The Star and the Link

Dated 1976
Filed under 1979
Location: Unknown

The Star and the Link

Jonathan Mayhew lived his brief life of 45 years between 1720 and 1766. He was named by later generations as “The Morning Star of the American Revolution” and also “the link between the 18th century Puritan religion and 19th century Unitarianism.” Robert Treat Paine, a signer of the Declaration of Independence, called Mayhew “the father of civil and religious liberty in Massachusetts and America.”

In this year of bicentennial celebration of our nation and the 151st year of the founding of the AUA, surely he ought to be of interest to us. Particularly he would have been outraged to be called the “star” or the “link.” He was loyal to the British King and government and passionately opposed to most of the Arian, Deistic, and Socinian theologies which characterized many 19th century Unitarians.

Mayhew would have been similarly shocked at Universalist salvation theology because he believed in judgment and Hell.

Jonathan Mayhew was not always consistent with his own deeply-held principles. He preached tolerance but bitterly denounced those who stood in opposition to him, not only because of their different views, but also because he seemed to believe they had no right to express them. Mayhew’s contemporary, John Adams, who said he had been influenced by Mayhew, said that “a dozen volumes would be required to delineate the character of Jonathan Mayhew.”

Therefore, I am attempting to highlight the life of Jonathan Mayhew, his remarkable family heritage, the religious climates that prevailed in his age, the political influence he had on two continents even though he was never in his life more than 100 miles from Boston, and the remarkable intersections between his religious belief, the issues of the day, and how he used his pulpit to energize public opinion.

1. His remarkable family:

When Jonathan Mayhew was born in 1720, he was a 5th generation American. To me, a 1st generation American born in the 20th century, I am awed that an early 18th century child should be a 5th generation American.

His forbear, Thomas Mayhew, left Tisbury England in 1631, one of the astonishing number of 20,000 persons who migrated to Massachusetts in 13 years. In 1644, Thomas Mayhew acquired title to the island of Martha’s Vineyard, 100 miles square. Thomas Mayhew named himself “Governor Mayhew” with some accuracy because Martha’s Vineyard was the only feudal manor in New England until annexed by Massachusetts in 1691.

Martha’s Vineyard was not a deserted island. Living there were 3000 Pokanoket Indians, a branch of the Naragansetts.

While Thomas Mayhew Sr. was interested in land and making money from it, his son, Thomas Jr., who had emigrated from England with his father and had received a liberal education, devoted himself to bringing Christianity to the Pokanokets. Thomas Jr. spent his life as a missionary on Martha’s Vineyard with remarkable results. By the year 1652, there were 283 converts. A school for Indian children and two Indian meetings held each Sabbath. “The Praying Indians” became so well-known that by 1649 a London missionary society began to help the Mayhews.

In 1657, Thomas Jr. was lost at sea on a trip to raise missionary funds. He was 36 years old. His father sought a replacement for the missionary work to the Indians, but finding no one, took on the task himself at the age of 60 and continued in it for twenty-five years.

Following his death, the family carried on the work. There were many deaths – infants, mothers dying in child-birth. The family economic situation deteriorated over the years. But the mission to the Indians on Martha’s Vineyard was an Indian-White relations [trip?] of good will, seldom if ever duplicated. In the bloody King Philip’s War – 1675-76, the Pokanokets, although outnumbering 20 to 1, never attacked the White. A church historian (Latourette) has written that the “missionary Mayhews represent what is likely the longest and most persistent family missionary endeavor in the annals of all Christendom.”

It was from this island heritage that Jonathan Mayhew, son of Experience Mayhew, who was the great-grandson of Governor Mayhew, arrived at Harvard University in 1740 to be educated. He was not committed to the ministry then; that call came later in his Harvard years.

During his college years, the New England theological kettle was bubbling with sermonic arguments. For the remainder of his life, Jonathan Mayhew was to increase the heat to boiling controversies.

2. The religious climate that prevailed

From its beginnings the Massachusetts Bay Colony had been Calvinist in its theology. The fine points of Calvinism (a summary perhaps oversimplified) were:

i)Absolute predestination
ii)Particular redemption
iii)Total depravity
iv)Irresistible grace
v)The perseverance of saints

This tightly woven system, by Mayhew’s time, showed some signs of unraveling. The rationalistic thoughts of Isaac Newton and John Locke were being read and discussed at Harvard. Biblical revelation was no longer, by some, considered a seamless and complete tapestry.

As much as rationalism, Arminianism was threatening Calvinism. The liberals, among whom Jonathan Mayhew could be numbered upon his graduation from Harvard and decision to become a minister, were increasingly Arminian, supra-rational, and anti-Trinitarian. Arminianism (Conrad Wright) “asserted that people are born ... (copy p. 1 intro)”

Jonathan’s father, Experience, was Arminian in his thought. Experience Mayhew in his mission work with the Pokanokets on the island found it impossible to teach the complexities of Calvinism to the Indians. A god who chooses to save only a portion of mankind (his elect) ... (quote p. 63)

Although Jonathan Mayhew had some initial difficulty finding a church, in 1747, he was elected minister of West Church, Boston, a most desirable pulpit. The parish was largely composed of rising, prosperous merchants and Mayhew’s salary was set at £15 a week, plus a full woodbox and house rent, a very comfortable salary package for that time.

Most of his Calvinistic ministerial colleagues shunned him because of his liberal views. Only a few would exchange pulpits with him, an important practice of the day.... One hundred years later this was to happen to Theodore Parker when his [Unitarian] colleague refused to exchange pulpits.

One anecdote about how some abhorred Mayhew’s preaching: while still a teenager, Paul Revere attended a service when Mayhew spoke. Paul’s enthusiasm for [a] sermon “resulted in a beating by his strict father, fearful that the lad would stray into heresy.” The sermon that caused Paul Revere to be thrashed was probably one of a series called “Seven Sermons.” Most significant from our theme of the Star and the Link were his plain, bold statements on free inquiry, private judgment, and liberty.

[3.] Political influence and the intersection of religious believes and the issue of Mayhew’s time

While he always based his social commentary on scriptural foundations, because he spoke boldly, inevitably he was politically controversial.

In 1750 he preached on “unlimited submission and non-resistance to higher powers,” and referred to the English traditions of Puritan Revolution and the Glorious Revolution as the right of citizens to “rid their nation of a ruler who does not govern for the common good.” It was the most important defense of the right of revolution to be made in American prior to 1776. One sentence was memorable: “Rulers have no authority from God to do mischief.”

Mayhew also infuriated the growing Anglican church in the colonies by castigating Bishops and leading the fight to prevent the settling of an Anglican Bishop. That such an attitude infringed upon Anglicans’ liberty to have a resident Bishop if they wanted one, deterred Mayhew’s attack not at all. his fear – that the alliance between Crown and surplice in Massachusetts would destroy the freedom tradition – outranked his belief in religious liberty. There were many such inconsistencies in his polemics.

The last ten years of Mayhew’s life were continuously controversial – religious and political. He attacked the Calvinistic concept of original sin and the Trinity.

Politically, Britain and France were fighting for possession of North America. Mayhew used his pulpit as the sounding board for holy war. To him, France was both a tyrant and the champion of “Romish Superstition.” - “forces of the devil seeking to enslave both religiously and politically.” He reviewed the progress of the war in his sermons and gloated in the fall of Quebec.

Today it seems somewhat bizarre that Mayhew should also remind his congregation how good business was in wartime. His biographer noted, “Seldom in the annals of Christendom had righteousness and profits seemed so indissolubly welded.”

He was loyal to King George III. [But] then came sparks that would eventually ignite the American Revolution – the Writs of Assistance which the colonists insisted violated fundamental property rights.

The Stamp Act of 1765 became a serious and inflammatory ... issue. British taxation without representation became obnoxious. Mobs hung the English governor in effigy. Then Mayhew preached on the subject on August 25 – and the texts that exist may be inaccurate – his text (Gal. v 12/13) “ye have been called unto liberty.” Monday evening the mobs struck again, attacking the homes of custom officials, destroying records, and destroying the Governor’s house. Many believed the sermon was the triggering cause. An episco... wrote England “one of the most seditious sermons ever delivered advising the people to stand up for their rights, even to the last drop of blood.”

Mayhew was shocked that he should be so accused – but the Stamp Act was appealed and when notice arrived there was the largest celebration in Boston’s history – a 23 hour party with wine supplied by John Hancock, [and] with cheers for the King and Parliament.

I have said nothing about Jonathan Mayhew, his happy marriage, his one surviving daughter Elizabeth who married Peter Wainwright. Since then the oldest son of the oldest son has always carried the name. Ironically, Elizabeth’s son, J.N.W. became E P (Episcopal priest?) - who by his death in 1854 the most famous Bishop of NY. The hero of Corregidor J.M. [Jonathan M. Wainwright] was [in] the straight line of descent [of those] to be so named.

In 1747, 3 months before his 46th birthday, Jonathan Mayhew took ill and died in a few days. The funeral procession was the longest Boston had ever seen.

John Adams, in his old age (68 years), said of Mayhew’s sermon “Unlimited Submission” – he referred 4th of July orators who “really wish to investigate the feelings which produced the Revolution.”

Jonathan Mayhew was not an original thinker. He was influenced by European rational and Arminian thought. His theology was a link to Unitarianism, although he would have been appalled, and probably delivered a bold hostile sermon. He was not always ready to grant to others the privileges he claimed for himself. But thoroughly consistent heroes are non-existent.

... his religious zeal was based on liberty, experience, inquiry, private judgment, and passionate convictions – guidelines which can serve all of us inconsistent souls until something better comes along.