lists, presbyterians,
episcopalians, baptists, or quakers, it would incapacitate more than
three-fourths of the American citizens for any publick office; and thus
degrade them from the rank of freemen. There need no argument to prove
that the majority of our citizens would never submit to this indignity.

If any test-act were to be made, perhaps the least exceptionable would be
one, requiring all persons appointed to office to declare, at the time of
their admission, their belief in the being of a God, and in the divine
authority of the scriptures. In favour of such a test, it may be said,
that one who believes these great truths, will not be so likely to violate
his obligations to his country, as one who disbelieves them; we may have
greater confidence in his integrity. But I answer: His making a
declaration of such a belief is no security at all. For suppose him to be
an unprincipled man, who believes neither the word nor the being of God;
and to be governed merely by selfish motives; how easy is it for him to
dissemble! how easy is it for him to make a public declaration of his
belief in the creed which the law prescribes; and excuse himself by
calling it a mere formality. This is the case with the test-laws and
creeds in England. The most abandoned characters partake of the sacrament,
in order to qualify themselves for public employments. The clergy are
obliged by law to administer the ordinance unto them, and thus prostitute
the most sacred office of religion, for it is a civil right in the party
to receive the sacrament. In that country, subscribing to the thirty-nine
articles is a test for administration into holy orders. And it is a fact,
that many of the clergy do this, when at the same time they totally
disbelieve several of the doctrines contained in them. In short, test-laws
are utterly ineffectual: they are no security at all; because men of loose
principles will, by an external compliance, evade them. If they exclude
any persons, it will be honest men, men of principle, who will rather
suffer an injury, than act contrary to the dictates of their consciences.
If we mean to have those appointed to public offices, who are sincere
friends to religion, we, the people who appoint them, must take care to
choose such characters; and not rely upon such cob-web barriers as
test-laws are.

But to come to the true principle by which this question ought to be
determined: The business of a civil government is to protect