Note 148 — Chapter I

This point of view was tersely set forth in the election sermon preached by the Rev. Mr. Payson, at Boston, May 27, 1778: “Let the restraints of religion once be broken down, as they infallibly would be by leaving the subject of public worship to the humours of the multitude, and we might well defy all human wisdom and power to support and preserve order and government in the state.”—Quoted by Backus, Church History of New England, from 1620 to 1804 (ed. of 1844, Philadelphia), pp. 204 et seq.