Chap. V.] CULTIVATION OF PERSONAL RELIGION.

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sacrifices of blood and treasure made by our ancestors to estab-lish religious freedom and the free profession of religious faith,they never intended to sanction, much less encourage, an utterindifference to all religion. Religious freedom differed, in theview of our fathers, as widely from indifference to religion, ascivil freedom differs from universal license and anarchy.

Nor, in permitting each individual to form his religious senti-ments without restraint and without responsibility to other men,did they intend to divest him of that responsibility to his con-science and his God, which springs from the nature of this mostimportant of all subjects, and from which, (that is, personal andindividual responsibility,) as he cannot divest himself, so nopower on earth can divest him.

In securing, too, perfect religious freedom for all men, our in-stitutions impose a personal and individual responsibility on everyman, which is, in a great measure, unknown in regard to everyother subject. The law of the land is prescribed to us by ourlegislatures, and is authoritatively declared to us by our tribunalsof justice. For the law of the land, therefore, no man is indi-vidually responsible, otherwise than as a member of the commu-nity to which he belongs. To aid in the management of thecivil affairs of the citizens, the law has provided legal advisers,and has rendered them responsible for the advice which theygive. So also the physician is made legally responsible for thesafety of his patient. But the law prescribes his religion to noman, nor is his spiritual adviser made responsible for his advice.In this respect, our institutions have departed from their usualpolicy, and have charged every man with the full, undivided, andunqualified responsibility of securing his own salvation. I havethought it useful to illustrate this personal responsibility, whichrests on every American citizen, in regard to his religious senti-ments and character, and his destiny beyond the grave, becauseI am convinced that it is not always well understood.*

The personal virtues are to be cultivated in connexion withpersonal religion, and as its natural fruit and genuine offspring.It is probable, indeed, that the personal virtues have been culti-

* See an Address delivered by the author to the Graduates of the Collegeof Charleston, at the Commencement of 1835, pp. 12- 14.