Excerpt from The Demurrer, or Proofs of Error in the Decision of the Supreme Court of the State of New-York: Requiring Faith in Particular Religious Doctrines as a Legal Qualification of Witnesses, Thence Establishing by Law a Religious Test, and a Religious CreedI'r will be proper, before the reader enters on the examination of the contents of the subjoined pages, to understand, that in sub mitting them to public consideration, the'writer does not aspire to enter the arena of Theological disputation, and would not Wil lingly or unnecessarily agitate any question, pertaining exclusively to the subject of religion. But the error of the decision Which is intended to be reviewed, consists in illegally connecting law and religion, in such a manner, as to cause some of the rights and privileges of the people of this state, to he held on the tenure of professing faith in particular tenets alleged to be prescribed by law, and it is impossible to prove the illegality and injustice of that unholy alliance, Without speaking on sorne points of reli gions doctrine, as well as civil jurisprudence. If, in advocating the political rights and religious liberty of the citizens of this state - if, in exposing the error of the adjudication by Which they are ih vaded, or in answering and refuting the arguments adduced to justify it, the writer has gone farther into the subject of Theology than the necessity of the case demanded, he has gone farther than he intended, and farther than he thinks he has gone, though not beyond What he has a moral and political right to go, Without the necessity of any. Apology for so doing.About the PublisherForgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.comThis book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully, any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.