State Constitutions

II. That God is publicly worshipped.

III. That the Christian religion is the true religion.

IV. That the Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments are of Divine inspiration, and are the rule of faith and practices.

V. That it is lawful and the duty of every man being thereunto called by those that govern, to bear witness to truth. That every inhabitant of this State, when called to make an appeal to God as a witness to truth, shall be permitted to do it in that way which is most agreeable to the dictates of his own conscience. And that the people of this State may forever enjoy the right of electing their own pastors or clergy, and, at the same time, that the State may have sufficient security for the due discharge of the pastoral office by those who shall be admitted to be clergymen, no person shall officiate as minister of any established church who shall not have been chosen by a majority of the society to which he shall minister, or by persons appointed by the said majority to choose and procure a minister for them, nor until the minister so chosen and appointed shall have made and subscribed the following declaration, over and above the aforesaid five articles, viz.:

That he is determined, by God’s grace, out of the Holy Scriptures, to instruct the people committed to his charge, and to teach nothing (as required of necessity to eternal salvation) but that which he shall be persuaded may be concluded and proved from the Scriptures; that he will use both public and private admonitions, as well to the sick as to the whole within his cure, as need shall require and occasion shall be given; and that he will be diligent in prayers, and in reading of the Holy Scriptures, and in such studies as help to the knowledge of the same; that he will be diligent to frame and fashion his own self and his family according to the doctrine of Christ, and to make both himself and them, as much as in him lieth, wholesome examples and patterns to the flock of Christ; that he will maintain and set forward, as much as he can, quietness, peace, and love among all the people, and especially among those who are or shall be committed to his charge.

No person shall disturb or molest any religious assembly, nor shall use any reproachful, railing, or abusive language against any Church, that being the certain way of disturbing the peace, and of hindering the conversion of any to the truth, by engaging them in quarrels and animosities, to the hatred of the professors, and that professions which otherwise they might be brought to assent to.

No person shall, by law, be obliged to pay toward the maintenance and support of a religious worship that he does not freely join in, or has not voluntarily engaged to support.

But the churches, chapels, parsonages, glebes, and all other property now belonging to any societies of the Church of England, or any other religious society, shall remain and be secured to them forever.

They should chose by ballot from among themselves, or from the people at large, a governor and commander-in-chief, a lieutenant-governor, and privy council, all of the Protestant religion; that no person should be eligible to a seat in the Senate unless he be of the Protestant religion; that no person should be eligible to sit in the House of Representatives unless he be of the Protestant religion.