Page:The History of Liberty.djvu/12

 folly’s children are extinct, knaves and tyrants—synonymous terms—, will diss [sic]appear, exclaiming as they go “our occupation’s gone!”

Liberty then is a high, and a holy thing; and is the greatest of all the gifts and blessings God has given to man, because it gives a value and importance to all other gifts and blessings. But Liberty is more, it is a high moral obligation.—It is my right, my privilege and duty to know for what purpose I am placed in this world—and how I can best honor my Creator, serve my country, benefit my fellow men and promote, consistently with these duties, my own welfare and happiness. My right and privilege to cultivate whatever talents God has given me, making the one two, the two four, and the five ten. My right and privilege to investigate all the works of God—, to prove by research and examination, all things in the heavens above and the earth below—, with all that his holy word reveals—; and none must say to me “thus far shalt thou go and no farther”; no not the highest of heaven’s archangels must interfere with this right. This then is Liberty; and the right and privilege of all: not the right of kings and priests alone, but the divine right of men, and nations: a right which kings and priests have taken from them: and we beg leave to state here that we do not use the term priest, in any limited or restricted sense: neither do we use the terms priest and king in any offensive sense, but simply in that sense which will convey the truth to our audience.

Liberty is not licentiousness, as its enemies would have the world believe: nay it is the most salutary of all restraints: for coming from God it subordinates itself to the will and authority of God, and requires and commands the same subordination from all who embrace her. Not for a moment will she submit to authority, law or rule that is not founded upon and sustained by the authority of heaven; the only authority she will acknowledge: hence her struggles in the progress of her history in time, struggles with usurped power and illegitimate authority; hence her bad reputation with kings and priests, from whose hands she would, and finally will snatch all power and restore it to the people to whom all power by divine right and commission belong: and hence the revolutions she has and will yet occasion among the nations of the earth; although her mission to earth like that of her sister christianity is peace, love and good will to all; yet the divine author of that christianity, who is also the author of Liberty—tells his disciples on one occasion—“think not that I am come to send peace upon the earth but a sword: I am come to kindle a fire.” and what! if it be already kindled? True this