Page:A biographical dictionary of eminent Scotsmen, vol 1.djvu/185

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ROBERT BARCLAY.
155

the sect:—Immediate Revelation; the Universal Spiritual light; Silent worship; Perfection; the Rejection of the Sabbath and the Sacraments, &c., &c. This is done with great apparent simplicity, and many plausible reasons, a number of excellent thoughts being struck out by the way; yet they are far from being satisfactory, and never will be so to any who are not already strongly possessed with an idea of the internal light in man, to which the author holds even the Scriptures themselves to be subordinate. There are, indeed, in the book, many sophisms, many flat contradictions, and many assertions that are incapable of any proof. The appeals which he makes to his own experience for the proof of his doctrines are often not a little curious, and strongly illustrative of his character, as well as of the principles he had espoused.

The same year in which he published the Apology, he published an account of a dispute with the students of Aberdeen, which touches little besides the folly of such attempts to establish truth or confute error. The following year, in conjunction with George Keith, he put forth a kind of second part to the foregoing article, which they entitled, "Quakerism Confirmed, being an answer to a pamphlet by the Aberdeen students, entitled, Quakerism Canvassed." This treats only of matters to be found in a better form in the Apology. In the first month of the year 1677, from Aberdeen prison, he wrote his treatise of "Universal Love," and in the end of the same year, he wrote, from his house at Ury, "An Epistle of Love and Friendly Advice to the Ambassadors of the several princes of Europe, met at Nimeguen, to consult the peace of Christendom so far as they are concerned; wherein the true cause of the present war is discovered, and the right remedy and means for a firm and settled peace is proposed." This last was written in Latin, but published also in English for the benefit of his countrymen. Both of the above tracts deserve serious perusal. In 1679, he published a vindication of his Apology, and in 1686, his last work, "The possibility and necessity of the inward and immediate revelation of the Spirit of God towards the foundation and ground of true faith; in a letter to a person of quality in Holland," published both in Latin and English. In neither of these, in our opinion, has he added anything to his Apology, which, as we have already said, contains the sum of all that he has written or published.

In the latter part of his life, Barclay obtained, by the influence of his talents and the sincerity and simplicity of his character and professions, an exemption from that persecution which marked his early years. He had also contributed in no small degree, by the eloquence of his writings in defence of the Friends, to procure for them a considerable share of public respect. He is even found, strangely enough, to have latterly possessed some influence at the dissolute court of Charles II. In 1679, he obtained a charter from this monarch, under the great seal, erecting his lands of Ury,[1] into a free barony, with civil and criminal jurisdiction to him and his heirs. This charter was afterwards ratified by an act of Parliament, the preamble of which states it to be "for the many services done by Colonel David Barclay, and his son, the said Robert Barclay, to the King and his most royal progenitors in times past." Another and more distinguished mark of court favour was conferred upon him in 1682, when he received the nominal appointment of governor of East Jersey, in North America, from the proprietors of that province, of whom his friend the Earl of Perth was one. He was also himself made a proprietor, and had allotted to him five thousand acres of land above his proprietary share, as inducements for his acceptance of the dignity, which, at the same time, he was permitted to depute. The royal commission confirming this grant states, that such are his known fidelity and capacity, that he has the government during life, but that no other governor

  1. His father had died in 1676, leaving him in possession of this estate.