John Winthrop, "A Model of Christian Charity"

John Winthrop, a Puritan leader, wrote the following sermon on board the Arbella on route to the New World in 1630.  Notice how he depicts the Puritans, their relationship with God, and the society they are about to construct.
 

"God Almighty in his most holy and wise providence hath so disposed of the condition of mankind [that] in all times some must be rich, some poor, some high and eminent in power and dignity, other mean and in subjection.... Yet, we must be knit together in this work as one man.... We must delight in each other... rejoice together, mourn together, labor and suffer together, always having before our eyes our commission and community in the work, our community as members of the same body.... 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."

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