The eyes of all people are upon us.
John Winthrop, "A Model of Christian Charity" 1630
Last week: Anne Bradstreet, “Here follows some verses on the burning of our house” (1666)
This week: John Winthrop, “A Model of Christian Charity” (1630)
Today is a travel day for me. I am sitting at Schiphol enjoying a lovely coffee and cake, and it will take me 7 hours to cross the Atlantic. The trip that brought Anne Bradstreet to Salem Harbor, upon the Arabella, took a far more rocky and cold nine weeks.
The story goes that at some point in the journey — whether at the start, or at a moment of danger, or days from harbor — the 41-year-old governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, John Winthrop (1588-1649), delivered an address to his new constituents, now titled “A Model of Christian Charity.” The genre he chose was the sermon, a conventional genre that remains familiar to us today. Though he spoke in religious terms, he was a lay person, a lawyer, and responsible for the governance of a group of radical Protestants who had already chosen not to follow the authority of the governors behind them in England. They weren’t called “Nonconformists” for nothing.
This famous sermon begins with a ethics question:
GOD ALMIGHTY in his most holy and wise providence, hath soe disposed of the condition of' mankind, as in all times some must be rich, some poore, some high and eminent in power and dignitie; others mean and in submission.
This ship, the Arabella was the lead ship for a fleet of 11 boats carrying nearly 1000 colonists. They renamed the lead ship after Lady Arabella, who was onboard. Winthrop starts his term as their governor by acknowledging difference.
Some of us are poor and others are rich; some are powerful and others required to live in submission to that power. What gives?
God loves diversity. It is reflected in the world around us, and in people it takes many forms, including social diversity. This seems like a copy out, but the wealth on board was widely considered a benefit to this journey and one of the key drivers of many aboard. They decided to come in this migration because, among other things, this colony was well provisioned and held a royal charter for the colony. Wealth, Winthrop goes on to explain, can be used to glorify God, and it is useful for earthly matters, too. Like protection from starvation and attack.
And finally, having a diversity of status in the community will help teach us how to help one another. For in this new colony, which would become Boston, there will be less difference between us and more room for mutual aid. For in the project they were embarked upon — of building a town in the wilderness, and coming together as a religious group — they faced both internal and external threats.
A sermon of this type usually begins with an exposition, followed by a doctrinal explanation, and then an application and a call for action from the congregation. The long middle of the text goes over a lot of the concerns of money — how will we handle lending? what is the best recourse if someone does me wrong? What does all this talk about money mean in the wilderness?
Winthrop uses the application to draw out a Utopian concept of their community. Love will knit us together. Diversity will be our strength, for we will all have different jobs in this new community; we will be as one body. But for this to work, we must work together in a new configuration. Right here on the deck of the ship, a new idea of government is made. A key scholar of the Puritans, Sacvan Bercovich, described this as a “specifically American” model of governance, “a corporate identity built on a provisional-apocalyptic view of history.” The religious of their congregation believed that they were on a mission to bring about Jesus’s second coming by building his home on earth. They were the Chosen people, writing the Scripture through their actions.
The most famous part of the speech begins with this idea of apocalypse: WE ARE ON A SHIP AND ARRIVAL IS NOT CERTAIN. Success is not certain. Shipwreck on all sides.
Now the onely way to avoyde this shipwracke, and to provide for our posterity, is to followe the counsell of Micah, to doe justly, to love mercy, to walk humbly with our God. For this end, wee must be knitt together, in this worke, as one man. Wee must entertaine each other in brotherly affection. Wee must be willing to abridge ourselves of our superfluities, for the supply of other's necessities.
We must be share our extras for each other’s needs.
Wee must uphold a familiar commerce together in all meekeness, gentlenes, patience and liberality. Wee must delight in eache other; make other's conditions our oune; rejoice together, mourne together, labour and suffer together, allwayes haueving before our eyes our commission and community in the worke, as members of the same body. Soe shall wee keepe the unitie of the spirit in the bond of peace.
We will have peace if we keep our eyes on our mission and our community in the hard work ahead. We will celebrate and mourn together.
The Lord will be our God, and delight to dwell among us, as his oune people, and will command a blessing upon us in all our wayes. Soe that wee shall see much more of his wisdome, power, goodness and truthe, than formerly wee haue been acquainted with. Wee shall finde that the God of Israell is among us, when ten of us shall be able to resist a thousand of our enemies; when hee shall make us a prayse and glory that men shall say of succeeding plantations, "the Lord make it likely that of New England."
Like all the Puritans, Winthrop suggests that “all eyes are upon us” that the world is watching, to see if the Nonconformists are for real the Chosen ones. Certainly, the stakeholders of the Mass Bay Co are watching.
For wee must consider that wee shall be as a citty upon a hill. The eies of all people are uppon us. Soe that if wee shall deale falsely with our God in this worke wee haue undertaken, and soe cause him to withdrawe his present help from us, wee shall be made a story and a by-word through the world. Wee shall open the mouthes of enemies to speake evill of the wayes of God, and all professors for God's sake. Wee shall shame the faces of many of God's worthy servants, and cause theire prayers to be turned into curses upon us till wee be consumed out of the good land whither wee are a goeing.
This refers to the verse, Matthew 5:14 "Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on an hill cannot be hid." It is no small thing that he compares their settlement, now Boston, to be that New Jerusalem, that city foretold.
This concept developed into the oft-taught idea of American Exceptionalism, which I do not have time to debate here — having only a post-post-exceptionalist concept in view. But the anxiety of being watched among the nations remains at the core of this concept. If the colony fails, then it would be better if “we be consumed out of the good land whiter we are a going.”
No pressure!
They’re calling my row… in economy. But we go together in this journey!