Winthrop encourages his fellow Puritans to remain a community defined by the beliefs of the people despite distance between them. They must find comfort in living in a community bonded together by love and the common goal of living for and in the teachings of Christ, and therefore keep each other accountable. Explaining to them that they must improve their life and the lives of others by doing the service of God. Not only does it help lead to your salvation, but more importantly benefits those of your community which you love and look after. The definition of love is explained as “love is a bond of perfection. First it is a bond or a ligament. Secondly, it makes the work perfect. There is no body but consists of parts and that which knits these parts together, gives the body perfection”. Love is the caring and helping of other people. It seems as if Winthrop wants to encourage the mentality of putting the concerns and well-being of others before yourself. In this, there is a bond that is created and through these bond, the community becomes function by abiding by the laws of the religion and the land, but also of God. Each individual is inherently good or has the potential to be good alone, but by creating a community, perfection can be met. The visual that is created is that of a scarf or any other item that is knitted. The yarn has been produced by someone or some factory in order for someone to make something of it. Therefore, like people, all yarn has the potential to be made into something greater, like a scarf. A few stitches are good because they are the beginning of something else, but when all the stitches come together, there is a completely different product.

The relationship with God in which Winthrop has envisioned for the community is one that will be admired by others and the standard in which others will try to abide by. God will be “delight[ed] to dwell with us” meaning that the community properly fulfills the will of God and so God is proud to call them his children. He advises the group to not fail under God’s curse by living truthfully and transparently. By living under falsehoods and ulterior motives, the work and will of God done by the people will be tainted. This in turn will cause the community to not be the example of a perfect community that God is delighted to dwell in. However, a life in which one conforms to God’s will will bring peace from God and God will ratify the covenant.

This passage in Matthew 5:14-16 influences Winthrop’s understanding of the role the new community will play in the world by verbalizing a reward for living properly under God. Matthew describes a city on a hill in which people light candlesticks to see all that are present in the house. Usually, when people are placed physically above others, it is representative of their superiority and in this case saying that they are superior in following God’s will. Almost as if those in the city on the hill are the golden children that God is most proud of. By saying that people will light candlesticks to see all that are present in the house, this insinuates that the totality of the town will be good and perfect and therefore be the example by which others will base their communities and own lives on. Mostly because not only is it rare to have such open support of God, but to have everyone perfect with not even one person to mess things up is unheard of. (Also it is actually the definition of perfect.)

Winthrop’s speech would have great effect on me as I take a huge leap of faith by leaving everything I know and love behind in order to participate in a new socio-religious experiment. This would confirm that my decision was a good one, especially if my community would be so highly regarded that it would be the example for all other communities.