Editing Jonathan Mayhew

{{Short description|American Congregational minister}}
{{Infobox clergy
| name        =  Jonathan Mayhew
| image       =  Jonathan Mayhew, engraving published 1885.jpg
| image_size  =  <!--or: | imagesize = -->
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| nationality = [[United States|American]]
| citizenship = 
| birth_name  = 
| birth_date  =  {{Birth date|1720|10|08}} 
| birth_place =  [[Martha's Vineyard]]
| death_date  =  {{Death date and age|1766|07|09|1720|10|08}} 
| death_place = 
| death_cause = 
| church      = [[Old West Church (Boston, Massachusetts)|Old West Church]], [[Boston, Massachusetts]]
| other_names = 
| years_active = 1747-1766
| occupation  = 
| education   =  [[Harvard College]]
| ordained    = 
| religion    = 
| writings    =  Discourse Concerning Unlimited Submission
| congregations = 
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| title       = 
| spouse      = 
| children    = 
| parents     = [[Experience Mayhew]]<br>Thankful Hinckley, daughter of [[Thomas Hinckley]]
| relations   =  <!--or: | family = -->
| signature   = Jonathan Mayhew signature.jpg
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| website     =  <!-- {{URL|example.com}} -->
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'''Jonathan Mayhew''' (October 8, 1720 &ndash; July 9, 1766) was a noted American [[Congregationalism in the United States|Congregational]] minister at [[Old West Church, Boston, Massachusetts]].

==Early life==
Mayhew was born at [[Martha's Vineyard]], being fifth in descent from [[Thomas Mayhew (governor)|Thomas Mayhew]] (1592–1682), an early settler and the grantee (1641) of [[Martha's Vineyard]] and adjacent islands. Thomas Mayhew, Jr. (1622–1657), his son John (d. 1689) and John's son, [[Experience Mayhew]] (1673–1758), were active [[Missionary|missionaries]] among the Indians of Marthas Vineyard and the vicinity.

Mayhew graduated from [[Harvard College]] in 1744 and in 1749 received the degree of [[D.D.]] from the [[University of Aberdeen]].

==Theological views==
So [[liberal religion|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 [[Unitarianism|Unitarian]] Congregational church in [[New England]], though it was never officially Unitarian. He preached the strict unity of God, the subordinate nature of [[Christ]], and [[salvation]] 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.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Mayhew |first=Jonathan |title=God's Hand and Providence to be Religiously Acknowledged in Public Calamities |year=1760 |location=Boston |pages=8-18, 20-21, 27-28}}</ref>  

==Political views==
In politics, Mayhew bitterly opposed the [[Stamp Act 1765|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.

[[Image:Jonathan Mayhew - Discourse concerning Unlimited Submission.jpg|thumb|right|Discourse Concerning Unlimited Submission]]

The extent of his political feeling can be seen in his [https://web.archive.org/web/20080321001748/http://www.founding.com/founders_library/pageID.2299/default.asp ''Discourse Concerning Unlimited Submission''] [http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/etas/44/ (complete text)], a sermon delivered on the 100th anniversary of the execution of [[Charles I of England|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 [[Constitution of the United Kingdom|English constitution]], he asserted, “is originally and essentially free.” Roman sources, such as the reliable [[Tacitus]], made it clear that “the [[ancient Britons]] … 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 [[regicide|execution of an English king]] when he too greatly infringed upon [[Civil liberties in the United Kingdom|British liberties]].

The vigor of Mayhew’s sermon established his reputation. It was published not only in Boston, but also in [[London]] in 1752 and again in 1767. In Boston, [[John Adams]] 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]], setting forth the intellectual and scriptural justification for rebellion against the Crown.

[[Image:Society for Propagating the Gospel seal.gif|thumb|left|Seal of the Society for Propagating the Gospel in Foreign Parts]]

In 1763 he turned his attention to the [[USPG|Society for the Propagation of the Gospel]], a branch of the [[Church of England]] 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]], 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 [[Thomas Hutchinson (governor)|Chief Justice Thomas Hutchinson]]’s house, and many thought Mayhew was responsible.

Mayhew was [[Dudleian lectures|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.<ref>{{cite book|author=Alden Bradford|title=Memoir of the Life and Writings of Rev. Jonathan Mayhew, D.D.: Pastor of the West Church and Society in Boston, from June, 1747, to July, 1766|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nAlPbixs184C|year=1838|publisher=C.C. Little & Co.|location=Boston|isbn=9780524069820}}</ref>

==References==
{{Reflist}}

== Writings==
*{{cite book|author=Jonathan Mayhew|title=Seven Sermons |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ZoQUAAAAQAAJ|year=1749|publisher=Rogers and Fowle in Queen-Street|location=Boston}}
*{{cite book|author=Jonathan Mayhew|title=A Discourse Concerning Unlimited Submission and Non-resistance to the Higher Powers: With Some Reflections on the Resistance Made to King Charles I, and on the Anniversary of His Death|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_thCAQAAMAAJ|year=1750|publisher=D. Fowle in Queen-Street; and by D. Gookin over against the South meeting-house|location=Boston}}
*{{cite book|author=Jonathan Mayhew|title=A Sermon Preach'd in the Audience of His Excellency William Shirley|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hu1bAAAAQAAJ|year=1754|publisher=Boston printed: London, reprinted for G. Woodfall}}
*{{cite book|author=Jonathan Mayhew|title=Two Discourses Delivered October 25th. 1759: Being the Day Appointed by Authority to be Observed as a Day of Public Thanksgiving, for the Success of His Majesty's Arms, More Particularly in the Reduction of Quebec, the Capital of Canada. With an Appendix, Containing a Brief Account of Two Former Expeditions Against that City and Country, which Proved Unsuccessful. By Jonathan Mayhew, D.D. Pastor of the West Church in Boston|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6eMGAAAAQAAJ|year=1759|publisher=Richard Draper, in Newbury-Street; Edes & Gill, in Queen-Street; and Thomas & John Fleet, in Cornhill}}
*{{cite book|author=Jonathan Mayhew|title=Christian Sobriety: Being Eight Sermons on Titus II.6|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yCMPAAAAIAAJ|year=1763|publisher=R. & S. Draper|location=Boston}}
*{{cite book|author=Jonathan Mayhew|title=Sermons on the Nature, Extent and Perfection of the Divine Goodness|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qpiGuXbSERoC|year=1763|publisher=C & J Kneeland|location=Boston, N. E.}}
*{{cite book|author=Jonathan Mayhew|title=Observations on the Charter and Conduct of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts: Designed to Shew Their Non-conformity to Each Other|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wqtbAAAAQAAJ|year=1763|publisher=Boston, in New-England, printed: London, reprinted for W. Nicoll}}
*{{cite book|author=Jonathan Mayhew|title=A Defence of the Observations on the Charter and Conduct of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts: Against an Anonymous Pamphlet Falsly Intitled, A Candid Examination of Dr. Mayhew's Observations|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yatbAAAAQAAJ|year=1764|publisher=Boston printed: London reprinted for W. Nicoll}}
*{{cite book|author=Jonathan Mayhew|title=The Snare Broken; a Thanksgiving Discourse &#91;on Ps. Cxxiv. 7, 8&#93; Preached in Boston, N.E., May 23, 1766: Occasioned by the Repeal of the Stamp-Act|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WysPbWGtUXwC|year=1766|location=Boston, N. E.|isbn=9780608411958}}

==Further reading==
* Akers, Charles W. ''Called unto liberty: A life of Jonathan Mayhew, 1720-1766'' (Harvard University Press, 1964) [https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.4159/harvard.9780674729322.c23/pdf 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.&nbsp;23–56.
*{{cite book|author=Moore, Frank |title=The Patriot Preachers of the American Revolution: With Biographical Sketches|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=SCNj23losukC|year=1862|publisher=C.T. Evans|location=New York}}

* 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) [https://books.google.com/books?id=IN2tEAAAQBAJ&dq=Mayhew&pg=PP9 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. [https://www.jstor.org/stable/40345979 online]

== External links ==
{{Commons category}}
*[http://www.bartleby.com/225/0504.html A brief bio]
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20080321001748/http://www.founding.com/founders_library/pageID.2299/default.asp "Discourse Concerning Unlimited Submission and Non-Resistance to the Higher Powers"]
*[http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/etas/44/ "Discourse Concerning Unlimited Submission and Non-Resistance to the Higher Powers" (complete text)]
* [http://www.bu.edu/dbin/archives/index.php?pid=401&holdings=historicalcollections&hc=02 Boston University]. Mayhew Papers (1648–1774)
*[http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.rbc/AmericanImprints.19678.1 Discourse Concerning Unlimited Submission and Non-resistance to the Higher Powers] From the [https://www.loc.gov/rr/rarebook/coll/amimp.html American Imprint Collection] at the [[Library of Congress]]

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mayhew, Jonathan}}
[[Category:1720 births]]
[[Category:1766 deaths]]
[[Category:People from Martha's Vineyard]]
[[Category:Harvard College alumni]]
[[Category:American Unitarians]]
[[Category:18th century in Boston]]
[[Category:People from colonial Massachusetts]]
[[Category:18th-century American Congregationalist ministers]]