A Portraiture of Quakerism, Volume 3: Taken from a View of the Education and Discipline, Social Manners, Civil and Political Economy, Religious Principles and Character, of the Society of FriendsClarkson, Thomas
Religion
A Portraiture of Quakerism, Volume 3: Taken from a View of the Education and Discipline, Social Manners, Civil and Political Economy, Religious Principles and Character, of the Society of Friends
Clarkson, Thomas
Society of Friends
A third quotation, made by the Quakers, is taken from St. Paul
exclusively.[9] "Now if any man have not the spirit of Christ, he is
none of his." That is, if men have not the same disposition which Jesus
Christ manifested in the different situations of his life, the same
spirit of humility and of forbearance, and of love, and of forgiveness
of injuries, or if they do not follow him as a pattern, or if they do
not act as he would have done on any similar occasion, they are not
Christians. Now they conceive, knowing what the spirit of Jesus was by
those things which have been recorded of him, that he could never have
been induced or compelled, by any earthly consideration or power, to
have engaged in the wars of the world. They are aware that his mission,
which it became him to fulfil, and which engrossed all his time, would
not have allowed him the opportunity of a military life. But they
believe, independently of this, that the spirit which he manifested upon
earth, would have been of itself a sufficient bar to such an employment.
This they judge from his opinions and his precepts. For how could he
have taken up arms to fight, who enjoined in the new dispensation, that
men were not to resist evil; that they were to love their enemies; that
they were to bless those who cursed them, and to do good to those who
hated them? This they judge also from his practice. For how could he
have lifted up his arm against another, who, "when he was reviled,
reviled not again;" and who, in his very agony upon the Cross, prayed
for his persecutors, saying, "Father, forgive them, for they know not
what they do." But if Jesus Christ could not have been induced or
compelled to have engaged in a profession, which would have subjected
him to take away the life of another, so neither can any Christian; "for
if a man have not the spirit of Christ, he is none of his."
[Footnote 9: Rom. viii. 9.]
Three arguments are usually brought against the Quakers on this subject.
The first is, that John the Baptist,[10] when the soldiers demanded of
him what they should do, did not desire them to leave the service in
which they were engaged, but, on the other hand, to be content with
their wages. To this the Quakers reply, that John told them also, "to do
violence to no man." But even if he had not said this, they apprehend
that nothing could be deduced from his expressions, which could become
binding upon Christians. For John was the last prophet of the old
dispensation, but was never admitted into the new. He belonged to the
system which required an eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth, but
not to that which required no resistance to evil, and which insisted
upon the love of enemies as well as of friends. Hence Jesus Christ said
of him, that "he who was least in the kingdom of heaven, was greater
than he."
[Footnote 10: Luke iii. 14.]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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