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Nevertheless, this essay deserves our attention for its rhetorical brilliance, spiritual potency, and its enduring influence on American politics. While Puritanism also had a radical and revolutionary streak, Winthrop’s defense of inequality was characteristically conservative and elitist. In its original context, much of “Christian Charity” reflected commonplace themes of seventeenth-century Puritan literature, including its conservative emphasis on obedience to hierarchy. The meaning of texts can take on new significance over time. Winthrop then concludes his discourse by adapting Moses’ farewell exhortation in Deuteronomy. Wee shall finde that the God of Israell is among vs, when tenn of vs shall be able to resist a thousand of our enemies, when hee shall make vs a prayse and glory, that men shall say of succeeding plantacions: the lord make it like that of New England: for wee must Consider that wee shall be as a Citty vpon a Hill, the eies of all people are vppon vs.Ĭonsequently, he warns, failure to live up to their Puritan ideals will result in God forsaking them, causing great blasphemy, shame, and their ultimate destruction from the New World.
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On a loftier, somewhat hyperbolic note, he casts the colony as a model for future endeavors: Winthrop applies these teachings to his present company, highlighting the necessity of mutual affection to create “a due forme of Goverment both ciuill and ecclesiasticall,” to purify the Church and eschew idolatry, and to serve God by strictly fulfilling His word and covenant. Unfortunately, however, the Edenic original sin caused selfishness among humanity, but like-minded Christians will naturally model the love between Adam and Eve, King David and Jonathan, and Ruth and Naomi. As a result, Christians should have sympathy and provide aid for each other.
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He employs an anatomical metaphor, defining love as the force that binds together the parts, joints, and ligaments that comprise the perfect, spotless, and unified “body of Christ” and his Church. We must always be prepared to provide aid to those who seek it, he warns, especially for the church, reminding his brethren of Puritan martyrs. Winthrop then discusses one’s duty to give charity, lend money, and forgive loans as needed-invoking both Deuteronomy and Matthew-counterbalanced by Solomonic cautions to take care of one’s own family and to anticipate adversity. Accordingly, Winthrop invokes the hospitality of Abraham, Lot, and the old man of Gibea, alongside apostolic exhortations to love one’s enemies and to provide extraordinary measures of aid even at great personal cost. Winthrop distinguishes between the natural law of the Decalogue and the law of grace of the New Testament. Why this is The BEST? The context within which Winthrop first formed this seminal metaphor-while often overlooked-is quite significant. The sermon begins with three explanations for the theological and political problem of wealth inequality: 1) to conform with the diversity of creatures in the natural order, which elevates the glory of God 2) to manifest the spirit of God by preventing class conflict and exercising grace through the “mercy” of the wealthy and the “obedience” of the impoverished and 3) so people “might be all knitt more nearly together in the Bond of brotherly affeccion.” Winthrop, citing Scripture, reminds the reader that one’s wealth is merely a reflection of God’s will, as all earthly possessions belong to Him. While the verse is missing in the surviving manuscript, recent scholarship traces the sermon’s themes back to Galatians 5:13 in the Geneva Bible. Like many midrashim, Puritan exegesis typically “opens” with a Scriptural citation. Before the Puritans’ departure from England to the New World in April 1630, Winthrop provided a message of unity, love, and faith to the future colonists. Christians, on the other hand, hear in Winthrop’s words an echo of the New Testament: “A city that is set on a hill cannot be hid” (Matthew 5:14 ).ĭespite its obscure origins, “Christian Charity” is considered canonical in early American literature. In our liturgy for Friday nights, we sing the words ve-nivnitah ir al tilah (Jeremiah 30:18), which ArtScroll renders, “As the City is built upon its hilltop.” A more accurate translation of the phrase would read “mound” or “heap” in the sense of rebuilding over destruction (cf. The motif appears in the short lay sermon, “ A Modell of Christian Charity ” (1630) by John Winthrop, the first governor of the Puritan Massachusetts Bay Colony. Summary: The oft-cited phrase “city on a hill” might evoke different associations for Jews and Christians.