An Apology for the True Christian Divinity / Being an explanation and vindication of the principles and doctrines of the people called Quakers

BEING AN EXPLANATION and VINDICATION OF THE PRINCIPLES and DOCTRINES Of the People called QUAKERS .
Written in Latin and English By ROBERT BARCLAY ,
And since translated into High Dutch, Low Dutch, French, and Spanish, for the Information of Strangers.
The Eighth Edition in ENGLISH .
BIRMINGHAM ; Printed by JOHN BASKERVILLE, and sold by the Booksellers of London and Westminster. M DCC LXV.
A Servant of Jesus Christ, called of God to the Dispensation of the Gospel now again revealed, and, after a long and dark Night of Apostasy , commanded to be preached to all Nations, wisheth Health and Salvation.
As the Condition of Kings and Princes puts Them in a Station more obvious to the View and Observation of the World than that of other Men, of whom, as Cicero observes, neither any Word or Action can be obscure; so are those Kings, during whose Appearance upon the Stage of this World it pleaseth the Great King of Kings singularly to make known unto Men the wonderful Steps of His unsearchable Providence , more signally observed, and their Lives and Actions more diligently remarked, and enquired into by Posterity; especially if those Things be such as not only relate to the outward Transactions of this World, but also are signalized by the Manifestation or Revelation of the Knowledge of God in Matters spiritual and religious. These are the Things that rendered the Lives of Cyrus , Augustus Cæsar , and Constantine the Great, in former Times, and of Charles the Fifth, and some other modern Princes in these last Ages, so considerable.
But among all the Transactions which it hath pleased God to permit, for the Glory of His Power, and the Manifestation of His Wisdom and Providence, no Age furnisheth us with Things so strange and marvellous , whether with Respect to Matters civil or religious, as these that have fallen out within the Compass of Thy Time; who, though Thou be not yet arrived at the Fiftieth Year of thy Age, hast yet been a Witness of stranger Things than many Ages before produced. So that whether we respect those various Troubles wherein Thou foundest Thyself engaged while scarce got out of Thy Infancy; the many different Afflictions, wherewith Men of Thy Circumstances are often unacquainted; the strange and unparalleled Fortune that befel Thy Father; Thy own narrow Escape, and Banishment following thereupon, with the great Improbability of Thy ever returning, at least without very much Pains and tedious Combatings; or finally, the Incapacity Thou wert under to accomplish such a Design; considering the Strength of those that had possessed themselves of Thy Throne, and the Terror they had inflicted upon foreign States; and yet that, after all this, Thou shouldest be restored without Stroke of Sword, the Help or Assistance of foreign States, or the Contrivance and Work of human Policy; all these do sufficiently declare that it is the Lord’s Doing , which, as it is marvellous in our Eyes, so it will justly be a Matter of Wonder and Astonishment to Generations to come; and may sufficiently serve, if rightly observed, to confute and confound that Atheism wherewith this Age doth so much abound.