Winthrop begins his sermon with an observation about inequality in the world: God has willed “the condicion of mankinde” to be disparate, with “some high and eminent in power and dignitie; others meane and in subjeccion.” Placed at the beginning, this basic social problem—why some people are rich and others are poor—is the topic of the sermon. In the roughly five sections that follow, Winthrop explains why God has allowed this disparity and offers ways in which people can alleviate the pain it causes.
Winthrop begins with several reasons for this inequality. First, God put people in different stations of life to reflect the great variety of his divine powers. Second, social inequality allows God’s “spirit” to be manifest in many different ways; the rich, for instance, can be humbled while the poor can receive fortitude. Third, because everyone is different, this should allow people to discover a mutual dependence on one another, whereby “they might all be knit more nearly together in the bond of brotherly affection.” More than simply needing each other, says Winthrop, people ought to realize that talent, material wealth, and high station are not things actually possessed by the people who enjoy them; rather, these things are “guifts” from God. He notes the two springs of moral action—justice and mercy—which correspond roughly to the commands of the Bible and the private urgings of one’s conscience.
Outlining the need for “liberallity” (charitable giving), Winthrop describes the “duty of mercy” between people in a community. One should always give what one can, he says, and sometimes even more than one can afford. He admonishes “layeing up” (hoarding or stockpiling one’s wealth and resources), reminding his audience that possessions can’t be said truly to belong to us, as they’re gifts from God.
Winthrop then examines the motives behind such a merciful and charitable life. Just as a clock, strikes on its own when wound, so too do people act charitably when warmed by brotherly love. The idea of the human body also expresses the “bond of perfection” that love represents among men, whereby disparate body parts act in harmony, just like individual people in one community. He further emphasizes the unity of humanity, and the selfsameness of men among each other, all the while connecting this idea of unity to the binding power of social love.
From here Winthrop delves into the subtleties behind this feeling of love. He describes the innate attraction humans have toward each other, citing a popular Latin adage and stories from the Bible. This attraction, Winthrop explains, has the power to overcome any innate selfishness. Feelings like “sympathy” and “sensibileness” “knitt” humans together, allowing them to feel each other’s pains and pleasures. This is an imaginative and self-affirming connection, whereby one sees “his owne image and resemblance in another.” Before moving on to his last section, Winthrop touches obliquely on romantic love, suggesting that even marriage cannot equal “the exercise of mutuall love.”
The final section brings this examination of love into the specific context of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. Winthrop reminds his colonists that they are “knit together by this bond of love” to their Puritan fellows in England, despite an ocean’s distance. While they must follow civic laws in addition to the inner moral conscience he has just illustrated, Winthrop suggests that selfless and Christlike behavior must be felt internally, rather than followed as a mere rule. He describes the new colony as an exemplar of Puritan utopia—distinct from any community in England—and warns his colonists of the moral pressures that accompany this status, not least the “wrathe” of God. The colony shall be “knitt together in this work as one man.” Echoing Christ’s Sermon on the Mount, he ends the sermon by calling the colony a “citty upon the hill,” meaning that they will be setting moral example for the whole world.
