Response to John Winthrop Quotes

Quote 1
- This quote is saying that the political body is the same as the spiritual or Christian body. The metaphor is effective because it is one the settlers have heard before, to describe the Church. So when he applies it to politics or a government, they can easily translate. It also is stating that unless they work together as one, they will not be able to survive or flourish. The body only works when all the parts work together, so it would give a sense of "collective individuality", that their actions will in some way affect other people.

Quote 2
- This quote is saying that there was one a good England, and that should be resurrected. "What they have ought to have done" means they used hindsight, they looked into the past, saw what they did not like or what needed to be changed, and take these matters into their own hands to create a new, better England, with roots in what it used to be. They were simply creating a new country, nearly like the one from where they came, except they had the chance to make it exactly as they wanted it.

Quote 3
- The quote is saying that the mission they have, to make a new more pure colony, was directly a mission from god. That is was their duty on earth to make a new state in where God could be glorified in the way that they thought most true to Christianity. They would see the land that they would take over as a gift from God, and that he would expect them to use it accordingly, not to ruin it becoming corrupt like the Old England.

Quote 4
- This quote means that they would make a settlement, a religion, a colony so pure that it would be looked upon as the ideal for all the other colonies in America. The word would spread how they and they alone are doing the will of God, and others would strive to be like them.