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
Nor most I forget again to bring to the notice of the reader the
instance, though on a smaller scale, of the colonists and descendants of
William Penn. The Quakers have uniformly conducted themselves towards
the Indians in such a manner, as to have given them from their earliest
intercourse, an exulted idea of their character. And the consequence is,
as I stated in a former section, that the former, in affairs of
importance, are consulted by the latter at the present day. But why, if
the cabinet of any one powerful nation were to act upon the noble
principle of relinquishing war, should we think the other cabinets so
lost to good feelings, as not to respect its virtue? Let us instantly
abandon this thought; for the supposition of a contrary sentiment would
make them worse than the savages I have mentioned.
Let us then cherish the fond hope, that human animosities are not to be
eternal, and that man is not always to be made a tiger to man. Let us
hope that the government of some one nation (and when we consider the
vast power of the British empire, the nature of its constitution and
religion, and the general humanity of its inhabitants, none would be
better qualified than our own) will set the example of the total
dereliction of wars. And let us, in all our respective situations,
precede the anticipated blessing, by holding out the necessity of the
subjugation of the passions, and by inculcating the doctrine of
universal benevolence to man, so that when we look upon the beautiful
islands, which lie scattered as so many ornaments of the ocean, we may
wish their several inhabitants no greater injury than the violence of
their own waves; or that, when we view continents at a distance from us,
we may consider them as inhabited by our brothers; or that when we
contemplate the ocean itself, which may separate them from our sight, we
may consider it, not as separating our love, but as intended by
Providence to be the means of a quicker intercourse for the exchange of
reciprocal blessings.
CHAP. IV.
SECT. 1.
_Fourth tenet is on the subject of a pecuniary maintenance of a Gospel
ministry--Example and precepts of Jesus Christ--Also of Paul and
Peter--Conclusions from these premises--These conclusions supported by
the primitive practice--Great tenet resulting from these conclusions,
and this primitive practice is, that the Quakers hold it unlawful to pay
their own ministers, and also others of any other denomination, for
their Gospel labours._
The fourth and last tenet of the Quakers is on the subject of the
unlawfulness of a pecuniary maintenance of a Gospel ministry.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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