The rights and duties of the foas of indivi ciety the fame duals. Every individual human being has not only a right, but is under an indifpenfible obligation to adopt that religious cult or mode of worship, which, after due deliberation, in the fincerity of his heart, he thinks his Creator requires of him; it follows of courfe, that a fociety compofed of fuch individuals muft, collectively taken, enjoy the fame right, and be under the fame duty and obligation. As, therefore, it is neither my intention nor purpose to examine, or even confider the reasons, grounds, or merits of the religious perfuafion of any one individual, fo fhall I equally avoid the discussion or examination of the internal evidence of that religion, which the majority of this community has thought proper to countenance and fupport by civil fanctions. The civil establishment of a religion affects in no manner the truth or falfehood of the religion itself. * "The magiftrate (or fupreme civil power) in Turkey has juft the fame uncontrouled civil right to establish the religion he ap proves, as a Chriftian magiftrate has to eftablish his choice: christianity made no alteration in this cafe; but left civil power as is found it; and if it was before the judge, The civil establigion affects the religion ite lishment of re not the truth of felf. Changes in fucceffion of the country. what religion it fhould eftablish, it continues fo ftill." And the fame learned author, who is remarkable for perfpicuity and strength of argument, further fays; * "Nothing, therefore, can be more unjuft or impertinent, than those fuggeftions, that upon my principles, popery will be the true religion in Spain, prefbytery in Scotland, and Mahometifm in Turkey. Thefe are, indeed, the establifhed religions in thofe places; but not one jot the more true for being established. To the laws establishing religion, civil obedience is due, in the fame measures and under the fame referves in Spain, as in England; but affent of judgment against private convictions is no part of the obligations arifing from the establishment in either." Thus did our British ancestors adopt for religion in this fome centuries the Druidical inftitutions; after that, they embraced the Chriflian religion, under king Lucius, which was preached to them by St. Damianus, fent hither from Rome for that purpose by St. Eleutherius; and when the Saxons conquered the island, a part of the community retired into the mountains of Wales, to preferve their liberties and religion from the innovations and en-. * Rogers's Vindication, p. 208. croachments The croachments of their new mafters. When I speak of the adoption of religion either by one or more individuals, I wish ever to be understood to speak of it, as of the free act of a free agent. True it is, that our bleffed Redeemer came upon earth to eftablifh the Christian religion; and his injunction to mankind to fubmit to and adopt it is mandatory and unexceptionable; but then it is equally true, that the act of fubmiffion to, and adoption of it, muft neceffarily be the free and voluntary act of the individual. It was by preaching, that our bleffed Lord himself and his apoftles and their fucceffors propagated G 3 Original conftitutional connection of church and ftate, gated and established the Chriftian religion: the effects of preaching are perfuafion and conviction; and thefe effentially prefuppofe the freedom of the person to be persuaded and convinced. Perfuafion and conviction formally exclude every idea of neceffity and compulfion. From the firft formation of man to the present hour, the following faying of dean Tucker was equally true: *No human authority ought to compel man to surrender to any one his right of thinking and judging for himself in the affairs of religion, because this is a perfonal thing between God and his confcience, and he can neither be faved nor damned by proxy." The very earliest traces of our conftitution bespeak its interwoven texture of church with ftate. Upon the avowed affumption, that religion generally promotes morality, our ancestors wifely determined, that a religious establishment fhould be fanctioned by the community, and the legal establishment of it fhould form an effential part of the English constitution. Now although govern ment, as we have before feen, be effential to * Vid. Religious Intolerance no part of the general plan, either of the Mofaic or Chriftian Difpenfation, by Jof. Tucker, D. D. Dean of Glouc. 1774. fociety, fociety, yet the particular form of government, which each particular fociety should adopt, was left to the free option of the fo ciety, and neceffarily remains open to whatever changes or improvements the fame fociety fhall think proper, convenient, and neceffary, from time to time to introduce. So although a religious establishment be effential to the English conftitution, yet the particular form of that establishment must as neceffarily remain open to the general sense and option of the community, as the freedom of each individual's intercourfé and communication with his creator muft for ever remain perfectly uncontrouled. Without entering, therefore, into any polemical controversy or difpute about the particular tenets, doctrines, or principles of what once was, or what now is the religion fanctioned by the law of England, whatever my own religious opinion or belief may be, I am bound by principle to allow to my neighbour the fame liberty and right of following the dictates of his confcience, which I claim to myself: and whatever that mode of worship may be, in the free and conscientious adoption of which the majority fhall concur, the community hath the unimpeachable right of countenancing and fupporting it by civil fanctions, or, in other G4 words, The right of a give civil fanc community to tion to what ever they concur in. |