John Winthrop

A Model of Christian Charity

• Easy to say. Hard to implement.

  (p. 79) “Lay not up yourselves treasures upon earth[…] They are subject to the moth, the rust, the thief. […] They steal away the heart”

• Winthrop seems to say that you should give regardless. If they cannot repay, just see it as an act of charity and don’t expect anything in return.

  (p. 79) “[…] thou must give him according to his necessity, rather than lend him as he requires[…] way of commerce[…] if his mean of repaying thee be only probably or possible, then he is an object of thy mercy”

• Jubilees were 7 year periods. At each Jubilee, debts were forgiven. We needs this back!

• Preach.

  (p. 80) “[you] must forgive”

• What does this mean???

  (p. 80) “What rule must we observe and walk by in cause of community of peril?”

• I love guilt tripping.

  (p. 81) “I was hungry and ye fed me not.”

• Lots of emphasis on love and feelings. He is incredibly naive. If only the world worked like that. He relies on sympathy for the other which will spur people into action.

  (p. 81) “[T]o draw men to works of mercy, is not by force of argument from the goodness or necessity of the work[…] but by framing these affections of love in the heart”

(p. 81) “Love is the bond[…] it makes the work perfect”

(p. 81) “True Christians are of one body in Christ[…] The ligaments of this body with knit together are love[…] Nobody can be perfect[…] All parts of this body being thus united are made so[…] if one member suffers, all suffer with it.”

• Adam’s condition in the Garden of Eden is temporary and relied on others.

  (p. 82) “Adam […] rent his prosperity also one from another”

• What does this mean??? Apparently, “tell me your friend and I tell you who you are.”

  (p. 83) “simile simili gaudet”

• Once again, assuming the best of humanity. Also very interesting that he draws this parallel between a mother and God. God only loves us because we look like him??

  (p. 83) “A mother loves her child, because she thoroughly conceives a resemblance of herself in it.”

• Sounds like the opposite. But he still compares it to a transaction. Clear give and take despite that.

  (p. 84) “This love is always under reward. It never gives, but it always receives[…] a most equal and sweet kind of commerce.”

• True… But… Does it apply to mere strangers?

  (p. 84) “Nothing yields more pleasure[…] than when it finds that which it may love fervently, for to love and live beloved is the soul’s paradise.”

• Sounds imaginary to me.

  (p. 84) “This love among Christians is a real thing, not imaginary[…] This love is as absolutely necessary to the being of the body of Christ[…] This love is a divine, spiritual nature[…] It rests in the love and welfare of its beloved[…] This makes us nearer to resemble the virtues of our Heavenly Father.”

• People have their love for Christ in common. This common thread should breed a sense of community.

  (p. 84) “For the persons[…] our employments as far distant, yet[…] knit together by this bond of love[…] of our being in Christ.”

• Working together is needed (true). To achieve this we need government in civil and religious matters (debatable).

  (p. 85) “Work[…] is by a mutual consent[…] Civil policy, doth bind us.”

• Obviously, don’t forget to do service to the Lord.

  (p. 85) “The end is to improve our lives to do more service to the Lord.”

• More love talk.

  (p. 85) “Duty of love. We must love brotherly without dissimulation; we must love another with a pure heart fervently. We must bear one another’s burdeths. We must not look only on our own things, but also on the things of our brethren.”

• Jesus can be like a jealous wife.

  (p. 85) “[…] make Him the more jealous of our love and obedience.”

• It’s easy to be corrupted, hah.

  (p. 85) “many that corrupted the service of the Lord, some setting up altars before His own.”

• Need to follow God, strictly.

  (p. 85) “When God gives a special commission He looks to have it strictly observed.”

• TL;DR They need to work together in the new land. Winthrop makes this speech in order to get everyone in agreement so that they can survive. It is a tool to hopefully get people to conform.

  (p. 86) “We must be knit together in this work as one man[…] We mus be willing to abridge ourselves of our superfluities[…] rejoice together, mourn together, labor, and suffer together[…] the Lord make it like that of of NEW ENGLAND.”

Roger Williams

• 1603-1683
• “Dangerous” (AKA true) thoughts:
  • King Charles I can’t just give away land that isn’t his own. The Indigenous people were there first.
  • It should not be required to swear an oath in courts.
  • The National Church should split from The Church of England
  • Separation between church and state
    • Not because the state can be corrupted by the church but because the state can corrupt the church… He meant well, lol.
• Saw Englishmen just as “savage” as the Indigenous people.
• Fled Massachusetts for Rhode Island and lived with the Narragansett people
• Text says that he is not interested in conversion but his actual text says differently. Some of the translations he gives full on explains the creation story and denies the Indigenous people’s religion.

  (p. 88) “Williams was not primarily interested in the conversion of others.”

vs.

(p. 95) “How many gods be there?” “Many, great many.” “Friend, not so. There is only one God. You are mistaken. You are out of the way.”

A Key Into the Language of America

• I like this sentence.

  (p. 89) “A little key may open a box, where lies a bunch of keys.”

• The Narragansett began to call themselves Indians because of the English.

• Their creation story seems to be influenced by Christianity, mentioning Adam.

  (p. 90) “From Adam and Noah that they spring, it is granted on all hands.”

• Main god is Kuatantowwit. However there are many gods that they believed in, each “in charge” of certain things.
  • They thought the god that created the English to be greater, since the English seemed to be more prosperous.
• Found their language similar to Hebrew and Greek.
• Another similarity they had to the Jews was that they separated women from men in certain situations (mostly religious occasions).
• Directions were important. The main god was from the South West. The South West is also where souls go to die. North West did not have fruitful lands. “Bad” souls will wander, restless.
• Williams speaks of an encounter with an Indigenous man who converts on his death bed to Christianity because what he heard was somehow convincing to him.
• Shope: Probably a typo, haha.

Anne Bradstreet

• 1612-1672
• Bradstreet was a housewife who was educated.
• Humble and simple.

From The Prologue:

(p. 98) “But simple I according to my skill.”

(p. 99) “Give thyme or parsley wreath, I ask no bays.”

• Somewhat of a feminist? She looked up to Queen Elizabeth I and pondered the skills of women.

(p. 99) “Men can do best, and women know it well/Preeminence in all and each is yours;/Yet grant some small acknowledgment of ours.”

• She had many children.
• She was skeptical about Christianity but upon moving to New England, she saw the beauty of nature and attributed this to God.

From Contemplations:

(p. 100) “Sure He is goodness, wisdom, glory, light./That hath this under world so richly dight.”

• Most poems follow a simple rhyming scheme.

• I liked these excerpts from Contemplations:

  (p. 103) “Our life compare we with their length of days Who to the tenth of theirs doth now arrive? And though thus short, we shorten many ways, Living so little while we are alive; In eating, drinking, sleeping, vain delight So unawares comes on perpetual night, And puts pleasures vain unto eternal flight

  When I behold the heavens as in their prime, And then the earth (though old) still clad in green, The stones and trees, insensible of time, Nor age nor wrinkly on their front are seen; If winter come and greenness then do fade, A spring returns, and they more youthful made; But man grows old, lies down, remains where once he’s laid.”

(p. 106) “O Time the fatal wrack of mortal things, That draws oblivion’s curtains over kings; Their sumptuous monuments, men know them not, Their names without a record are forgot, Their parts, their ports, their pomp’s all laid th’ dust Nor wit nor gold, no buildings scape time’s rust; But he whose name is graved in the white stone Shall last and shine when all of these are gone.”

• She apparently really loves her husband.

In To My Dear and Loving Husband

(p. 108) “If ever two were one, then surely we.”

And A Letter to Her Husband, Absent upon Public Employment:

(p. 108) “If two be one, as sure though and I.”

• People in that time said “it pleased God.” These days they would say, “it was all God’s plan.”

• In To My Dear Children, Bradstreet talks about how she used to be unobedient. I wonder how true that is or if she’s just saying that to inspire her children to be better.

• I liked this passage:

  (p. 116) “Nay masculines, you have thus taxes us long[…] Le such ass say our sex is void of reason. Know ‘tis a slander now but once was treason.’”