er 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.

If all men were to become real Christians, civil government would become
less necessary. As there would be then no offences, there would be no
need of magistracy or of punishment. As men would then settle any
differences between them amicably, there would be no necessity for
courts of law. As they would then never fight, there would be no need of
armies. As they would then consider their fellow-creatures as brethren,
they would relieve them as such, and there would be no occasion of laws
for the poor. As men would then have more solicitude for the public
good, and more large and liberal notions, than at any former time, they
would of themselves conceive and raise all necessary public institutions
and works. Government then is not so necessary for real Christians. It
is necessary principally, as the apostle says, for evil-doers. But if it
be chiefly necessary for evil-doers, then governors ought to be careful
how they make laws, which may vex, harrass, and embarrass Christians,
whom they will always find to be the best part of their communities, or,
in other words, how they make laws, which Christians, on account of
their religious scruples, cannot conscientiously obey.

It is a tenet of the Quakers, on the subject of government, that the
civil magistrate has no right to interfere in religious matters, so as
either to force any particular doctrines upon men, or to hinder them
from worshipping God in their own way, provided that, by their creeds
and worship, they do no detriment to others. The Quakers believe,
however, that Christian churches may admonish such members as fall into
error, and may even cut them off from membership, but this must be done
not by the temporal, but by the spiritual sword.

This tenet the Quakers support, first, by reason. Religion, they say, is
a matter solely, between God and man, that is, between God and that man
who worships him. This must be obvious, they conceive, because man is
not accountable to man for his religious opinions, except he binds
himself to the discipline of a