Brief Remarks on Impartiality in the Interpretation of Scripture

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V I have perused parts of the sermons and writings of the late Elias Hicks, and other documents which came from the pens of some of his associates. I have also had the opportunity of hearing the preaching of some of your ministers; and have freely conversed in private with several leading members of your body. The result is a clear conviction in my own mind, that many of those who once occupied, or who still occupy, the front rank amongst you, entertain the opinion, that Jesus Christ of Nazareth, the son of Mary, was only a human prophet— endued, indeed, with a large measure of the Spirit of God— but a mere man like ourselves, liable to sin, and himself requiring salvation. I cannot perceive that there is the smallest difference of sentiment On this subject, between Elias Hicks and his followers, and the class of professing Christians, commonly called Unitarians. Now it seems to me to be impossible, that persons who entertain such a view of the "man of sorrows," can regard him in the character of the Saviour of the world. Man cannot "by any means redeem his brother, or give to God a ransom for him." "I am God, saith Jehovah, and besides me there is no Saviour." Hence it follows, that those who look upon Jesus of Nazareth as a mere man, almost necessarily deny the doctrine of his propitiatory death and sacrifice on the cross. This observation applies, as I believe, to the leading members of your own body. So far as I have had the opportunity of becoming acquainted with their sentiments, I have been constrained to conclude, that they look upon the death of Jesus on the cross, "without the gate" of Jerusalem, as an "outward" circumstance—belonging solely to the history of the past—with which we have now no concern whatsoever, except perhaps as an example of patient suffering...