Law, In Its Most General And Comprehensive

Of Crimes Injurious To The Persons Of Private Subjects, The Most Principal And Important Is The Offense Of Taking Away That Life, Which Is The Immediate Gift Of The Great Creator; And Which Therefore No Man Can Be Entitled To Deprive Himself Or Another Of, But In Some Manner Either Expressly Commanded In, Or Evidently Deducible From, Those Laws Which The Creator Has Given Us; The Divine Laws, I Mean, Of Either Nature Or Revelation.

The Most Universal And Effectual Way Of Discovering The True Meaning Of Law, When The Words Are Dubious, Is By Considering The Reason And Spirit Of It; Or The Cause Which Moved The Legislator To Enact It. For When This Reason Ceased, The Law Itself Ought Likewise To Cease With It.

Until The Content Of A Belief Is Made Clear, The Appeal To Accept The Belief On Faith Is Beside The Point, For One Would Not Know What One Has Accepted. The Request For The Meaning Of A Religious Belief Is Logically Prior To The Question Of Accepting That Belief On Faith Or To The Question Of Whether That Belief Constitutes Knowledge.

[self-defense Is] Justly Called The Primary Law Of Nature, So It Is Not, Neither Can It Be In Fact, Taken Away By The Laws Of Society.

Time Whereof The Memory Of Man Runneth Not To The Contrary.