READING

John Winthrop, Reasons to be Considered for Justifying the Undertakers of the Intended Plantation in New England (1629)

In the Puritans' petition to leave England and to settle in North America, John Winthrop, who was to become governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, set forth that overpopulation and crowding in England destroys the possibility of enjoying the fruits of the earth and, hence, from fulfilling the relationship between man and nature as intended by God. Criticizing education practices and the politics of England, the petition claims that moving into the so-called wilderness of the New World would introduce proper Christian teachings in a pagan part of the world.

1. It will be a service to the Church of great consequence to carry the gospel into those parts of the world, to help on the coming of the fullness of the Gentiles, and to raise a bulwark against the kingdom of Antichrist which the Jesuits labor to rear up in those parts.

2. All other churches of Europe are brought to desolation, and our sins, for which the Lord begins already to frown upon us and to cut us short, do threaten evil times to be coming upon us; and who knows but that God hath provided this place to be a refuge for many whom he means to save out of the general calamity, and seeing the Church hath no place left to fly into but the wilderness, what better work can there be than to go and provide tabernacles and food for her against she comes thither?

3. This land grows weary of her inhabitants, so as man, who is the most precious of all creatures, is here more vile and base than the earth we tread upon, and for less price among us than an horse or a sheep; masters are forced by authority to entertain servants, parents to maintain their own children; all towns complain of the burden of their poor, though we have taken up many unnecessary-yea, unlawful-trades to maintain them, and we use the authority of the law to hinder the increase of our people, as by urging the statute against cottages and inmates, and thus it is come to pass that children, servants, and neighbors, especially if they be poor, are counted the greatest burdens, which, if things were right, would be the chiefest earthly blessings.

4. The whole earth is the Lord's garden, and he hath given it to the sons of men with a general commission (Gen. i.28) to increase and multiply, and replenish the earth and subdue it, which was again renewed to Noah; the end is double and natural, that man might enjoy the fruits of the earth and God might have his due glory from the creature. Why then should we stand here striving for places of habitation, etc. (many men spending as much labor and cost to recover or keep sometimes an acre or two of land as would procure them many, and as good or better, in another country),and in the meantime suffer a whole continent as fruitful and convenient for the use of man to lie waste without any improvement?

5. We are grown to that height of intemperance in all excess of riot as no man's estate almost will suffice to keep sail with his equals; and who fails herein must live in scorn and contempt. Hence it comes that all arts and trades are carried in that deceitful and unrighteous course as it is almost impossible for a good and upright man to maintain his charge and live comfortably in any of them.

6. The fountains of learning and religion are so corrupted as (besides the insupportable charge of their education) most children (even the best wits and of fairest hopes) are perverted, corrupted, and utterly overthrown by the multitude of evil examples and the licentious government of those seminaries where men strain at gnats and swallow camels, use all severity for maintenance of caps and other accomplishments but suffer all ruffianlike fashions and disorder in manners to pass uncontrolled.

7. What can be a better work and more honorable and worthy a Christian than to help raise and support a particular church while it is in its infancy, and join his forces with such a company of faithful people as by a timely assistance may grow strong and prosper, and for want of it may be put to great hazard, if not wholly ruined?