Page:Joseph Story, Commentaries on the Constitution of the United States (1st ed, 1833, vol III).djvu/717

after their admission; and also within the same time to receive the sacrament of the Lord's supper, according to the usage of the church of England, in some public church immediately after divine service and sermon; and to deliver into court a certificate thereof signed by the minister and church-warden, and also to prove the same by two credible witnesses, upon forfeiture of 500l., and disability to hold the said office. And of much the same nature with these is the statute 7 Jac. I. c. 2., which permits no persons to be naturalized, or restored in blood, but such as undergo a like test; which test, having been removed in 1753, in favour of the Jews, was the next session of parliament restored again with some precipitation.^[1]

It is easy to foresee, that without some prohibition of religious tests, a successful sect, in our country, might, by once possessing power, pass test-laws, which would secure to themselves a monopoly of all the offices of trust and profit, under the national government.^[2]

§ 1844. The seventh and last article of the constitution is: "The ratification of the conventions of nine states shall be sufficient for the establishment of this constitution between the states so ratifying the same."

§ 1845. Upon this article it is now wholly unnecessary to bestow much commentary, since the constitution has been ratified by all the states. If a ratification had been required of all the states, instead of nine, as a condition precedent, to give it life and motion, it is now known, that it would never have

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1. See also 2 Kent's Comm. Lect. 24, (2 edit.) p. 35, 36; Rawle on the Constitution, ch. 10, p. 121; 1 Tuck. Black. Comm. App. 296; 2 Tuck. Black. Comm. App. Note (G.), p. 3.
2. See ante, Vol. II, § 621.