Jonathan Mayhew (October 8, 1720 – July 9, 1766) was a noted American
Congregational
Congregationalism (also Congregational Churches or Congregationalist Churches) is a Reformed Christianity, Reformed Christian (Calvinist) tradition of Protestant Christianity in which churches practice Congregationalist polity, congregational ...
minister at
Old West Church, Boston, Massachusetts.
Early life
Mayhew was born at
Martha's Vineyard
Martha's Vineyard, often simply called the Vineyard, is an island in the U.S. state of Massachusetts, lying just south of Cape Cod. It is known for being a popular, affluent summer colony, and includes the smaller peninsula Chappaquiddick Isla ...
, being fifth in descent from
Thomas Mayhew
Governor Thomas Mayhew, the Elder (April 1, 1593 – March 25, 1682) established the first European settlement on Martha's Vineyard, Nantucket and adjacent islands in 1642. He is one of the editors of the Bay Psalm Book, the first book published i ...
(1592–1682), an early settler and the grantee (1641) of
Martha's Vineyard
Martha's Vineyard, often simply called the Vineyard, is an island in the U.S. state of Massachusetts, lying just south of Cape Cod. It is known for being a popular, affluent summer colony, and includes the smaller peninsula Chappaquiddick Isla ...
and adjacent islands. Thomas Mayhew, Jr. (1622–1657), his son John (d. 1689) and John's son,
Experience Mayhew
Experience Mayhew (1673–1758) was a New England missionary to the Wampanoag Indians on Martha's Vineyard and adjacent islands. He is the author of Massachusett Psalter (a rare book like the Bay Psalm Book and Eliot Indian Bible).
Experience wa ...
(1673–1758), were active
missionaries
A missionary is a member of a religious group who is sent into an area in order to promote its faith or provide services to people, such as education, literacy, social justice, health care, and economic development.Thomas Hale 'On Being a Miss ...
among the Indians of Marthas Vineyard and the vicinity.
Mayhew graduated from
Harvard College
Harvard College is the undergraduate education, undergraduate college of Harvard University, a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Part of the Harvard Faculty of Arts and Scienc ...
in 1744 and in 1749 received the degree of
D.D. from the
University of Aberdeen
The University of Aberdeen (abbreviated ''Aberd.'' in List of post-nominal letters (United Kingdom), post-nominals; ) is a public university, public research university in Aberdeen, Scotland. It was founded in 1495 when William Elphinstone, Bis ...
.
Theological views
So
liberal were his theological views that when he was to be ordained minister of the West Church in Boston in 1747, only two ministers attended the first council called for the ordination, and it was necessary to summon a second council. Mayhew's preaching made his church essentially the first
Unitarian Congregational church in
New England
New England is a region consisting of six states in the Northeastern United States: Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont. It is bordered by the state of New York (state), New York to the west and by the ...
, though it was never officially Unitarian. He preached the strict unity of God, the subordinate nature of
Christ
Jesus ( AD 30 or 33), also referred to as Jesus Christ, Jesus of Nazareth, and many other names and titles, was a 1st-century Jewish preacher and religious leader. He is the Jesus in Christianity, central figure of Christianity, the M ...
, and
salvation
Salvation (from Latin: ''salvatio'', from ''salva'', 'safe, saved') is the state of being saved or protected from harm or a dire situation. In religion and theology, ''salvation'' generally refers to the deliverance of the soul from sin and its c ...
by character. Like other Unitarians of this time, Mayhew believed God punished whole communities if the people were not moral and pious enough. But Mayhew did affirm "the divinity of the Son of God" and never explicitly denied (as Arians do) that the Son is co-eternal with the Father.
On March 20, 1760, Boston experienced a fire that consumed over three hundred buildings and left about a thousand people without homes. Three days later, Mayhew preached a sermon that proclaimed that God had caused the fire to chastise Bostonians. Mayhew declared that God had “determined to let loose his wrath upon the city to ‘rebuke us in his anger, and chasten us in his hot displeasure’. ” Therefore, Mayhew said, God “caused his wind to blow; and suddenly raised it to such a height, that all endeavours to put a stop to the raging flames, were ineffectual”. Mayhew finished his sermon by warning the people of Boston that unless they repented and reformed enough, they should expect an even greater punishment.
Political views
In politics, Mayhew bitterly opposed the
Stamp Act, and urged the necessity of colonial union (or communion) to secure colonial liberties. He was famous, in part, for his 1750 and 1754 election sermons espousing American rights — the cause of liberty and the right and duty to resist tyranny; other famous sermons included "The Snare Broken," 1766. His sermons and writings were a powerful influence in the development of the movement for liberty and independence.
The extent of his political feeling can be seen in hi
''Discourse Concerning Unlimited Submission''(complete text)
a sermon delivered on the 100th anniversary of the execution of Charles I (January 30, 1649/50). Taking vigorous issue with recent efforts to portray Charles as a martyred monarch, Mayhew began with observations on the antiquity of English liberties. The English constitution, he asserted, “is originally and essentially free.” Roman sources, such as the reliable Tacitus
Publius Cornelius Tacitus, known simply as Tacitus ( , ; – ), was a Roman historian and politician. Tacitus is widely regarded as one of the greatest Roman historians by modern scholars.
Tacitus’ two major historical works, ''Annals'' ( ...
, made it clear that “the ancient Britons
The Britons (Linguistic reconstruction, *''Pritanī'', , ), also known as Celtic Britons or Ancient Britons, were the Celts, Celtic people who inhabited Great Britain from at least the British Iron Age until the High Middle Ages, at which point ...
… were extremely jealous of their liberties.” England’s monarchs originally held their throne “solely by grant of parliament,” so the ancient English kings ruled “by the voluntary consent of the people.” After forty pages of such historical discourse, Mayhew reached his major point: the essential rightness of the execution of an English king when he too greatly infringed upon British liberties.
The vigor of Mayhew’s sermon established his reputation. It was published not only in Boston, but also in London
London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...
in 1752 and again in 1767. In Boston, John Adams
John Adams (October 30, 1735 – July 4, 1826) was a Founding Fathers of the United States, Founding Father and the second president of the United States from 1797 to 1801. Before Presidency of John Adams, his presidency, he was a leader of ...
remembered long afterward that Mayhew’s sermon, “was read by everybody.” Some would say later that this sermon was the first volley of the American Revolution
The American Revolution (1765–1783) was a colonial rebellion and war of independence in which the Thirteen Colonies broke from British America, British rule to form the United States of America. The revolution culminated in the American ...
, setting forth the intellectual and scriptural justification for rebellion against the Crown.
In 1763 he turned his attention to the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, a branch of the Church of England
The Church of England (C of E) is the State religion#State churches, established List of Christian denominations, Christian church in England and the Crown Dependencies. It is the mother church of the Anglicanism, Anglican Christian tradition, ...
established "to send priests and schoolteachers to America to help provide the Church's ministry to the colonists". His ''Observations on the Charter and Conduct of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts'' was published in Boston and London and raised considerable opposition in England and America; Thomas Secker, then archbishop of Canterbury
The archbishop of Canterbury is the senior bishop and a principal leader of the Church of England, the Primus inter pares, ceremonial head of the worldwide Anglican Communion and the bishop of the diocese of Canterbury. The first archbishop ...
, wrote an ''Answer'' the following year.
In 1765, with the provocation of the Stamp Act fresh, Mayhew delivered another rousing sermon on the virtues of liberty and the iniquity of tyranny. The essence of slavery, he announced, consists in subjection to others—“whether many, few, or but one, it matters not.” The day after his sermon, a Boston mob attacked Chief Justice Thomas Hutchinson’s house, and many thought Mayhew was responsible.
Mayhew was Dudleian lecturer at Harvard in 1765. He died July 1766.
A quarter century after his death, the following lines were delivered at the Harvard commencement address of 1792:
While Britain claim'd by laws our rights to lead,
And faith was fetter'd by a bigot's creed.
Then mental freedom first her power display'd
and call'd a MAYHEW to religion's aid.
For this great truth, he boldly led the van,
That private judgment was the right of man.
References
Writings
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Further reading
* Akers, Charles W. ''Called unto liberty: A life of Jonathan Mayhew, 1720-1766'' (Harvard University Press, 1964
online
* Beneke, Chris. "The Critical Turn: Jonathan Mayhew, the British Empire, and the Idea of Resistance in Mid-Eightennth-Century Boston." ''Massachusetts Historical Review,'' Vol. 10 (2008): pp. 23–56.
*
* Lubert, Howard L. "Jonathan Mayhew: Conservative Revolutionary." ''History of Political Thought'' 32 (Winter 2011): 589-616.
* Mullins, Patrick. ''Father of Liberty: Jonathan Mayhew and the Principles of the American Revolution'' (2017
online* Mullins, J. Patrick. " ' A Kind of War, Tho' Hitherto an Un-Bloody One': Jonathan Mayhew, Francis Bernard, and the Indian Affair." ''Massachusetts Historical Review'' 11#1 (2009): 27-56
online
External links
"Discourse Concerning Unlimited Submission and Non-Resistance to the Higher Powers""Discourse Concerning Unlimited Submission and Non-Resistance to the Higher Powers" (complete text)Boston University Mayhew Papers (1648–1774)
Discourse Concerning Unlimited Submission and Non-resistance to the Higher PowersFrom th
at the
Library of Congress
The Library of Congress (LOC) is a research library in Washington, D.C., serving as the library and research service for the United States Congress and the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It also administers Copyright law o ...
{{DEFAULTSORT:Mayhew, Jonathan
1720 births
1766 deaths
People from Martha's Vineyard
Harvard College alumni
American Unitarians
18th century in Boston
People from colonial Massachusetts
18th-century American Congregationalist ministers