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Jonathan Mayhew (October 8, 1720 – July 9, 1766) was a noted American
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minister at
Old West Church, Boston, Massachusetts The Old West Church is a historic United Methodist Church at 131 Cambridge Street in the West End of Boston, Massachusetts. It was built in 1806 to designs by architect Asher Benjamin, and is considered one of his finest works. It is a monumen ...
.


Early life

Mayhew was born at
Martha's Vineyard Martha's Vineyard, often simply called the Vineyard, is an island in the Northeastern United States, located south of Cape Cod in Dukes County, Massachusetts, known for being a popular, affluent summer colony. Martha's Vineyard includes the ...
, being fifth in descent from
Thomas Mayhew Governor Thomas Mayhew, the Elder (March 31, 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 ...
(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 Northeastern United States, located south of Cape Cod in Dukes County, Massachusetts, known for being a popular, affluent summer colony. Martha's Vineyard includes the ...
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 was ...
(1673–1758), were active
missionaries A missionary is a member of a religious group which 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 Mi ...
among the Indians of Marthas Vineyard and the vicinity. Mayhew graduated from
Harvard College Harvard College is the undergraduate college of Harvard University, an Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636, Harvard College is the original school of Harvard University, the oldest institution of higher ...
in 1744 and in 1749 received the degree of
D.D. A Doctor of Divinity (D.D. or DDiv; la, Doctor Divinitatis) is the holder of an advanced academic degree in divinity. In the United Kingdom, it is considered an advanced doctoral degree. At the University of Oxford, doctors of divinity are ran ...
from the
University of Aberdeen , mottoeng = The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom , established = , type = Public research universityAncient university , endowment = £58.4 million (2021) , budget ...
.


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 comprising 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 to the west and by the Canadian provinces ...
, though it was never officially Unitarian. He preached the strict unity of God, the subordinate nature of
Christ Jesus, likely from he, יֵשׁוּעַ, translit=Yēšūaʿ, label= Hebrew/ Aramaic ( AD 30 or 33), also referred to as Jesus Christ or Jesus of Nazareth (among other names and titles), was a first-century Jewish preacher and relig ...
, 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 ...
by character. Like other Unitarians of this time, Mayhew believed God punished whole communities if the people were not moral and pious enough. 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
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(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. The surviving portions of his two major works—the ...
, made it clear that “the
ancient Britons The Britons ( *''Pritanī'', la, Britanni), also known as Celtic Britons or Ancient Britons, were people of Celtic language and culture who inhabited Great Britain from at least the British Iron Age and into the Middle Ages, at which point the ...
… 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
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in 1752 and again in 1767. In Boston,
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remembered long afterward that Mayhew’s sermon, “was read by everybody.” Some would say later that this sermon was the first volley of the
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, setting forth the intellectual and scriptural justification for rebellion against the Crown. In 1763 he turned his attention to the
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, a branch of the
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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 ceremonial head of the worldwide Anglican Communion and the diocesan bishop of the Diocese of Canterbury. The current archbishop is Just ...
, 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


Bibliography

* * * * * * * * * * * Chris Beneke, "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. * Howard L. Lubert, "Jonathan Mayhew: Conservative Revolutionary." ''History of Political Thought'' 32 (Winter 2011): 589-616. * Patrick Mullins. ''Father of Liberty: Jonathan Mayhew and the Principles of the American Revolution'' (2017)


External links


A brief bio"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 Powers
From th

at the
Library of Congress The Library of Congress (LOC) is the research library that officially serves the United States Congress and is the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It is the oldest federal cultural institution in the country. The libra ...
{{DEFAULTSORT:Mayhew, Jonathan 1720 births 1766 deaths People from Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts Harvard College alumni American Congregationalist ministers 18th-century Christian clergy American Unitarians 18th century in Boston People of colonial Massachusetts 18th-century American clergy