Page:A Beacon to the Society of Friends.djvu/26

22 they directly assert, That he [Jesus Christ] was raised above the mere human character by the same means, and in the same manner, that every other righteous man is,&mdash;that he was put upon a level with us,&mdash;that God who is equal and righteous in all his ways, never can set him above us, because if he did he would be partial,&mdash;that Christ was the Saviour of Jesus Christ,&mdash;that we need not say that it is his spirit, but only that it is the same spirit, a portion of which was in him,&mdash;that we come up into an equality with him,&mdash;that Jesus could do no more than to recommend to the Comforter,&mdash;that when he had done this, he had done his office,&mdash;that he never directed to himself,&mdash;that he was only an outward Saviour, a figure of the Comforter,&mdash;it was the soul that wanted salvation, but this no outward Saviour could do, no external Saviour could have any hand in it,&mdash;that Jesus Christ was not the hope of glory,&mdash;that it is not that outward manifestation which it concerns us to have an interest in,&mdash;that we may have access to God without any mediator,&mdash;and lastly, that ascribing a proper divinity to Jesus Christ, making him the foundation of every Christian doctrine, and asserting that the divine nature essentially belonged to him, is among the darkest doctrines that have ever been introduced into the Christian church.

On the offering of our Lord upon the cross as a sacrifice for sin, Elias Hicks remarks: "But I do not consider that the crucifixion of the outward body of flesh and blood of Jesus on the cross, was an atonement for any sins but the legal sins of the Jews," &c.&mdash; "Surely is it possible that any rational being that has