John Winthrop, “A Model of Christian Charity,” John Winthrop delivered the following sermon before he & his fellow settlers reached New England. The sermon is famous largely for its use of the phrase “a city on a hill,” used to describe the expectation that the Massachusetts Bay colony would shine like an example to the world. But Winthrop’s sermon also reveals how he expected Massachusetts to differ from the rest of the world.
A Modell Hereof
God Almighty in his most holy & wise providence hath so disposed of the condition of mankind, as in all times some must be rich some poor, some high & eminent in power & dignity; others mean & in subjection.
The Reason hereof:
1st Reason.
First to hold conformity with the rest of His world, being delighted to show forth the glory of his wisdom in the variety & difference of the creatures, & the glory of His power in ordering all these differences for the preservation & good of the whole, & the glory of His greatness, that as it is the glory of princes to have many officers, so this great king will have many stewards, counting himself more honored in dispensing his gifts to man by man, than if he did it by his own immediate hands.
2nd Reason.
Secondly, that He might have the more occasion to manifest the work of his Spirit: first upon the wicked in moderating & restraining them, so that the rich & mighty should not eat up the poor, nor the poor & despised rise up against & shake off their yoke. Secondly, in the regenerate, in exercising His graces in them, as in the great ones, their love, mercy, gentleness, temperance etc., & in the poor & inferior sort, their faith, patience, obedience etc.
3rd Reason.
Thirdly, that every man might have need of others, & from hence they might be all knit more nearly together in the bonds of brotherly affection. From hence it appears plainly that no man is made more honorable than another or more wealthy etc., out of any particular & singular respect to himself, but for the glory of his Creator & the common good of the creature, Man. Therefore God still reserves the property of these gifts to Himself as Ezek. 16:17, He there calls wealth, His gold & His silver, & Prov. 3:9, He claims their service as His due, “Honor the Lord with thy riches,” etc. — All men being thus (by divine providence) ranked into two sorts, rich & poor; under the first are comprehended all such as are able to live comfortably by their own means duly improved; & all others are poor according to the former distribution….
Question: What rule must we observe & walk by in cause of community of peril?
Answer:
The same as before, but with more enlargement towards others & less respect towards ourselves & our own right. Hence it was that in the primitive Church they sold all, had all things in common, neither did any man say that which he possessed was his own. Likewise in their return out of the captivity, because the work was great for the restoring of the church & the danger of enemies was common to all, Nehemiah directs the Jews to liberality & readiness in remitting their debts to their brethren, & disposing liberally to such as wanted, & stand not upon their own dues which they might have demanded of them. Thus did some of our forefathers in times of persecution in England, & so did many of the faithful of other churches, whereof we keep an honorable remembrance of them; & it is to be observed that both in Scriptures & latter stories of the churches that such as have been most bountiful to the poor saints, especially in those extraordinary times & occasions, God hath left them highly commended to posterity…
Thus stands the cause between God & 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 professed to enterprise these & those accounts, upon these & those ends. We have hereupon besought Him of favor & blessing. Now if the Lord shall please to hear us, & bring us in peace to the place we desire, then hath He ratified this covenant & sealed our commission, & 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 & prosecute our carnal intentions, seeking great things for ourselves & our posterity, the Lord will surely break out in wrath against us, & be revenged of such a people, & make us know the price of the breach of such a covenant.
Now the only way to avoid this shipwreck, & to provide for our posterity, is to follow the counsel of Micah, to do 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 others’ necessities. We must uphold a familiar commerce together in all meekness, gentleness, patience & liberality. We must delight in each other; make others’ conditions our own; rejoice together, mourn together, labor & suffer together, always having before our eyes our commission & 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, & delight to dwell among us, as His own people, & will command a blessing upon us in all our ways, so that we shall see much more of His wisdom, power, goodness & 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 & glory that men shall say of succeeding plantations, “may 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, & so cause Him to withdraw His present help from us, we shall be made a story & a by-word through the world. We shall open the mouths of enemies to speak evil of the ways of God, & all professors for God’s sake. We shall shame the faces of many of God’s worthy servants, & cause their prayers to be turned into curses upon us till we be consumed out of the good land whither we are going.
And to shut this discourse with that exhortation of Moses, that faithful servant of the Lord, in his last farewell to Israel, Deut. 30. “Beloved, there is now set before us life & death, good & evil,” in that we are commanded this day to love the Lord our God, & to love one another, to walk in his ways & to keep his Commandments & his ordinance & his laws, & the articles of our Covenant with Him, that we may live & be multiplied, & that the Lord our God may bless us in the land whither we go to possess it. But if our hearts shall turn away, so that we will not obey, but shall be seduced, & worship other Gods, our pleasure & profits, & serve them; it is propounded unto us this day, we shall surely perish out of the good land whither we pass over this vast sea to possess it.
Therefore let us choose life,
that we & our seed may live,
by obeying His voice & cleaving to Him,
for He is our life & our prosperity.
