"But let us remember, at the same time, government is sacred, and not to be trifled with"
About this Quote
Calling government "sacred" is a daring rhetorical move from a man whose day job was handling the sacred. Jonathan Mayhew, the New England Congregationalist famous for preaching against tyranny, isn’t suddenly bowing to kings; he’s drawing a boundary around politics by borrowing the highest language available in an 18th-century pulpit. In a culture where legitimacy still leaned on theology, "sacred" is a claim about moral gravity: the state isn’t just a tool, it’s a charged instrument that can preserve order or sanctify abuse.
The phrase "not to be trifled with" does double work. It scolds the frivolous cynic who treats institutions like toys, and it warns the reckless zealot who thinks righteous anger excuses chaos. Mayhew’s intent is to discipline rebellion even as he justifies it. He wants resistance to feel less like an emotional spasm and more like a solemn duty, undertaken with restraint and reasons. That tension is the subtext: protest without nihilism, reform without anarchy.
Context matters. Colonial Americans were steeped in sermons that treated authority as ordained, yet they were increasingly allergic to imperial overreach. Mayhew’s genius is to re-route the aura of sacredness away from any particular ruler and toward the concept of government rightly ordered under law. By sanctifying the institution while implicitly refusing to sanctify the officeholder, he gives listeners moral permission to oppose power without collapsing into contempt for governance itself.
The phrase "not to be trifled with" does double work. It scolds the frivolous cynic who treats institutions like toys, and it warns the reckless zealot who thinks righteous anger excuses chaos. Mayhew’s intent is to discipline rebellion even as he justifies it. He wants resistance to feel less like an emotional spasm and more like a solemn duty, undertaken with restraint and reasons. That tension is the subtext: protest without nihilism, reform without anarchy.
Context matters. Colonial Americans were steeped in sermons that treated authority as ordained, yet they were increasingly allergic to imperial overreach. Mayhew’s genius is to re-route the aura of sacredness away from any particular ruler and toward the concept of government rightly ordered under law. By sanctifying the institution while implicitly refusing to sanctify the officeholder, he gives listeners moral permission to oppose power without collapsing into contempt for governance itself.
Quote Details
| Topic | Justice |
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