When acting in behalf of truth, and in the way of duty, persons have peculiar claims, which they can urge in any court, and which are entitled to regard from any authority. These cannot be prejudicial to the public good, or encroach upon the just rights of either civil or ecclesiastical rulers. It is otherwise with falsehood and corruption in religion, which as they are always hurtful to the individual, so they often prove highly detrimental to society. Liberty of conscience, and the powers which God hath ordained, do not destroy one another. In cases where they may appear jarring and incompatible, some subordination and limitation may be necessary, and the primary and superior must have the preference.
Societies have rights as well as individuals.
It implies no necessity of believing, no imposition upon conscience. The rights of conscience, and of acting according to private judgment, in things moral and religious, with reference to political government, cannot be determined, without, at the same time, determining the rights of government. From the knowledge of the nature, ends, extent, and rights of the latter, must the former be ascertained, in subordination to the law of God, by which both must be regulated. Opposite rights cannot exist together, but must destroy one another. To suppose that the magistrate has a right to interfere with religion, and yet, that every man in society has a right to act, in every respect, as he judges right in this matter, is absurd.