New Jersey Colony 1697, Governor Basse proclaimed:

"It being very necessary for the good and prosperity of this province that our principal care be, in obedience to the laws of God, to endeavor as much as in us lyeth the extirpation of all sorts of looseness and profanity, and to unite in the fear and love of God and one another, ...

"Take due care that all laws made and provided for the suppression of vice and encouraging of religion and virtue, particularly the observance of the Lord's day, be duly put into execution." ¹

¹ 1697.  B.F. Morris, The Christian Life and Character of the Civil institutions of the United States (Philadelphia: George W. Childs, 1864), p. 91.  Gary DeMar, God and Government - A Biblical and Historical Study (Atlanta, GA: American Vision Press, 1982), p. 116.  Stephen K. McDowell and Mark A. Beliles, America's Providential History (Charlottesville, VA: Providence Press, 1988), p. 61.  David Barton, The Myth of Separation (Aledo, TX: WallBuilder Press, 1991), p. 89.