Fundamental Constitutions of East New Jersey (1683):
<3...the election shall be after this manner, the names of all the persons qualified in each county...shall be put in a box, and fifty shall be taken out by a boy under ten years of age...These nominators first solemnly declaring before the sheriff, that they shall not name any known to them to be guilty for the time, or to have been guilty for a year before, of adultery, whoredom, drunkeness, or any such immorality, or who is insolvent or a fool...
16. All persons living in the Province who confess and acknowledge the one Almighty and Eternal God, and holds themselves obliged in conscience to live peaceably and quietly in a civil society, shall in no way be molested or prejudged for their religious persuasions and exercise in matters of faith and worship; nor shall they be compelled to frequent and maintain any religious worship, place or Ministry whatsoever:
Yet it is also hereby provided, that no man shall be admitted a member of the great or common Council, or any other place of public trust, who shall not profaith in Christ Jesus, and solemnly declare that he doth no ways hold himself obliged in conscience to endeavor alteration in the government, or seeks the turning out of any in it or their ruin or prejudice, either in person or estate, because they are in his opinion heretics, or differ in their judgment from him: Nor by this article is it intended, that any under the notion of this liberty shall allow themselves to avow atheism, irreligiousness, or to practice cursing, swearing, drunkenness, profaness, whoring, adultery, murdering or any kind of violence...
20. That all marriages not forbidden in the law of God, shall be esteemed lawful, where the parents or guardians being first acquainted, the marriage is publicly intimated in such places and manner as is agreeable to men's different persuasions in religion, being afterwards still solemnized before creditable witnesses, by taking one another as husband and wife...> 1683NJ001
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American Quotations by William J. Federer, 2024, All Rights Reserved, Permission granted to use with acknowledgement.
Endnotes:
1683NJ001. William J. Federer, American Quotations (2014). East New Jersey, 1683, William J. Federer, American Quotations (2014). Fundamental Constitutions.