[Footnote 5:  “I might have,” but I am far from supposing that I ought to have fell myself indissolubly tied to the Roman Catholic church by any sacrament that I might have received, or by any engagement that I might have entered into:  on the contrary, I lay it down as an incontestable principle, that every vow and every oath are null, and neither can nor ought to bind any one to a church in which he has discovered errors, or doctrines and habits opposed to the word of God, and contrary to his own conscience.  Truth alone, and the full conviction of truth, constitute a tie which can inviolably connect us with any church whatever.  From the moment that this conviction no longer exists, and that error is discovered, it is an imperative duty to abandon a mode of worship which does not accord with our true sentiments; and he who perseveres against this conviction becomes a hypocrite, contemptible in the eyes of men, and condemned before God.]

Unknown to me, that is, at an age when I could have no idea of what was done to me, I was doubtless received into the church by the usual ceremony; but as this act was performed without any consent or co-operation on my part, I have never regarded it in the light of an engagement to the Catholic church.

With regard to what is called “the first communion,” (which is considered as the public ratification and confirmation of the vow of my parents,) this I never received in the Romish church, nor did I receive what is called the Sacrament of confirmation.

Before I could be united by the sacred bond of marriage to your virtuous and beloved mother, it was necessary that I should confess.  This I did with extreme reluctance, feeling that nothing could be at once more absurd, more tyrannical, or more degrading, than to oblige a man to prostrate himself at the feet of a priest, a mortal, a sinner, a child of corruption like himself, and there to make confessions to him, which offended Deity alone could have a right to require:  and to receive absolution from him for faults with which he had no concern.  I could not, however, marry without confession, and therefore I was obliged to submit; but no power on earth could have constrained me to go further.  The Sacrament, as the Roman Catholics receive it, had, from infancy, excited in me feelings of disgust.  My mind had always revolted at the idea, that the great God of heaven could allow himself to be eaten by his creatures in the form of a little flour.  Under various pretences, therefore, I contrived to avoid the ceremony, and obtained the nuptial benediction without it.