void of all composition or division, and therefore can neither be resisted, hurt, wounded, crucified, or slain, by all the efforts and strength of men; but we understand a spiritual, heavenly, and invisible principle, in which God as Father, Son, and Spirit, dwells; a measure of which divine and glorious life is in all men as a seed, which of its own nature draws, invites, and inclines to God; and this some call vehiculum Dei, or the spiritual body of Christ, the flesh and blood of Christ which came down from heaven, on which all the saints do feed, and are thereby nourished unto eternal life. And as every unrighteous action is witnessed against, and reproved by this light and seed, so by such actions it is hurt, wounded, and slain, and flees from them, even as the flesh of man flees from that which is of a contrary nature to it. Now because it is never separated from God nor Christ, but wherever it is, God and Christ are as wrapped up therein, therefore, and in that respect as it is resisted, God is said to be resisted; and where it is borne down, God is said to be pressed as a cart under sheaves, and Christ is said to be slain and crucified. And, on the contrary, as this seed is received in the heart, and suffered to bring forth its natural

and proper effect, Christ comes to be formed and raised, of which the Scripture makes so much mention; calling it the new man, Christ within, the hope of glory. This is that Christ within which we are heard so much to speak and declare of every where, preaching him up and exhorting people to believe in the light and obey it; that they may come to know Christ in them, to deliver them from all sin." Barclay's Apology. Seventh Edit. Prop. v. vi., § xiii.

"And in this seed in the hearts of all men is the kingdom of God, as in capacity to be produced, or rather exhibited, according as it receives depth, is nourished, and not choked; hence Christ saith that the kingdom of God was in the very pharisees (Luke xvii. 20, 21) who did oppose and resist him, and were justly accounted as serpents and a generation of vipers. Now the kingdom of God could be no otherwise in them than in a seed, even as the thirty fold and the hundred fold is wrapped up in a small seed lying in a barren ground, which springs not forth because it wants nourishment, and as the whole body of a great tree is wrapped up potentially in the seed of the tree, and so is brought forth in due season, and as the

capacity of a man or woman is not only in a child, but even in the very embryo; even so the kingdom of Jesus Christ, yea, Jesus Christ himself, Christ within, who is the hope of glory, and becometh wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption, is in every man and woman's heart in that little incorruptible seed, ready to be brought forth, as it is cherished and received in the love of it. For there can be no men worse than those rebellious and unbelieving Pharisees were, and yet this kingdom was thus within them, and they were directed to look for it there; so it is neither lo here! nor lo there! in this or the other observation, that this is known; but as this seed of God in the heart is minded and entertained. And certainly hence it is, even because this light, seed, and grace, that appears in the heart of man is so little regarded, and so much overlooked, that so few know Christ brought forth in them." Barclay's Apology, Prop. v. vi. § 24.

Much the same theory is also exhibited by J. Pennington. See his works, vol. ii. p. 598.

If Robert Barclay had really wished to bring the gospel into contempt, he could hardly have written any thing more likely to effect the purpose. It is, indeed, difficult to conceive how a

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sensible man could gravely write what is extracted above; and the same observations would apply to what is to be found in the works of J. Pennington.

"For a second reason of its (the inward light's) insufficiency, thou sayest it reveals not Jesus Christ a Saviour, in respect it gives not a discovery of his incarnation, passion, resurrection, &c., citing 1 Cor. ii. 2. And from this place thou wouldst infer that the apostle preferred the knowledge of Christ, as crucified outwardly, to all other knowledge. Answer: Though we willingly acknowledge, that to know him even as he did outwardly come, and was crucified, &c., is a good knowledge, and of great profit and comfort to them who believe, yet we deny that the knowledge of him as outwardly crucified is the best of all other knowledge of him, or to be preferred to all other ways of knowing him; nor does that scripture. 1 Cor. ii. 2, prove it.

"For Paul is not speaking there of Christ as crucified outwardly in Judea, but of him as he was inwardly crucified in the Corinthians, when Paul first came unto them to preach the gospel, as the words do plainly import, being rightly translated out of the Greek:

"For I determined not to know any thing iv uv that is, in you,* but Jesus Christ and him crucified. This was the apostle's care and travail in his ministry, to declare and hold forth unto the Corinthians and other Gentiles Jesus Christ, who was crucified in them in his suffering seed, even that seed of light and truth which suffered and was crucified in them under the burden of their transgression. According to which, he said to the Galatians that Jesus Christ was evidently set before their eyes, crucified in them, ¿v vv, And (Eph. iii. 8.) he said this grace was given unto him to preach εν τοις έθνεσιν,—that is, in the Gentiles, the unsearchable riches of Christ. Parallel to which is that of the apostle, (Col. i. 27, for so should all these places be translated,) which riches of Christ lay hid and wrapped up in them, in the seed of the kingdom, which was the least of all seeds. So for this the apostle laboured, that people might know Christ in them, and might embrace him in their hearts, that so he might be formed in them, (Gal. iv. 19.)

According to this absurd interpretation, or rather misinterpretation, Acts ii. 29, ought to be translated, “Men and brethren, let me freely speak unto you of the patriarch David, that he is both dead and buried, and his sepulchre εotiv ev niv, is in us unto this day!"