it is a question to be settled between him and his Maker, because he is responsible to none but his Maker for adopting or rejecting revealed truth.  And here is the great distinction which is sometimes overlooked, and which I am afraid is now too often overlooked, in this land, the glorious inheritance of the sons of the Pilgrims.  Men, for their religious sentiments, are accountable to God, and to God only.  Religion is both a communication and a tie between man and his Maker; and to his own master every man standeth or falleth.  But when men come together in society, establish social relations, and form governments for the protection of the rights of all, then it is indispensable that this right of private judgment should in some measure be relinquished and made subservient to the judgment of the whole.  Religion may exist while every man is left responsible only to God.  Society, civil rule, the civil state, cannot exist, while every man is responsible to nobody and to nothing but to his own opinion.  And our New England ancestors understood all this quite well.  Gentlemen, there is the “Constitution” which was adopted on board the Mayflower in November, 1620, while that bark of immortal memory was riding at anchor in the harbor of Cape Cod.  What is it?  Its authors honored God; they professed to obey all His commandments, and to live ever and in all things in His obedience.  But they say, nevertheless, that for the establishment of a civil polity, for the greater security and preservation of their civil rights and liberties, they agree that the laws and ordinances, and I am glad they put in the word “constitutions,” invoking the name of the Deity on their resolution; they say, that these laws and ordinances, and constitutions, which may be established by those they should appoint to enact them, they, in all due submission and obedience, will support.

This constitution is not long.  I will read it.  It invokes a religious sanction and the authority of God on their civil obligations; for it was no doctrine of theirs that civil obedience was a mere matter of expediency.  Here it is: 

“In the name of God, Amen:  We whose names are underwritten, the loyal subjects of our dread Sovereign Lord, King James, by the Grace of God, of Great Britain, France, and Ireland, King, and Defender of the Faith, etc., having undertaken, for the glory of God and advancement of the Christian faith, and honor of our King and country, a voyage to plant the first colony in the heathen parts of Virginia, do by these presents solemnly and mutually, in the presence of God and of one another, covenant and combine ourselves together into a civil body politic, for our better ordering and preservation, and furtherance of the ends aforesaid, and by virtue hereof to enact, constitute, and frame such just and equal laws, ordinances, acts, constitutions, and offices, from time to time, as shall be thought most meet and convenient for the general good of the colony;