Faith & Spirit Quote by Jonathan Mayhew

Mayhew is quoting Scripture (Romans 13) the way a skilled polemicist quotes a law: not to settle the argument, but to seize the argument’s most intimidating weapon and turn it in his hands. “Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers” was the crown’s favorite proof-text, a neat theological shortcut from obedience to monarchy, from dissent to sin. By repeating it with cool exactness, Mayhew sets the trap. He lets the verse arrive in the room wearing its usual uniform of unquestionable authority so he can immediately ask what kind of “power” deserves that sanctified submission.

The subtext is radical for a colonial clergyman: if political authority is “ordained of God,” then it is ordained for a purpose. In the biblical logic Mayhew is preparing to activate, rulers are “ministers” for public good; when they invert that mission and become tyrants, they stop resembling the “higher powers” Paul describes and start resembling a different category altogether. The genius is that Mayhew doesn’t have to reject religion to justify resistance. He can present resistance as fidelity to God’s design rather than rebellion against it.

Context does the rest. Mid-18th-century New England sermons doubled as civic instruction, and Mayhew’s famous election-day preaching (especially after the execution of Charles I) trained congregations to hear politics as moral reasoning. This line is the set-up for a Protestant, anti-absolutist argument: obedience is not a blank check. It is conditional, accountable, and, when abused, revocable.