ectypal.net

In the seventeenth century, however, prior to John Locke and certainly prior to Thomas Jefferson, the term [liberty] was used by, among others, Presbyterians such as Samuel Rutherford: when he uses it, he means it to refer to the freedom of the church to govern itself, not to the democratic freedom of the individual to be self-determining. Indeed, the last thing on Rutherford’s mind would have been liberty in regard to religious practices, for to allow other religions or even other forms of Christianity besides Reformed Presbyterianism would in Rutherford’s mind have involved the government in the toleration of idolatry and idolaters that would have incurred the wrath of God.