This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1844 edition. Excerpt: ... boring through their tongues with red hot irons, whether male or female, and such like inhuman barbarities." Accordingto the same author, p. 218, a law was made by the court of Boston, October 20, 1658. We extract a part: --"Whereas, there' is a pernicious sect (commonly called Quakers) do take upon them to change and alter the received laudable customs of our nation, and also to destroy the orders'of the churches, by denying all established forms of worship; for prevention thereof, this court doth order and enact, that every person or persons being convicted to be of the sect of the Quakers, shall be sentenced to be banishedVpon pain of death." It will be observed that these laws are in perfect harmony with the Confessions above given, but the principal article found in all these Confessions of Faith, and in that of Presbyterianism of this country, and which they believe as a positive commandment revealed to them by Almighty God, is (Confession of Faith, pp. 218, 219, Quest. 108) "the disapproving, detesting, opposing all false worship, and according to each one's place and calling, removing it and all the monuments of idolatry." Here is a pretended commandment from Almighty God, directly opposed to civil and religious liberty, hostile to all other denominations, and inimical to the Constitution of the United States, as that Constitution recognizes the right of all worshipping God according to their own predilections. We hope every friend of human rights will weigh it well. It is a commandment which enjoins upon all, from the petty tipstave in our courts up to the President of the United States, to "remove, according to each one's place and calling, all false worship, and all the monuments of idolatry." But this we are told means "moral...

Excerpt from The Warning of Thomas Jefferson: Or a Brief Exposition of the Dangers to Be Apprehended to Our Civil and Religious Liberties, From Presbyterianism The French Confession declares that God hath delivered the sword into the magistrate's hand, that so sins committed against both tables of God's law, not only against the second, but the first also, may be suppressed. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

The significance of the Virginia Statute for Establishing Religious Freedom goes far beyond the borders of the Old Dominion. Its influence ultimately extended to the Supreme Court’s interpretation of the separation of church and state. In his latest book, Thomas Buckley tells the story of the statute, beginning with its background in the struggles of the colonial dissenters against an oppressive Church of England. When the Revolution forced the issue of religious liberty, Thomas Jefferson drafted his statute and James Madison guided its passage through the state legislature. Displacing an established church by instituting religious freedom, the Virginia statute provided the most substantial guarantees of religious liberty of any state in the new nation. The statute's implementation, however, proved to be problematic. Faced with a mandate for strict separation of church and state--and in an atmosphere of sweeping evangelical Christianity--Virginians clashed over numerous issues, including the legal ownership of church property, the incorporation of churches and religious groups, Sabbath observance, protection for religious groups, Bible reading in school, and divorce laws. Such debates pitted churches against one another and engaged Virginia’s legal system for a century and a half. Fascinating history in itself, the effort to implement Jefferson’s statute has even broader significance in its anticipation of the conflict that would occupy the whole country after the Supreme Court nationalized the religion clause of the First Amendment in the 1940s.