CHAP. III.


SECT. I.

_War--Tenet on war--Quakers hold it unlawful for Christians to
fight--Scriptural passages, which they produce in support of this
tenet--Arguments which others produce from scriptural authority against
it--Reply of the Quakers to these arguments._


The next of the great tenets which the Quakers hold, is on the subject
of war. They believe it unlawful for Christians to engage in the
profession of arms, or indeed to bear arms under any circumstances of
hostility whatever. Hence there is no such character as that of a Quaker
soldier. A Quaker is always able to avoid the regular army, because the
circumstance of entering into it is a matter of choice. But where he has
no such choice, as is the case in the militia, he either submits, if he
has property, to distraints upon it, or, if he has not, to prison.[4]

[Footnote 4: The Quakers have been charged with inconsistency in
refusing military service, and yet in paying those taxes, which are
expressly for the support of wars. To this charge they reply, that they
believe it to be their duty to render to Caesar the things which are
Caesar's, and to leave the application of them to Caesar himself, as he
judges best for the support of government. This duty they collect from