#440: "Above All Liberties"

"Give me the liberty to know, to utter, and to argue freely according to conscience, above all liberties."*

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*John Milton, Areopagitica: A Speech for the Liberty of Unlicens'd Printing, to the Parliament of England (published November 23, 1644) | https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Freedom_of_speech

John Milton (9 December 1608 – 8 November 1674) was an English poet and intellectual. His 1667 epic poem Paradise Lost, written in blank verse and including over ten chapters, was written in a time of immense religious flux and political upheaval. It addressed the fall of man, including the temptation of Adam and Eve by the fallen angel Satan and God's expulsion of them from the Garden of Eden. Paradise Lost elevated Milton's reputation as one of history's greatest poets.[1][2] He also served as a civil servant for the Commonwealth of England under its Council of State and later under Oliver Cromwell. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Milton

#439: Millennial Promise

12 As a shepherd seeketh out his flock in the day that he is among his sheep that are scattered; so will I seek out my sheep, and will deliver them out of all places where they have been scattered in the cloudy and dark day.
13 And I will bring them out from the people, and gather them from the countries, and will bring them to their own land, and feed them upon the mountains of Israel by the rivers, and in all the inhabited places of the country.
14 I will feed them in a good pasture, and upon the high mountains of Israel shall their fold be: there shall they lie in a good fold, and in a fat pasture shall they feed upon the mountains of Israel.
15 I will feed my flock, and I will cause them to lie down, saith the Lord GOD.
16 I will seek that which was lost, and bring again that which was driven away, and will bind up that which was broken, and will strengthen that which was sick: but I will destroy the fat and the strong; I will feed them with judgment.*

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*Old Testament | Ezekiel 34:12-16

#438: Freedom of Thought

"Without Freedom of Thought, there can be no such Thing as Wisdom; and no such Thing as public Liberty, without Freedom of Speech; which is the Right of every Man, as far as by it, he does not hurt or control the Right of another. And this is the only Check it ought to suffer, and the only bounds it ought to know. This sacred Privilege is to essential to free Governments, that the Security of Property, and the Freedom of Speech always go together; and in those wretched Countries where a Man cannot call his Tongue his own, he can scarce call any Thing else his own. Whoever would overthrow the Liberty of a Nation, must begin by subduing the Fteeness [sic! Freeness] of Speech; a Thing terrible to Publick Traytors."*

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* Cato's Letters, John Trenchard and Thomas Gordon (Letter Number 15, Freedom of Speech, That the Same is inseparable from Publick Liberty, February 4, 1720). https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Freedom_of_speech

#437: “A Contradiction of Terms”

“Legal Christianity is a solecism, a contradiction of terms. When Christianity asks the aid of government beyond mere impartial protection, it disowns itself. Its essential interests lie beyond the reach and range of human governments. United with government, religion never rises above the merest superstition; united with religion, government never rises above the merest despotism; and all history shows us that the more widely and completely they are separated the better it is for both.” — Supreme Court of Ohio.*

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*as quoted in Jones, Alonzo T. . The American Sentinel: Volume 1 (p. 277). Adventist Pioneer Library. Kindle Edition.