An Apology for the True Christian Divinity. Robert Barclay

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СКАЧАТЬ shall lead you into all Truth, and shall teach you these Things that are to come. But of this his Work we have spoken above. What is then the Administration of the Comforter, but that Discipline be directed, and the Scriptures revealed?” &c.

[33] Tertullianus Lib. de veland. Virginibus, cap. 1.

Jerome4. [34]“The Law (saith Jerome) is Spiritual, and there is need of a Revelation to understand it.” And in his Epistle 150. to Hedibia, Quest. 11. he saith, “The whole Epistle to the Romans needs an Interpretation; it being involved in so great Obscurities, that for the understanding thereof we need the Help of the Holy Spirit, who through the Apostle dictated it.”

[34] Jerome Ep. Paulin. 103.

Athanasius.5. [35]“So great Things (saith Athanasius) doth our Saviour daily: He draws unto Piety, persuades unto Virtue, teaches Immortality, excites to the Desire of Heavenly Things, reveals the Knowledge of the Father, inspires Power against Death, and shews himself unto every one.”

[35] Athanasius de Incarn. Verbi Dei.

Gregory6. [36]Gregory the Great, upon these Words [He shall teach you all Things] saith, “That unless the same Spirit is present in the Heart of the Hearer, in vain is the Discourse of the Doctor. Let no Man then ascribe unto the Man that teacheth, what he understands from the Mouth of him that speaketh; for unless he that teacheth be within, the Tongue of the Doctor, that is without, laboureth in vain.”

[36] Greg. Mag. Hom. 30. upon the Gospel.

Cyrillus Alexandrinus7. [37]Cyrillus Alexandrinus plainly affirmeth, “That Men know that Jesus is the Lord by the Holy Ghost, no otherwise than they who taste Honey know that it is sweet, even by its proper Quality.”

[37] Cyril. Alex. in Thesauro, lib. 13. c. 3.

Bernard.8. [38]“Therefore (saith Bernard) we daily exhort you, Brethren, that ye walk the Ways of the Heart, and that your Souls be always in your Hands, that ye may hear what the Lord saith in you.” And again, upon these Words of the Apostle [Let him that glorieth, glory in the Lord] “With which Threefold Vice (saith he) all Sorts of Religious Men are less or more dangerously affected, because they do not so diligently attend, with the Ears of the Heart, to what the Spirit of Truth (which flatters none) inwardly speaks.”

[38] Bernard in Psal. 84.

      This was the very Basis, and main Foundation, upon which the Primitive Reformers built.

Luther.[39]Luther, in his Book to the Nobility of Germany, saith, “This is certain, That no Man can make himself a Teacher of the holy Scriptures, but the Holy Spirit alone.” And upon the Magnificat he saith, “No Man can rightly know God, or understand the Word of God, unless he immediately receive it from the Holy Spirit; neither can any one receive it from the Holy Spirit, except he find it by Experience in himself; and in this Experience the Holy Ghost teacheth, as in his proper School; out of which School nothing is taught but mere Talk.”

[39] Luther. Tom. 5. p. 76.

      Phil. MelancthonPhilip Melancthon, in his Annotations upon John vi. “Those who hear only an outward and bodily Voice, hear the Creature; but God is a Spirit, and is neither discerned, nor known, nor heard, but by the Spirit;By the Spirit alone God is known. and therefore to hear the Voice of God, to see God, is to know and hear the Spirit. By the Spirit alone God is known and perceived.”

      Which also the more Serious to this Day do acknowledge, even all such who satisfy themselves not with the Superficies of Religion, and use it not as a Cover or Art. Yea, all those who apply themselves effectually to Christianity, and are not satisfied until they have found its effectual Work upon their Hearts, redeeming them from Sin, do feel that no Knowledge effectually prevails to the producing of this, but that which proceeds from the warm Influence of God’s Spirit upon the Heart, and from the comfortable Shining of his Light upon their Understanding.Dr. Smith of Cambridge, concerning Book-Divinity.And therefore to this Purpose a modern Author, viz. Dr. Smith of Cambridge, in his Select Discourses, saith well; “To seek our Divinity merely in Books and Writings, is to seek the Living among the Dead. We do but in vain many Times seek God in these, where his Truth is too often not so much Enshrined as Entombed. Intra te quære Deum, Seek God within thine own Soul: He is best discerned [Greek: noera epaphê: νοερα επαφη] (as Plotinus phrased it) by an Intellectual Touch of him. We must see with our Eyes, and hear with our Ears, and our Hands must handle the Word of Life (to express it in St. John’s Words) [Greek: hoti tês psychês aisthêsis: ὁτι της ψυχης αισθησις], &c. The Soul itself hath its Sense, as well as the Body. And therefore, David, when he would teach us to know what the Divine Goodness is, calls not for Speculation, but Sensation: Taste, and see how good the Lord is. That is not the best and truest Knowledge of God, which is wrought out by the Labour and Sweat of the Brain, but that which is kindled within us, by an heavenly Warmth in our Hearts. And again: There is a Knowing of the Truth, as it is in Jesus, as it is in a Christ-like Nature; as it is in that sweet, mild, humble, and loving Spirit of Jesus, which spreads itself, like a Morning Sun, upon the Souls of good Men, full of Light and Life. It profits little to know Christ himself after the Flesh; but he gives his Spirit to good Men, that searcheth the deep things of God. And again: It is but a thin airy Knowledge, that is got by mere Speculation, which is ushered in by Syllogisms and Demonstrations; but that which springs forth from true Goodness, is [Greek: theioteron ti pasês hypodeixeôs: θειοτερον τι πασης ὑποδειξεως] (as Origen speaketh) It brings such a Divine Light into the Soul, as is more clear and convincing than any Demonstration.”

      §. III.

       Table of Contents

      Apostasy and a false Knowledge introduced.That this certain and undoubted Method of the true Knowledge of God hath been brought out of use, hath been none of the least Devices of the Devil, to secure Mankind to his Kingdom. For after the Light and Glory of the Christian Religion had prevailed over a great Part of the World, and dispelled the thick Mists of the Heathenish Doctrine of the Plurality of Gods, he that knew there was no Probability of deluding the World any longer that Way, did then puff Man up with a false Knowledge of the true God; setting him on work to seek God the wrong Way, and persuading him to be content with such a Knowledge as was of his own acquiring, and not of God’s teaching. And this Device hath proved the more successful, because accommodated to the natural and corrupt Spirit and Temper of Man, who above all Things affects to exalt himself; in which Exaltation, as God is greatly dishonoured, so therein the Devil hath СКАЧАТЬ