CHAP. I.

_Civil government--First tenet is, that governors have no right to
interfere with the governed on the subject of Religion--and that if they
interfere, and insist upon things which the conscience disapproves, the
governed ought to refuse a compliance with them, and to bear patiently
all the penalties annexed to such a refusal, but never to resist the
governors by violence on this or any other account._


The Quakers hold four principles, which I shall distinguish by the name
of Great Tenets. These are considered as arising out of the implied or
positive injunctions of Christianity, and were insisted upon as
essentials on the formation of the society. The first of these is on the
subject of Civil Government.

Civil Government had existed long before the appearance of Christianity
in the world. Legislators since that era, as they have imbibed its
spirit, so they have introduced this spirit more or less into their
respective codes. But, no nation has ever professed to change its system
of jurisprudence, or to model it anew, in consequence of the new light
which Christianity has afforded: neither have the alterations been so
numerous in any nation, however high its profession of Christianity,
with respect to laws, as to enable us to say, that there is any
government in the known world, of Christian origin, or any government
wholly upon the principles of the gospel.