"Toleration is not the opposite of intolerance, but is the counterfeit of it. Both are despotisms. The one assumes to itself the right of withholding liberty of conscience, and the other of granting it. The one is the pope armed with fire and faggot, and the other is the pope selling, or granting indulgences. The former is church and state; and the latter is church and traffic. But toleration may be viewed in a much stronger light. Man worships not himself, but his Maker; and the liberty of conscience which he claims, is not for the service of himself, but of his God. In this case, therefore, we must necessarily have the associated idea of two beings; the mortal who renders the worship, and the immortal being who is worshipped .... Toleration, therefore, places itself, not between man and man, nor between church and church, nor between one denomination of religion and another, but between God and man; between the being who worships, and the being who is worshipped; and by the same act of assumed authority by which it tolerates man to pay his worship, it presumptuously and blasphemously sets itself up to tolerate the Almighty to receive it.

"Were a bill brought into any parliament, entitled, "An act to tolerate or grant liberty to the Almighty to receive the worship of a Jew or a Turk," or "to prohibit the Almighty from receiving it:" all men would startle, and call it blasphemy. There would be an uproar. The presumption of toleration in religious matters would then present itself unmasked: but the presumption is not the less because the name of "man" only appears to those laws, for the associated idea of the worshipper and worshipped cannot be separated. Who, then, art thou, vain dust and ashes! by whatever name thou art called, whether a king, a bishop, a church or a state, a parliament or any thing else, that obtrudest thine insignificance between the soul of man and it's Maker? Mind thine own concerns. If he believes not as thou believest, it is a proof that thou believest not as he believeth, and there is no earthly power can determine between you.

"With respect to what are called denominations of religion, if every one is left to judge of it's own religion, there is no such thing as a religion that is wrong; but if they are to judge of each other's religion, there is no such thing as a religion that is right; and, therefore, all the world is right, or all the world is wrong. But with respect to religion itself, without regard to names, and as directing itself from the universal family of mankind to the divine object of all adoration, it is man bringing to his Maker the fruits of his heart; and though those fruits may differ from each other like the fruits of the earth, the grateful tribute of every one is accepted.

"A bishop of Durham or a bishop of Winchester, or the archbishop who leads the dukes, will not refuse a tythe-sheaf of wheat, because it is not a cock of hay; nor a cock of hay, because it is not a sheaf of wheat; nor a pig because it is neither one nor the other; but these same persons, under the figure of an established church, will not permit their maker to receive the varied tythes of man's devotion.

"One of the continual chorusses of Mr. Burke's book is "church and state": he does not mean some one particular church, or someone particular state, but any church and state; and he uses the term as a general figure, to hold forth the political doctrine of always uniting the church with the state in every country; and he censures the national assembly for not having done this in France. Let us bestow a few thoughts on this subject.

"All religions are in their nature, kind and benign, and united with principles of morality. They could not have made proselytes at first, by professing any thing that was vicious, cruel, persecuting, or immoral. Like every thing else they had their beginning; and they proceeded by persuasion, exhortation, and example. How is it then that they lose their native mildness, and become morose and intolerant? It proceeds from the connection which Mr. Burke recommends. By engendering the church with the state, a sort of mule animal, capable only of destroying, and not of breeding up, is produced, called the church established by law. It is a stranger, even from it's birth, to any parent mother on which it is begotten, and whom in time it kicks out and destroys.

"The inquisition in Spain does not proceed from the religion originally professed, but from this mule animal, engendered between the church and state. The burnings in Smithfield proceeded from the same heterogeneous production; and it was the regeneration of this strange animal in England afterwards, that renewed the rancour and irreligion among the inhabitants; and that drove the people called quakers and dissenters to America. Persecution is not an original feature in any religion; but it is always the strongly marked feature of all law religions, or religions established by law. Take away the law-establishment, and every religion re-assumes it's original benignity. In America, a catholic priest is a good citizen, a good character, and a good neighbour; an episcopalian minister is of the same description: and this proceeds independently of the men, from there being no law-establishment in America.

Paine's Rights of Man, part 1, p. 58, &c. Albany, 1794.
     2.    Price's observations on the American revolution. p. 28 to 34.
     3.    Ibid. p. 39.
     4.    Art. 6.
     5.    Art. 3.
     6.    Art. 16. Revised code. Edi. of 1794, p. 4.
     7.    Art. 16. Revised code. Edi. of 1794, c. 20.
     8.    Stat. 13 and 14, Car 2.
     9.    4 Blacks. Com. p. 150.
   10.    Price's Observations on the American Revolution, p. 19.
   11.    Page 215.
   12.    Amendments to C. U. S. Art. 3.
   13.    State Bill of Rights. Art. 12.
   14.    Bill of Rights agreed to by the convention of Virginia, by which the C. U. S. was adopted Art. 16.
   15.    C U. S. as ratified by the convention of Virginia.
   16.    L. U. S. 5 Cong c. 91.
   17.    See the report of a committee of congress, respecting the alien and sedition laws, Feb. 25, 1799.
   18.    See the report of a committee of congress, respecting the alien and sedition laws, February 25, 1799.
   19.    See the report of a committee of congress, respecting the alien and sedition laws, February 25, 1799.
   20.    See the Virginia bill of rights. Art. 12. Massachusetts, Art. 16. Pennsylvania, Art, 12. Delaware, Art. 23. Maryland, Art. 38. North-Carolina, Art. 15. South-Carolina, Art. 43. Georgia, Art. 61. The constitution of Pennsylvania, Art. 35, declares, "That the printing presses shall be free to every person who undertakes to examine the proceedings of the legislature or any part of the government." And the bill of rights of Vermont, Art. 15, is to the same effect.
   21.    See the report of a committee of congress, respecting the alien and sedition laws, February 25, 1799.
   22.    See the report of a committee of congress, Feb. 25, 1799; and the answer of the senate and house of representatives of Massachusetts, (Feb. 9th. and 13th, 1799), to the communications from the state of Virginia, on the subject of the alien and sedition laws.
   23.    In the preceding sketch of the arguments used to demonstrate the unconstitutionality of the act of congress, I have extracted a few of those contained in the report of the committee of the house of delegates of Virginia, agreed to by the house, Jan. 11, 1800, and afterwards concurred in by the senate. This most valuable document is very long, and is incapable of being abridged, without manifest injury.
   24.    See the sessions acts of 1798, ad finem.
   25.    See the report of the committee, on this subject, agreed to in the home of delegates, Jan. 11, 1800.
   26.    See the letters from Messrs Marshall, Pinckney, and Gerry, to Mons. Talleyrand, minister of foreign affairs in France, 1798.