Of Plymouth Plantation

The strength of their faith was obvious from the very beginning. They wanted their religious freedom and that is why they left the only lives and familiar places they knew to seek that freedom they so strongly desired. Those in England who wanted to make that change and prove that their faith was the most important thing to them, did so and it proved to be a life altering experience for all who made the voyage. The conclusion was to live as a distinct body by themselves under the general Government of Virginia and by their friends to sue to His Majesty that he would be pleased to grant them freedom of religion. (Bradford pg 30.) Because of the restrictions and the lack of their religious liberty the Puritans felt that the only way they could worship God the way they wanted and felt was the right way to worship was to get away from the people stopping them. This strong belief in their religion was the true influence of what we know as the Plymouth Experiment.

The Puritans also had a unique relationship with God that was much stronger than the relationships they had even with their own families and friends. The Puritans that they were flawed and helpless and that they were very capable of being very sinful beings. There was also a belief in the covenant of works. This meant that if you followed all of Gods laws, and did good things that would make him happy, you would then go to heaven. They believed that they were knit together as a body in the most strict and sacred bond and covenant with the Lord. “We do hold ourselves straightly tied to all care of each others goods and of the whole, by everyone and so mutually.(Bradford,35). This also showed how cautious the Puritans were not do to anything that might offend The Lord, and not allow them to get into heaven.

The Puritans also relied on The Covenant of Grace which was a belief that God had already chosen a select few people that would be saved. This was to say that maybe even though you did not do all the right things in your life to obey God and his wishes that you could be one of the lucky ones to survive even though you disobeyed him. Their lives revolved around the fact that God’s providence and grace was all there was to believe in and follow and there was really no way of getting around what was already pre-determined for them. Even before they began their voyage they said to themselves that the Lord by the work of his Providence thought these few too many for the great work He had to do. (Bradford 60). Meaning that this important work of making the voyage only required a few strong and profitable people to complete it successfully and fulfill the plan God already had in mind for them. This leads into the subject of human agency. There is no doubt that the Puritans believed that God had already planned out what their life was going to be like. Every move, every decision, every event that happened in their lives they believed was supposed to have happened because that was the way God wanted