Peter Bulkeley (January 31, 1583-March 9, 1659) was the Puritan leader who established the city of Concord, Massachusetts, 1636. In his only publication, The Gospel Covenant; or the Covenant of Grace Opened, published in London, 1646; 1651, Peter Bulkeley stated:
<We are as a city set upon a hill, in the open view of all the earth....We profess ourselves to be a people in covenant with God, and therefore...the Lord our God...will cry shame upon us if we walk contrary to the covenant which we have promised to walk in. If we open the mouths of men against our profession, by reason of the scandalousness of our lives, we (of all men) shall have the greater sin.> 1583PB001
<Let us study so to walk that this may be our excellency and dignity among the nations of the world among which we live; that they may be constrained to say of us, only this people is wise, and a holy and blessed people; that all that see us may see and know that the name of the Lord is called upon us; and that we are the seed which the Lord hath blessed. (Deut. 288:10; Isa. 61:9)> 1583PB002
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American Quotations by William J. Federer, 2024, All Rights Reserved, Permission granted to use with acknowledgement.
Endnotes:
1583PB001. William J. Federer, American Quotations (2014). Peter Bulkeley, 1651. The Gospel Covenant; or the Covenant of Grace Opened (London: 2nd edition, 1651), pp. 431-32. The Annals of America, 20 vols. (Chicago, IL: Encyclopedia Britannica, 1968), Vol. I, pp. 221-212. Peter Marshall and David Manuel, The Glory of America (Bloomington, MN: Garborg's Heart'N Home, Inc., 1991), 11.23.
1583PB002. William J. Federer, American Quotations (2014). Peter Bulkeley, 1651. The Gospel Covenant; or the Covenant of Grace Opened (London: 2nd edition, 1651), pp. 431-32. The Annals of America, 20 vols. (Chicago, IL: Encyclopedia Britannica, 1968), Vol. I, p. 212.