The origination and descent of all human power is from God… first, to terrify evildoers; secondly, to cherish those who do well…. Government seems to me to be a part of religion itself—a thing sacred in its institutions and ends. … Government, like clocks, go from the motion men give them, and as governments are made and moved by them, so by them they are ruined too. Wherefore, governments rather depend upon men, than men upon governments. Let men be good, and the government cannot be bad.
– William Penn, “Frame of Government,” April 1682,
