Discussions

1 7 6 | J O H N W I N T H R O P

worthies set mine host upon an island, without gun, powder, or shot, or dog, or so much as a knife to get anything to feed upon, or any other clothes to shelter him with at winter than a thin suit which he had on at that time. Home he could not get to Ma-re Mount. Upon this island he stayed a month at least and was relieved by savages that took notice that mine host was a sachem6 of Passonagessit, and would bring bottles of strong liquor to him and unite themselves into a league of brotherhood with mine host, so full of humanity are these in"dels before those Christians.

From this place for Eng land sailed mine host in a Plymouth ship7 (that came into the land to "sh upon the coast) that landed him safe in Eng land at Plymouth; and he stayed in Eng land until the ordinary time for shipping to set forth for these parts, and then returned, no man being able to tax8 him of anything.

But the worthies (in the meantime) hoped they had been rid of him.

* * *

c. 1635 1637

6. Ruling chief. 7. I.e., from Plymouth, Eng land.

8. Charge.

JOHN WINTHROP 1588–1649

When Cotton Mather looked back on the founding years of the Mas sa chu setts Bay Colony in Magnalia Christi Americana (1702)— the "rst attempt at a comprehensive history of the Puritan experiment, excerpted later in this volume— he identi"ed John Winthrop as his model of the ideal earthly ruler. Mather came from a family of prominent Bay Colony ministers, and he was well placed to shape Winthrop’s legacy. He did so using a number of sacred and secular analogies, label- ing Winthrop “Nehemias Americanus” after Nehemiah, the biblical governor of Judea who rebuilt the wall of Jerusalem; describing him as a new Moses; and com- paring him favorably to the Greek lawgiver Lycurgus and the devout Roman king Numa. Mather’s praise for the man who led the Bay Colony in its early years redects his era’s approach to historical writing, which was strongly induenced by the work of the Greek historian Plutarch, supplemented with Roman and biblical texts. Mather’s biography of the Puritan leader also underlines the status and skills that Winthrop brought to his position.

John Winthrop was the son of Adam Winthrop, a lawyer, and Anne Browne, the daughter of a tradesman. He was born in Groton, Eng land, on an estate his father had purchased from King Henry VIII. It was a prosperous farm, and Winthrop had all the advantages of his father’s social and economic position. He went to Cam- bridge University for two years—it is likely that he was "rst exposed to Puritan ideas there— and married at age seventeen. Unlike William Bradford and the Pilgrims, Winthrop was not a Separatist; that is, he wished to reform the Church of England

J O H N W I N T H R O P | 1 7 7

from within rather than breaking with it and starting fresh. For Puritans like Win- throp, reform involved purging the national Church of the residual presence of Roman Catholicism, especially the hierarchy of the clergy and traditional practices such as kneeling at communion. For a time Winthrop thought of becoming a cler- gyman, but instead he turned to the practice of law.

In the 1620s, severe economic depression in Eng land made Winthrop realize that he could not depend on the income from his father’s estate and would need to "nd new means of support. The ascension to the throne of Charles I, who was known to be sympathetic to Roman Catholicism and impatient with Puritan reformers, also seemed an ominous sign. Winthrop was not alone in predicting that “God will bring some heavy afdiction upon the land, and that speedily.” He came to realize that if he antagonized the king by openly espousing the Puritan cause, he would lose every thing. The only recourse seemed to be to obtain Charles’s permission to emigrate. In March 1629, a group of enterprising merchants, all ardent Puritans, was able to get a charter for land in Amer i ca from a Crown- approved joint stock com- pany called the Council for New Eng land. They called themselves “The Com pany of Mas sa chu setts Bay in New Eng land.”

Winthrop was chosen governor in October 1629, and for the next twenty years most of the responsibility for the colony rested in his hands. An initial group of some seven hundred emigrants sailed from Eng land with Winthrop on April 8, 1630, aboard the Arbella. It has long been believed that Winthrop delivered his sermon A Model of Christian Charity either just before departing from Eng land or during the voyage. A review of the historical rec ord suggests a far more ambiguous origin. There is no con temporary account of Winthrop delivering A Model, and there exists little evidence of its composition. The manuscript that survives is a copy made during Winthrop’s lifetime, possibly incomplete, and of unknown prov- enance.

A Model of Christian Charity remains an iconic text despite its uncertain past. It sets out clearly and eloquently the ideals of a harmonious Christian community and reminds its audience members that they stand as an example to the world of the triumph or the failure of the Puritan enterprise. And in fact, events at the Mas sa- chu setts Bay Colony soon suggested that Winthrop’s ideal of a seldess community was impossible to realize. In its "rst de cade, the colony confronted basic differ- ences over religious and civil liberties, social organ ization, and po liti cal structure. The colony also engaged in a brutal war with its Pequot neighbors.

Winthrop was governor for much of this de cade, and he was closely involved with all of these condicts. The frictions in the colony took a personal turn in 1645, when a group of leaders from the town of Hingham challenged Winthrop, then serv- ing as deputy governor, over issues of local autonomy and representative govern- ment. Winthrop withstood the resulting impeachment threat and responded in the General Court with a trenchant speech distinguishing between natu ral liberty and civil or federal liberty, a distinction that remains a classic formulation. These and other disputes are detailed in the journal that he kept from 1630 until his death. Once the Winthrop family made the manuscript available to the colony’s historians, including Cotton Mather and William Hubbard, the journal joined Wil- liam Bradford’s manuscript history, Of Plymouth Plantation, as a semiof"cial history of New Eng land.

Mather’s account of Winthrop helped keep his memory alive. Beginning in 1790, when Noah Webster of dictionary fame published the "rst two volumes of Win- throp’s journal, several New Eng land intellectuals af"liated with the Mas sa chu- setts Historical Society (founded in 1791) worked to recover his words for future generations. James Savage published the "rst complete edition of the journal in 1825–26, though the achievement was marred when a "re at Savage’s of"ce destroyed the second volume of the manuscript. The "rst printed edition of A Model of Christian Charity appeared in the Collections of the Mas sa chu setts Historical Society

1 7 8 | J O H N W I N T H R O P

1. The text is from Old South Leadets, Old South Association, Old South Meeting house, Boston, Mas sa chu setts, No. 207 (n.d.), edited by Samuel Eliot Morison. 2. Humanity lost its natu ral innocence when Adam and Eve fell; that state is called unregen- erate. When Jesus Christ came to ransom humankind from Adam and Eve’s sin, he offered salvation for those who believed in him and who thus became regenerate, or saved. 3. “Thou hast also taken thy fair jewels made of my gold and of my silver, which I had given thee, and madest to thyself images of men, and didst

commit whoredom with them.” Textual evidence shows that Winthrop used the Geneva Bible, with occasional variants from the text of the 1599 edi- tion. (The Geneva Bible, also known as the En glish Bible, was translated by Reformed En glish Protestants living in Switzerland; this version, used by the Puritans, was outlawed by the Church of Eng land.) 4. “Honor the Lord with thy riches, and with the "rst fruits of all thine increase. So shall thy barns be "lled with abundance, and thy presses shall burst with new wine” (Proverbs 3.9–10).

in 1838. Eventually, this little- known sermon acquired the status it has today, as an expression of the ideal suggested by its most resonant phrase, “a city upon a hill.”

A Model of Christian Charity1

I

a model hereof

God Almighty in His most holy and wise providence, hath so disposed of the condition of mankind, as in all times some must be rich, some poor, some high and eminent in power and dignity; others mean and in subjection.

the reason hereof

First, to hold conformity with the rest of His works, being delighted to show forth the glory of His wisdom in the variety and difference of the creatures; and the glory of His power, in ordering all these differences for the preser- vation and good of the whole; and the glory of His greatness, that as it is the glory of princes to have many of"cers, 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.

Secondly, that He might have the more occasion to manifest the work of His Spirit: "rst upon the wicked in moderating and restraining them, so that the rich and mighty should not eat up the poor, nor the poor and despised rise up against their superiors and shake off their yoke; secondly in the regenerate,2 in exercising His graces, in them, as in the great ones, their love, mercy, gentleness, temperance, etc., in the poor and inferior sort, their faith, patience, obedience, etc.

Thirdly, that every man might have need of other, and 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 par tic u lar and singular re spect to himself, but for the glory of his Creator and the common good of the crea- ture, man. Therefore God still reserves the property of these gifts to Him- self as [in] Ezekiel: 16.17. He there calls wealth His gold and His silver.3 [In] Proverbs: 3.9, he claims their ser vice as His due: honor the Lord with thy riches, etc.4 All men being thus (by divine providence) ranked into two sorts, rich and poor; under the "rst are comprehended all such as are able to live comfortably by their own means duly improved; and all others are poor according to the former distribution.

A M O D E L O F C H R I S T I A N C H A R I T Y | 1 7 9

5. Matthew 5.43, 19.19. 6. “Therefore whatsoever ye would that men should do to you: even so do ye to them: for this is the Law and the Prophets” (Matthew 7.12). 7. In Judges 19.16–21, an old citizen of Gibeah offered shelter to a traveling priest or Levite and defended him from enemies from a neighboring city. Abraham entertains the angels in Genesis 18: “Again the Lord appeared unto him in the plain of Mamre, as he sat in his tent door about the heat of the day. And he lifted up his eyes, and looked: and lo, three men stood by him, and when he saw them, he ran to meet them from the tent door, and bowed himself to the ground” (Genesis 18.1–2). Lot was Abraham’s nephew, and he escaped the destruction of the city of Sodom because he defended from a mob two angels who

were his guests (Genesis 19.1–14). 8. People who lived in Canaan, the biblical promised land for the Israelites. 9. “And they sold their possessions, and goods, and parted them to all men, as every one had need” (Acts 2.45). 1. “We do you also to wit, brethren, of the grace of God bestowed upon the Churches of Macedo- nia. Because in great trial of afdiction their joy abounded, and their most extreme poverty abounded unto their rich liberality. For to their power (I bear rec ord) yea, and beyond their power they were willing. And prayed us with great instance that we would receive the grace, and fellowship of the ministering which is toward the Saints” (2 Corinthians 8.1–4).

There are two rules whereby we are to walk one towards another: justice and mercy. These are always distinguished in their act and in their object, yet may they both concur in the same subject in each re spect; as sometimes there may be an occasion of showing mercy to a rich man in some sudden danger of distress, and also doing of mere justice to a poor man in regard of some par tic u lar contract, etc.

There is likewise a double law by which we are regulated in our conversa- tion one towards another in both the former re spects: the law of nature and the law of grace, or the moral law or the law of the Gospel, to omit the rule of justice as not properly belonging to this purpose other wise than it may fall into consideration in some par tic u lar cases. By the "rst of these laws man as he was enabled so withal [is] commanded to love his neighbor as himself.5 Upon this ground stands all the precepts of the moral law, which concerns our dealings with men. To apply this to the works of mercy, this law requires two things: "rst, that every man afford his help to another in every want or distress; secondly, that he performed this out of the same affection which makes him careful of his own goods, according to that of our Savior. Mat- thew: “Whatsoever ye would that men should do to you.”6 This was practiced by Abraham and Lot in entertaining the Angels and the old man of Gibeah.7

The law of grace or the Gospel hath some difference from the former, as in these re spects: First, the law of nature was given to man in the estate of innocency; this of the Gospel in the estate of regeneracy. Secondly, the for- mer propounds one man to another, as the same desh and image of God; this as a brother in Christ also, and in the communion of the same spirit and so teacheth us to put a difference between Christians and others. Do good to all, especially to the house hold of faith: Upon this ground the Israel- ites were to put a difference between the brethren of such as were strangers though not of Canaanites.8 Thirdly, the law of nature could give no rules for dealing with enemies, for all are to be considered as friends in the state of innocency, but the Gospel commands love to an enemy. Proof. If thine Enemy hunger, feed him; Love your Enemies, do good to them that hate you. Matthew: 5.44.

This law of the Gospel propounds likewise a difference of seasons and occasions. There is a time when a Christian must sell all and give to the poor, as they did in the Apostles’ times.9 There is a time also when a Chris- tian (though they give not all yet) must give beyond their ability, as they of Macedonia, Corinthians: 2.8.1 Likewise community of perils calls for

1 8 0 | J O H N W I N T H R O P

2. Ecclesiastes 2.14. Solomon was the son of David and successor to David as king of Israel. 3. “Cast thy bread upon the waters: for after many days thou shalt "nd it. Give a portion to seven, and also to eight: for thou knowest not what evil shall be upon the earth” (Ecclesiastes 11.1–2). 4. The passage in Luke refers to a servant who is about to lose his job managing his boss’s accounts. To guarantee that he will be welcome in the houses of his master’s debtors, he cuts their bills in half. Jesus explains: “And I say unto

you, Make you friends with the riches of iniq- uity, that when ye shall want, they may receive you into everlasting habitations” (Luke 16.9). 5. Originally a mea sure of money (as in the weight of gold). 6. “Lay not up trea sures for yourselves upon the earth, where the moth and canker corrupt, and where thieves dig through and steal. But lay up trea sures for yourselves in heaven, where neither the moth nor canker corrupteth, and where thieves neither dig through nor steal” (Matthew 6.19–20).

extraordinary liberality, and so doth community in some special ser vice for the Church. Lastly, when there is no other means whereby our Christian brother may be relieved in his distress, we must help him beyond our abil- ity, rather than tempt God in putting him upon help by miraculous or extraordinary means.

This duty of mercy is exercised in the kinds, giving, lending and forgiving.— Quest. What rule shall a man observe in giving in re spect of the mea sure? Ans. If the time and occasion be ordinary, he is to give out of his abun-

dance. Let him lay aside as God hath blessed him. If the time and occasion be extraordinary, he must be ruled by them; taking this withal, that then a man cannot likely do too much, especially if he may leave himself and his family under probable means of comfortable subsistence.

Objection. A man must lay up for posterity, the fathers lay up for poster- ity and children and he “is worse than an in"del” that “provideth not for his own.”

Ans. For the "rst, it is plain that it being spoken by way of comparison, it must be meant of the ordinary and usual course of fathers and cannot extend to times and occasions extraordinary. For the other place, the Apostle speaks against such as walked inordinately, and it is without question, that he is worse than an in"del who through his own sloth and voluptuousness shall neglect to provide for his family.

Objection. “The wise man’s eyes are in his head” saith Solomon, “and fore- seeth the plague,”2 therefore we must forecast and lay up against evil times when he or his may stand in need of all he can gather.

Ans. This very argument Solomon useth to persuade to liberality, Eccle- siastes: “Cast thy bread upon the waters,” and “for thou knowest not what evil may come upon the land.”3 Luke: 16.9. “Make you friends of the riches of iniquity.” 4 You will ask how this shall be? very well. For "rst he that gives to the poor, lends to the Lord and He will repay him even in this life an hundred fold to him or his— The righ teous is ever merciful and lendeth and his seed enjoyeth the blessing; and besides we know what advantage it will be to us in the day of account when many such witnesses shall stand forth for us to witness the improvement of our talent.5 And I would know of those who plead so much for laying up for time to come, whether they hold that to be Gospel, Matthew: 6.19: “Lay not up for yourselves trea sures upon earth,” 6 etc. If they acknowledge it, what extent will they allow it? if only to those primitive times, let them consider the reason whereupon our Savior grounds it. The "rst is that they are subject to the moth, the rust, the thief. Secondly, they will steal away the heart; where the trea sure is there will the heart be also. The reasons are of like force at all times. Therefore the exhortation must be general and perpetual, with always in re spect of the love and affection

A M O D E L O F C H R I S T I A N C H A R I T Y | 1 8 1

7. The son of Jacob and Rachel, who stored up the harvest in the seven good years before the famine (Genesis 41). 8. Matthew 21.5–7. 9. 1 Kings 17.8–24. 1. “If one of thy brethren with thee be poor within any of thy gates in thy land, which the Lord thy God giveth thee, thou shalt not harden thine heart, nor shut thine hand from thy poor brother: But thou shalt open thine hand unto him, and shalt lend him suf"cient for his need which he hath” (Deuteronomy 15.7–8). 2. According to Mosaic law (Leviticus 25.8–13), the Jubilee year followed a cycle of seven sab-

batical years. In the "ftieth year, the lands would lie fallow, all work would cease, and all debts would be canceled. 3. “Beware that there be not a wicked thought in thine heart, to say, The seventh year, the year of freedom is at hand: therefore it grieveth thee to look on thy poor brother, and thou givest him nought, and he cry unto the Lord against thee, so that sin be in thee: Thou shalt give him, and let it not grieve thine heart to give unto him: for because of this the Lord thy God shall bless thee in all thy works, and in all that thou puttest thine hand to” (Deuteronomy 15.9–10).

to riches and in regard of the things themselves when any special ser vice for the church or par tic u lar distress of our brother do call for the use of them; other wise it is not only lawful but necessary to lay up as Joseph7 did to have ready upon such occasions, as the Lord (whose stewards we are of them) shall call for them from us. Christ gives us an instance of the "rst, when He sent his disciples for the ass, and bids them answer the owner thus, the Lord hath need of him.8 So when the tabernacle was to be built He sends to His people to call for their silver and gold, etc.; and yields them no other reason but that it was for His work. When Elisha comes to the widow of Sareptah and "nds her preparing to make ready her pittance for herself and family, He bids her "rst provide for Him; he challengeth "rst God’s part which she must "rst give before she must serve her own family.9 All these teach us that the Lord looks that when He is pleased to call for His right in anything we have, our own interest we have must stand aside till His turn be served. For the other, we need look no further than to that of John: 1: “He who hath this world’s goods and seeth his brother to need and shuts up his compassion from him, how dwelleth the love of God in him,” which comes punctually to this conclusion: if thy brother be in want and thou canst help him, thou needst not make doubt, what thou shouldst do, if thou lovest God thou must help him.

Quest. What rule must we observe in lending? Ans. Thou must observe whether thy brother hath pres ent or probable, or

pos si ble means of repaying thee, if there be none of these, thou must give him according to his necessity, rather than lend him as he requires. If he hath pres ent means of repaying thee, thou art to look at him not as an act of mercy, but by way of commerce, wherein thou art to walk by the rule of justice; but if his means of repaying thee be only probable or pos si ble, then is he an object of thy mercy, thou must lend him, though there be danger of losing it, Deuteronomy: 15.7: “If any of thy brethren be poor,” etc., “thou shalt lend him suf"cient.”1 That men might not shift off this duty by the apparent hazard, He tells them that though the year of Jubilee2 were at hand (when he must remit it, if he were not able to repay it before) yet he must lend him and that cheerfully: “It may not grieve thee to give him” saith He; and because some might object; “why so I should soon impoverish myself and my family,” He adds “with all thy work,”3 etc.; for our Savior, Matthew: 5.42: “From him that would borrow of thee turn not away.”

Quest. What rule must we observe in forgiving? Ans. Whether thou didst lend by way of commerce or in mercy, if he have

nothing to pay thee, [you] must forgive, (except in cause where thou hast a

1 8 2 | J O H N W I N T H R O P

4. Nehemiah was sent by King Artaxerxes to repair the walls of the city of Jerusalem; he saved the city as governor when he persuaded those

lending money to charge no interest and to think "rst of the common good (see Nehemiah 3). 5. Vari ous. The names are of Christian martyrs.

surety or a lawful pledge) Deuteronomy: 15.2. Every seventh year the credi- tor was to quit that which he lent to his brother if he were poor as appears— verse 8: “Save when there shall be no poor with thee.” In all these and like cases, Christ was a general rule, Matthew: 7.12: “Whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye the same to them also.”

Quest. What rule must we observe and walk by in cause of community of peril?

Ans. The same as before, but with more enlargement towards others and less re spect towards ourselves and 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 and the danger of enemies was common to all, Nehemiah exhorts the Jews to liberal- ity and readiness in remitting their debts to their brethren, and disposing liberally of his own to such as wanted, and stand not upon his own due, which he might have demanded of them.4 Thus did some of our forefathers in times of persecution in Eng land, and so did many of the faithful of other churches, whereof we keep an honorable remembrance of them; and it is to be observed that both in Scriptures and later stories of the churches that such as have been most bountiful to the poor saints, especially in these extraordinary times and occasions, God hath left them highly commended to posterity, as Zacheus, Cornelius, Dorcas, Bishop Hooper, the Cuttler of Brussells and divers5 others. Observe again that the Scripture gives no caution to restrain any from being over liberal this way; but all men to the liberal and cheerful practice hereof by the sweetest promises; as to instance one for many, Isaiah: 58.6: “Is not this the fast I have chosen to loose the bonds of wickedness, to take off the heavy burdens, to let the oppressed go free and to break every yoke, to deal thy bread to the hungry and to bring the poor that wander into thy house, when thou seest the naked to cover them. And then shall thy light break forth as the morning, and thy health shall grow speedily, thy righ teousness shall go before God, and the glory of  the Lord shall embrace thee; then thou shalt call and the Lord shall answer thee” etc. [Verse] 10: “If thou pour out thy soul to the hungry, then shall thy light spring out in darkness, and the Lord shall guide thee con- tinually, and satisfy thy soul in drought, and make fat thy bones; thou shalt be like a watered garden, and they shalt be of thee that shall build the old waste places” etc. On the contrary, most heavy curses are laid upon such as are straightened towards the Lord and His people, Judges: 5.[23]: “Curse ye Meroshe because ye came not to help the Lord,” etc. Proverbs: [21.13]: “He who shutteth his ears from hearing the cry of the poor, he shall cry and shall not be heard.” Matthew: 25: “Go ye cursed into everlasting "re” etc. “I was hungry and ye fed me not.” 2 Corinthians: 9.6: “He that soweth sparingly shall reap sparingly.”

Having already set forth the practice of mercy according to the rule of God’s law, it will be useful to lay open the grounds of it also, being the other part of the commandment, and that is the affection from which this exercise

A M O D E L O F C H R I S T I A N C H A R I T Y | 1 8 3

6. Saint Paul in his Epistle to the Romans 13.8.

of mercy must arise. The apostle6 tells us that this love is the ful"lling of the law, not that it is enough to love our brother and so no further; but in regard of the excellency of his parts giving any motion to the other as the soul to the body and the power it hath to set all the faculties on work in the outward exercise of this duty. As when we bid one make the clock strike, he doth not lay hand on the hammer, which is the immediate instrument of the sound, but sets on work the "rst mover or main wheel, knowing that will certainly produce the sound which he intends. So the way to draw men to works of mercy, is not by force of argument from the goodness or neces- sity of the work; for though this course may enforce a rational mind to some pres ent act of mercy, as is frequent in experience, yet it cannot work such a habit in a soul, as shall make it prompt upon all occasions to produce the same effect, but by framing these affections of love in the heart which will as natively bring forth the other, as any cause doth produce effect.

The de"nition which the Scripture gives us of love is this: “Love is the bond of perfection.” First, it is a bond or ligament. Secondly it makes the work perfect. There is no body but consists of parts and that which knits these parts together gives the body its perfection, because it makes each part so contiguous to others as thereby they do mutually participate with each other, both in strength and in"rmity, in plea sure and pain. To instance in the most perfect of all bodies: Christ and His church make one body. The several parts of this body, considered apart before they were united, were as disproportionate and as much disordering as so many contrary qualities or ele ments, but when Christ comes and by His spirit and love knits all these parts to Himself and each to other, it is become the most perfect and best proportioned body in the world. Ephesians: 4.16: “Christ, by whom all the body being knit together by every joint for the furniture thereof, according to the effectual power which is the mea sure of every perfection of parts,” “a glorious body without spot or wrinkle,” the ligaments hereof being Christ, or His love, for Christ is love (1 John: 4.8). So this de"nition is right: “Love is the bond of perfection.”

From hence we may frame these conclusions. 1. First of all, true Chris- tians are of one body in Christ, 1 Corinthians: 12.12, 27: “Ye are the body of Christ and members of their part.” Secondly: The ligaments of this body which knit together are love. Thirdly: No body can be perfect which wants its proper ligament. Fourthly: All the parts of this body being thus united are made so contiguous in a special relation as they must needs partake of each other’s strength and in"rmity; joy and sorrow, weal and woe. 1 Corin- thians: 12.26: “If one member suffers, all suffer with it, if one be in honor, all rejoice with it.” Fifthly: This sensibleness and sympathy of each other’s conditions will necessarily infuse into each part a native desire and endeavor to strengthen, defend, preserve and comfort the other.

To insist a little on this conclusion being the product of all the former, the truth hereof will appear both by precept and pattern. 1 John: 3.10: “Ye ought to lay down your lives for the brethren.” Galatians: 6.2: “bear ye one another’s burthens and so ful"ll the law of Christ.” For patterns we have that "rst of our Savior who out of His good will in obedience to His father,

1 8 4 | J O H N W I N T H R O P

7. 2 Corinthians 11.29. 8. Saint Paul tells the Philippians he will send them a spiritual guide: “But I supposed it neces- sary to send my brother Epaphroditus unto you my companion in labor, and fellow soldier, even your messenger, and he that ministered unto me such things as I wanted” (Philippians 2.25).

9. A Christian woman praised by Saint Paul in Romans 16.1. 1. I.e., in his innocence. 2. Predominance. 3. Jesus Christ has traditionally been called the New Adam to signify the redemption of human- kind from the original sin of Old Adam.

becoming a part of this body, and being knit with it in the bond of love, found such a native sensibleness of our in"rmities and sorrows as He willingly yielded Himself to death to ease the in"rmities of the rest of His body, and so healed their sorrows. From the like sympathy of parts did the apostles and many thousands of the saints lay down their lives for Christ. Again, the like we may see in the members of this body among themselves. Romans: 9. Paul could have been contented to have been separated from Christ, that the Jews might not be cut off from the body. It is very observable what he professeth of his affectionate partaking with every member: “who is weak” saith he “and I am not weak? who is offended and I burn not;”7 and again, 2 Corinthians: 7.13. “therefore we are comforted because ye were comforted.” Of Epaphroditus he speaketh,8 Philippians: 2.30. that he regarded not his own life to do him ser vice. So Phoebe9 and others are called the servants of the church. Now it is apparent that they served not for wages, or by con- straint, but out of love. The like we shall "nd in the histories of the church in all ages, the sweet sympathy of affections which was in the members of this body one towards another, their cheerfulness in serving and suffering together, how liberal they were without repining, harborers without grudg- ing and helpful without reproaching; and all from hence, because they had fervent love amongst them, which only make the practice of mercy constant and easy.

The next consideration is how this love comes to be wrought. Adam in his "rst estate1 was a perfect model of mankind in all their generations, and in him this love was perfected in regard of the habit. But Adam rent himself from his creator, rent all his posterity also one from another; whence it comes that every man is born with this princi ple in him, to love and seek himself only, and thus a man continueth till Christ comes and takes possession of the soul and infuseth another princi ple, love to God and our brother. And this latter having continual supply from Christ, as the head and root by which he is united, gets the predomining2 in the soul, so by little and little expels the former. 1 John: 4.7. “love cometh of God and every one that loveth is born of God,” so that this love is the fruit of the new birth, and none can have it but the new creature. Now when this quality is thus formed in the souls of men, it works like the spirit upon the dry bones. Ezekiel: 37: “bone came to bone.” It gathers together the scattered bones, of perfect old man Adam,3 and knits them into one body again in Christ, whereby a man is become again a living soul.

The third consideration is concerning the exercise of this love which is twofold, inward or outward. The outward hath been handled in the former preface of this discourse. For unfolding the other we must take in our way that maxim of philosophy simile simili gaudet, or like will to like [Latin]; for as it is things which are turned with disaffection to each other, the ground of it is from a dissimilitude arising from the contrary or dif fer ent nature of

A M O D E L O F C H R I S T I A N C H A R I T Y | 1 8 5

4. The story of Jonathan and David is told in 1 Samuel 19 ff. 5. Naomi was Ruth’s mother- in- law; when

Ruth’s husband died, she refused to leave Naomi (Ruth 1.16).

the things themselves; for the ground of love is an apprehension of some resemblance in things loved to that which affects it. This is the cause why the Lord loves the creature, so far as it hath any of His image in it; He loves His elect because they are like Himself, He beholds them in His beloved son. So a mother loves her child, because she thoroughly conceives a resem- blance of herself in it. Thus it is between the members of Christ. Each dis- cerns, by the work of the spirit, his own image and resemblance in another, and therefore cannot but love him as he loves himself. Now when the soul, which is of a sociable nature, "nds anything like to itself, it is like Adam when Eve was brought to him. She must have it one with herself. This is desh of my desh (saith the soul) and bone of my bone. She conceives a great delight in it, therefore she desires nearness and familiarity with it. She hath a great propensity to do it good and receives such content in it, as fearing the miscarriage of her beloved she bestows it in the inmost closet of her heart. She will not endure that it shall want any good which she can give it. If by occasion she be withdrawn from the com pany of it, she is still looking towards the place where she left her beloved. If she heard it groan, she is with it presently. If she "nd it sad and disconsolate, she sighs and moans with it. She hath no such joy as to see her beloved merry and thriving. If she see it wronged, she cannot hear it without passion. She sets no bounds to her affections, nor hath any thought of reward. She "nds recompense enough in the exercise of her love towards it. We may see this acted to life in Jonathan and David.4 Jonathan, a valiant man endowed with the spirit of Christ, so soon as he discovers the same spirit in David, had presently his heart knit to him by this lineament of love, so that it is said he loved him as his own soul. He takes so great plea sure in him, that he strips himself to adorn his beloved. His father’s kingdom was not so precious to him as his beloved David. David shall have it with all his heart, himself desires no more but that he may be near to him to rejoice in his good. He chooseth to converse with him in the wilderness even to the hazard of his own life, rather than with the great courtiers in his father’s palace. When he sees danger towards him, he spares neither rare pains nor peril to direct it. When injury was offered his beloved David, he would not bear it, though from his own father; and when they must part for a season only, they thought their hearts would have broke for sorrow, had not their affections found vent by abundance of tears. Other instances might be brought to show the nature of this affection, as of Ruth and Naomi,5 and many others; but this truth is cleared enough.

If any shall object that it is not pos si ble that love should be bred or upheld without hope of requital, it is granted; but that is not our cause; for this love is always under reward. It never gives, but it always receives with advantage; "rst, in regard that among the members of the same body, love and affec- tion are reciprocal in a most equal and sweet kind of commerce. Secondly, in regard of the plea sure and content that the exercise of love carries with it, as we may see in the natu ral body. The mouth is at all the pains to receive and mince the food which serves for the nourishment of all the other parts of the body, yet it hath no cause to complain; for "rst the other parts send

1 8 6 | J O H N W I N T H R O P

6. The Waldenses took their name from Pater Valdes, an early French reformer of the Church. They still survive as a religious community. 7. Solent amare is closer to the Latin than is

ament, the suggestion of the original editor, Samuel Eliot Morison. Aeneas Sylvius Piccolo- mini (1405–1464), historian and scholar, became Pope Pius II.

back by several passages a due proportion of the same nourishment, in a better form for the strengthening and comforting the mouth. Secondly, the labor of the mouth is accompanied with such plea sure and content as far exceeds the pains it takes. So is it in all the labor of love among Christians. The party loving, reaps love again, as was showed before, which the soul covets more than all the wealth in the world. Thirdly: Nothing yields more plea sure and content to the soul than when it "nds that which it may love fervently, for to love and live beloved is the soul’s paradise, both here and in heaven. In the state of wedlock there be many comforts to bear out the trou- bles of that condition; but let such as have tried the most, say if there be any sweetness in that condition comparable to the exercise of mutual love.

From former considerations arise these conclusions. First: This love among Christians is a real thing, not imaginary. Secondly: This love is as absolutely necessary to the being of the body of

Christ, as the sinews and other ligaments of a natu ral body are to the being of that body.

Thirdly: This love is a divine, spiritual nature free, active, strong, coura- geous, permanent; undervaluing all things beneath its proper object; and of all the graces, this makes us nearer to resemble the virtues of our Heavenly Father.

Fourthly: It rests in the love and welfare of its beloved. For the full and certain knowledge of these truths concerning the nature, use, and excellency of this grace, that which the Holy Ghost hath left recorded, 1 Corinthians: 13, may give full satisfaction, which is needful for every true member of this lovely body of the Lord Jesus, to work upon their hearts by prayer, medita- tion, continual exercise at least of the special [induence] of His grace, till Christ be formed in them and they in Him, all in each other, knit together by this bond of love.

II

It rests now to make some application of this discourse by the pres ent design, which gave the occasion of writing of it. Herein are four things to be pro- pounded: "rst the persons, secondly the work, thirdly the end, fourthly the means.

First, For the persons. We are a com pany professing ourselves fellow mem- bers of Christ, in which re spect only though we were absent from each other many miles, and had our employments as far distant, yet we ought to account ourselves knit together by this bond of love, and live in the exercise of it, if we would have comfort of our being in Christ. This was notorious in the practice of the Christians in former times; as is testi"ed of the Waldenses,6 from the mouth of one of the adversaries Æneas Sylvius “mutuo [ament]7 penè antequam norunt,” they used to love any of their own religion even before they were acquainted with them.

Secondly, for the work we have in hand. It is by a mutual consent, through a special overvaluing providence and a more than an ordinary approbation

A M O D E L O F C H R I S T I A N C H A R I T Y | 1 8 7

8. “But Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, took either of them his censor, and put "re therein, and put incense thereupon, and offered strange "re before the Lord, which he had not commanded them. Therefore a "re went out from the Lord, and devoured them: so they died before the Lord” (Leviticus 10.1–2). Winthrop’s point is that the chosen people are often pun- ished more severely than unbelievers. 9. I.e., made an agreement with him on parts of

a contract. Saul was instructed to destroy the Amalekites and all they possessed, but he spared their sheep and oxen, and in doing so disobeyed God’s commandment and was rejected as king (1 Samuel 15.1–34). 1. A legal contract. The Israelites entered into a covenant with God in which he promised to pro- tect them if they kept his word and were faithful to him.

of the Churches of Christ, to seek out a place of cohabitation and consort- ship under a due form of government both civil and ecclesiastical. In such cases as this, the care of the public must oversway all private re spects, by which, not only conscience, but mere civil policy, doth bind us. For it is a true rule that par tic u lar estates cannot subsist in the ruin of the public.

Thirdly. The end is to improve our lives to do more ser vice to the Lord; the comfort and increase of the body of Christ whereof we are members; that ourselves and posterity may be the better preserved from the common corruptions of this evil world, to serve the Lord and work out our salvation under the power and purity of His holy ordinances.

Fourthly, for the means whereby this must be effected. They are twofold, a conformity with the work and end we aim at. These we see are extraordi- nary, therefore we must not content ourselves with usual ordinary means. Whatsoever we did or ought to have done when we lived in Eng land, the same must we do, and more also, where we go. That which the most in their churches maintain as a truth in profession only, we must bring into familiar and constant practice, as in this duty of love. We must love brotherly with- out dissimulation; we must love one another with a pure heart fervently. We must bear one another’s burthens. We must not look only on our own things, but also on the things of our brethren, neither must we think that the Lord will bear with such failings at our hands as he doth from those among whom we have lived; and that for three reasons.

First, In regard of the more near bond of marriage between Him and us, where-in He hath taken us to be His after a most strict and peculiar man- ner, which will make Him the more jealous of our love and obedience. So He tells the people of Israel, you only have I known of all the families of the earth, therefore will I punish you for your transgressions. Secondly, because the Lord will be sancti"ed in them that come near Him. We know that there were many that corrupted the ser vice of the Lord, some setting up altars before His own, others offering both strange "re and strange sacri"ces also; yet there came no "re from heaven or other sudden judgment upon them, as did upon Nadab and Abihu,8 who yet we may think did not sin presump- tuously. Thirdly. When God gives a special commission He looks to have it strictly observed in every article. When He gave Saul a commission to destroy Amaleck, He indented with him upon certain articles,9 and because he failed in one of the least, and that upon a fair pretense, it lost him the kingdom which should have been his reward if he had observed his commission.

Thus stands the cause between God and us. We are entered into cove- nant1 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 enter- prise these actions, upon these and those ends, we have hereupon besought Him of favor and blessing. Now if the Lord shall please to hear us, and bring

1 8 8 | J O H N W I N T H R O P

2. An eighth- century- b.c.e. prophet who, in the Book of Micah, speaks continually of God’s judgment and the need to hope for salvation: “He hath showed thee, O man, what is good, and what the Lord requireth of thee: surely to do justly, and to love mercy, and to humble thyself, to walk with thy God” (Micah 6.8). 3. “Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on an hill, cannot be hid. Neither do men light a candle, and put it under a bushel, but on a can- dlestick, and it giveth light unto all that are in the house” (Matthew 5.14–15). 4. “Behold, I have set before thee this day life and good, death and evil, In that I command thee this day, to love the Lord thy God, to walk in his ways, and to keep his commandment, and his ordi- nances, and his laws, that thou mayest live, and be

multiplied, and that the Lord thy God may bless thee in the land, whither thou goest to possess it. But if thine heart turn away, so that thou wilt not obey, but shalt be seduced and worship other gods, and serve them, I pronounce unto you this day, that ye shall surely perish, ye shall not prolong your days in the land, whither thou passest over Jordan to possess it. I call heaven and earth to rec- ord this day against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing: therefore choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live, By loving the Lord thy God, by obeying his voice, and by cleaving unto him: for he is thy life, and the length of thy days, that thou mayest dwell in the land which the Lord sware unto thy fathers, Abra- ham, Isaac, and Jacob, to give them” (Deuteron- omy 30.15–20).

us in peace to the place we desire, then hath He rati"ed this covenant and sealed our commission, [and] will expect a strict per for mance of the arti- cles 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 pres ent 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 perjured people and make us know the price of the breach of such a covenant.

Now the only way to avoid this shipwreck, and to provide for our poster- ity, is to follow the counsel of Micah,2 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 superduities, 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 suf- fer together, always having before our eyes our commission and community in the work, our community 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 "nd 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.3 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 with- draw His pres ent 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 agoing.

And to shut up this discourse with that exhortation of Moses, that faith- ful servant of the Lord, in his last farewell to Israel, Deuteronomy 30.4 Beloved, there is now set before us life and good, death and evil, in that we

T H E J O U R N A L O F J O H N W I N T H R O P | 1 8 9

1. The text is from The Journal of John Win- throp, 1630–1649 (1996), abridged ed., edited by Richard S. Dunn and Laetitia Yeandle. 2. Winthrop saw Mount Desert Island, Maine. The En glish named it after a British admiral, Sir Robert Mansell (1573–1656); the French explorer Samuel de Champlain (see the “First Encounters” cluster, above) named it Île des

Monts Déserts. 3. Air. 4. Several. 5. The Reverend John Wilson (1588–1667), then beginning a pastorate that lasted thirty- seven years. 6. Winthrop.

are commanded this day to love the Lord our God, and to love one another, to walk in His ways and to keep His commandments and His ordinance and His laws, and the articles of our covenant with Him, that we may live and be multiplied, and that our 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, and worship other gods, our pleasures and prof- its, and 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 and our seed

may live by obeying His voice and cleaving to Him,

for He is our life and our prosperity.

1630 1838

From The Journal of John Winthrop1

[Sighting Mount Desert Island, Maine]

[June 8, 1630] About 3 in the after noon we had sight of land to the NW about 15 leagues, which we supposed was the Isles of Monhegen, but it proved Mount Mansell.2 Then we tacked and stood WSW. We had now fair sunshine weather and so pleasant a sweet ether3 as did much refresh us, and there came a smell off the shore like the smell of a garden. There came a wild pigeon into our ship and another small land bird.

[Overcoming Satan]

[July 5, 1632] At Watertown there was (in the view of divers4 witnesses) a great combat between a mouse and a snake, and after a long "ght the mouse prevailed and killed the snake. The pastor of Boston, Mr. Wilson,5 a very sin- cere, holy man, hearing of it gave this interpretation: that the snake was the devil, the mouse was a poor contemptible people which God had brought hither, which should overcome Satan here and dispossess him of his kingdom. Upon the same occasion he told the governor6 that before he was resolved to come into this country he dreamed he was here, and that he saw a church arise out of the earth, which grew up and became a marvelous goodly church.