# The Quaker light is not simply the self

Commentary on Orthodoxy by G. K. Chesterton.

On [CH05.P020](https://glosses.org/orthodoxy/pg16769-r1/CH05.P020/#char=1016,1054): "the Quaker doctrine of the Inner Light"

Chesterton's movement from inward illumination to Jones worshipping Jones obscures a distinction already explicit in Robert Barclay's *Apology*. First published in Latin in 1676 and English in 1678, it is inspected here in Gutenberg's transcription of the eighth English edition (Baskerville, 1765). In Propositions V–VI, §XVI, Barclay distinguishes the divine light from the soul's natural faculties and from conscience, which can follow a mistaken judgment. His lantern-and-candle comparison makes the point: the human receptacle is distinguishable from its illumination. [Barclay, pp. 117–120](https://www.gutenberg.org/files/56487/56487-h/56487-h.htm).

That does not settle Chesterton's objection to inward religious authority. It does show that a major early Quaker exposition rejects the equation of inwardness with natural self-sufficiency on which his caricature depends. Barclay can also criticize self-enthronement while directing believers inward. The two authors disagree over where divine authority is encountered, not simply over whether Jones should adore Jones.

## Sources

- [Robert Barclay, An Apology for the True Christian Divinity, eighth English edition (1765), Gutenberg transcription](https://www.gutenberg.org/files/56487/56487-h/56487-h.htm), Propositions V–VI, §XVI, pp. 117–120
- [R. S. M., The Midgley Library, Manchester](https://journals.sas.ac.uk/fhs/article/download/4502/4454/7881), Printed p. 91: Latin edition 1676; first English edition 1678; Baskerville 1765

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