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"Well aware that Almighty God hath created the mind free; that all
attempts to influence it by temporal punishments or burdens, or by
civil incapacitations, tend only to beget habits of hypocrisy and
meanness, and are a departure from the plan of the Holy Author of our
religion, who being Lord both of body and mind, yet chose not to
propagate it by coercions on either, as was in his Almighty power to
do; that the impious presumption of legislators and rulers, civil as
well as ecclesiastical, who, being themselves but fallible and
uninspired men, have assumed dominion over the faith of others, setting
up their own opinions and modes of thinking as the only true and
infallible, and as such endeavoring to impose them on others, hath
established and maintained false religions over the greatest part of
the world, and through all time; that to compel a man to furnish
contributions of money for the propagation of opinions which he
disbelieves, is sinful and tyrannical; that even the forcing him to
support this or that teacher of his own religious persuasion, is
depriving him of the comfortable liberty of giving his contributions to
the particular pastor whose morals he would make his pattern, and whose
powers he feels most persuasive to righteousness, and is withdrawing from
the ministry those temporal rewards, which proceeding from an approbation
of their personal conduct, are an additional incitement to earnest and
unremitting labors for the instruction of mankind; that our civil rights
have no dependence on our religious opinions, more than our opinions in
physics or geometry; that, therefore, the proscribing any citizen as
unworthy the public confidence by laying upon him an incapacity of being
called to the offices of trust and emolument, unless he profess or
renounce this or that religious opinion, is depriving him injuriously of
those privileges and advantages to which in common with his fellow
citizens he has a natural right; that it tends also to corrupt the
principles of that very religion it is meant to encourage, by bribing,
with a monopoly of worldly honors and emoluments, those who will
externally profess and conform to it; that though indeed these are
criminal who do not withstand such temptation, yet neither are those
innocent who lay the bait in their way; that to suffer the civil
magistrate to intrude his powers into the field of opinion and to
restrain the profession or propagation of principles, on the supposition
of their ill tendency, is a dangerous fallacy, which at once destroys
all religious liberty, because he being of course judge of that tendency,
will make his opinions the rule of judgment, and approve or condemn the
sentiments of others only as they shall square with or differ from his
own; that it is time enough for the rightful purposes of civil government,
for its officers to interfere when principles break out into overt acts
against peace and good order; and finally, that truth is great and will
prevail if left to herself, that she is the proper and sufficient
antagonist to error, and has nothing to fear from the conflict, unless
by human interposition disarmed of her natural weapons, free argument
and debate, errors ceasing to be dangerous when it is permitted freely
to contradict them.
Be it therefore enacted by the General Assembly, That no man shall be
compelled to frequent or support any religious worship, place, or
ministry whatsoever, nor shall be enforced, restrained, molested, or
burdened in his body or goods, nor shall otherwise suffer on account of
his religious opinions or belief; but that all men shall be free to
profess, and by argument to maintain, their opinions in matters of
religion, and that the same shall in nowise diminish, enlarge, or affect
their civil capacities.
Add though we well know this Assembly, elected by the people for the
ordinary purposes of legislation only, have no powers equal to our own
and that therefore to declare this act irrevocable would be of no effect
in law, yet we are free to declare, and do declare, that the rights
hereby asserted are of the natural rights of mankind, and that if any act
shall be hereafter passed to repeal the present or to narrow its
operation, such act will be an infringement of natural right." |
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