"A Model of Christian Charity" by John Winthrop - Summary

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God has made the world so that there are those who are less fortunate, and more fortunate. The reasons are:

1. To be in accord with the variability present in the natural world. Also, it is more satisfactory to gain followers of God secondhand, via a man messenger than directly by God accruing them. 
2. The variation in the goodness of people gives God the opportunity to use his power to moderate vices, and support and endow with virtues. 
3. Variety causes men to need one another and thus grow closer together. The difference in men is not because some are better than others but because this serves God and all God's men.

People should show mercy and exercise justice toward one another, and be governed by the Laws of Nature (love thy neighbor as you love yourself) and Gospel (hospitality, as dictated by the Gospel).

The following is in Q&A format:

 Men should help others in need. They should behave in this way because they care for one another as much as they care for themselves. Many examples in scripture back this up. People should be generous with their resources even if they are distressed themselves. Helping others is synonymous with loving God. This isn't to say that men can neglect assisting their own ken. It is important to give when others are in need, but otherwise men should save up for hard times that could come ahead.

If someone is in need of money, money must be lent as much as the person needs (as opposed to requests), even if its return is uncertain. If a person doesn't pay his debt he must be forgiven.

End of Q&A.

 This mercy is to stem from love of men for one another, and not from the superficial perception that mercy will help others. Love is a bond of perfection, and makes the work perfect. In this way, the Church and God are entwined in the bond of love. Christ is love. Thus Christians are really a part of God, and without all citizens this body is not perfect. The parts of the united body feel each other's joy and pain and thus must take care of one another.

Originally before the fall man had love for all things. A consequence of the fall was that man loved only himself, which changed with the coming of Christ. Man now must love one another and exercise this love often. Man must love each other because they are similar and identify this similarity in each other. Even though it is painful to love, the pleasure is greater. This love is necessary to Christians.

Winthrop sets out to define the "applications of this discourse". The people on the ship are Christians and as such must love one another.

                Secondly for the work we have in hand. It is by a mutual consent, through a special overvaluing providence and a more than an ordinary approbation of the churches of Christ, to seek out a place of cohabitation and consortship under a due form of government both civil and ecclesiastical. In such cases as this, the care of the public must oversway all private respects, by which, not only conscience, but mere civil policy, doth bind us. For it is a true rule that particular estates cannot subsist in the ruin of the public.

With God's special guidance over them, they will form a civil and religious society in a way that individual conduct benefit the good of the colony. They are settling to "comfort and increase of the body of Christ… that ourselves and posterity may be the better preserved from the common corruptions of this evil world". They will apply the principles of love to the society they are forming. In terms of their conduct in the New World, they must surpass their lives in England and adhere to the beliefs of the Church, not just acknowledge them. Since they are the Chosen People, God will not be forgiving of errors. They are to be good Christians if they are to gain the promised land.

“A Model” ends as follows:

Therefore let us choose life,
that we and our seed may live,
by obeying His voice and cleaving to Him,
for He is our life and our prosperity.


John Winthrop

Comments

  1. UnknownJune 25, 2015 at 2:43 AM

    THANK YOUUUU!!! this essay helped me understand my huge summer assignment

    ReplyDelete
  2. The Aspiring AuthorOctober 6, 2017 at 1:10 AM

    Thank you so much!! This was vey easy to understand and helpful!:)

    ReplyDelete

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