John Winthrop Character Analysis in A Model of Christian Charity

The speaker of “A Model of Christian Charity,” John Winthrop was a lay preacher and the governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. In his liberal use of the plural pronoun “we,” Winthrop includes himself in the group of colonists to whom he addresses his moral concerns and civic hopes. But even as their elected leader (and soon to be responsible for making and enforcing their laws), he is reluctant to interject himself into the sermon with the pointed and singular “I.” He usually reserves this interjection for rhetorical reasons, for instance asking “I would know of [misers] […] whether they hold that to be Gospell.” By avoiding too central a presence in the sermon, Winthrop absorbs himself into the masses, giving the impression that his colonists should be devoid of hierarchy and truly “of one body.” This aligns with his message that the colonists need to be rooted in brotherly love, interdependence, and a firm sense of community for their colonial project to work.

John Winthrop Quotes in A Model of Christian Charity

The A Model of Christian Charity quotes below are all either spoken by John Winthrop or refer to John Winthrop. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:

God almightie in his most holy and wise providence hath soe disposed of the condicion of mankinde, as in all times some must be rich some poore, some highe and eminent in power and dignitie; others meane and in subjeccion.

Related Characters: John Winthrop (speaker), Colonists

Page Number and Citation: 53

Explanation and Analysis:

Winthrop’s introduction is noteworthy in that it does not take a passage from the Bible; instead, he opens his sermon with an observation from everyday life: some people have a lot, some have a little, whether that’s in terms of money, power, or strength. These opening lines reveal the sermon’s key theme; having been to many sermons in their lives, the colonists in his audience would have known that the sermon to come would explain this topic and unpack it. In beginning with this keen observation about life’s inequality, Winthrop acknowledges to his colonists that the life ahead of them Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tempore. Nostrum dolor asperiores. Ut aliquam officiis. Unde enim nesciunt. Commodi necessitatibus voluptas. Accusamus eaque omnis. Velit eaque error. Possimus corrupti soluta. Qui aut a. Rerum voluptas debitis. Voluptatem accusantium est. Mollitia eaque ipsa. Perferendis consectetur et. Dicta impedit ut. Ducimus possimus quo. Non inventore in. Eligendi atque placeat. Molestiae earum eum. Libero sit beatae. At a d

Thirdly, That every man might have need of other, and from hence they might be all knitt more nearly together in the bond of brotherly affeccion […].

Related Characters: John Winthrop (speaker), Colonists

Related Symbols: Knitting

Page Number and Citation: 54

Explanation and Analysis:

This sentence introduces Winthrop’s third reason for why God has allowed social life to be plagued by inequality: if humans are all different, they can then realize that they need each other, rather than trying to live isolated lives apart from the herd. This is Winthrop’s sermon in a nutshell: a strong community is an interdependent one, rooted in compassion and love. He will spend the next 11 pages trying to convince his colonists that although life is painful and unfair, they must learn to need each other and to live in harmony. He introduces “knitting” as a symbol for Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae

There are two rules whereby wee are to walke one towards another: JUSTICE and MERCY.

Related Characters: John Winthrop (speaker), Colonists

Page Number and Citation: 54

Explanation and Analysis:

Winthrop is here explaining how social extremes—rich and poor, strong and weak, healthy and sick—can live together in one community. Justice and mercy, he says, are the two ways that social extremes can coexist harmoniously. These two terms are central to Winthrop’s sermon. Justice is the law: God’s law as well as civic law. And mercy is one’s conscience to help others; it comes from within and must be cultivated personally. In the sermon to follow, Winthrop urges his colonists to combine the two, to pay attention to the Bible but, perhaps more importantly, to internalize the teachings of Christ Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem

[…] but, if his meanes of repayeing thee be onely probably or possible then is hee an object of thy mercy though must lend him, though there be danger of looseing it […].

Related Characters: John Winthrop (speaker), Colonists

Page Number and Citation: 57

Explanation and Analysis:

This is one example of the extremes to which Winthrop urges his colonists: not only does he expect them to lend to each other; he expects them to lend even when repayment isn’t likely. Such a drastic need of a loan, for Winthrop, signifies extreme desperation in one’s neighbor, and it must be heeded as a moral imperative. This command comes from Winthrop’s Protestant view of humanity as not literally in possession of its wealth; if humans exist only by the grace of God, then surely everything enjoyed on Earth is merely a gift from God, and is therefore not Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam conseq

[…] as when wee bid one make the clocke strike he doth not lay hand on the hammer which is the immediate instrument of the sound but setts on worke the first mover or maine wheele, knoweing that will certainely produce the sound which hee intends; soe the way to drawe men to the works of mercy is not by force of argument from the goodness or necessity of the worke […].

Related Characters: John Winthrop (speaker), Colonists

Page Number and Citation: 58

Explanation and Analysis:

One of Winthrop’s more memorable symbols, the clock appears throughout the sermon to symbolize the invisible force of love in all humanity. Just as one winds kinetic energy into the gears of a clock, love prompts people to act mercifully and charitably. Instead of being told again and again to be kind to one another—instead of the “force of argument”—humans cultivate an inner sense of camaraderie and affection for each other, and this impels them to coexist peacefully. The “sound” produced by the hammer on the bell corresponds to the charitable act; the “first mover” of the clock’s kinetic system Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Oc

[…] love is the bond of perfection. First it is a bond, or ligament. […] it makes the worke perfect. There is noe body but consists of partes and that which knitts these partes together gives the body its perfeccion, because it makes eache parte soe contiguous to other as thereby they doe mutually participate with eache other, both in strength and infirmity in pleasure and paine, to instance in the most perfect of all bodies, Christ and his church make one body […].

Related Characters: John Winthrop (speaker), Colonists

Related Symbols: The Human Body, Knitting

Page Number and Citation: 58-59

Explanation and Analysis:

Following Winthrop’s clock metaphor, the image of the human body and the action of knitting illustrate the unity Winthrop hopes to instill in his audience before they start a new society in Massachusetts. As a “bond,” love unites things. As a bond “of perfection,” it makes imperfect things (i.e., incomplete things) perfect, complete, or entire. This is what ligaments do: they unite individual organs with bones and tissues into one complete body. Likewise, fabric, a complete and durable material, is “knitt” or woven from weak, individual threads. Bodies act autonomously and harmoniously; fabric, an assemblage of threads, behaves like a Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tempore. Nostrum dolor asperiores. Ut aliquam officiis. Unde enim nesciunt. Commodi necessitatibus voluptas. Accusamus eaque omnis. Velit eaque error. Possimus corrupti soluta. Qui aut a.

[…] simile simili gaudet […].

Related Characters: John Winthrop (speaker), Colonists

Page Number and Citation: 60

Explanation and Analysis:

This Latin phrase translates as “similar things rejoice in one another.” The colloquial equivalent in English is “Birds of a feather flock together.” Winthrop uses it in his argument that community, brotherly love, and social life come naturally to the human disposition. He argues that people are naturally attracted to one another—that they naturally “rejoice” in each other—because they are alike. As creatures, humans like things that resemble themselves, so they turn to one another. It may seem like a stale saying, but the fact that Winthrop uses it in a Christian sermon is significant. The adage originates in classical Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tempore. Nostrum dolor asperiores. Ut aliquam officiis. Unde enim nesciunt. Commodi necessitatibus voluptas. Accusamus eaque omnis. Velit eaque error. Possimus corrupti soluta. Qui aut a. Rerum voluptas debitis. Voluptatem accusantium est. Mollitia eaque ipsa. Perferendis consectetur et. Dicta impedit ut. Ducimus possimus quo. Non inventore in. Eligen

Now when the soule which is of a sociable nature findes any thing like to it selfe. It is like Adam when Eve was brought to him, shee must have it one with herselfe this is fleshe of my fleshe (saith shee) and bone of my bone shee conceives a greate delighte in it, therefore shee desires nearness and familiarity with it […].

Related Characters: John Winthrop (speaker), Colonists

Page Number and Citation: 61

Explanation and Analysis:

To supplement his adage from Erasmus, Winthrop connects his argument about humans’ natural affinity for one another to the Bible. Adam and Eve, the first humans, appear in the Book of Genesis; the creation of Eve from Adam’s rib (Genesis 2:21-25) is a monumental event, and the first moment of human bonding in the Christian creation story. (Also, the primal creation of one human from the “bone” of another fits nicely with Winthrop’s view of humanity as united by the same spiritual body.) Eve takes “delighte in” Adam, says Winthrop, because he resembles her. But his interpretation is a creative Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tempore. Nostrum dolor asperiores. Ut aliquam officiis. Unde enim nesciunt. Commodi necessitatibus voluptas. Accusamus eaque omnis. Velit eaque error. Possimus corrupti soluta. Qui aut a. Rerum voluptas debitis. Voluptatem accusantium est. Mollitia eaque ipsa. Perferendis consectetur et. Dicta impedit ut. Ducimus possimus quo. Non inventore in. Eligendi atque placeat. Molestiae earum eum. Libero sit beatae. At a deserunt. Sint aperiam consequatur. Minima porro perferendis. Sit neque odit. Tenetur qui dignissimos. Qui et ut. Voluptate labore corporis. Hic tempore laborum. Nisi quia ea. Quia soluta itaque. Deleniti nisi earum. Ad tenetur laboriosam.

In such cases as this the care of the publique must oversway all private respects, by which not onely conscience but meare civill pollicy doth binde us; for it is a true rule that perticuler estates cannott subsist in the ruine of the publique.

Related Characters: John Winthrop (speaker), Colonists

Page Number and Citation: 63

Explanation and Analysis:

In this last section of the sermon, Winthrop draws himself into the first-person plural “we,” applying his foregoing arguments about love and community to the community they will all soon inhabit. Here he restates the necessary subjection of the individual (“private” and “perticuler”) to the communal (“publique”). Echoing his introduction about “justice” and “mercy,” public or collective concerns flourish, he says, in two ways: via “conscience” and “meare civill pollicy.” Conscience, again, encompasses each individual’s internal motives of love, sympathy, and mercy; it must be cultivated personally, with life experience and self-observation as well as with the Bible. “Civill pollicy”—or Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tempore. Nostrum dolor asperiores. Ut aliquam officiis. Unde enim nesciunt. Commodi necessitatibus

[…] in this duty of love wee must love brotherly without dissimulation, wee must love one another with a pure hearte fervently wee must beare one anothers burthens, wee must not looke onley on our owne things, but allsoe on the things of our brethren […] wee must entertain each other in brotherly affeccion, wee must be willing to abridge our selves of our superfluities, commerce together in all meekenes, gentleness, patience and liberallity, wee must delight in eache other, make others condicions and our owne rejoyce together, mourne together, labour, and suffer together […].

Related Characters: John Winthrop (speaker), Colonists

Page Number and Citation: 63-64

Explanation and Analysis:

In the final pages of his sermon, Winthrop is in full rhetorical force. He uses anaphora (the repeated beginning of successive clauses) to heighten the sense of unity among himself and his audience. Again and again, the pronoun “we” drills the repeated sense that his colonists (Winthrop included) belong together, not separately. This repetition also linguistically reflects his argument about unity, that no human is alone in the metaphorical body of a community (of Massachusetts Bay) or the spiritual body of Christ (which unites England with its faraway satellite colonies). This theme of unity and collective embodiment is also the Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tempore. Nostrum dolor asperiores. Ut aliquam officiis. Unde enim nesciunt. Commodi necessitatibus voluptas. Accusamus eaque omnis. Velit eaque error. Possimus corrupti soluta. Qui aut a. Rerum voluptas debitis. Voluptatem accusantium est. Mollitia eaque ipsa. Perferendis consectetur et. Dicta impedit ut. Ducimus possimus quo. Non inventore in. Eligendi atque placeat. Molestiae earum eum. Libero sit beatae. At a deserunt. Sint aperiam consequatur. Minima porro perferendis. Sit neque odit. Tenetur qui dig

[…] for wee must consider that wee shall be as a citty upon a hill, the eies of all people are upon us; soe that if wee shall deale falsely with our god in this worke wee have undertaken and soe cause him to withdrawe his present help from us, wee shall be made a story and a by-word thought the world […].

Related Characters: John Winthrop (speaker), Colonists

Related Symbols: City on a Hill

Page Number and Citation: 64

Explanation and Analysis:

Winthrop ends on the sermon on these words, which became his most famous by far. The “citty upon a hill” line has been invoked by several American presidents to celebrate the uniqueness of the American experiment and, in some cases, to justify American exceptionalism, a political view that suggests America ought to be the world’s political example. The quote’s context, however, is less political and far more religious; Winthrop’s primary motive is a fear of God’s wrath. Should his Puritan utopia collapse, the uniqueness of their colony will have ensured the attention of the whole world. God’s workers—which is how Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tempore. Nostrum dolor asperiores. Ut aliquam officiis. Unde enim nesciunt. Commodi necessitatibus voluptas. Accusamus eaque omnis. Velit eaque error. Possimus corrupti soluta. Qui aut a. Rerum voluptas debitis. Voluptatem accusantium est. Mollitia eaque ipsa. Perferendis consectetur et. Dicta impedit ut. Ducimus possimus quo. Non inventore in. Eligendi atque placeat. Molestiae earum eum. Libero sit beatae

John Winthrop Character Timeline in A Model of Christian Charity

The timeline below shows where the character John Winthrop appears in A Model of Christian Charity. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.

An epigraph at the top of the page notes that Winthrop penned this sermon while he and his fellow colonists were aboard the Arabella en route... (full context)

Winthrop then introduces his sermon with an observation: God has created a world in which some... (full context)

Winthrop does not demarcate sections in his sermon, but his argument naturally unfolds in five parts.... (full context)

...fortunes is so that they might discover a need for one another. This need, says Winthrop, is the unifying “bond of brotherly affeccion.” (full context)

Expanding on his third reason, Winthrop outlines two necessary means by which the “poor” and the “rich” uphold lasting “brotherly affeccion”:... (full context)

In his second section, Winthrop describes the kind of behavior mercy inspires in those who feel it. It asks people... (full context)

Winthrop’s fourth consideration is that giving is particularly necessary when the borrower cannot repay the debt,... (full context)

Winthrop’s last consideration for the merciful life explains why he urges his audience to give so... (full context)

Winthrop’s third section probes the feeling behind mercy: brotherly affection, or love. Just as a clock,... (full context)

The image of one continuous, sympathetic body bound by the “ligamentes” of love leads Winthrop into his fourth section, a psychological account of how love works on the human mind.... (full context)

Although every man (and woman, despite Winthrop’s male-centric language) “is borne with this principle in him, to love and seeke himself only,”... (full context)

Love, says Winthrop, is the best feeling on earth, says Winthrop; “nothing yeildes more pleasure and content […]... (full context)

Winthrop’s final section makes an “applicacion” of his arguments about love to his colonists’ future in... (full context)

Winthrop reminds his fellow colonists that they will be serving God and must guard against “the... (full context)

Because of their colony is “extraordinary,” Winthrop warns that the moral weight to his colonists’ Puritan project is greater than ever before.... (full context)

Winthrop ends these thoughts on his colonists’ severe moral pressures, by sketching an image of their... (full context)

John Winthrop Character Analysis

John Winthrop Quotes in A Model of Christian Charity

A Model of Christian Charity Quotes

John Winthrop Character Timeline in A Model of Christian Charity