THE QUAKER PEACE TESTIMONY
“We....utterly...deny all outward wars and strife with outward weapons,
for any end - or under any pretense - whatsoever.
Our principle is, and our practices always have been,
to seek peace and ensue it
and follow after righteousness and the knowledge of God,
seeking the good and welfare,
and doing that by which tends to the peace of all.....
And this is our testimony to the whole world....
The spirit of [the Lord], by which we are guided, is not changeable,
so as to once command us from a thing as evil,
and again to move unto it;
and
we do certainly know, and so testify to the world,
that the Spirit of [the Divine] -
- which leads us into all Truth -
will never move us to fight and war against any man
with outward weapons,
neither for the kingdom of [God], nor for any kingdoms of this world.....
...Our weapons are spiritual and not carnal.....
our swords are broken into plow-shares
and spears into pruning-hooks....
Therefore we cannot learn war any more....
Taken from “A Declaration from the Harmless and Innocent people of God, called Quakers”
21st day, 11th month, 1660 to CHARLES II King of England, from George Fox
