Reference no: EM133555547

Case Study: "Thus stands the case between God and us. We are entered into a Covenant with Him for this work. We havetaken out a commission. The Lord hath given us leave to draw our own articles. We have professed toenterprise these and those ends, upon these and those accounts. We have hereupon besought of Him favorand blessing. Now if the Lord shall please to hear us, and bring us in peace to the place we desire, then hathhe ratified this Covenant and sealed our Commission, and will expect a strict performance of the articlescontained in it; but if we shall neglect the observation of these articles which are the ends we havepropounded, and, dissembling with our God, shall fail to embrace this present world and prosecute ourcarnal intentions, seeking great things for ourselves and our posterity, the Lord will surely break out in wrathagainst us; be revenged of such a (sinful) people, and make us know the price of the breach of such aCovenant.Now the only way to avoid this shipwreck, and to provide for our posterity, it is to follow the counsel of Micah,to do justly, to love mercy, to walk humbly with our God. For this end, we must be knit together, in this work,as one man. We must entertain each other in brotherly affection. We must be willing to abridge ourselves ofour superfluities, for the supply of other's necessities. We must uphold a familiar commerce together in allmeekness, gentleness, patience, and liberality. We must delight in each other; make other's condition ourown; rejoice together, mourn together, labor and suffer together, always having before our eyes ourcommission and community in the work, as members of the same body. So shall we keep the unity of thespirit in the bond of peace. The Lord will be our God, and delight to dwell among us, as his own people, andwill command a blessing upon us in all our ways. So that we shall see much more of his wisdom, power,goodness and truth, than formerly we have been acquainted with. We shall find that the God of Israel isamong us, when ten of us shall be able to resist a thousand of our enemies; when he shall make us a praiseand a glory, that men shall say of succeeding plantations, 'The Lord make it likely that of New England.' Forwe must consider that we shall be as a City upon a hill. The eyes of all people are upon us. Soe that if we dealfalsely with our God in this work we have undertaken, and so cause him to withdraw his present help from us,we shall be made a story and a by-word throughout the world. We shall open the mouths of enemies to speakevil of the ways of God, and all professors for God's sake. We shall shame the faces of many of God's worthyservants and cause their prayers to be turned into curses upon us till we be consumed out of the good landwhither we are a-going.I shall shut this discourse with that exhortation of Moses, that faithful servant of the Lord, in his last farewell to

Israel (Deut. 30). Beloved, there is now set before us life and good, Death and evil, in that we are commandedthis day to love the Lord our God, and to love one another, to walk in his ways and to keep hisCommandments and his Ordinance and his Lawes, and the articles of our Covenant with him, that we may liveand be multiplied, and that the Lord our God may bless us in the land whither we go to possess it. But if ourhearts shall turn away, so that we will not obey, but shall be seduced, and worship and serve other Gods, ourpleasure and profits, and serve them; it is propounded unto us this day, we shall surely perish out of the goodland whither we pass over this vast sea to possess it; Therefore let us choose life that we, and our seed maylive, by obeying His voice and cleaving to Him, for He is our life and our prosperity."

Questions:

1. Why did John Winthrop make this speech?

2. How did Winthrop's point of view impact his written perspective?

3. Explain the significance of John Winthrop's speech and its impact on the Puritans settled in the Massachusetts Bay in the early 1600s as well as the early colonists in New England.