thing which is substituted may be, if we reject the Gospel, we cut ourselves off from salvation; because God hath plainly declared to us who have the Scriptures, that there is no other way of salvation for us, than that which he hath made known to us in the Holy Scriptures.
We unite with the Yearly Meeting of Philadelphia, in believing that the unscriptural notion of "the light within being the primary rule of faith and practice," lay at the very root of Hickism; and that the depreciation of the Scriptures (or as it was artfully termed, "SETTING THEM IN THEIR RIGHT PLACE,") followed as the baneful and inevitable consequence. But in connection with these two fatal errors, were a third and fourth; for regardless of the important distinction which is made in Scripture, between the offices of the Son of God, and those of the Holy Spirit, these offices were completely confounded. And the doctrine of obedience, or the righteousness of the law, was substituted for the righteousness which is by faith in Jesus Christ; and thus was introduced "another Gospel," or, in other words, an entire perversion of the Gospel of Christ. These then were the notions, of which Hicksism in its commencement was constituted, and probably many who have ranged themselves as its abettors, have not gone much beyond this point; but let it be known through the length and breadth of our Society, that its incipient state was by far the most insidious, and its victims were much more numerous, than when the broad blasphemy of some of its propagators apprized the unwary of its deadly poison; for thousands in America imbibed the subtle heresy, before they were aware of its danger. "Believe not every
