evious to the Treaty of Passau,
shall retain possession of them, and be liable to no persecution in the
imperial chamber on that account; that the supreme civil power in every
state shall have right to establish what form of doctrine and worship it
shall deem proper, and, if any of its subjects refuse to conform to
these, shall permit them to remove with all their effects whithersoever
they shall please; that if any prelate or ecclesiastic shall hereafter
abandon the Romish religion, he shall instantly relinquish his diocese
or benefice, and it shall be lawful for those in whom the right of
nomination is vested to proceed immediately to an election, as if the
office were vacant by death or translation, and to appoint a successor
of undoubted attachment to the ancient system.

Such are the capital articles in this famous recess, which is the basis
of religious peace in Germany, and the bond of union among its various
states, the sentiments of which are so extremely different with respect
to points the most interesting as well as important. In our age and
nation, to which the idea of toleration is familiar, and its beneficial
effects well known, it may seem strange that a method of terminating
their dissensions, so suitable to the mild and charitable spirit of the
Christian religion, did not sooner occur to the contending parties. But
this expedient, however salutary, was so repugnant to the sentiments and
practice of Christians during many ages that it did not lie obvious to
discovery. Among the ancient heathens, all whose deities were local and
tutelary, diversity of sentiments concerning the object or rites of
religious worship seems to have been no source of animosity, because the
acknowledging veneration to be due to any one god did not imply denial
of the existence or the power of any other god; nor were the modes and
rites of worship established in one country incompatible with those
which other nations approved of and observed. Thus the errors in their
system of theology were of such a nature as to be productive of concord;
and, notwithstanding the amazing number of their deities, as well as the
infinite variety of their ceremonies, a sociable and tolerating spirit
subsisted almost universally in the Pagan world.

But when the Christian revelation declared one Supreme Being to be the
sole object of religious veneration, and prescribed the form of worship
most acceptable to him, whoever admitted the truth of it hel