The first piece is a 1673 epistle pertaining to church discipline which Barclay probably did not write, but was among the signers of. Others signers included Stephen Crisp, Charles Marshall, William Penn, and George Whitehead. This epistle, as noted, is taken from A.R. Barclay's Letters of the Early Friends, with A.R. Barclay's text coming from a copy produced by Thomas Ellwood. The second piece, which is also the longest and most complicated, deals with divine revelation and dates to 1676. The background, briefly, is that the Dutch Ambassador to Spain, Adrian Paets, was critiquing a misrepresentation of the Quaker view regarding immediate revelation. Barclay is thus dealing with the actual view, the misrepresented view, and Paets' own, alternative view. This letter and related material is from William Sewell's famous History of the Rise, Increase, and Progress of the Christian People Called Quakers.
This is followed by three brief personal letters, addressed to Stephen Crisp, Sarah Fell (one of Margaret Fell's daughters,) and George Fox. These are also taken from A.R. Barclay's Letters of the Early Friends.
This compilation concludes with the text of a sermon and prayer pertaining to soteriology and
delivered in 1688. It is taken from a collection of early Quaker sermons variously called Gospel
Truth Demonstrated or Sermons by the People Called Quakers. It is hoped that more material by
this very important figure will continue to be reproduced in faithful and accurate editions.
Peter D. Sippel
Warminster, PA