58 quotes found
"Enforced uniformity confounds civil and religious liberty and denies the principles of Christianity and civility. No man shall be required to worship or maintain a worship against his will."
"I present you with a Key : I have not heard of the like yet framed, since it pleased God to bring that mighty continent of America to light. Others of my countrymen have often, and excellently, and lately, written of the country, and none that I know beyond the goodness and worth of it. This Key respects the native language of it, and happily may unlock some rarities concerning the natives themselves, not yet discovered."
"The natives are very exact and punctual in the bounds of their lands, belonging to this or that prince or people, even to a river, brook, &c. And I have known them make bargain and sale amongst themselves for a small piece or quantity of ground ; notwithstanding a sinful opinion amongst many, that christians have right to heathen's land."
"I was persuaded and am, that God's way is first to turn a soul from its idols, both of heart, worship, and conversation, before it is capable of worship to the true and living God... the two first principles and foundations of true religion, or worship of the true God in Christ, are repentance from dead works, and faith towards God, before the doctrine of baptism or washing, and the laying on of hands, which contain the ordinances and practices of worship; the want of which I conceive is the bane of millions of souls in England and all other nations professing to be Christian nations, who are brought by public authority to baptism and fellowship with God in ordinances of worship, before the saving work of repentance and a true turning to God."
"Men's consciences ought in no sort to be violated, urged, or constrained. And whenever men have attempted any thing by this violent course, whether openly or by secret means, the issue has been pernicious, and the cause of great and wonderful innovations in the principallest and mightiest kingdoms and countries..."
"All civil states with their officers of justice in their respective constitutions and administrations are proved essentially civil, and therefore not judges, governors, or defenders of the spiritual or Christian state and worship."
"God requireth not a uniformity of religion to be enacted and enforced in any civil state; which enforced uniformity (sooner or later) is the greatest occasion of civil war, ravishing of conscience, persecution of Christ Jesus in his servants, and of the hypocrisy and destruction of millions of souls."
"A civil sword (as woeful experience in all ages has proved) is so far from bringing or helping forward an opposite in religion to repentance that magistrates sin grievously against the work of God and blood of souls by such proceedings... Religion cannot be true which needs such instruments of violence to uphold it so."
"God needeth not the help of a material sword of steel to assist the sword of the Spirit in the affairs of conscience."
"The God of Peace, the God of Truth will shortly seal this truth, and confirm this witness, and make it evident to the whole world, that the doctrine of persecution for cause of conscience, is most evidently and lamentably contrary to the doctrine of Christ Jesus the Prince of Peace. Amen."
"No man ever did, nor ever shall, truly go forth to convert the nations, nor to prophesy in the present state of witnesses against Antichrist, but by the gracious inspiration and instigation of the Holy Spirit of God. … I know no other True Sender, but the most Holy Spirit."
"'Tis true, those glorious first ministeriall gifts are ceased, and that's or should be the lamentation of all Saints... Yet I humbly conceive that without those gifts, it is no ground of imitation, and of going forth to Teach and Baptise the Nations, for, the Apostles themselves did not attempt that mighty enterprise, but waited at Jerusalem until the Holy Spirit descended on them, and inabled them for that mighty work."
"The civil state of the nations, being merely and essentially civil, cannot (Christianly) be called "Christian states," after the pattern of that holy and typical land of Canaan, which I have proved at large in the Bloudy Tenent to be a nonesuch and an unparalleled figure of the spiritual state of the church of Christ Jesus, dispersed yet gathered to Him in all nations. The civil sword (therefore) cannot (rightfully) act either in restraining the souls of the people from worship, etc., or in constraining them to worship, considering that there is not a tittle in the New Testament of Christ Jesus that commits the forming or reforming of His spouse and church to the civil and worldly powers..."
"I observe the great and wonderful mistake, both our own and our fathers, as to the civil powers of this world, acting in spiritual matters. I have read … the last will and testament of the Lord Jesus over many times, and yet I cannot find by one tittle of that testament that if He had been pleased to have accepted of a temporal crown and government that ever He would have put forth the least finger of temporal or civil power in the matters of His spiritual affairs and Kingdom. Hence must it lamentably be against the testimony of Christ Jesus for the civil state to impose upon the souls of the people a religion, a worship, a ministry, oaths (in religious and civil affairs), tithes, times, days, marryings, and buryings in holy ground..."
"The first grand design of Christ Jesus is to destroy and consume His mortal enemy antichrist. This must be done by the breath of His mouth in His prophets and witnesses. Now, the nations of the world have impiously stopped this heavenly breath and stifled the Lord Jesus in His servants. Now, it shall please the civil state to remove the state bars set up to resist the holy spirit of God in His servants (whom yet finally to resist is not in all the powers of the world), I humbly conceive that the civil state has made a fair progress in promoting the Gospel of Jesus Christ."
"Opinions offensive are of two sorts: some savoring of impiety, and some of incivility. Against the first, Christ Jesus never called for the sword of steel to help the sword of the spirit, that two-edged sword that comes out of the mouth of the Lord Jesus... The second sort, to wit, opinions of incivility, doubtless the opinions as well as practices are the proper object of the civil sword..."
"Although the loose will be more loose (yet) possibly being at more liberty they may be put upon consideration and choice of ways of life and peace, yet, however, it is infinitely better that the profane and loose be unmasked than to be muffled up under the veil and hood of traditional hypocrisy, which turns and dulls the very edge of all conscience either toward God or man."
"Such parents or children as aim at the gain and preferment of religion do often mistake gain and gold for godliness, godbelly for the true God, and some false for the true Lord Jesus."
"The civil state is bound before God to take off that bond and yoke of soul oppression, and to proclaim free and impartial liberty to all the people of the three nations to choose and maintain what worship and ministry their souls and consciences are persuaded of; which act, as it will prove an act of mercy and righteousness to the enslaved nations, so is it of a binding force to engage the whole and every interest and conscience to preserve the common freedom and peace; however, an act most suiting with the piety and Christianity of the Holy Testament of Christ Jesus."
"The civil state is humbly to be implored to provide in their high wisdom for the security of all the respective consciences, in their respective meetings, assemblings, worshipings, preachings, disputings, etc., and that civil peace and the beauty of civility and humanity be maintained among the chief opposers and dissenters."
"There is no regularly constituted church of Christ on earth, nor any person qualified to administer any church ordinances; nor can there be until new apostles are sent by the Great Head of the Church for whose coming I am seeking."
"At once maddeningly original and disarmingly humane, Roger Williams championed Native American rights, church-state separation, and an independent judiciary when each was considered rank heresy."
""The most fascinating figure of America's formative seventeenth century," Roger Williams has now gained general acceptance as a symbol of a critical turning point in American thought and institutions. He was the first American to advocate and activate complete freedom of conscience, dissociation of church and state, and genuine political democracy. From his first few weeks in America he openly raised the banner of "rigid Separatism." In one year in Salem he converted the town into a stronghold of radical Separatism and threw the entire Bay Colony into an uproar. Banished for his views, after being declared guilty of "a frontal assault on the foundations of the Bay system," he escaped just as he was to be deported to England. He settled in Providence with thirteen other householders and in one year formed the first genuine democracy, as well as the first church-divorced and conscience-free community in modern history. Williams felt that government is the natural way provided by God to cope with the corrupt nature of man. But since government could not be trusted to know which religion is true, he considered the best hope for true religion the protection of the freedom of all religion, along with non-religion, from the state."
"Williams' life and major works — the 1643 bestseller A Key Into the Language of America and the 1644 treatise The Bloudy Tenent of Persecution — inspire nothing less than awe. Williams showed up in Massachusetts in 1631 and immediately mixed it up with the theocrats there, staking controversial positions on hotly debated questions such as the presence of a disturbingly papal cross on the flag of England. Two of his arguments would earn him exile: He insisted that the colonists had robbed the local Indians of their property (he called it "an unjust usurpation upon others' possessions") and, even worse, that civil magistrates had no business enforcing religious laws (lest "the wilderness of the world" engulf "the garden of the church")."
"The Bloudy Tenent of Persecution, released the same year as his friend John Milton's defense of the free press, Areopagitica, argued for "soul liberty" for all people, "paganish, Jewish, Turkish, or anti-christian." Such ideas were far ahead of their time — perhaps even our time... Williams' ideas infused the charters of New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and other colonies with protections for religious freedom. And his notions of a fully secular state found their way into the writings of John Locke, who would have a seminal influence on Jefferson, Madison, and other Founders. One wishes that America had taken even more from Williams and what Gaustad calls his "bequest...of liberty, responsibility, and civility.""
"The English... justified their grabbing of Indian land by claiming that these simple folk did not really believe in property rights. On the contrary, Williams observed, "the Natives are very exact and punctual in the bounds of their Lands, belonging to this or that Prince or People," even bargaining among themselves for a small piece of ground."
"Roger Williams... successfully vindicated the right of private judgement in matters of conscience, and effected a moral and political revolution in all governments of the civilized world."
"Despite documented warnings from their own scientists dating from the 1970s, ExxonMobil pursued a campaign of deceit, denial, and delay. They may soon have to face the consequences. History will not look kindly on their choice."
"There are few things that enrage the American public more than crooked, dark money political spending. If you tried to get a dark money political spending bill through the Senate, you couldn't do it. If you tried to get it through the House, you couldn't do it. If you put the Senate and House under Republican control, you still couldn't do it, but if you have captured the Supreme Court [...] then a decision that is as unpopular and enraging as this decision comes your way, and they pulled it off in plain daylight."
"Behind Trump’s fog bank and pretexts, he and his un-elected co-president Musk are simply stealing from the American people to pay for tax cuts for the ultra-wealthy. It’s gangster government."
"If Trump were purposefully doing Russia's bidding, it is hard to see what he would be doing differentlty."
"John McCain used to say that Russia is a gas station, run by gangsters with an army."
"It doesn't make sense that the President of the United States, who... insists on being dominant... is so submissive to... Russia's dictator, Vladimir Putin."
"So what is it about Trump and Russia, and could it have any connection with Trump's close friendship with the deceased pedaphile, Jeffrey Epstein?"
"[T]he survivors... and the millions of emails released... through the... have shed... light on the operation of the... global pedaphile ring, and over and over, it touches Russia."
"When recently asked... about the Epstein files, Trump said... "It's just a Russia, Russia, Russia hoax." ..."[H]oax," the word he used for when something is true, but the most telling... is that Trump's mind, [when] asked about Epstein, immediately went to Russia."
"According to Steven Hoffenberg... [Douglas] Leese introduced Epstein to Robert Maxwell. Ghislaine Maxwell, who became Epstein's... sex trafficking accomplice after her father's death, was Robert Maxwell's favorite daughter, and he involved her deeply in his work. ...Robert Maxwell had complex shifting ties to British, Soviet and Israeli intelligence. Initially bankrolled by , he accepted secret payments from the through his Soviet friendly publishing company, and... traversed both sides of the ."
"In 1992... The Sunday Express wrote that a secret document, signed by the head of the ... showed that Maxwell was a political and intelligence asset for the Soviet Union... [and] that Soviet leadership had instructed the KGB to protect Maxwell's reputation and business activities."
"Maxwell's UK foreign office file... described him as.., "a thoroughly bad character and almost certainly financed by Russia.""
"wrote... in Rolling Stone magazine in 2021.., "Hoffenberg told me that Epstein had said he'd worked on several projects with Robert Maxwell, including solving Maxwell's 'debt' issues." ...Maxwell ...[had] stolen hundreds of millions of dollars from the pensions of his employees. The story continued, Epstein... had... told Hoffenberg, that via Maxwell and [Douglas] Leese, he was involved in something that Hoffenberg described as national security issues, which he says involved , influence trading, trading information at a level that is very serious and dangerous. The story concluded, "Four separate sources told me on the record that Epstein's dealings in the arms world in the 1980s had led him to work for multiple governments, including the .""
"[I]n the 1980s Epstein struck up a friendship with... Donald Trump. ...Michael Wolff has said.., "They shared everything. They shared their airplanes. They shared women... They shared constantly business and financial advice." ...There are many photos of the two men together on the New York and Palm Beach party circuits throughout the 1990s."
"Trump... said in 2002, "I've known Jeff for 15 years. Terrific guy! He's a lot of fun to be with. It is even said that he likes beautiful women as much as I do, and many of them are on the younger side.""
"Alan Dershowitz told the The New York Times in 2019.., "In those days, if you didn't know Trump and you didn't know Epstein, you were a nobody." Dershowitz... served both on Epstein's defense team when he was charged with having sex with minors... in 2006, and on Trump's impeachment defense team in 2020."
"The president of Trump's Atlantic City Hotel in the late 1980s said he saw Trump and Epstein together so frequently that he believed Epstein was Trump's best friend. ...[He] described the incident where Trump brought Epstein a 19 year old girl to the casino gaming floor."
"Epstein once took a model to , where she says Trump groped her while laughing with Epstein. She remarked that it seemed like a twisted game between the two men."
"Epstein claimed to have given... some insight on Trump to the Russians. Epstein met on many occasions with , Russia's representative to the United Nations in 2006, until Churkin's death in 2017. Epstein wrote in an email, "Churkin was great, ...He understood Trump after our conversation. it is not complex, he must be seen to get something its that simple.""
"Epstein roped many Russian and East European girls and women into his trafficking operation. The New York magazine profile... in 2002 reads, "...at a party at Maxwell's house, her friends say, one is just as apt to see Russian ladies of the night, as one is to see Prince Andrew.""
"' recently reported on an alleged classified U.S. intelligence document claiming that, "Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor... was drawn into Moscow's orbit thanks to his relationship with Jeffrey Epstein, which the allegedly used as a route into the British establishment.""
"Epstein struck up a relationship with , Russia’s former deputy minister of economic development and a graduate of the FSB, Russia's intelligence academy. Epstein introduced him to contacts like Peter Thiel... who would... give $10 million to the super PAC that helped elect now-Vice President J.D. Vance to the Senate in 2022."
"Epstein had a series of Russian visas between 2011 and his death in 2019. Epstein's crimes left a long money trail, and that trail winds back to Russia. ...One filed by ... shows that between 2003 and 2019, Epstein conducted 4,725 wire transactions totaling over $1 billion. And that’s just one bank. Epstein used multiple banks."
"He is delusional."
"https://www.whitehouse.senate.gov/"
"It is a great privilege to represent extremely thoughtful and informed individuals like you."
"You have listened when I’ve taken positions that may have seemed surprising or disappointing."
"Thank you for supporting me while I’ve challenged the status quo and questioned legislation that, though well intended, could have unintended consequences."
"We may not always agree, but I will always listen."
"I want to continue listening and fighting the good fights. Please vote for me on November 8th."
"The extraordinary measure of self-government granted to the colonists by the charter fostered in them a spirit of loyalty toward the mother country, substantially and energetically manifested on every occasion; but which, nevertheless, when the danger from the foreign foe was no longer imminent, was supplanted by a feeling of jealous apprehension of the encroachments on that the colonists had now learned to regard as their natural rights. Rhode Island heartily joined the other colonies in making the Revolution her cause."