Page:A Beacon to the Society of Friends.djvu/25

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been validated.
EXTRACTS FROM A DECLARATION.
21

what means was he made more than man? I answer by the same means, and in the same manner, that every other righteous undefiled man is raised above the mere human character; that is to say, by the power and spirit of God the Father. Vol. II. p. 258.

"The Christ then which it concerns us to have an interest in, is not that outward manifestation which was limited in its operations to a small province—a single nation, and to this day known only by history to a few," &c. Ibid. vol. II. p. 21.

"But the manifestation to us is inward, and they [primitive friends] believe that it is the Christ within, and not the Christ without, on which is founded their hope of glory." Ibid, vol. II. p. 84.

In his attack upon the "Doctrines of Friends," the Berean says, "The doctrine therefore contained in the chapter under review, ascribing a proper divinity to Jesus Christ, making him 'the foundation of every Christian doctrine,' asserting that 'the divine nature essentially belonged to him,' and constituting him a distinct object of faith and worship, is not only antiscriptural, but opposed to the simplest principles of reason; and is, in short, among the darkest doctrines that has ever been introduced into the christian church." Vol. II. p. 259.

We are not left to conjecture the opinions of those who have separated from us, respecting our Lord Jesus Christ, nor to draw our conclusions from a few isolated expressions; their views upon the subject are delivered in unequivacal terms, and are diffused through most of their discourses and writings. By the extracts we have made from the discourses of Elias Hicks, and the doctrinal publications of the Separatists, it is plain that