An apology for the 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: Imposition '(E(tira. CONCERNING THE SCRIPTURES. From these revelations of the Spirit of God to the saints have proceeded the. scriptures of Truth, which co... more »ntain textit{I. A faithful historical account of the actings of God's people in divers ages ; with many singular and remarkable providences attending them. II. A prophetical account of several things, whereof some are already past, and some yet to come. III. A full and ample account of all the chief principles of the doctrine of Christ, held forth in divers precious declarations, exhortations, and sentences: which, by the moving of God's Spirit, were at several times, and upon sundry occasions, spokeu and written unto some churches, and their pastors. Nevertheless, because they are only a declaration of the fountain, and not the fountain itself, therefore they are not to be esteemed the principal ground of all truth and knowledge, nor yet the adequate primary rule of faith and manners. Tet because they give a true and faithful testimony of the first foundation, they are and may be esteemed a secondary rule, subordinate to the Spirit, from which they have all their excellency and certainty: for as by the nward testimony of the Spirit we do alone truly know them, so thev testify. That the Spirit is that guide by which the saints j0hn xvi l3 are led into all truth; therefore, according to the scriptures, the Spirit Hom. viii. is the first and principal leader. Seeing then that we do therefore receive ' and believe the scriptures because they proceeded from the Spirit, for the very same reason is the Spirit more originally and principally the rule, according to the received maxim in the schools, textit{Propter quod v.mtm- quodque est tale, illud ipsum est magis tale: That for which a thing is such, that thing...« less