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Show Sect. Ill. 124. ACTS RELATING TO THE Commas. 125 Part II, The patcntees of Mafihchufet's Bay had no power of erecting courts ofjudiA caturc. To the others this power is gi- "religion according to the liturgy and " ceremonies of the church of England, " or take and fubfcribe the oaths and ar~- " ticles made and ef'tablilhed in that be- yen. " half; and for that the fame, by reafon In thefe charters, it is not the molt fan" of the remote dill'ances of thofc places guinc advocate of the Americans that can " will, as we hope, he no breach of the find any thing, tojuftify their claim of in" unity and uniformity ellahlilhed in this dependence on the parliament or laws of England. On the contrary, the laws of England are throughout referred to as the " nation, we have therefore thought fit a" to ordainmthat no perfon, within the " aid colony, fhall, in any wife, he mo- flandard, by which the validity of their ," lelled, or called in quellion, for any dif- own regulations is to be tried. The le- giflative powers conveyed to them are to be " ferenccs in Opinion in matter of reli- " gion-any law, Pratute, 85c. oft/11'; rat/w ufed in the manner " that al/zer 6071/9077!" to the contrary notwithllanding." " tz'am in Eng/(112d ufe them." And furely no corporation in England did ever {uppofe that their powers of fubordinate legillation exempted them from the fupreme legillation of parliament. Here then we fee a fpccific law of flu} realm, Imean the act of uniformity, by which the colonifts thought they flan/d be bound, unlcfs they had a fpecific exemp- £1.97]. In the charter of Rhode Ifland we find the following claufe. " Many of the in- ' "habitants cannot in their private opi- The object of this law was fuch, as would render the obfervance of the law itfelf, in thefe uncultivated and dil'tant regions, a matter of the greatefl: poflible " nion conform to the public exercife of " religion ‘ indif- |