Page:Joseph Story, Commentaries on the Constitution of the United States (1st ed, 1833, vol I).djvu/125

 CH. VIII.] religion according to the liturgy, form, and ceremonies of the Church of England, or take or subscribe the oaths and articles made and established in that behalf; and for that the same, by reason of the remote distances of these places, will, as we hope, be no breach of the unity and uniformity established in this nation, have therefore thought fit and do hereby publish, grant, ordain, and declare, that our royal will and pleasure is, that no person within the said colony, at any time hereafter, shall be any wise molested, punished, disquieted, or called in question for any differences in opinion in matters of religion; but, that all and every person and persons may, from time to time and at all time hereafter, freely and fully have and enjoy his and their own judgment and consciences in matters of religious concernment throughout the tract of land hereafter mentioned, they behaving themselves peaceably and quietly, and not using this liberty to licentiousness and profaneness, nor to the civil injury or outward disturbance of others." This is a noble declaration and worthy of any prince, who rules over a free people. It is lamentable to reflect, how little it comports with the domestic persecutions authorized by the same monarch during his profligate reign. It is still more lamentable to reflect, how little a similar spirit of toleration was encouraged either by the precepts or example of any other of the New-England colonies.

§ 98. Rhode Island enjoys the honour of having been if not the first, at least one of the earliest of the colonies, and indeed of modern states, in which the liberty of conscience and freedom of worship were boldly proclaimed among its fundamental laws. If at any time