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

by Robert Barclay

§. VII.

Answ.The Call of a Minister and wherein it consisteth. We answer; By the inward Power and Virtue of the Spirit of God. For, as saith our Proposition, Having received the true Knowledge of Things spiritual by the Spirit of God, without which they cannot be known, and being by the same in Measure purified and sanctified, he comes thereby to be called and moved to minister to others; being able to speak, from a living Experience, of what he himself is a Witness; and therefore knowing the Terror of the Lord, he is fit to persuade Men, &c. 2 Cor. v. 11. and his Words and Ministry, proceeding from the inward Power and Virtue, reach to the Heart of his Hearers, and make them approve of him, and be subject unto him. Object.Our Adversaries are forced to confess, that this were indeed desirable and best; but this they will not have to be absolutely necessary. I shall first prove the Necessity of it, and then shew how much they err in that which they make more necessary than this divine and heavenly Call.

Arg.1. The Necessity of an inward Call to make a Man a Christian. First, That which is necessary to make a Man a Christian, so as without it he cannot be truly one, must be much more necessary to make a Man a Minister of Christianity; seeing the one is a Degree above the other, and has it included in it: Nothing less than he that supposeth a Master, supposeth him first to have attained the Knowledge and Capacity of a Scholar. They that are not Christians, cannot be Teachers and Ministers among Christians.

But this inward Call, Power and Virtue of the Spirit of God, is necessary to make a Man a Christian; as we have abundantly proved before in the second Proposition, according to these Scriptures, He that hath not the Spirit of Christ, is none of his. As many as are led by the Spirit of God, are the Sons of God:

Therefore this Call, Moving and Drawing of the Spirit, must be much more necessary to make a Man a Minister.

2. The Ministry of the Spirit requires the Operation and Testimony of the Spirit.Secondly, All Ministers of the New Testament ought to be Ministers of the Spirit, and not of the Letter, according to that of 2 Cor. iii. 6. and as the old Latin hath it, Not by the Letter, but by the Spirit: But how can a Man be a Minister of the Spirit, who is not inwardly called by it, and who looks not upon the Operation and Testimony of the Spirit as essential to his Call? As he could not be a Minister of the Letter who had thence no Ground for his Call, yea, who was altogether a Stranger to and unacquainted with it, so neither can he be a Minister of the Spirit who is a Stranger to it, and unacquainted with the Motions thereof, and knows it not to draw, act, and move him, and go before him in the Work of the Ministry. I would willingly know, how those that take upon them to be Ministers (as they suppose) of the Gospel, merely from an outward Vocation, without so much as being any ways sensible of the Work of the Spirit, or any inward Call therefrom, can either satisfy themselves or others that they are Ministers of the Spirit, or wherein they differ from the Ministers of the Letter? For,

3. Under the Law the People needed not to doubt, who should be Priests and Ministers.Thirdly, If this inward Call, or Testimony of the Spirit, were not essential and necessary to a Minister, then the Ministry of the New Testament would not only be no ways preferable to, but in divers Respects far worse than that of the Law. For under the Law there was a certain Tribe allotted for the Ministry, and of that Tribe certain Families set apart for the Priesthood and other Offices, by the immediate Command of God to Moses; so that the People needed not be in any Doubt who should be Priests and Ministers of the holy Things: Yea, and besides this, God called forth, by the immediate Testimony of his Spirit, several at divers Times to teach, instruct, and reprove his People, as Samuel, Nathan, Elias, Elisha, Jeremiah, Amos, and many more of the Prophets: But now under the New Covenant, where the Ministry ought to be more spiritual, the Way more certain, and the Access more easy unto the Lord, our Adversaries, by denying the Necessity of this inward and spiritual Vocation, make it quite otherways. For there being now no certain Family or Tribe to which the Ministry is limited, we are left in Uncertainty, to choose and have Pastors at a Venture, without any certain Assent of the Will of God; having neither an outward Rule nor Certainty in this Affair to walk by: For that the Scripture cannot give any certain Rule in this Matter, hath in the third Proposition concerning it been already shewn.

4. Christ the Door.Fourthly, Christ proclaims them all [81]Thieves and Robbers, that enter not by him the Door into the Sheepfold, but climb up some other Way; whom the Sheep ought not to hear: But such as come in without the Call, Movings, and Leadings of the Spirit of Christ, wherewith he leads his Children into all Truth, come in certainly not by Christ, who is the Door, but some other Way, and therefore are not true Shepherds.

[81] John 10. 1.