Jonathan Mitchell

Background

Jonathan Mitchell was the fifth son of Matthew and Susan (Butterfield) Mitchell. He was born in the parish of Halifax, Yorkshire, England.

Education

Mitchell was brought by his parents to America in 1635, graduated from Harvard in 1647, and was ordained on August 21, 1650.

Career

In 1649, Mitchell had received a call to succeed Hooker at Hartford, but because of a prior commitment, he became pastor of the church at Cambridge, Massachusetts, as successor to Thomas Shepard. In May of the same year, he became and continued for the rest of his life to be a fellow of Harvard. In the course of his career, he came to differ with Henry Dunster, the president of Harvard, under whom he had been trained, and who "was unaccountably fallen into the Briars of Antip'dobaptism, and being briard in the Scruples of that Perswasion". A remonstrance cost Dunster the presidency of the college but did not disturb the friendship of the two men. Mitchell "was a Circle, whereof the Center was at Cambridge, and the Circumference took in more than all New England".

The requisite for church membership in the earlier period had been a personal experience of religion, but many could not meet the test, so it was proposed to relax the standard half way. In accord with the previous usage, only the regenerate should be admitted to the Lord's Supper, but the children of those who did not dissent from the doctrine of the church, and were not scandalous in life, might be brought to baptism. Thus the good standing of the unregenerate parents received a partial recognition and there was a greater chance of retaining the children within the fold, for "The Lord hath not set up Churches only that a few old Christians may keep one another warm while they live, and then carry away the Church into the cold grave with them when they die". The Half-Way Covenant was an incongruous combination of two conceptions of the church, as an ark of salvation comprising all in the parish, and as a community of the saints, composed only of the converted. The whole compromise was swept away by the revival of Jonathan Edwards. Mitchell lived to be but forty-three or forty-four. In spite of exercise, he could not free himself from "an ill Habit of Body. Of extream Lean, he soon grew extream Fat, and in an extream hot Season a Fever arrested him". Several of his sermons were published after his death under the title: A Discourse of the Glory to which God Hath Called Believers by Jesus Christ.

Achievements

• Mitchell's most outstanding achievement was the adoption by the Synod of 1662 of the "Half-Way Covenant, " of which he was a leading advocate, an attempt to meet the problem which arose because of declining religious enthusiasm.

Personality

Quotes from others about the person

• Cotton Mather says that "his Sermons were admirably Well-studied. And when he came to Utter what he had Prepared, his Utterance had had such a becoming Tuneableness, and Vivacity, to set it off, as was indeed Inimitable; though many of our Eminent Preachers, that were in his Time Students at the Colledge, did an essay to Imitate him".
  
  "Such Holiness and Patience, and sweet Condescension were his Incomparable Abilities accompanied withal, that Good Men, who otherwise differed from him, would still speak of him with Reverence".

Connections

On November 19, 1650, Mitchell married Thomas Shepard's widow, Margaret (Boradel) Shepard.

Father:

Matthew Mitchell

1591 - 1646

Mother:

Susan Wood Mitchell

1590 - 1635

Brother:

David Mitchell

14 November 1619 - 3 March 1686

Sister:

Hannah Mitchell Elsey

1631 - 2 April 1702

Sister:

Sarah Mitchell Sherman

13 October 1621 - 15 April 1665

Sister:

Susannah Mitchell Howell

1627 - 24 March 1711

Wife:

Margaret Borodell Shepard Mitchell

Son:

Nathanael Mitchel

4 March 1656 - 15 July 1673

References

• The Creeds and Platforms of Congregationalism