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Selections from An Apology for the True Christian Divinity
Selections from An Apology for the True Christian Divinity Author:Robert Barclay Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: SELECTIONS BARCLAY'S APOLOGY. OF IMMEDIATE REVELATION. Seeing " no man knoweth the Father but the Son, and he to whom the Son revealeth him ; Mat. xi. 2... more »7. 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 revealed; who, as by the moving of his own Spirit, he disposed the chaos of this world into that wonderful order in which it was in the beginning, and created man a living soul, to rule and govern it, so by the revelation of the same Spirit he hath manifested himself all along unto the sons of men, both patriarchs, prophets, and apostles ; which revelations of God by the Spirit, whether by outward voices and appearances, dreams, or inward objective manifestations in the heart, were of old the formal object of their faith, and remain yet so to be ; since the object of the saints'faith is the same in all ages, though held forth under divers administrations. It is very probable, that many carnal and natural Christians will oppose this proposition ; who being wholly unacquainted with the movings and actings of God's Spirit upon their hearts, judge the same nothing necessary. Whereas of old none were ever judged Christians, but such as had the Spirit of Christ, Rom. viii. 9. But now many do boldly call themselves Christians, who make no difficulty of confessing they are without it, and laugh at such as say they have it. Of old they were accounted " the sons of God, who were led by the Spirit of God," ibid, ver. 14. But now many aver themselves sons of God, who know nothing of this leader; and he that affirms himself so led, is, by the pretended orthodox of this age, presently proclaimed a heretic. The reason hereof is very manifest, viz. because many...« less