… These thoughts can very largely be traced back to what Rev. John Wise was writing in 1710.
He said, ‘Every man must be acknowledged equal to every man.’
Again, ‘The end of all good government is to cultivate humanity and promote the happiness of all and the good of every man in all his rights, his life, liberty, estate, honor, and so forth …’
And again, ‘For as they have a power every man in his natural state, so upon combination they can and do bequeath this power to others and settle it according as their united discretion shall determine.’
And still again, ‘Democracy is Christ’s government in church and state.’
Here was the doctrine of equality, popular sovereignty, and the substance of the theory of inalienable rights clearly asserted by Rev, Wise at the opening of the eighteenth century, just as we have the principle of the consent of the governed stated by Rev. Hooker as early as 1638.”