Truths XR1756, that there - through they might shelter other Evils. Thus the Jews made use of the Law and the Prophets to vindicate their Abuses, yea, and to Crucifie Christ: And how much many Christians abuse the Scriptures and the Traditions of the Apostles, to uphold Things quite Contrary to it, will in general be readily acknowledged by most.
But to descend more particularly, There be Two Things especially, both of which in their primitive Use were appointed, and did very much contribute towards the Edification of the Church: the one is,
The Power and Authority which the Apostles had given them of Christ, for the gathering, Building up and Governing of his Church; by Vertue of which Power and Authority they also wrote the holy Scriptures.
The other is, That Priviledge given to every Christian under the Gospel to be led and guided by the Spirit of Christ, and to be taught thereof in all things.
Now, both these in the primitive Church wrought effectually towards the same End of {Page 5} Edification, and did as in their Nature they may, and in their Use they ought to do, in a good Harmony very well consist together; but by the Workings of Satan and Perversness of Men, they are made to fight against and destroy one another: For on the one hand, the Authority & Power that resided in the Apostles, while it is annexed & entailed to an Outward Ordination and Succession of Teachers, is made use of to cloak and cover all manner of Abuses, even the height of Idolatry and Superstition; for by Vertue of this Succession, these men claiming the like Infallibility that was in the Apostles (though they be Strangers to any inward Work or Manifestation of the Spirit in their Hearts) will needs oblige all others to acquiesce and agree to their Consciences, however different from or contrary to the Truths of the Gospel; and yet for any to call such Conclusions in Question, or examine them, is no less then a Hainous Heresie, deserving Death, &c. Or while the Revelation of God’s Mind is wholly bound up to these things already delivered in the Scriptures, as if God had spoke his last words there to his People2 we are put with our own natural Understandings to Debate about the Meanings of it, and forced to interpret them not as they plainly speak, but according to the Analogy of a {Page 6} certain Faith made by Men, not so much contrived to answer the Scriptures as the Scriptures are strained to vindicate it, which to doubt of is also counted Heresie, deserving non less then Ejection out of our native Country, and to be robbed of the common Aid our Nativity entitles us to; and on this hand we may boldly say both Papists and Protestants have greatly gone aside.
On the other hand, some are so great Pretenders to inward Motions and revelations of the Spirit, that there are no Extravagancies so wild which they will not cloak with it, and so much are they for every ones following their own Mind, as can admit of no Christian-Fellowship and Community, nor of that good Order and Discipline which the Church of Christ never was nor can be without XR3792; this gives an open Door onto all Libertinism, and brings great Reproach to the Christian-Faith, and on this hand have foully faln. The German Anabaptists, so call’d, viz. John of Leiden, Knipperdoling, &c. in case these monstrous things, committed by them, be such as they are related, and some more moderate of that kind have been found among the People in England, called Ranters; as it is true the People called Quakers hath bin branded with both these extreams, it is as true it hath been and is their Work to avoid them, {Page 7} and to be found in that vein and good Path of the primitive Church, where all were no doubt led and acted by the Holy Spirit, and might all have prophesied one by one, and yet there was a Subjection of the Prophets to the Spirits of the Prophets. There was an Authority some had in the Church, yet it was for Edification, and not for Destruction; there was an obedience in the Lord to such as were set over, and a being taught by such, and yet a knowing of the Inward Anointing, by which each Individual was to be led into all Truth: The Work and Testimony the Lord hath given us is, to restore this again, and to set both these in their right place, without causing them to destroy one another; to manifest how this is accomplished and accomplishing among us is the Business of this treatise XR 1937, which I hope will give some Satisfaction to men of sober Judgments, and impartial and unprejudicate Spirits, and may be made useful in the good Hand of the Lord, to Confirm and Establish Friends against their present Opposers, which is mainly intended and earnestly prayed for
By Robert Barclay.
The 17th of the 8th Moneth. 1674
John Owens charges us with so much Ignorance, that though he writes against us in Latin, he fears we will not understand it: And Thomas Danson about the sametime accuses us of being Jesuits, sent from abroad under this Vizard. ↩
So saith James Durham, a noted Man among the Presbyterians, in his Exposition upon the Revelations. ↩
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