The Rights of Conscience Inalienable, and Therefore Religious Opinions Not Cognizable by Law Quotes

“Truth disdains the aid of the law for its defence–it will stand upon its own merit. … It is error, and error alone, that needs human support; and whenever men fly to the law or sword to protect their system of religion, and force it upon others, it is evident that they have something in their system that will not bear the light, and stand upon the basis of truth.”
― John Leland (Baptist), The Rights of Conscience Inalienable, and Therefore Religious Opinions Not Cognizable by Law: Or, the High-Flying Church-Man, Stript of His Legal ... a Yaho. by John Leland [One Line from Elihu].

“Government has no more to do with the religions opinions of men, than it has with the principles of mathematics. Let every man speak freely without fear, maintain the principles that he believes, worship according to his own faith, either one God, three Gods, no God, or twenty Gods; and let government protect him in so doing, i.e., see that he meets with no personal abuse, or loss of property, from his religious opinions.”
― John Leland (Baptist), The Rights of Conscience Inalienable, and Therefore Religious Opinions Not Cognizable by Law: Or, the High-Flying Church-Man, Stript of His Legal ... a Yaho. by John Leland [One Line from Elihu].

“The subject of religious liberty, has been so canvassed for fourteen years, and has so far prevailed, that in Virginia, a politician can no more be popular, without the possession of it, than a preacher who denies the doctrine of the new birth; yet many, who make this profession, behave in their families, as if they did not believe what they profess. For a man to contend for religious liberty on the court-house green, and deny his wife, children and servants, the liberty of conscience at home, is a paradox not easily reconciled.”
― John Leland (Baptist), The Rights of Conscience Inalienable, and Therefore Religious Opinions Not Cognizable by Law: Or, the High-Flying Church-Man, Stript of His Legal ... a Yaho. by John Leland [One Line from Elihu].

“Religious matters are to be separated from the jurisdiction of the state, not because they are beneath the interests of the state but, quite to the contrary, because they are too high and holy and thus are beyond the competence of the state.”
― John Leland (Baptist), The Rights of Conscience Inalienable, and Therefore Religious Opinions Not Cognizable by Law: Or, the High-Flying Church-Man, Stript of His Legal ... a Yaho. by John Leland [One Line from Elihu].