In South Carolina. 47 



"1. That there is one eternal God, and a state of 

 future rewards and punishments. 



" 2. That God is publicly to be worshiped. 



" 3. That the Christian religion is the true religion. 



" 4. That the holy Scriptures of the Old and New 

 Testaments are of divine inspiration, and are the rule 

 of faith and practice. 



" 5. That it is lawful, and the duty of every man 

 being thereunto called by those that govern, to bear 

 witness to the truth." 



Finally, the Constitution of 1790 abolished all dis- 

 tinction between Christian Protestants and others, and 

 granted to ail alike freedom of religion, in the words 

 following: " The free exercise and enjoyment of relig- 

 ious profession and worship, without discrimination 

 or preference, shall forever hereafter be allowed in this 

 State to all mankind: provided, that the liberty of con- 

 science thereby declared shall not be so construed as to 

 excuse acts of licentiousness, or justify practices in- 

 consistent with the peace or safety of the State." 



And now, if all Christian rulers and ministers shall 

 grow in due degree tolerant of the speculative and 

 oftentimes barren opinions of others, and seek to mu- 

 tually encourage one another, as they properly may, 

 in the active dissemination of substantial, practical 

 truths; if they shall strive to build up and establish 

 the Churches to which they severally belong, only by 

 making the systems of doctrine which they hold con- 

 vincing and attractive from the greater purity and 

 loveliness of character which they develop, they shall 

 reap, in the wide world of people allotted to them by 

 Providence as the field of their active labors, such a 

 rich harvest both of temporal and spiritual blessings 

 as shall bring more honor and real advantage to their 



