A model of christian charity essay

HIST 120 Dr. Schaffer

John Winthrop, “A Model of Christian Charity” (1630) (excerpt)

In 1630 Puritans established the Massachusetts Bay Colony. On the journey across the Atlantic Ocean,

John Winthrop, the first governor of the colony, gave a sermon titled “A Model of Christian Charity” in

which he outlined how Puritans saw themselves, their place in the world, and their relationship with

God. This sermon was Winthrop’s vision for the new colony. Central to Winthrop’s vision was the

covenant that he said the colonists had made with God. A covenant is an agreement entered into freely

by both parties. Colonists viewed subsequent events, like the Pequot War, King Philip’s War, the Salem

Witch Trials, and King William’s War through the lens of this covenant they believed they had made

with God.

…Thus stands the cause between God and us. We are entered into Covenant with Him for this work. We

have taken out a commission. The Lord hath given us leave to draw our own articles. … We have

hereupon besought Him of favor and blessing. Now if the Lord shall please to hear us, and bring us in

peace to the place we desire, then hath he ratified this covenant and sealed our Commission, and will

expect a strict performance of the articles contained in it; but if we shall neglect the observation of these

articles which are the ends we have propounded, and, dissembling with our God, shall fall to embrace

this present world and prosecute our carnal intentions, seeking great things for ourselves and our

posterity, the Lord will surely break out in wrath against us; be revenged of such a [sinful] people and

make us know the price of the breach of such a covenant.

Now the only way to avoid this shipwrack, and to provide for our posterity, is to follow the counsel of

Micah, to doe justly, to love mercy, to walk humbly with our God. For this end, we must be knit together,

in this work, as one man. We must entertain each other in brotherly affection. We must be willing to

abridge ourselves of our superfluities, for the supply of other's necessities. We must uphold a familiar

commerce together in all meekness, gentleness, patience and liberality. We must delight in each other;

make other's conditions our own; rejoice together, mourn together, labor and suffer together, always

having before our eyes our commission and community in the work, as members of the same body. So

shall we keep the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace. The Lord will be our God, and delight to dwell

among us, as his own people, and will command a blessing upon us in all our ways. So that we shall see

much more of his wisdom, power, goodness and truth, than formerly we have been acquainted with. We

shall find that the God of Israel is among us, when ten of us shall be able to resist a thousand of our

enemies; when he shall make us a praise and glory that men shall say of succeeding plantations, "the

Lord make it like that of New England." For we must consider that we shall be as a city upon a hill. The

eyes of all people are upon us, so that if we shall deal falsely with our God in this work we have

undertaken, and so cause him to withdraw his present help from us, we shall be made a story and a by-

word through the world. We shall open the mouths of enemies to speak evil of the ways of God, and all

professors for God's sake. We shall shame the faces of many of God's worthy servants, and cause their

prayers to be turned into curses upon us till we be consumed out of the good land whither we are a

going.