not only can such freedom be granted without prejudice to the public peace, but also, that without such freedom, piety cannot flourish nor the public peace be secure.

How many evils spring from luxury, envy, avarice, drunkenness, and the like, yet these are tolerated

but what question was ever settled so wisely that no abuses could possibly spring therefrom?

men would daily be thinking one thing and saying another”—a practice that will weave deceit and hypocrisy into the social fabric, thereby permitting “the avaricious, the flatterers, and other numskulls” to rise to the top.

disastrous results

he “justly cedes the right of free action, though not of free reason.”

Unlike many earlier defenders of toleration, he did not exclude atheists, Jews, Catholics, and the like.

The sovereign’s obligation to respect the liberty of his subjects is solely a matter of self-​interest; to mistreat subjects is bound to generate resentment and possibly seditious tendencies, and those sentiments, in turn, will render the sovereign’s authority less secure than it would otherwise be

Obedience, not knowledge, is the “sole object” of revelation, and even here revelation is needed only when dealing with the dull-​witted masses.

he natural light of reason, for those skilled in its use, is sufficient to show us “the true way of salvation.”

vulgar” popularization of freethought as a greater threat to the religious and political status quo

there remains nothing of Genesis, but an anonymous book of stories, fable, and traditionary or invented absurdities, or downright lies.

A miracle, if reported by a divinely inspired prophet, was deemed authentic;

We should not begin with the assumption that the Bible is divinely inspired and then afford it special treatment when we encounter stories that we would reject in any other history. Rather, we should examine biblical accounts with the same rational objectivity and critical attitude that we would apply to any other book.

f this rising generation latches onto a God whokeeps His promises to His covenant people, and calls every nationinto His drama, it will recover faith not only in Providence but inAmerica’s own capacity for scientific ingenuity, technological break-throughs, moral leadership, and public virtue.

John Adams thus wrote that the Jews had“done more to civilize men than any other nation

It persuaded Englishpoliticians, philosophers, and scientists to think of themselves andtheir choices in light of a much larger story

Eliminating disease and faminewould not eclipse Scripture; it would vindicate it, proving that Prov-idence intended human ingenuity to help reverse the Fall of Adam.

Ifound it boring ultimately. I found the process of reading the greatChristian thinkers, reflecting on the patterns of Christian history, andrecognizing that this is where I came from

The problem

progressives

but feel that they areopposing Christian doctrine and therefore increasingly become hostileto Christianity itself. The fact is they are indebted to the Christianinheritance

Trans people are definedas the last. And that seems to impose a kind of instinctive assumptionthat the last should become the first

the idea that there is almost aninherent virtue within victimhood. To be oppressed is a source ofpower. It’s a very radical idea that Christianity weaponizes and hasweaponized again and again and again

Christian ideas.Some are obvious: the ideas of charity or forgiveness or redemption.

a faith that becamepowerful by virtue of enshrining as its symbol someone utterlypowerless. It’s incredible.

Who do theChristians think they are? They don’t have a land. They don’t have amother city.

that the church is a kind of independententity.

third century, the Roman Empire goes through aterrible time—barbarian invasions, galloping inflation. So whenConstantine comes to power, he is looking for a religion that can bindeveryone within the empire

authority that even your pagan neighbors might come torespect.

conclude that it has been fashioned, not mechanically, but by divine and supernatural skill

Theologians attribute what we don’t presently understand, or what science has failed to explain, to God

John Toland

deist

all of nature is inherently perfect

reality and perfection I use as synonymous terms

ompelled to undergo infinite variations.

God is of all things the cause immanent

declined to have it published because of the outrage it would almost certainly provoke

secularizing modern man

position might compromise his intellectual independence

heretical

I am wiser than this man; it is likely that neitherof us knows anything worthwhile, but he thinks he knows somethingwhen he does not, whereas when I do not know, neither do I think I know;so I am likely to be wiser than he to this small extent, that I do not thinkI know what I do not know.

from their two differing bloods, if it maintains a balance

First of all gods she contrived Love

bulk of a well-rounded sphere

what-is, since precisely this is what Fate

what-is is ungenerated and imperishable,whole, unique, steadfast, and complete.

But gaze upon things which although absent are securely present tothe mind

For thinking and being are the same

for you cannot know what is not (for it cannot be accomplished)nor can you declare it.

If all things share a commonquality, that quality will not have a name

To become wise we must learn to use the senses with insight or intelligence

nstead of recognizing that asingle truth is present everywhere

It is death for souls to become wet.

To God all things are beautiful and good and just, but humans havesupposed some unjust and others just

hey [people in general] would not have known the name of justice ifthese things [unjust things] did not exist

The most beautiful kosmos is a pile of things poured out at random

is common to all

Things taken together are whole and not whole, <something that is>being brought together and brought apart, in tune and out of tune; out ofall things there comes a unity and out of a unity all things.

ct in accordance with nature

Those who seek gold dig up much earth but find little

all

For the waking there is one common world, but when asleep each per-son turns away to a private one

Theyput their trust in popular bards and take the mob for their teacher, unawarethat most people are bad, and few are good

39) In Priene was born Bias, son of Teutames, whose worth (logos) is greaterthan the others

This Logos holds always, 3 but humans always prove unable to understandit both before hearing it and when they have first heard it

thank heavens you haven’t gone to yet so we can go together for the first time

I would rather look at you than all the portraits in the world

ou look like a better happier St. Sebastian

San Sebastian,

f the ox does not recover soon,take him to the slaughtcrhouse and dispose of him.

Howfortunate youare!Jamwornoutwithtoil,while youresthereincomfort.Youcatwell-sifted barleyandJacknothing.Itisonlyoccasionallythatyour masterridesyou.Asforme,mylifeisperpetualdrudgeryattheploughandthemillstone.

Give me in marriage to thisKing: cither I shall die and be a ransom for the daughters ofMoslems, or live and be the cause of their deliverance.’

He had expelled all criminal desires from it,and the small residue of that odious flamewhich remained in his soulrnerely made his paternal love stronger

were blacker and even uglier,and frightened the little children

grated hers like a turnip;another one cut a small piece off hers;93another one thought she could make hers smaller by pressing it down;still another, with a certain lotion,

I am willing, as long as the womangiven to me in matrimonyis the one that this ring fits.

ccidentally slipped off her finger and fell into the dough;but those who are considered to know the secret of this storyassure us that she put it there on purpose;

but, since he thought he was viewing a goddess,three times his arm was restrained by respect

But even the least fastidious and most wretched people,seeing her so dirty and full of Hlth,refused to hear her out or to take into their housesuch a foul creature

The princess, marveling at that wonderful garment,was almost of a mind to consent

they could be assured he would hang them all

if you should feel tl1e desi

that it never deposited feces71but, instead, beautiful three-franc pieces with the sign of the sunand twenty-franc pieces of all sorts

hat, at certain mornents, the nwst perfect mindcan enjoy even marionettes without blushing

even though no mother, husband, or confessorcan find anything in it to reproach.9

It is unbelievable, how avidly these innocent souls,whose inborn rectitude has not yet been corrupted in any way, take inthese concealed teachings;

children who havedutifully obeyed their father or mother thereby become great lords,whereas other children, who were vice-ridden and disobedient, fallinto horrible misfortune.

helps persuade women to be patient with their husbands,showing them that there is no husband so brutal or so capricious thata respectable woman's patience cannot be a match for him

The only moral to be derived from the Matron of Ephesus isthat frequently the women who seem most virtuous are really theleast and that therefore there are almost none who are truly virtuous

peo-ple fail to see what is good for them and are more pleased to beguided by Providence than t9 have everything work out according totheir desires