A Model of Christian Charity
A lay sermon by John Winthrop, governor of the Massachusetts Bay company, composed in 1630 for the settlers sailing with him to New England. It describes the community they are to form as bound by a covenant with God.
The heading printed with the text says that it was written on board the Arbella, on the Atlantic, by John Winthrop on his passage from Great Britain to New England in 1630 with “a great company of Religious people”. Winthrop argues that the settlers have entered into a covenant with God for this work and must be knit together in it as one body. Near the end he warns that they will be “as a citty upon a hill”, with the eyes of all people upon them, so that if they deal falsely with God they will become a byword through the world.
It is cited in the Pilgrims Land at Plymouth for the larger migration that followed the Plymouth settlement and for the way its leader described its purpose.
Cited in
- 1620, firm date