Compare and Contrast of William Bradford and John Withrop
for the Lord thy God, he it is that doth go with thee;he will not fail thee, nor forsake thee. American literature has always been faced with very contrasting views on the Lord, our God. Never had American literature been more filled with these thoughts than when the first Europeans began arriving in the New World in the early 1600's. William Bradford and John Winthrop were two very influential men of their times. Both held powerful ties with God. Even though both Bradford and Winthrop's lives had many contrasts, their views of God are the same in that they view the relationship between God and Man as a teacher educating a student. Bradford first came to the New World in 1620 with a group of extreme Puritans called separatists. They experienced hardship from the moment they got onto the shore at Cape Cod. The New World climate was like nothing they had ever experienced, it was much colder in the winter and much hotter during the summer. Bradford said, "And for the season it was winter, and they that know the wint
Winthrop's hope was to design a society that the entire world could look to as a model of charity and perfection. God tested Bradford and the other separatists, like a teacher tests students, with many challenges but the separatists refused to fail. He desired to make the perfect Christian society, in his sermon "A Model of Christian Unity. But though this had been a day and night of much trouble and danger unto them, yet God gave them a morning of comfort and refreshing. Though their lives differed greatly in hardships, both maintained their Christian values. When God enlightened John Winthrop, he gave a sermon that gave his people hope, courage, and most of all desire to stay faithful in their Christian ways. "But herewith they broke their mast into three pieces and their sail fell overboard in a very grown sea, so as if they had like to have been cast away. John Winthrop also fled England in the late 1620's, and he too was a highly spiritual man. The reward for being an ever-faithful society was God's grace so that we could one day free ourselves from the dark hand of tyranny. God's guiding hand was a definite factor in the forming of New England and her sister provinces. We shall find that the God of Israel is among us, when ten of us shall be able to resist a thousand of our enemies, when he shall make us a praise and glory, that men shall say of succeeding plantations: the Lord make it like that of New England: for we must consider that we shall be as a city upon a hill, the eyes of all people are upon us; so that if we shall deal falsely with our god in this work wee have undertaken and so cause him to withdraw his present help from us, see shall be made a story and a by-word though the world" (105). And they found themselves to be on an island secure from the Indians, where they might dry their stuff, fix their pieces and rest themselves; and gave God thanks for His mercies in their manifold deliverances" (83). He however did not experience any hardship of the New World, like Bradford. Our forefathers attempted to create societies that were nations of Christ's way and God's teachings, but in fact, they awoke a rebelliousness that ever changed the world, as we know it today.
Common topics in this essay:
Cod World,
Lord England,
Christian Winthrop,
Christ God's,
John Winthrop,
Hand God,
Bradford World,
Bradford Winthrop's,
God Israel,
God American,
john winthrop,
american literature,
guiding hand,
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