superstition effected more than could be expected from an age so
darkened. But they left much to be done by their posterity. They
lopped off, indeed, some of the branches of Popery, but they left
the root and stock when they left us under the domination of human
systems and decisions, usurping the infallibility which can be
attributed to Revelation alone. They dethroned one usurper only to
raise up another; they refused allegiance to the Pope only to place
the civil magistrate in the throne of Christ, vested with authority
to enact laws and inflict penalties in his kingdom. And if we now
cast our eyes over the nations of the earth, we shall find that,
instead of possessing the pure religion of the Gospel, they may be
divided either into infidels, who deny the truth; or politicians who
make religion a stalking horse for their ambition; or professors,
who walk in the trammels of orthodoxy, and are more attentive to
traditions and ordinances of men than to the oracles of truth.

The civil magistrate has everywhere contaminated religion by making
it an engine of policy; and freedom of thought and the right of
private judgment, in matters of conscience, driven from every other
corner of the earth, direct their course to this happy country as
their last asylum. Let us cherish the noble guests, and shelter them
under the wings of a universal toleration! Be this the seat of
unbounded religious freedom. She will bring with her in her train,
industry, wisdom, and commerce. She thrives most when left to shoot
forth in her natural luxuriance, and asks from human policy only not
to be checked in her growth by artificial encouragements.

Thus, by the beneficence of Providence, we shall behold our empire
arising, founded on justice and the voluntary consent of the people,
and giving full scope to the exercise of those faculties and rights