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
That the policy of the Gospel, if acted upon by statesmen, would render
wars unnecessary, we may infer from supposed cases. And, first, I would
ask this simple question, whether, if all the world were Quakers, there
would be any more wars? I am sure the reply would be, no. But why not?
Because nations of Quakers, it would be replied, would discuss matters
in dispute between them with moderation, with temper, and with
forbearance. They would never make any threats. They would never arm,
and consequently they would never fight. It would be owing then to these
principles, or, in other words, to the adoption of the policy of the
Gospel in preference of the policy of the world, that, if the globe were
to be peopled by Quakers, there would be no wars. Now I would ask, what
are Quakers but men, and might not all, if they would suffer themselves
to be cast in the same mould as the Quakers, come out of it of the same
form and character?
But I will go still farther. I will suppose that any one of the four
continents, having been previously divided into three parts, was
governed only by three Quakers, and that these had the same authority
over their subjects, as their respective sovereigns have at present. And
I win maintain, that there would never be, upon this continent, during
their respective administrations, another war. For, first, many of the
causes of war would be cut off. Thus, for instance, there would be no
disputes about insults offered to flags. There would be none again about
the balance of power. In short, it would be laid down as a position,
that no one was to do evil, that good might come. But as,
notwithstanding, there might still be disputes from other causes, these
would be amicably settled. For first, the same Christian disposition
would be manifest in the discussion as in the former case. And,
secondly, if the matter should be of an intricate nature, so that one
Quaker government could not settle it with another, these would refer
it, according to their constitution, to a third. This would be the "ne
plus ultra" of the business. Both the discussion and the dispute would
end here. What a folly then to talk of the necessity of wars, when, if
but three Quakers were to rule a continent, they would cease there?
There can be no plea for such language, but the impossibility of taming
the human passions. But the subjugation of these is the immediate object
of our religion. To confess, therefore, that wars must be, is either to
utter a libel against Christianity, or to confess that we have not yet
arrived at the stature of real Christians.
SECT. VII.
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