Kingdom Seeds at America’s Birth
Part One

by Dr. Paul Jehle, March 28, 2007

A hundred years ago when we celebrated our 300th birthday, millions of Americans looked back, pondered and remembered the lessons learned from our beginnings three centuries earlier.

Huge celebrations attended by literally millions of citizens were highlighted by elevation of the character, morals and conduct of our founders. The weaknesses were also revealed, and lessons learned from mistakes.

The heroic acts by less than perfect heroes were revealed without apology. After all, no one is perfect, but in order to advance as a civilization we must remember that which is worth emulating, and simply learn from that which we should avoid.

As we approach the many years where we might remember our 400th birthday (for it stretches from 2006-2021 just as the origin of America was developed form 1606 to 1621), we may not draw as many interested Americans.

We are a different nation that appears ashamed of its beginning. Crowds no longer gather to tell the mighty heroic deeds of those who loved God and country. Political correctness numbs our senses to the point where we no longer emulate anything as being better than something else.

This must change. I hope to add one small part by putting into print some of my thoughts about our humble beginning. Let us learn our lessons well, and one of the most important lessons to restore is an understanding of the Providence of God.

The Providence of God

The doctrine of Divine Providence was well known to virtually every individual when our nation began. It is not so well known today. Perhaps Noah Webster, in his original 1828 Dictionary, gave one of the simplest definitions when he said:

Providence - the act of providing or preparing for future use or application... foresight; timely care... the care and superintendence which God exercises over his creatures.

Webster goes on to say “in theology, the care and superintendence which God exercises over his creatures... A belief in divine providence, is a source of great consolation to good men.”

Divine Providence was just another way of saying that God has everything under control, and is working out His plan regardless of how bad it looks.

Parents attempt to prepare their children for the future. Teachers attempt to prepare students for their calling and vocation. But in the world of the 16th century, most everyone assumed God was in control of preparing them for some great feat or accomplishment, regardless of whether they personally desired to obey Him in conformity with His Word.

Divine Providence, a term and title for God Himself, is the underlying theme of our beginning as a nation. Though today not everyone believes in Divine Providence so strongly, for you to understand how individuals in the 16th century might have placed significance on events of the past, present and future, you must walk in the same mindset that was prevalent at the time. That mindset was simply this — God rules in the affairs of men.

The theme of Scriptures that speak of God’s providence is that it brings hope. From Psalm 78, Romans 15 and Ephesians 1, we have declared to us that when we remember the past, and realize God is in control, it gives us hope for the future. Thus, a nation that forgets its past will have little vision for its future, having lost it own identity.

Most of those we talk about that lived during the 16th and 17th centuries believed that God’s Kingdom, or His rule and purpose, was destined to override all the plans and schemes of men and nations. Ultimately, His Kingdom would come, and the kingdoms of earth would finally resemble and reflect the kingdom of heaven. This is Divine Providence.

Key Characters

Though we cannot tell every story, we will attempt to trace the background of events that are prepared to culminate in 1606. Three individuals that might give us a glimpse of Divine Providence in the beginning of our nation are worth our consideration as we trace their lives as they touch the lives of others.

In 1606, King James, who was James the 1st England and the 6th of Scotland, was forty years old. Captain John Smith, the eventual leader of the Jamestown colony, was twenty-eight, and William Bradford, the future governor of the Plymouth colony, was seventeen.

The lives of these three individuals tell a tale that foreshadows the coming together of key events in 1606 that would lay the foundation for what would become the United States of America.

Life in 1600

Life at the turn of the century, in the early 1600’s, was increasingly difficult, especially from the perspective of a Christian who wanted to live a godly life. James the 6th of Scotland had just conducted his own coronation as James the 1st of Great Britain, claiming the throne after Queen Elizabeth’s death.

The new fad of smoking, drawing the smoke from the pipe into the mouth, and then ejecting it through the nostrils was called “drinking tobacco” and to the disappointment of many people, was becoming all too popular.

Books were rare and newspapers and magazines did not exist. Literacy was very low, and without people looking into books for information, games and entertainment appeared to dominate life. Riddles, dice, dancing, wrestling and quarter-staff, pitching the bar and football, fishing and hunting were favorite pastimes.^[1]

Though most of the above were not immoral in and of themselves, it depicted a life of amusement and entertainment, where serious subjects were often ignored. Traveling minstrels would play on the ignorance of the people who could not check out information themselves, and since entertainment dominated their pastime, their rude plays performed in public would begin to teach adults and children to pick up habits that tended to be disrespectful to the past.

Holidays, originally known as holy days, were also corrupted. Christmas and New Year’s were mixed with Christian and Roman meaning, borrowing pagan symbols and customs. May Day was an excuse to act rudely and throw off all restraint. On and on it went, including the holiday All Hallow’s Eve (that we now know as Halloween) that made that which was evil a sport.

Philip Stubbes, a Puritan who stood against the corruptions of his day, had this to say about Christmas in 1583.

Who is ignorant that more mischief is at that time committed than in all the year besides? What masking and mumming! Whereby robbery, whoredom, murder and what not is committed! What dicing and carding, what eating and drinking, what banqueting and feasting is then used more than in all the year besides! To the great dishonor of God, and the impoverishing of the realm.^[2]

Another such Puritan that would end up being called before the civil authorities was Henry Barrowe, who in 1590 denounced all such vices within the culture. But all this paled in light of the fact that James had come to the throne. Queen Elizabeth may not have been a true friend of the rising tide of the Reform (or the revival of Christianity throughout England), but she tolerated much of its influence and therefore it grew mightily among the people. James, however, would not tolerate these religious reforms.

James Stuart

James lost his illegitimate father (Henry) before he turned one. Tutored from the royal court of Scotland by the famed reformer George Buchanan, he was given an excellent education, but was surrounded by the pampered royalty of pride and prejudice.

He was virtually separated from his mother (Queen Mary) who had conspired to kill his father until she was beheaded when he was twenty-one. Though his head was reformed in religion, his heart was lifted up in the pride of royal prerogatives, and as we shall learn, it appears that the mind eventually rationalizes what the heart has chosen. James represents for us the external authority of America’s civil birth certificate in 1606.

James was born in 1566, the same year William Brewster was born who would became the ruling Elder of the Pilgrims in Plymouth, and whose Manor became the secret house of worship that James would attempt to shut down. John Knox, the foe of James’ mother Mary, thundered sermons of mercy for the repentant but judgment for those who disobeyed God’s law.

Knox believed that even Kings and Queens must obey the law of the land, for they were not above it. Even though Knox would die in 1572 when James was only six, stories of his preaching were told to him, and he would later remark in 1604 “his mother and he from their cradles had been haunted with a Puritan devil which he feared would not leave him to his grave.”^[3]

After his tutor, George Buchanan, died in 1582, James, at sixteen, was only too glad to have the last restraint upon his behavior and training removed from him. The Reform in Scotland had arranged for this King to be trained to rule Scotland according to the Bible.

He had been the hope of seeing a nation ruled as God had intended. James did have a brilliant mind, could speak and write proficiently, but his heart was corrupted from the pampered life of a young man destined for the throne, power and royal prestige.^[4]

By the time James turned thirteen in 1579, Cabot had laid claim to Newfoundland in 1497 for England, but little had been done about it. Sir Humphrey Gilbert had letters patent to seek new discoveries. Gilbert’s half-brother Sir Walter Raleigh attempted to possess Newfoundland, but Elizabeth, who was always interfering out of indecision for fear of making the wrong one, hindered it due to her fear of Philip II of Spain, her constant rival.

James was spoiled, for his every wish was granted, and having “accepted the government” of Scotland when he was twelve, was actually deceived into thinking he led the nation.

His astounding intellect, brilliant ability to write poems and dissertations on theology, led many to believe he was a child of the Reform when in his heart he was heading for actually believing he had a divine right to tell others what to believe and how to live.

John Smith

John lost both his parents before he turned eleven, virtually raising himself as he wandered all over Europe seeking adventure. Inheriting the character of the minority of England’s Protestant population, he separated himself from pompous royalty, being filled with chivalry, manhood, and a high respect for women and his role as a man to protect them.

Disciplined in body and mind, together with piety and respect for God, he made an excellent example of English conservatism in the 16th century. He appears to represent the social birth certificate of a working colony that would embark from England in late 1606.

James (Stuart) represents the external authority of America’s civil birth certificate in 1606.

Born in Willoughby, Lincolnshire in 1579, John heard stories of the sea while young and fell in love with adventure. This was partly because his home town was water logged till late in the summer, virtually invisible under flooding for part of the year.

He faithfully attended his local Parish, the State sponsored Church of England. The Church had united two small towns, and was the center of community life. Far removed from the pomp and ceremony of more populated cities, John picked up the qualities of honor, respect and dignity from both his parents as well as the church community before his parents passed away.

Since John wanted action, and both his parents were gone, nothing held him to his home town. It is a good thing he had embraced a certain measure of self-restraint, for he set off for a life of adventure where he virtually raised himself.^[5]

By the time John turns eleven in 1590, Gilbert has possessed Newfoundland in 1583. The Black Acts of 1584 are enacted in Scotland, having profound negative precedents for England as well. These acts declared the King (James) head of the church in Scotland, where he and his Council in civil government would have total authority over all ecclesiastical (church) matters.

Anyone who denied the tenets of the Black Acts was a traitor. The Church could not even hold its own assemblies without permission of the Crown. Ministers were forbidden to “utter any false, untrue, or slanderous speeches... or to meddle in the affairs of his highness and his estate” ^[6]

Though this civil act of tyranny by James would have resulted in instant revolt by the Reform of Scotland under Knox, disbelief and shock was the only response now that Knox was dead. The Ministers of Scotland truly believed James was a child of the Reform.

While this was happening in Scotland, the publication of a remarkable book in the same year in England, however, would attract the attention of Smith and others who loved adventure. It turned their attention from the growing alarm in Scotland to the need for Elizabeth in England to encourage more exploration.

Hakluyt’s Discourse

A Discourse on Western Planting was published by Richard Hakluyt in 1584 to inspire the English to settle in North America where French and Spanish explorers had been working. It is amazing how the Providence of God appears to work underground, from below, until it bursts forth into the sunlight like a river.

Hakluyt’s work was decidedly Christian, with the title of his first chapter “that this western discovery will be greatly for the enlargement of the gospel of Christ whereunto the Princes of the reformed religion are chiefly bound amongst whom her Majesty is principal.”^[7]

Hakluyt was born in 1552, growing up near Leominster. His study of the Bible, along with geography and mapping, led him at eighteen to become a student at Christ Church College, completing his Masters in 1575, when John Robinson, Pastor of the Pilgrims, who would attend seventeen years later, was only three.

He began lecturing on geography, and became the first to show “both the old imperfectly composed maps and the new lately reformed mappes, globes, spheares, and other instruments of his art.”^[8]

After presenting Elizabeth the 1st, Queen of England, with his book, it became an inspiration for people like Raleigh Gilbert and Sir Walter Raleigh. In 1584, inspired by Hakluyt, Raleigh laid claim to Virginia, naming it after the “Virgin” (unmarried) Queen of England. The next year a colony at Roanoke was started to bring the gospel to the natives with seven ships and one hundred householders.

By 1587, when Smith was eight, Mary was beheaded for her crimes, and Elizabeth began to prosecute the Reform movement in England. We can only imagine what young John thinks when it is discovered that Raleigh finds no one in Roanoke. But all rejoice in Divine Providence when the Spanish Armada of Philip II is defeated by the nimble English fleet, aided by the storms that arose in perfect timing.

One of the commanders of the Royal Navy, Lord Howard, as well as his brother-in-law, Sir Edward Stafford, had been inspired by Richard Hakluyt’s work, for Hakluyt had served as chaplain and accompanied them to Paris in 1583. Richard was bothered by the fact that the French mocked the state of the English fleet.^[9]

Everyone saw the defeat of the Armada in 1588 as the Providential Hand of God. Elizabeth even made a coin with the inscription in Latin “1588. Flavit Jehovah et Dissipati Sunt” yet with the word Jehovah written in Hebrew letters. It meant “God blew, and they were scattered”. ^[10]

A Striking Contrast: James & John

Smith, at nine years of age, may have been aware of all that was happening, but we know that by the time he turned eleven in 1590, he turned his attention, upon the death of his parents, to learning the art of chivalry, the best of a warrior’s training in old England. In order to do so, he went to Holland and spent several years training in an English army there.

No greater contrast could be seen in the year 1590 between James Stuart and John Smith. The former was living in pompous royalty, with soft clothing, and about the only adventurous thing James loved to do was hunt rather than deal with the affairs of state. John never avoided any challenge and was being prepared for a drama that was unfolding all around him.

William Bradford

William lost both his parents by the time he turned five. Raised by his Uncle and Aunt in the Church of England, he learned to care for his brothers and sisters, but was frail, being sick for four straight years before he turned eleven. He later commented that it kept him from the vanities of youth.

William walked eight miles from Austerfield to Babworth just to hear Richard Clyfton preach, and when Clyfton was banished from the Church of England due to his doctrines, young William joined the separatist movement of underground Puritans who met at Scrooby Manor. He represents the spiritual birth certificate of America in 1606.

Born in Austerfield, England in 1590, William was a boy who was best known for his heart. Though James would be known for his raw civil power and authority, and John for his physical and mental toughness, William would be known for his spiritual ideas and convictions, or in other words, a tough heart.

James never wanted his power confronted, John fought for what was right, and William never compromised his beliefs. By the time William turned twelve in 1602, and began to ask his Uncle and Aunt for permission to walk to Babworth in order to hear Clyfton preach, King James had fully embraced the “divine right of kings” philosophy, meaning that he believes God gave him the right to rule in any way he chose. Queen Elizabeth was on her death bed, and John Smith was apprenticed to be a soldier in France, determined to be ready to defend the values of old England.

William came into conflict with his Uncle and Aunt who wanted him to remain in the established Church. He had been converted to Christ while reading the Scriptures and hearing the preaching of Clyfton, and this concerned them.

They feared that he was being drawn into the “separatist” church in Babworth and away from the established Church in his own home town. He reasoned and appealed to them in submissive terms under obedience.^[11]

James, John, and William

In contrast, while William was being converted in his spirit, John Smith was undergoing a transformation in his soul and body to the fame of a soldier, and James claimed power over both Scotland and England.

King James wanted his every whim to be obeyed without delay. John Smith, upon turning twenty in 1599, returned to his hometown but retreated into the woods, built a tree house he called his “bower”, and taught himself the arts of war with every book he could find, and practiced with his lance.

At the time William was refining his skills of building a conviction without a rebellious attitude, James was becoming more and more belligerent. John was patiently practicing his skills as a warrior for the purpose of defending the ancient Christian traditions of England against the Turks who have come to rob his land of its inheritance.

Though he was called a hermit by those he knows, John ends up roaming all over Europe, fighting battles and learning to survive in the most difficult of situations.^[12] The dramatic contrast of these three individuals couldn’t be more striking.

Bradford, in his early teens, gained a reputation for maintaining his convictions along with his respect for his Uncle, Aunt and relatives who disagreed with him. King James, who is almost three times Bradford’s age, gained a reputation for pomp, illicit behavior in public and private, a foul mouth, and a lust for power and control. Smith, on the other hand, eleven years Bradford’s senior, and thirteen years James junior, gained a reputation for being a fierce soldier, filled with chivalry who respects women and has a hunger for justice.

In 1602, Smith finally got the chance to fight the Turks, and while in Hungary and its surrounding area, personally fought three Turkish giants after a challenge was given much like “David and Goliath”, defeating all three and holding their heads in the air to the cheers of the women and honor of his troops.^[13]

1604

In 1604, shortly after James assumed the throne upon Elizabeth’s death, he traveled to England and was shocked to find the Reform more entrenched among the common people than in Scotland. James thought that these “dissenters” were rebels against authority, and thus several came before James to request a more lenient stance against them.

James was brilliant, and could talk about the most minute details of the Bible, including information about every book of the Apocrypha that most Reformers thought should not be included in the canon of Scripture. In fact, he even agreed to publish his own Bible (which would eventually have his name on it in 1611) in order to keep people from reading the one out of Geneva.

James not only angered the Reform, but he angered the Catholics as well. When the King is the head of the Church as well as the State, all religious expression is at risk, regardless of its tenets.

Thus, when the mild Millenary Petition was brought before the King in early 1604 by leaders of the Church of England, it was expected that the requests would be granted since all that was really argued in principle was a greater separation between the Church and State, with the local Presbyters and Bishops handling controversies rather than the civil government interfering in church affairs.

But upon hearing this, James flew into a rage! He had had enough of the Presbytery and its assemblies censoring his conduct in Scotland! He would remain, both in position and function, as the head of both Church and State!^[14]

After shouting, Dr. Reynolds, who was president of Corpus Christi College at Oxford, who had come to reason with the King, sat sullen before him. James said “well, doctor... have you anything more to say?” The Bishop stated “nothing, sire.”

Then the words that in effect would help plant the spiritual heart of America rang out in England when James declared “if this is all they have to say, I will make them conform themselves, or else harry them out of the land.” As he got up to walk through the door, he added “or else do worse.”

It was clear what this meant. Any “dissenter” was no longer free to stay or leave. The die had been cast, and James had declared himself to be almost god in human flesh, having a “divine right” so that his words were automatically inspired by the Holy Spirit.^[15]

At age fourteen, in 1604, William Bradford faced a dilemma in his own home that was a miniature picture of what had just happened in London. His Uncle and Aunt had come to their conclusion. Either William left the Separatist church in Babworth and returned to the established Church in his hometown, or would be disowned, and would have to leave home....the words that in effect would help plant the spiritual heart of America rang out in England when James declared: “...I will make them conform themselves, or else harry them out of the land... or else do worse.”

Facing this dilemma, in front of his Uncle, Aunt and relatives, he declared:

[W]ere I likely to endanger my life, or consume my estate, by any ungodly courses; your counsels to me were very seasonable. But you know that I have been diligent and provident in my calling; and not only desirous to augment what I have, but also to enjoy it in your company; to part from which will be as great a cross as can befall me. Nevertheless, to keep a good conscience, and walk in such a way as God has prescribed in His Word, is a thing which I must prefer before you all, and above life itself. Wherefore, since it is for a good cause that I am likely to suffer the disasters which you lay before me; you have no cause to be either angry with me, or sorry for me. Yea, I am not only willing to part with everything that is dear to me in this world for this cause: but I am also thankful that God hath given me a heart so to do; and will accept me so to suffer for him”^[16]

What were these beliefs William Bradford was willing to suffer for at age fourteen? Five summary points could be used to understand the beliefs the reformers felt the Bible taught and the State Churches were not teaching. These five points were:

1. Sola Scriptura (Scripture alone); that the Bible alone is the infallible source for knowing God’s will;

2. Sola Christos (Christ alone); that Christ’s sacrifice on the cross provides the only way of salvation from sin;

3. Sola Fide (faith alone); that faith in Christ makes one a believer or saint, destined for heaven;

4. Sola Gratia (grace alone); that it is through God’s ability (grace) that we can do His will; and

5. Sola Deo Gloria - (God’s Glory alone); what is accomplished is for God’s praise and credit, not man’s.

All these beliefs young William, as a teenager, embraced, and all these beliefs King James understood and was taught as a child. But James had come to despise these because they reminded him he was under the law, and had no “divine right” to act in any way that he might choose.

In 1603 and 1604, John Smith had been rescued when left for dead on a battlefield. Eventually captured by a Turkish Bashaw, Smith was treated as a slave and given to thrashing the fields. Christians were not treated kindly by Turks, and Smith found his chance to fight back.

Killing the Bashaw and hiding his body, he fled and finally had the iron ring broken from around his neck which made him feel as though he had “risen from the dead.” ^[17]

So when we come to the close of 1604, King James is harrying all reformers out of his land, William is being kicked out of his home and moving in with William Brewster in Scrooby, and Smith has escaped once again, fighting his way across Europe.

1605

Though Henry the VIII had freed England from the external control of the Pope in the early 1500’s, she was hardly free within. Only one fourth of her population were Protestants of the Reform, and the Protestants were splintered into even smaller groups due to the variety of doctrines and beliefs that abounded within its ranks.

The fact that the Protestant Church was now the established one with the King at its head angered both the Catholics and the Reform. Both found themselves in trouble, for religious toleration is not a friend to religious liberty, for what the State tolerates on one day can be persecuted the next.

However, what usually unites all factions is resistance to a growing enemy. That enemy was James the 1st of England and the 6th of Scotland. Pompous power, and the attributing of god-like authority to oneself brings about conflict that would not have arisen otherwise. James found himself with enemies in both the Protestant and Catholic Church.

Sir Edwin Sandys; Statesman

James had conflicts in Parliament as well, most notably with Sir Edwin Sandys. Sandys was born in 1561. His father, Edwin, was Archbishop of York. Coming into conflict with Queen “bloody” Mary, a Catholic, he was put in the Tower of London in 1553. He was one of the earliest examples of what would be later known as puritans.^[18]

Edwin, jr survived the Great Plague while at Corpus Christi College in Oxford when six hundred people had died in one night! Tutored by the famed Richard Hooker, Edwin actually had a hand in helping him to edit The Laws of the Ecclesiastical Polity which set the direction for Anglican theology under Elizabeth.

Sandys did not agree with his colleagues that the Puritans and Separatists were dangerous, but neither did he agree fully with their arguments either. He was influential as “middle ground”, avoiding what he felt were extremes. His studies in both theology and politics gave him an excellent background for his career in Parliament as a true statesman.^[19]

Sandys had been in Parliament for seventeen years when James came to power. Edwin had been one of three hundred individuals knighted before James even reached London in 1603. However, he was unmoved by the honors and their obvious intent on becoming dependent upon the Crown through favors.

He became well known when he opposed James’ title to be King of both England and Scotland. This put him in immediate conflict with James.^[20] The conflict, however, was much more fundamental, along the lines of the philosophy of law. James believed he was the law, but Sandys believed he was under the same law as everyone else, similar to the way Sir Edward Coke had reasoned for years.

The Gunpowder Plot

James’ enemies were not just in high places, however. The Gunpowder Plot, inspired by Robert Catesby, had as its goal the assassination of the King, but came from the poor and not the Gentry. Finding an individual who knew explosives and was able to keep a secret, Guy Fawkes became a willing volunteer of the conspirators.

They rented a house next to Parliament and began to tunnel. They were able, with much effort, to get thirty-six barrels of gunpowder into this basement room, with one thousand billets of wood, all concealed from view. They planned to blow up Parliament, with the King, on November 5, 1605.

Another explosion had taken place when James was only one and it killed his father. That was also a conspiracy, hatched by his mother Queen Mary. It now appeared that he might suffer the same fate. The conspirators were ready to enthrone James’ younger son Charles or the Princess Elizabeth on the throne once James was dead.

Sitting in Parliament that day was Sir Edwin Sandys, and God intervened by His Providence, for this statesman, who opposed the reign of James as a member of the House of Commons, would have a significant role to play in planting the colony of Jamestown.^[21]

When November 5, 1605 came to pass, a secret letter was found and read, and the King himself discerned that gunpowder was to be used for his death. By midnight, Fawkes had been discovered with enough wood and gunpowder to fuel an army.^[22]

Though the plot was foiled, Guy Fawkes Day, November 5, became a sort of holiday in England where God intervened to save the King and Parliament, but it also became, in the American Colonies a hundred and fifty years later, a reminder of the resistance to tyranny when they faced the reign of George III.

Throughout 1605 John Smith made a tour of Europe and eventually went to Morocco with several of his friends on a French man-of-war. They eventually encountered two Spanish men-of-war, and a close quarter fight ensued for a couple of days. After departing from each other, Smith eventually headed back to his homeland of England.^[23]

Thus, as 1605 draws to a close, 26-year-old John Smith is returning to England as a seasoned warrior who is ready to lay down his life for what he perceives is just. He is a defender of old England and its conservative values.

He has been kept from the corruption of the court, and though not a part of the Reform, has a reputation of being a Christian with no foul mouth or idle card-playing, drinking, or other vices of his day, including smoking tobacco.^[24]

In 1605 William Bradford, at age fifteen, is a member of the Separatist church meeting in secret in the forty room Manor House of William Brewster. Coming at different times to church to remain undiscovered, young teens were often placed as guards on the street, playing and talking as if they had not a care in the world, but were to warn of any of the authorities coming.

It was becoming increasingly clear that the Reform could not remain in England if it was to flourish. In remembering these days, Bradford himself would write many years later:

When as by the travail and diligence of some godly and zealous preachers, and God’s blessing on their labors, as in other places of the land, so in the North parts, many became enlightened by the Word of God and had their ignorance and sins discovered unto them, and began by His grace to reform their lives and make conscience of their ways; the work of God was no sooner manifest in them but presently they were both scoffed and scorned by the profane multitude, and the ministers urged with the yoke of subscription, or else must be silenced.^[25]

William Brewster had taken young William into his home only a year before, and during that time, had decided he must leave the Established Church. This was not an easy decision, for he was employed as the postmaster to the King (formerly to Queen Elizabeth but now to James) along the North Road that led to Scotland. He was thus employed by the government, and defecting at such a high level meant certain scrutiny.

Though the church in his Manor met in secret, it was obvious to all that Brewster would be a man wanted once it was known he no longer frequented the Church of England.^[26]

Like many threads all leading to the same point of culmination, other key leaders were also coming to the same conclusion as Brewster.

John Robinson, who would become pastor of the Pilgrim Church, would also join the next year with those at Scrooby. Born in 1576, he graduated from Christ Church College, Cambridge, in 1592. He became minister of St. Andrew’s Church in Norwich in the county of Norfolk in 1603.

Robinson then came into contact with Richard Clyfton and was his initial assistant in Scrooby after Clyfton had to leave Babworth. Robinson, like Brewster, Hakluyt and Sandys would be significant individuals brought together in 1606 to plant the seed that would later become the United States of America. God does indeed rule in the affairs of men.

1606: America’s 400th Birthday

As the dawn of a new year spread over England, momentous events that would bring together the threads of key people began to take place.

Brewster’s Manor House had become the central headquarters for the individuals later known as Pilgrims. Here Robinson, Clyfton, Brewster, Bradford and others gathered on a regular basis and began to talk of leaving England.

Smith had returned to England, and is meeting with those who desire to plant a colony in America. Soon a Charter would be formalized, with the names of Hakluyt and others along with the seal of King James.

The Charter of 1606, along with the Scrooby Covenant of 1606, became the seeds of America, the former approved by King James and leaving by the end of the year with the expedition where John Smith is a passenger, and the latter resulting in the Pilgrims leaving England, settling in Holland, and eventually coming to America in 1620.

The Charter of 1606

Richard Hakluyt’s influence upon Elizabeth cannot be underestimated, for he helped to establish the fact that the rights of Englishmen would be transferred with the individual to the newly planted colony.

In the Gilbert Patent, for instance, issued in 1583, it was stated that each individual “shall, and may have, and enjoy all the privileges of free denizens and persons native to England, and within our allegiance”^[27]

This set a precedent under the more tolerant Elizabeth that was unique within the competing nations for global power and colonization. France, Spain, and Portugal retained all rights in the Crown, thus limiting and potentially eliminating the possibility of self-governing colonies.

It was providential that James inherited Elizabeth’s foundation for self-government. How much he was personally aware of this is hard to discern. However, he was hungry for power and prestige, and colonization was a key element. Providentially, those writing the documents, such as Hakluyt, were of a Christian mindset in relation to natural, God-given rights.

For instance, Hakluyt had written regarding the character of plantations, and why some failed, in this fashion:

[I]f it had not been led with a preposterous desire of seeking rather gain than God’s glory, I assure myself that our labors had taken far better effect. But we forgot, that Godliness is great riches, and that if we first seek the kingdom of God, all other things will be given unto us, and that as the light accompanieth the Sun and the heat the fire, so lasting riches do wait upon them that are jealous for the advancement of the Kingdom of Christ, and the enlargement of his glorious Gospel; as it is said, I will honor them that honor me.^[28]

Hakluyt also declared the providential purpose for the English settling in America itself in his Discourse on Western Planting:

We shall by planting there enlarge the glory of the gospel, and from England plant sincere religion, and provide a safe and sure place to receive people from all parts of the worlds that are forced to flee for the truth of God’s Word.^[29]

On April 10, 1606, the Charter was finalized with the seal of King James. Consider its main purpose:

We, greatly commending, and graciously accepting of, their desires for the furtherance of so noble a work, which may, by the Providence of Almighty God, hereafter tend to the Glory of his Divine Majesty, in propagating of Christian Religion to such People, as yet live in Darkness and miserable Ignorance of the true knowledge and Worship of God, and may in time bring the Infidels and Savages, living in those parts, to human Civility, and to a settled and quiet Government; DO, by these our Letters, Patents, graciously accept of, and agree to, their humble and well-intended Desires.

Historians have recognized, however, that the fifteenth paragraph of this Charter was significant and would be quoted as a critical clause when the War for American Independence took place almost two centuries later. It stated:

Also we do, for Us, our Heirs, and Successors, DECLARE, by these Presents, that all and every the Persons being our Subjects, which shall dwell and inhabit within every or any of the said several Colonies and Plantations, and every of their children, which shall happen to be born within any of the Limits and Precincts of the said several Colonies and Plantations, shall HAVE and enjoy all Liberties, Franchises, and Immunities, within any of our other Dominions, to all Intents and Purposes, as if they had been abiding and born, within this our Realm of England, or any other of our said Dominions.

The Charter of 1606 had a Christian purpose as well as a clause that indicated the God-given rights of individuals would go with them to the new world! King James must not have had his spectacles on when reading this, for it undermined the very premise of his new theology of divine right!

Two Companies Formed

The Charter of 1606 formed two companies for the settlement of North America by the English. The Virginia Company had two divisions, the London and Plymouth Companies. The London Company was granted that part of Virginia between 34 and 41 degrees North, while the Plymouth Company was assigned 38 to 45 degrees North.

Each Company had to plant its colony in the non-overlapping areas, and the strongest colony could then plant in the overlapped area. The First Colony, or Southern Colony, was where John Smith was heading.

The Second Colony, or the Northern Colony, was to be led by George Popham, named in the Charter of 1606. Born in 1550, George was fifty-six years old at the time he was to prepare to depart to the new world. He, along with Raleigh Gilbert, would eventually depart at the end of May in 1607, landing in what is now Maine in mid-August.^[30]

It was the failure of this colony (they built their own ship Virginia and abandoned their fort after thirteen months, returning home) that kept the Plymouth Company from settling in New England until the Pilgrims arrived.

The Scrooby Covenant

At the time of the Separatists, the Church had come to be viewed as a creation of the State. A State established Church was headed by a civil leader, and controlled in its corporation by State mandates. Thus, it existed by permission of the civil government.

In studying the Scriptures, the Separatists (later known as Pilgrims) discovered a different view. The Church was instituted by God, and came into existence by a covenant among God’s people. The entire Bible was a covenant between God and man, and when believers form a covenant between themselves with God as a party, a local church comes into existence.

It was this viewpoint, that Biblical covenants formed churches separate and distinct from the State that so angered King James. However, as we have seen, young William Bradford, along with Pastor John Robinson and William Brewster, were ready and willing to completely separate and follow the Scriptures alone.

There was a great cost to taking this stand. Conformity was the rule of the day, and execution was a possibility for any who resisted this public policy. It is in this backdrop that Bradford’s own words can be best understood:

So many, therefore, of these professors as saw the evil of these things in these parts, and whose hearts the Lord had touched with heavenly zeal for His truth, they shook off this yoke of antichristian bondage, and as the Lord’s free people joined themselves (by a covenant of the Lord) into a church estate, in the fellowship of the gospel, to walk in all His ways made known, or to be made known unto them, according to their best endeavors, whatsoever it should cost them, the Lord assisting them. And that it cost them something this ensuing history will declare.^[31]

The Scrooby Covenant, here paraphrased by Bradford, was the seed of the Pilgrim Church, but also the precursor to the Mayflower Compact. Since the concept of covenant is critical to an understanding of Pilgrim and Puritan theology, it is imperative that we analyze it more thoroughly.^[32]

1. They shook off this yoke of antichristian bondage.

   In the Bible, all covenants have included within them the concept of sanction. In order to form a covenant, something must be cut out. The Pilgrims knew they were separating, annulling, or severing, the assumed covenant they had with the Established Church. There is a cost to covenant.

2. As the Lord’s free people, they joined themselves (by a covenant of the Lord) into a church estate.

   It is this voluntary association of free individuals that creates the structure known as the visible, local church, just as a covenant with God constitutes the invisible, universal church. The element of sanctity is also involved in covenants, or its proper authority.

   Believers are made free by Christ, first within from sin, and then externally as well, to be protected by the State. The Pilgrims saw themselves as free to form a covenant, even though it was illegal at the time, for they had the authority of God’s Word or Law.

   It was this covenantal concept that the people of God are free to form a covenant, even if the civil laws are against it at the time, that is critical to understand. They would form the Mayflower Compact in 1620, and though not explicitly illegal, it was without civil authority.

   This civil compact was merely an extension of their ecclesiastical compact made at Scrooby Manor. It is probably that individuals either stood, raised their hand, and/or confessed their agreement when this covenant was formed.

   One can only imagine the scene as Pastor John Robinson, Pastor Richard Clyfton, William Brewster, and young William Bradford, sixteen at the time, stood to confess, with the others, their agreement with this covenant. It was there that part of America’s spiritual birth certificate was formed!

3. In the fellowship of the gospel, to walk in all His ways made known, or to be made known unto them, according to their best endeavors, whatsoever it should cost them, the Lord assisting them.

   The redemptive aspect of a covenant is here delineated. What are the benefits? The key benefit was fellowship among like-minded believers, as well as instruction in the Word of God.

   What they already knew the Bible taught was their foundation, but they also knew they would learn more. This is incredible insight! There was a balance between that which never changes, foundational doctrine and the absolutes of Scripture, and that which they were to learn, for all of us grow.

Conclusion

As the year 1606 draws to a close, down the Thames river three are ships sail on the 10th of December. The Susan Constant, Godspeed, and Discovery had set sail from England for Virginia. On board, the Charter of 1606, sealed by King James, was the civil birth certificate of America insuring God-given rights.

Soon John Smith, embodying the social birth certificate of English chivalry, would be put in the hold as a prisoner on charges of mutiny. He would soon be set free by the contents of the sealed envelope on board.

As the year closes, Bradford is probably on his knees, strengthening those convictions, embodied in the Scrooby Covenant, that would eventually be the spiritual birth certificate of America.

America’s Quadricentennial is upon us. What lessons will we learn? Will we recite key events or simply pass on without understanding their significance? A lot will depend upon the body of Christ and its understanding of history.

May we seek to remember and perpetuate the great truths of our heritage so that our children and grandchildren will have hope!

Reprinted with permission “Letter from Plymouth Rock,” Vol. 29; Issues 3-4, September-December, 2006.