September, 1666, the Rev. Geo. Meldrum, of Aberdeen, one of the leading
ministers in northern Scotland, preached a sermon specially attacking
the Quakers, towards whom he seems to have had a hatred not quite
proportioned to his knowledge of them. He laid many grievous charges
against them, but was suspiciously anxious that they should not get a
copy of his discourse. Soon after this, proceedings were instituted
to excommunicate Alexander Jaffray. But his friends raised the sound
objection that no attempt had yet been made to reclaim him. So the
bishop offered to confer with Jaffray in the presence of Meldrum
and his colleague Menzies. But Jaffray, suspicious of one who could
attack people in the dark, refused the interview unless he could have
witnesses. "At length, Friends being objected to, Jaffray's brother
and son who were not Friends were allowed to be present, when the Lord
remarkably assisted him in declaring the truth, and defending himself
and it against their unjust allegations." One result was that the
Bishop directed Meldrum to give Friends a copy of the sermon preached
against them, that they might reply to his statements. But instead of
complying, Meldrum sent thirty Queries to be answered, and a paper
entitled, "The state of the controversy between the Protestants and
the Quakers." Jaffray was ill at the time, but George Keith on his
behalf answered the Queries at once, and some time afterwards also
replied to his paper, and to the sermon, of which they had at last
obtained a copy from one of the congregation who heard it. No wonder
that the future Apologist questions the honesty of the man who first
condemns, and then makes enquiries, "that he might know in what things
we did differ, and in what things we only seemed to differ." After
giving the desired information, the Friends waited for two years for
some reply, or otherwise for a retraction of the charges made. But
they waited in vain. At last appeared a "Dialogue between a Quaker and
a stable Christian," which Barclay ascribed to a William Mitchell, a
neighbouring catechist with whom Patrick Livingstone had had some
disputation. Upon him therefore Robert Barclay fell with all the energy
of honest indignation, and with all the resources of a fertile and
well stored mind. He entitled his book "Truth cleared of Calumnies."
Though bearing the marks of a "prentice hand," many of the qualities
of his later style are found in this production. William Penn says "It
is written with strength and moderation." If the reader is disposed to
question the moderation, he must remember the habits of the age.[14]
[14] There is in this work an interesting passage ("Truth Triumphant"
pp. 29, 30), in which the view of singing held by the early Friends
is set forth, which will correct some mistaken impressions. Barclay
maintains "that singing is a part of God's worship, and is warrantably
performed amongst the saints, is a thing denied by no Quaker so-called,
and is not unusual among them, whereof I have myself been a witness,
and have felt the sweetness and quickening virtue of the spirit
therein, and at such occasions ministered." But they object to a mixed
congregation of believers and unconverted persons singing words which
in the mouths of many must be lies. (See also the Apology, Prop. II.,
paragraph 26, &c.)
But once launched on the stormy sea of controversy, there was no
more rest for him. W. Mitchell acknowledged the authorship of the
"Dialogue," and returned to the attack in some "Considerations." This
drew forth in rejoinder "William Mitchell unmasked," published 1672.
Here we find a more mature style, a fulness of matter, and an ease and
power in statement, that are only excelled in the Apology. Says the
writer in the Biographia Brittanica: "In this work our author discovers
an amazing variety of learning; which shows how good a use he made of
his time at Paris, and how thorough a master he was of the scriptures,
the fathers, and ecclesiastical history; and with how much skill and
judgment he applied them." And a recent writer says "Poor William
Mitchell is not only unmasked but extinguished."
Some have imagined that Robert Barclay and his friend William Penn
introduced into Quakerism a new, more reasonable, and more scholarly
tone. But comparing the sixteen or eighteen years of Quakerism before
these worthies accepted it, with the subsequent period when they
have been supposed to affect its counsels, effectually disposes of
this view. Neither in doctrine nor in practice is there any material
difference. Quakerism had its scholars before them. Their pre-eminence
was rather in popular gifts than in learning, and in statement and
illustration of Quaker views rather than in their discovery or
modification. As regards the positions of Quakerism that have given
offence, Barclay and other scholarly converts accepted them in toto.
They speak of the "apostacy" of the churches, and of Quakerism as
the only true church. They speak boldly of the spiritual gifts of
the brethren. They are severe on "hireling" priests. They argue that
justification is one with sanctification. Most of the important
passages referring to the authority of Holy Scripture, Barclay applies
to the light within.
As to practice, nothing has more offended the proprieties of modern
life than their imitations of the O. T. prophets, exhibiting themselves
as signs. There is no reason to believe that any of the cultured
Quakers of the day disapproved of these things; rather they rejoiced in
them as part of the manifestation of the restored gifts of olden times.
So far from Robert Barclay being superior to George Fox in this matter,
he afforded one of the most striking instances on record. This was
in 1672, and it happened thus. "On the 24th June, 1672, on awakening
early in the morning, he seemed to see a great store of coined money
that belonged to him lying upon his table; but several hands came and
scattered it from him. Presently the scene appeared changed, and he was
'standing by a marish' filled with a rich yellow matter, which he went
about eagerly to gather in his grasp, till plunging in over the ancles,
he was like to sink in the bog; then one came and rescued him. This
marsh, was the world, this matter was the world's goods; the whole
thing was to him an intimation of love from the Lord, just as he was
beginning more eagerly than before to concern himself in his outward
affairs."[15] "The journey in sackcloth," says Mr. Gordon, "was the
natural sequence of this impression." That it was "partly a penance
of self-expostulation," as he further declares, we in no wise admit.
We must take Barclay's own word for it that it was simply done in
obedience to a clear conviction of a divine call. "The command of the
Lord concerning this thing came unto me that very morning as I awoke,
and the burden thereof was very great, yea, seemed almost unsupportable
unto me; for such a thing until that very moment had never before
entered me, not in the most remote consideration. And some whom I
called to declare unto them this thing can bear witness how great was
the agony of my spirit,--how I besought the Lord with tears that this
cup might pass from me!--yea, how the pillars of my tabernacle were
shaken, and how exceedingly my bones trembled, until I freely gave up
unto the Lord's will." Truth Triumphant, p. 105.
[15] From the Bury Hill MSS., quoted in a remarkable article in the
Theological Review of 1874, on "the Great Laird of Urie," by Alexander
Gordon, M. A. The name and article suggest some family relationship
with the Barclays.
The command was to go through three of the principal streets covered
with sackcloth and ashes, calling the people to repentance. They would
not listen to the voice within, nor heed the ordinary warnings of
God-sent preachers. So he felt that in that terrible cross which God
laid on him, He was making a more striking appeal in pity and love
to their souls. He found that several of his friends approved of his
obedience and were willing to go with him. So he took up his cross, and
as he went on his strange errand, they felt constrained to join with
him in calling the people to repentance. No sooner was the call obeyed
than his soul was filled with peace. "I have peace with my God in what
I have done, and am satisfied that his requirings I have answered in
this thing." His heart overflows with love as he takes up his pen to
explain his procedure, and to plead with them that his appeal might not
be in vain. The address is a remarkable document, full of most tender
pleading and loving remonstrance. No true minister of Jesus Christ can
read it without being deeply stirred, and reminded of hours when his
own spirit was clothed with sackcloth and ashes for those who would not
heed his warnings.
Such soul-stirrings as this, coupled with his heart-felt experience
of Scripture truth, must have made Robert Barclay an able minister
of Jesus Christ. He seems to have been the teacher rather than the
evangelist. Probably he could no more have done George Fox's work,
than George Fox could have done his. Excellently as he often writes of
evangelical truth, we miss in his pages the arousing, pungent appeals
of his leader. Still at this and other times he seems to have felt
powerful visitations of divine grace. His brethren also now enjoyed
such a gracious season that at one of the "monthly meetings," the
preliminary worship was prolonged for seven hours, and the business
which should have received attention afterwards had to wait until
the next month. The evidences of vigorous life on all hands were
most encouraging. For instance, at one of their gatherings there
appeared one John Forbes, merchant of Ellon, to claim their sympathy
and advice. He had adopted the Quaker views of Christian worship, and
consequently had forsaken the kirk. For this he had been cited before
the Presbytery of Ellon. The Friends warmly sympathised with him, and
determined that Robert Barclay and certain others of their number
should go to Ellon on the next Sabbath and "keep a meeting" at his
house. The crowd that gathered was too great to get indoors, and doors
and windows were therefore thrown open that all might hear and unite
in the worship. From this beginning, the good work went on regularly
every Sunday, until John Forbes had to be commissioned to look out
for some more convenient place of assembly, one half of the gathering
not being able to gain admittance. We have very little information
of the part which Robert Barclay took in these Christian services.
He kept a diary, but it seems to have been lost.[16] The letters of
his which have been preserved are few. The most vivid and life-like
impressions of the man that remain are contained in his books. These
with true Quaker appreciation of the value of facts, contain many
autobiographical passages, and references to his experience. To him, as
to all Friends, experience was the great matter. They waited on God for
clear and living views of his truth. They recognised it not by logic,
but by their trained spiritual instincts. Naturally, therefore, when
addressing others by tongue or pen, they preferred to be experimental
rather than argumentative. But the habits of the age compelled them to
be dialecticians. They could only gain a hearing by so far yielding to
the popular taste. But with amusing truthfulness, William Penn says
of Barclay that he adopted the scholastic style in his Apology in
condescension to the weakness of literary men.
[16] Is this amongst the Bury Hill MSS.? The extract quoted from the
Theological Review looks like a passage from it.
But to him this adaptation was easier than to many Friends. He was a
scholar and man of letters by habit and instinct. It was a necessity
of his nature that he should see clearly the whole scope and logical
inferences of his principles. His intellectual fearlessness is
wonderful. His learning was not idle lumber in his mind. It bore some
important relation, either of agreement or of antagonism, to his views,
and to the arguments of his assailants. It was either light in which he
could rejoice, or shadow which revealed some obstruction to the light,
and threw out the light into bolder contrast. So learning had to him
a real use and value; it was not counters but coins and the world of
books was to him a very real world.
The progress of Quakerism in the neighborhood of Aberdeen, filled the
hearts of many with malice that would stoop to any meanness, and carry
out any iniquity. They actually demolished the walls of the Friends'
burying-ground, and removed the dead bodies elsewhere; and after some
subsequent interments, they kept up the practice, until stopped by the
king's Council.
But it was not in Aberdeen but at Montrose that Robert Barclay first
suffered imprisonment for conscience sake. It happened thus. Most of
the Quakers at Kinnaber near Montrose, after being in prison for two
months for the high crime of meeting together to worship God, had been
released by the king's Council at the instance of John Swintoune. That
gentleman and Robert Barclay sympathisingly determined to join them in
their first public service, and did so. As the company was dispersing,
the constables arrived, and arrested William Napier, at whose house the
meeting was held, and carried him before the magistrates. Swintoune
and Barclay went with him, and insisted on seeing the magistrates,
and reasoning with them. On this they too were committed to prison,
the ground alleged being that they had been present at the meeting.
But they do not seem to have been many days in prison before the
king's Council again interfered and liberated them. Whilst in prison
they addressed a spirited remonstrance to the magistrates, boldly and
vigorously telling them the unvarnished truth about their conduct, and
appealing to them to act more righteously in future. Thus they were not
behind their English brethren in the vigour with which they fought the
battle of religious liberty.
In 1673 died Alexander Jaffray, whose valuable diary gives us such an
interesting picture of the religious life of his time. The editor of
it, John Barclay of Croydon, the laborious editor of many standard
Quaker journals, found it in two parts, whilst ransacking Ury for
remains of his distinguished ancestor. He published with it a sketch of
the early history of Friends in Scotland, especially enriched with the
substance of the minutes of the Ury meeting. Much valuable information
was added in copious notes, the whole forming a precious memorial
of a period of eminent spirituality and remarkable faithfulness to
conscience. Jaffray's death-bed was visited by many who rejoiced in the
remarkable experiences and testimony he furnished. We may be sure that
the Apologist was amongst the number.
In the same year, 1673, was published Barclay's well-known Quaker
Catechism. Part of its quaint title richly deserves quoting. He calls
it a "Catechism and confession of faith, approved of and agreed unto by
the General Assembly of the Patriarchs, Prophets and Apostles, Christ
himself chief speaker in and among them." Thus he steals a march on the
Assembly's Catechism on the very title-page. The object of the little
book was to meet the allegation that the Quakers vilified and denied
the Scriptures, by asserting their whole creed in the language of the
Scriptures. The answers to the successive questions therefore are
passages of Scripture without note or comment. The work is deftly done,
and the Catechism has had a very large circulation.
In the next year, 1674, we find him attending the Friends' Yearly
Meeting in London, then newly established, and taking part in a visit
of remonstrance to the notorious Ludovic Muggleton. The only account
of the interview occurs in the journal of John Gratton, the ancestor
of John Bright, who was one of the party. It is interesting chiefly as
indicating the hopefulness with which the early Friends tried to do
good unto all men. Their patience must have been sorely tried by the
ridiculous answers of the pretended prophet, whom they entrapped and
exposed several times in their short interview.[17] Yet this is the man
whom Macaulay represents as morally and intellectually the equal of
George Fox.
[17] William Penn had exposed him two years before in a pamphlet
entitled, "The New Witnesses proved Old Heretics." However he still
gained converts.
The magistrates and clergy of Aberdeen continued specially bitter
against Friends. Their preachers were imprisoned, their names published
as rebels, and their goods declared forfeit to the Crown. Their
meetings were disturbed with impunity by the rabble, and especially by
the students of the University. This led, in February 1675, to a public
dispute between some of them and Robert Barclay and George Keith.
Persisting in his attempt to correct the false representations of
Quakerism made by the clergy, Barclay had put forth his famous Theses
Theologicæ, which played almost as important a part in the history of
Quakerism as Luther's did in the Reformation. At the end of the paper
he offered to defend these Theses against those who had so grossly
misrepresented the teachings of Friends. The clergy, however, were
not willing to meet him, but they allowed certain divinity students
to accept the challenge. These young men did not regard the matter in
a very serious light; it was a good joke, an opportunity to air their
logic and to badger the Quakers. If other measures failed, they could
rely on the mob taking their part with coarse jests, such as the cry,
"Is the Spirit come yet?" Or if this treatment seemed too mild for the
humour of the moment, their allies were just as ready to break the
heads of the Quakers with sticks and stones. If the reader has any
doubts about this description of the temper of the times, let him first
read Leighton's Life, and see there the character of the ministers
whom his friends had to call in to fill up the pulpits of the ejected
Presbyterians. Then after this preparation, let him read the Quaker
journals of the time.
This disputation ended in uproar, the students claiming the victory of
course. But the spoils were taken by the Friends in a manner little
expected by the clergy. Four students, who were present at the debate,
were so impressed by the arguments and Christian spirit of Barclay
and Keith, that they joined the Friends, and bore public testimony
against the unfairness with which the debate was conducted. Here was
a spiritual triumph indeed, to win trophies amidst such clamour and
strife.
The dispute was not allowed to rest. The students published an account
of the transaction, under the title, "Quakerism canvassed." Barclay and
Keith declared the report unfair, and published theirs in self-defence.
They further replied to the students in "Quakerism confirmed." Here
was a field of controversy where numbers and noise were of no avail.
But the termination was indeed singular. The students found that their
pamphlet would not sell, and that so they were likely to be heavy
losers. What was to be done? They petitioned the Commissioners for
help. A little while before some of David Barclay's cattle had been
seized to pay fines imposed for his attending meetings. These cattle
could not be sold, so strongly did the people sympathise with the old
soldier. So at last, through Archbishop Sharpe's influence, they were
handed over to the students to recoup their losses!
The Theses were destined to higher honours than this farce. Dr. Nicolas
Arnold, Professor of Divinity at a Dutch University, replied to them,
and Barclay issued his rejoinder in Latin at Rotterdam, in 1675. Still
following up the lines of thought thus opened out, the Theses were next
expanded into the famous Apology, published in Latin in Amsterdam, 1676.
The years 1675 and 1676 were remarkable for a blessed quickening of
spiritual life in Aberdeen meeting. It made the Friends who were cast
into prison rejoice in their bonds. It made both them and English
Friends believe that the time had come when God would do great things
for Scotland.[18]
[18] The following extracts show forth these facts and hopes with great
clearness:
George Fox writes from Swarthmore, 10th of 10th month, 1675, a long
letter to Robert Barclay, but evidently intended as a circular letter
to Friends in Scotland. Its opening has been quoted already, pp. 84,
85. It is rich in its glowing and powerful statement of Gospel truth.
After relating the vision of the condition and future blessedness of
Scotland, he states how he was taken before the Council in Edinburgh
and banished the nation, "but I staid three weeks after, and came to
Edinburgh and had meetings all up and down." He sets forth in quaint
scripture metaphors the hopes of the spiritual life which he was raised
up to preach. "With the spiritual eye the virgins will see to trim
their heavenly lamps, and see their heavenly olive-tree from which
they have their heavenly oil, that their lamps might burn continually
night and day and never go out. So that they may see the way and enter
into the heavenly Bridegroom's chamber, which is above the chambers of
death and imaginery." "And soe away with that chaf that would not have
perfection here, for he that is perfect is risen, and that (which) is
perfect is revealed." "It is the spirit of truth that leads into all
truth. And they that are not led by this spirit as Christ hath sent and
sends, they are led by the spirit of the false prophet, beast, whore.
Though in that spirit they may profess the scriptures from Genesis to
the Revelations, that spirit shall lead them into the ditch together,
where they shall be consumed by God's eternal fire without the heavenly
Jerusalem, as all the filth was consumed by fire without the gates of
the outward heavenly Jerusalem."
"And now, Robert, concerning the things thou speaks of about thy
books. I say it is well that they are sent. Keep within the rules of
the spirit of Life which will lead into all truth, that all may be
stirred up in your nation to walk in it, for they have been a long time
asleep. For the Gospel bell does ring and sound to awaken them out of
sin to righteousness. So all that have the instrument to work in God's
vineyard be not idle, but be diligent that you may have your penny. For
God's gospel trumpet is blown, and his alarum is sounding in his holy
mountain. That makes that mind and spirit that inhabits the earth to
tremble, and that they must all doe, before they inhabit and inherit
eternity."
The language here may be quaint and the figures sometimes strained; but
the spiritual truth is clearly seen and vigorously put, and Barclay
would readily recognise its fitness to the times.
David Barclay writes to his son from Aberdeen prison on 12th of 3rd
mo., 1676, in a strain of mingled trust and resignation. He writes,
"we are all in health, and refreshed daily by the Lord's powerfully
appearing in and amongst us, and in a wonderful and unexpected way
visiting us by his overcoming love to the gladdening of our hearts and
making us not only to believe but to suffer for His name's sake; living
praises!"
George Keith writes to Robert Barclay, also from the Aberdeen Tolbooth,
"We have exceeding sweet and comfortable meetings most frequently,
wherein the power of the Lord doth mightily appear in the midst of us,
so that Friends generally are greatly encouraged to the astonishing
and confounding of our adversaries.... I am busy answering H. More's
papers[19] unto me, and have near finished my answers which I hope ere
long to send unto her that is called the Lady Conway,[20] or else bring
them myself if the persecution that is at present cease hereaway, and
that I find freedom to visit Friends in England this summer. _But if
the Lord open a door in this country for the receiving of the truth
among people (as it is like to be, and of which we have some good
expectation, the power of the Lord gloriously appearing among us, which
is preparing us for some great service)_ I verily believe this may be
ane occasion to stay me for some time."
[19] See sketch of Penn, p. 54.