Page:A Beacon to the Society of Friends.djvu/20

16 "He [Jesus] does not move us in the least degree to any book or writing whatever, but leaves every thing outward entirely behind as having passed by, for he abolished all external evidence, as not being capable of bringing about salvation to the soul." Quaker; vol II. p. 264.

"No experience will ever be worth any thing to us, which is not our own experience, begotten through the influence of the blessed Spirit of God" N. York sermons, p. 123.

Thomas Wetherald says, "I want us therefore, in our investigation of spiritual things, to bring spiritual evidence to prove spiritual truths. Let us attend to spiritual reflections, and not be looking to the Scriptures, and to the systems of men, and to the words of preachers; for all these being of an external character, can only form an ignis fatuus, which 'leads to bewilder and dazzles to blind.'" Quaker, vol. II. p. 217.

In accordance with the above sentiments concerning the Holy Scriptures, the Berean says, "In vain does any man quote the scriptures as authority for his opinions; for if they have not been immediately revealed to his own mind by the Holy Spirit, they deserve no better name as it respects him, than speculations. Vol II. p. 211.

"Those revelations were for other times and other states, and not for us. They belong to those to whom they were immediately revealed. And that, and only that, which is immediately revealed to us, belongs in like manner to us and to us only." Ibid. p. 212

"Now the revelations respecting the nature of God, which were made to the Israelites, are true when