Jonathan Mayhew

“The king is as much bound by his oath, not to infringe the legal rights of the people, as the people are bound to yield subjection to him.”

“The people are not for the rulers, but the rulers for the people.”

“If we are commanded to deliver up our Magna Charta... and all the legal securities of our lives and properties, we are not bound to obey.”

“Tyranny and oppression are not only a grievance to the subject, but a very great sin against God.”

“It is... no less a duty to resist and oppose tyranny in a prince, than it is to obey a good and just sovereign.”

“Rebellion is not the only crime that may be committed against rulers.”

“The love of liberty is a passion deep and powerful in the human breast.”

“When the civil magistrate requires what is inconsistent with the will of God, we are to obey God rather than man.”

“A people may be in a state of slavery, while they imagine they enjoy their freedom.”

“For a nation to be enslaved is a great misery; but it is a greater, to be enslaved, and not to know it.”

“God himself does not govern us in an arbitrary, tyrannical manner.”

“The people are the only source of civil authority.”

“Let us all learn to be free, and to be loyal.”

“A day of public thanksgiving is a day of gladness, of spiritual joy and rejoicing.”

“The doctrines of the divine right of kings, and of non-resistance, are as fabulous and chimerical as the most idle dreams of the poets.”

“Rulers have no authority from God to do mischief.”