New York Colony (1665) the colonial legislature enacted:
<Whereas, The public worship of God is much discredited for want of painful [serious] and able ministers to instruct the people in the true religion, it is ordered that a church shall be built in each parish, capable of holding two hundred persons; that ministers of every church shall preach every Sunday, and pray for the king, queen, the Duke of York, and the royal family; and to marry persons after legal publication of license...
Sunday is not to be profaned by traveling, by laborers, or vicious persons...
Church wardens to report twice a year all misdemeanors, such as swearing, profaneness, Sabbath-breaking, drunkenness, fornication, adultery, and all such abominable sins.> 1665NY001
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American Quotations by William J. Federer, 2024, All Rights Reserved, Permission granted to use with acknowledgement.
Endnotes:
1665NY001. William J. Federer, American Quotations (2014). New York Colony, 1665, in an act passed by the Legislature. Benjamin Franklin Morris, The Christian Life and Character of the Civil Institutions of the United States (Philadelphia: George W. Childs, 1864), p. 88. Peter G. Mode, Sourcebook and Bibliographical Guide for American Church History (Menasha, WI: George Banta Publishing Co., 1921), p. 133. Gary DeMar, God and Government-A Biblical and Historical Study (Atlanta, GA: American Vision Press, 1982), p. 116.