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Barclay
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Barclay

the divine light. He then proceeds to deduce the special doctrines of the quakers in regard to the ministry, worship, and the sacraments from the same principle, rejecting what seems to him to be outward and mechanical; and (in the fourteenth proposition, on the power of the civil magistrate) argues against all exercise of conscience by secular authority. The last proposition defends the quaker repugnance to outward ceremonies and worldly recreations. Barclay's affinity to the so-called Cambridge Platonists and to the mystical writers is obvious. He quotes Smith's select discourses with approval; and speaks with reverence of ‘Bernard and Bonaventure, Taulerus, Thomas à Kempis,’ and others who have ‘known and tasted the love of God.’ His recognition of a divine light working in men of all creeds harmonises with the doctrine of toleration, which he advocates with great force and without the restrictions common in his time. For this reason he was accused of leaning towards deism, and is noticed with respect by Voltaire. In fact, if we dropped the distinction which with him is cardinal between the divine light and the natural reason, many of his arguments would fall in with those of the freethinkers, who agreed with him in pronouncing external evidences to be insufficient, though with a very different intention. Barclay's principal writings are as follows: 1. ‘Truth cleared of Calumnies,’ 1670. 2. ‘William Mitchel unmasqued,’ 1672. 3. ‘Seasonable Warning to the Inhabitants of Aberdeen,’ 1672. 4. ‘Catechism and Confession of Faith,’ [1673]. 5. ‘Theses Theologiæ,’ 1675. 6. ‘The Anarchy of Ranters,’ 1676. 7. ‘Apology for the true Christian Divinity, as the same is set forth and preached by the people called in scorn Quakers,’ 1678: a version of the ‘Theologiæ veræ Christianæ Apologia,’ published at Amsterdam, 1676. 8. ‘Universal Love, considered and established upon its right foundation,’ 1677. 9. ‘The Apology vindicated,’ 1679. 10. ‘The Possibility and Necessity of an Inward and Immediate Revelation,’ 1686: an English version of a Latin letter to Paets, written in 1676.

The ‘Catechism’ and ‘Apology’ have been frequently reprinted; and the ‘Apology’ has been translated into Dutch, German, French, Spanish, Danish, and (part of it) into Arabic.

Barclay's works were collected in 1692 into a folio volume, called ‘Truth Triumphant,’ with a preface attributed to Penn. They were republished in three volumes in 1717–18, and have also been published in America. Full details and references to some manuscripts still unpublished are given in Smith's Catalogue.

[A Short Account of the Life and Writings of R. Barclay, 1802; Genealogical Account of the Barclays of Urie, 1740; the same edited by H. Mill, 1812; Life by Wilson Armistead (adding little to the above), 1850; Reliquiæ Barclaianæ, a (lithographed) collection of letters, privately printed 1870 (a copy in the British Museum); Life by Kippis, in the Biographia Britannica; Diary of Alexander Jaffray, by John Barclay, (1833); Besse's Collection of the Sufferings of Quakers, vol. ii.; Smith's Catalogue of Friends' Books; Sewel's and Croese's Histories of the Quakers.]

BARCLAY, ROBERT (1774–1811), lieutenant-colonel, entered the army as an ensign in the 38th regiment on 28 Oct. 1789, and embarked with his regiment for the East Indies, where he signalised himself in most of the actions fought there in 1793. He was so distinguished by his talents and courage that he was promoted to a lieutenancy on 31 May 1793, and to a company on 8 April 1795, and on both occasions out of his turn. Having been taken prisoner by the enemy, he suffered much in captivity, and in the year following his promotion he returned to England. Though entitled to six months' leave, he hastened to rejoin his regiment, then in the West Indies.

His distinguished qualities having become known to Lieutenant-general Sir John Moore, he was promoted to a majority in the 52nd on 17 Sept. 1803, and on 29 May 1806 to a lieutenant-colonelcy. In 1808 he accompanied Sir John Moore in the expedition to Sweden, and afterwards to Portugal. He was mentioned in despatches for his distinguished conduct at the battle on the Coa on 24 June 1810. He afterwards commanded a brigade, at the head of which, when charging the French on the heights of Busaco, he received a wound below the left knee. For his conduct at Busaco he was again honourably mentioned in despatches. His wound obliged him to leave the service, and he died from the effects of it on 11 May 1811.

[Historical Record of the 52nd Regt. p. 122; Despatches of Field-Marshal the Duke of Wellington, iv. 184–306; Army Lists.]

BARCLAY, Captain ROBERT (1779- 1864), pedestrian. [See Allardice.]

BARCLAY, ROBERT (1833–1876), ecclesiastical historiographer, was born 4 Aug. 1833 at Croydon. He was the younger son of John Barclay (b. 1797, d. 1838), a lineal descendant of the apologist in a younger