Why did john winthrop create “a city upon a hill”?

John Winthrop, addressing the Puritans aboard the Arbella in 1630, said: "... we must consider that we will be like a city on a hill, the eyes of all peoples will be watching us." The search for that utopia, the desire that the society they would found on the coasts of Massachusetts would be like a city on a hill from which they would illuminate the rest of the peoples of the world, was an ideal that was always present in the spirit of the founding fathers of the United States of America and explains the greatness of this nation.