aware of the errors which led to it: especially as these errors are a perversion of the truths of Christianity, and endanger the eternal salvation of man.
The great deception appears to have originated in the assumption, that we are authorised to expect to be taught the true knowledge of God and of his salvation,—our duty to him, and to our fellow-men, immediately by the Spirit, independently of his revelation through the Scriptures,—an assumption which is unsupported by Scripture, contradicted by fact, and one which renders its votaries a prey to many fatal delusions.
As a consequence of this assumption, the Hicksites denied the paramount authority of the Scriptures, even calling them a dead letter: and, whilst professing a high regard for the sacred writings, they gave many cautions against depending on them, under the pretext of a watchful care not to dishonour the Spirit.
They considered certain impressions made on
