The literature of the Colonial period is remarkable in that it has even survived.  It is even more remarkable that what has survived illuminates so richly the endeavors of settlement as it records the considerable talents of highly educated people with whose imaginations and dreams rest the foundations of a new society.  That it records little except the more horrific accounts of encounters with the already established communities of the indigenous civilizations is sorely regrettable. 

William Bradford 
Thirty-two years old upon his arrival off the coast of New England with the small band of  "Separatists" aboard the Mayflower in December, 1620, William Bradford was perhaps one of three or four highly educated people to make the journey.  Elected more than thirty times as the Plimoth governor, Bradford's meticulous history, begun ten years after their arrival, interprets the Colony's adventures as nothing short of divinely inspired.  It is almost impossible to select a paragraph from the "History" that doesn't recount another "special providence unto His people." 

The world view held by the "Separatists" who had attempted to "separate" themselves and their newly organized church from the official Church of England was decidedly Calvinistic.  The second-generation Protestant Reformist, John Calvin completed "The Institutes of the Christian Religion" in 1536 from his post as chief Protestant magistrate in Geneva.  Commonly reduced to five basic principles, the "Institutes" were adopted by a number of breakaway congregations as the manual of religious principles and Biblical interpretation. 

Basically, the five points of Calvinism can be defined as follows: 

Total Depravity 
According to this principle of faith and doctrine, all people are condemned (or "depraved") by the "original sin" of Adam in the Old Testament story of Genesis and as such are unworthy any consideration of God, the creator of mankind. 

Unconditional Election 
Since mankind is so completely corrupt, no single individual could ever hope to meet even the slightest condition God might impose as a criterion for salvation from damnation.  Therefore, any process of salvation must be freely given by God without conditions upon the degenerate races of mankind. 

Limited Atonement 
This principle holds that Christ did not die as a means of salvation for all people, but only for those who would accept his sacrifice on faith. 

Irresistible Grace 
Once accepting the death and resurrection of Christ on faith as a means to redemption, the new "saint" is completely transformed for service to God in bringing about the prophesied "Kingdom of God" on earth. 

Perseverance of the Saints 
Once transformed, the new saints will indeed persevere, for God will not win the "day of Armagedon" with the wretched of the earth.  Instead, God will lead the righteous and they will "reap their just rewards."  This principle of "perseverance" evolves into what became known as the "Protestant Work Ethic." 

The "Protestant Work Ethic" moves through three distinct phases, generally defined by the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries.  Its first manifestation features the labor of the saints "for the Glory of God" observed in the attempts to establish pure communities of faith or "theocracies" in New England, particularly Massachusetts Bay Colony settled by English "Puritans." 

The 18th century, the "Age of Enlightenment," records the shift in faith and focus of the colonial leadership as the labor of the saints is channeled for "the Glory of Mankind." 

The 19th century witnesses the final chapter in Protestant Work Ethic as one labors not so much for the "Glory of God," nor for the "Glory of Mankind," but unabbashedly for the "Glory of Self."  It is the century which saw the publication of Russell H. Conwell's "Acres of Diamonds," the theme of which is clear: "Get rich!  Get rich quickly!  It's a Godly thing to do!" Conwell writes, "This is a wonderfully great life, and you ought to spend your time getting money, because of the power there is in money."  Indeed, the famed New England minister Henry Ward Beecher could admonish his congregation with the observation that a man's poverty is a mark of that man's sin.  It is not the will of God that the Godly not "persevere." 

Two other interesting corolaries of Calvin's principles are the concepts of "foreordination" and "predestination.  The principle of "foreordination" is associated with the belief in the "omniscience" or "all-knowing" faculty of God.  Outside the limitations of time as we know it, God is aware of all who, both living and those to come, who will accept the death and resurrection of Christ in atonement for their sins and come to eternal life.  Likewise, God knows those perhaps yet to be born who will never come to accept the process of Salvation and thereby condemn themselves to hell. 

The principle of "predestination," so often associated with Presbyterians, one of the Reformed Church denominations, holds that an "omnipotent"--all-powerful--God has the ability to save those who accept the sacrifice of Christ and his resurrection.  The principle has a "dark side," however,  which has come to be characterized as God's eagerness to cast "wicked men into hell" who do not accept Christ's atonement. 

The Mayflower Compact 
A curious document recorded in Bradford's "History" is the remarkable little "Mayflower Compact," signed by more than forty of the men on board the ship before they departed for land.  Clearly, they came ashore covenanted to a charter of governance defined by the King's Virginia Company which underwrote their passage and promised to sustain the colony.  At the same time, the reference to "the general good of the colony" has been interpreted as a simple majority of a democratic princple. 

Study Questions 
1) What evidence can you find of "God's special providence" in the events of the Plimoth settlers as interpreted by William Bradford in his "History"? 

2) Why did the settlers feel constrained to sign the "Mayflower Compact"? What are the ramifications of the "Compact" for democratic rule from that point on in the colonies and the expansion of the states that follow? 

Next: Samuel Sewall 

 

---