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While reading John Winthrop’s A Model of Christian Charity I learned Winthrop created a plan for how the new Puritan colony should function. He described how the people needed to come together as one colony and the colony needs to “seek out a place of cohabitation and consortship under a form of government both civil and ecclesiastical” (175). The way the colony will do this is bear each other burdens and look out for each other.  The people who are part of the colony will have a covenant with God. They will form one government that combines civil and religious aspects. The goal of the colony is to enhance their lives and to do good things for each other and God. The colony will do this by working together, under God. There will be harsh punishment for breaking of laws because if you break a religious law it will be the same as breaking a civil law. Winthrop also mentions that people are watching what they are doing and how they are doing it, and if they fail God then all of the world will know.

While Winthrop’s vision for the colony consisted of a government that embraced both a civil and religious government, Roger Williams disagreed. Williams believed that the government should be separated into a civil government and an individual religious conscience. He believed that individuals had the freedom to worship whatever and whomever they wanted without anyone telling them what to believe. He thought that the civil government should keep order and follow laws and not deal with religion. Williams also believed that the King of England did not have any right in taking the land from the natives and giving that land away.

It was interesting to compare these two readings because they had opposing views on how a colony’s government should be run. It helped me to see both sides and to understand why they believed what they did. With the people settling in a new country to have religious freedom, you would think that they would have been more tolerant and accepting of differing religious ideas.

    Works Cited

Baym, Nina, and Robert S. Levine. The Norton Anthology of American Literature. New York, NY: W.W. Norton, 2012. Print.