A Model of Christian Charity

Near the end of Winthrop’s sermon, in his discussion of New England’s potential as an ideal society before God, he states, “wee must consider that wee shall be as a citty upon a hill” (47). This is a reference to Matthew 5:14, part of the Sermon on the Mount, a collection of Christ’s moral sayings and teachings. In the Bible, Christ tells his flock, “Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hid.” The location of cities upon hills was common in ancient times, as it allowed easy defensibility against attackers. Here, however, the passage represents the role of Christian communities as beacons of light for the rest of the world. Though Winthrop immediately precedes this allusion mentioning God’s power to defend against enemies, perhaps channeling this militaristic meaning of the passage, its statement of hope is clearly his main intended meaning: “wee shall make us a prayse and glory that men shall say of succeeding plantations, ‘the Lord make it likely that of New England’” (47). This passage is among the most cited sections of Winthrop’s sermon, and has been frequently connected to ideas of American exceptionalism as a model for other societies.