SECTION CX.—ON GOVERNMENTS AND LAWS IN GENERAL.
We believe that governments were instituted of God, for the benefit of man, and that he holds men accountable for their acts in relation to them, either in making laws or administering them for the good and safety of Society. We believe that no government can exist in peace, except such laws are framed, and held inviolate, as will secure to each individual the FREE exercise of CONSCIENCE, the RIGHT and control of PROPERTY, and the protection of life.
We do not believe it just to mingle religious influence with civil government; whereby one religious society is fostered, and another proscribed in its spiritual privileges, and the individual rights of its members as citizens denied. We do not believe that any religious society has authority to try men on the right of property or life, to take from them this world's goods, or put them in jeopardy either of life or limb, neither to inflict any physical punishment upon them: they can only excommunicate them from their society, and withdraw from their fellowship.
We believe that religion is instituted of God, and that men are amenable to him, and to him only, for the exercise of it, unless their religious opinions prompt them to infringe upon the rights and liberties of others. We do not believe that human law has a right to interfere in prescribing rules of worship to bind the consciences of men, nor dictate forms for public or private devotion. We believe that the civil magistrate should restrain crime, but never control conscience; should punish guilt, but never suppress the liberty of the soul.
THE BOOK OF DOCTRINE AND COVENANTS.—Edition printed by John Taylor, at Nauvoo, Illinois, 1844; pp. 440—443.