"A Model of Christian Charity" is a sermon of disputed authorship, historically attributed to Puritan leader John Winthrop and possibly written by John Wilson or George Phillips. It is also known as "City upon a Hill" and denotes the notion of American exceptionalism. The sermon was preserved by the New-York Historical Society, but it was not published until the 1830s.

Historically, "A Model of Christian Charity" has been attributed to Puritan leader John Winthrop. Francis Bayard Winthrop donated a manuscript titled "A Modell of Christian Charity" to the New-York Historical Society in 1809. According to a headnote written by Bayard Winthrop, the text was written "[o]n Boarde the Arrabella", "On the Attlantick ! Ocean!", and "[b]y the Honrble John Winthrop. Esqr." However, the text includes a note from its scrivener describing the sermon as having been given "heere in England", rather than aboard the Arbella at sea.

Textual scholar Jerome McGann reports that "all of the pertinent contextual evidence" corroborates the sermon as having been given in England and not aboard the Arbella. McGann concludes that "perhaps Governor Winthrop did not write the work. He was a lawyer and an administrator, not a minister, and no lay sermons by Winthrop are extant". McGann hypothesizes that John Wilson or George Phillips, two ministers who sailed with the Arbella, may have authored the sermon. Literary scholar Abram Van Engen states it "is plausible" that Phillips wrote the sermon and calls "McGann's evidence compelling". Historian Matthew Rowley writes that there "is considerable debate about when, where, and if Winthrop publicly delivered this famous discourse, and even if he was the author". Michael Ditmore, a professor of English, summarizes, "its authorship is now disputed".

The sermon begins, "God Almighty in his most holy and wise providence, hath so disposed of the condition of mankind, as in all times some must be rich, some poor, some high and eminent in power and dignity; others mean and in subjection." The speaker then states three reasons why God made people have different positions from one another:

The sermon then explains that there are two overriding "rules" which should govern all interactions within a community, "two rules whereby we are to walk one towards another: Justice and Mercy." He argues that justice and mercy should be exercised by both rich and poor, since both rich and poor have need of them. He summarizes these two rules with an overriding "law", that mankind "is commanded to love his neighbor as himself". He acknowledges that a person is responsible to make provision for one's family and also for the future, but the overriding principle is: "if thou lovest God thou must help [thy brother]."

So is it in all the labor of love among Christians. The party loving, reaps love again.

Winthrop believes that having this "bond of love" for one another would unite the group as they travel to America "to seek out a place of cohabitation and consortship under a due form of government both civil and ecclesiastical"—that is, as they work together to establish a new society based upon this bond of love. To accomplish this, he calls upon his listeners:

...we must love brotherly without dissimulation; we must love one another with a pure heart fervently. We must bear one another’s burdens. We must not look only on our own things, but also on the things of our brethren.