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A Portraiture of Quakerism, Volume 3 by Thomas Clarkson
page 24 of 274 (08%)

[Footnote 5: Matt. v. 38.]

[Footnote 6: The Heathen nations, on account of their idolatry, were
called enemies by the Jews.]

Other passages, quoted by the Quakers, in favour of their tenet on war,
are taken from the apostles Paul and James conjointly.

The former, in his[7] second epistle to the Corinthians, says, "For
though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh: For the
weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the
pulling down of strong holds, to the casting down imaginations, and
every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and
bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ." From
hence the Quakers argue, that the warfare of Christianity, or that which
Christianity recognises, is not carnal, but spiritual, and that it
consists in the destruction of the evil imaginations, or of the evil
lusts and passions of men. That is, no man can be a true soldier of
Christ, unless his lusts are subdued, or unless the carnal be done away
by the spiritual mind. Now this position having been laid down by St.
Paul, or the position having been established in Christian morals, that
a state of subjugated passions is one of the great characteristic marks
of a true Christian, the Quakers draw a conclusion from it by the help
of the words of St. James. This apostle, in his letter to the dispersed
tribes, which were often at war with each other, as well as with the
Romans, says,[8] "From whence come wars and fightings among you? Come
they not hence even of your lusts that war in your members?" But if wars
come from the lusts of men, then the Quakers say, that those who have
subdued their lusts, can no longer engage in them, or, in other words,
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