It is there declared that
every man shall be free to worship God according to the dictates of
his own conscience, and to profess and by argument to maintain his
opinion in matters of religion; and that the same shall in no wise
diminish, enlarge, or affect his civil capacity.
Here it is simply
presumed that every man will worship a God, and no allusion is made
even to Christianity.
In Massachusetts they are again hardly honest. "It is the right,"
says the constitution, "as well as the duty of all men in society
publicly and at stated seasons to worship the supreme Being, the
Great Creator and Preserver of the universe." And then it goes on
to say that every man may do so in what form he pleases; but
further down it declares that "every denomination of Christians,
demeaning themselves peaceably and as good subjects of the
commonwealth, shall be equally under the protection of the law."
But what about those who are not Christians? In New Hampshire it
is exactly the same. It is enacted that "every individual has a
natural and unalienable right to worship God according to the
dictates of his own conscience and reason." And that "every
denomination of Christians, demeaning themselves quietly and as
good citizens of the State, shall be equally under the protection
of the law." From all which it is, I think, manifest that the men
who framed these documents, desirous above all things of cutting
themselves and their people loose from every kind of trammel, still
felt the necessity of enforcing religion - of making it, to a
certain extent, a matter of State duty.
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