A Discourse Occasioned by the Death of the Reverned Jonathan Mayhew, D.D. Late Pastor of the West-Church in Boston: Who Departed This Life on Wednesday Morning, July 9, 1766. Aetatis 46. Delivered the Lord's Day after his Decease.
Boston: R. and S. Draper, Edes and Gill, and T. and J. Fleet, 1766. 40 pp. Sm. 8vo. Removed from a larger volume. First edition. Title page browned at the edges, faint dampstain at the top fore corner, marginal only, on the last three leaves, scattered browning, still about very good. Evans 10254. Item #43728
Jonathan Mayhew (1720 -1766) was an early American reformist minister at Old West Church, Boston, Massachusetts, known for his sermon "A Discourse Concerning Unlimited Submission and Non-Resistance to the Higher Powers" (1750). "Mayhew's ardent liberalism in religion and politics was consistent with the intellectual freedom and governmental philosophy produced in the Age of Reason. He advanced those principles in sermons and tracts, but his death in Boston from complications of a cerebral hemorrhage came before such ideals reached their zenith in this country. His fellow citizens mourned his early demise and honored Mayhew as a genial colleague, spirited controversialist, pastoral leader, and firm patriot," (Henry Warner Bowden. "Mayhew, Jonathan"; anb.org/articles/01/01-00590.
Charles Chauncy (1705-1787) was a close friend and ends his sermon: "I have only to say, as Dr. Mayhew was a friend to these churches, and their able advocate; especially in regard of that "liberty wherewith our Lord Jesus Christ has made them free": As he was a friend to the college, and has exerted his powers to my knowledge in defence of its reputation and interest: And as he was a friend to the country in general, entertaining an high opinion of the more special errand upon which our progenitors came over into this then desolate wilderness, and has vigorously laid himself out in opposing any designs that might have been formed to subvert it:—His death, in the vigor of his days, and height of his usefulness, may justly be esteemed a great and public loss, calling for universal lamentation."
Price: $250.00