BARCLAY, llonmer, the celebrated apologist of the Quakers, was born on Dec. 23, 1648, at Gordonstown in Morayshire, Scotland. His father was the son of David Bar clay of Mothers, the representative of an old Scoto-Norman family, which traced itself through 15 intervening generations to Walter de Berkeley, who acquired a settlement in Scotland about the middle of the 12th e.; his mother was the daughter of sir Robert Gordon, the premier baronet of Nova Scotia, and historian of the house of Sutherland. Young B. received the rudiments of learning in his native country, and was afterwards sent to the Scotch college at Paris, of which his uncle was rector. Here he made rapid progress in his studies, and excited the admiration of his preceptors, as well as of his relative, who offered to make him his heir, if he would remain in France, and formally adopt the Roman Catholic religion, to the ceremonies of he had been habituated during his residence there. This, however, B. refused to do; and in compliance with the wish which his mother had expressed ou her death-bed, he returned home in 1664. Though only 16, B. was an excellent scholar. and could speak in the Latin language with wonderful fluency and correctness. In 1667, he embraced the principles of the society of Friends, for reasons more highly respected in our day than in his. He states in his Treatise on Universal Love, that his "first education fell among the strictest sort of Cal vinists," those of his country "surpassing in the heat of zeal not only Geneva, from whence they derive their pedigree, but all the other so-called reformed churches;" that shortly afterwards, his transition to France had thrown him among the opposite "sect of Papists," whom, after a time, he found to be no less deficient in charity than the other; and that, consequently, he had refrained from joining any,'though he had listened to several. The ultimate effect of this vas to liberalize his mind, by convincing him of the folly and wickedness of religious strife. In both Calvinists and Catholics, he found an absence of "the principles of love," "a straitness of doctrine," and a "practice of persecution," which offended his idea of Christianity, as well as his gentle and generous nature. Ile therefore allied himself gladly to this new sect, whose distinguishing feature was its charity and pure simplicity of Christian life, and soon became one of its most devoted adherents and its ablest avocate. In the course of his life he made several
excursions into England, Holland. and Germany, earnestly propagating his peaceful views wherever he went, and occasionally enjoying the companionship of William Penn. His first publication was Truth, Cleared of Calumnies. It appeared in 1670, and was intended as a refutation of the charges—many of them notoriously false—made against the new sect. In 1673 appeared A Catechism and Confession of Faith, the answers to the questions being—to avoid theological dogmatism—in the words of Scripture. This was followed by The Anarchy of the Ranters, etc. In 1675. he published his magnum opus, elaborately entitled An Apology for the True Chtistian Divinity, as the same is held forth and Preached by the People called in scorn yuakers : 13eing a full Explanation, etc. It contains a statement and defense of 15 religious propositions peculiar to the Friends. The lmding- doctrine which runs through the whole book is, that divine truth is made known to us not by logical investigation, but by intuition or immediate revelation ; and that the faculty, if it can be technically defined, by which such intuition is rendered possible, is the "internal light," the source of which is God, or, more properly, Christ, " who is the light that lighteth every man that cometh into the world." The identity of this doctrine with that held by Mr. Maurice and others of the Broad church in the present day has been more than once remarked. In 1677 appeared his Treatise on Universal Lore. It was the first of that long series of noble and gentle remonstrances against the crimi nality of war that has so honorably distinguished the society of Friends, It was addressed to the ambassadors of the several princes of Europe, met at Nimeguen• In 1686, he published his last work, which was a defense of the doctrine of " immediate revelation." He died at Ury, in Kincardineshire, Oct. 3, 1690. His estate remained in the possession of his descendants till 1854, its owner at that time being captain Barclay, the famous pedestrian. " The Apologist's Study," which remained much as he left it, was long an object of pilgrimage with members of the society of Friends; it was de stroyed a few years ago, when the old house of Ury was pulled down.