The signing of the Mayflower Compact.
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IN THE
NEW WORLD
AND THE
MAYFLOWER
COMPACT
An essay by Gavin Finley MD
endtimepilgrim.org
UPON THEIR ARRIVAL AND SETTING FORTH IN THE NEW WORLD THE
"FOREFATHERS" SIGNED A DOCUMENT. THIS WAS THE COVENANT KNOWN
AS THE 'MAYFLOWER COMPACT'. THEY WERE BINDING THEMSELVES
TOGETHER AND BEFORE GOD AS 'ONE BODY POLITICK'. THIS BECAME
A FOUNDATIONAL PRINCIPLE FOR ESTABLISHING THE AMERICAN NATION.
As we have seen, the
Puritans were politically active Christians
of the established English Church.
They had big dreams for a new Christian settlement in the New World.
In the 1630's to 1650's they had tried to establish a new
Parliamentary system in England established on the sure foundation of
Biblical Christianity. But they had been disappointed.
King Charles 1 had not been willing to do any sovereignty sharing whatsoever.
They had then tangled with the king in the political arena and then on the battlefield.
The Puritans had won the English Civil War.
But their experiment in Parliamentary democracy had failed
due to internal corruption and a lack of visible leadership
before the people. Oliver Cromwell had then come to the fore.
He dissolved Parliament
and England went under the rule of a somewhat benign
Puritan dictatorship.
This Christian republic was not sustainable.
With the death of Cromwell 5 years later Charles II
came to the throne and the monarchy was reinstated.
After Cromwell things had slipped back into the same old pattern of aristocratic and church elitism with its inevitable corruption. Their dreams and their efforts for a righteous Christian republic ruled by a representative government of Godly, wise and uncorrupted statesmen had not been realized. Was this an impossible dream?
Even as the Puritan dreams for England were fading their dreams for a new life in the English colonies was on the rise. A group of Puritans had settled Jamestown in 1611. Then in 1620 the separatist Puritan congregation from Scrooby, via Leiden, Holland, set sail for the New World aboard the Mayflower. They came to be called the Pilgrims. But early historians had also called them "Forefathers".
There is no doubt that during their passage to new lands in America they were truly Pilgrims and strangers on a journey into an unknown land. But as they established themselves together and before God in the New World they were transformed by their new situation and the necessity for new political bonds. Once again they became politically active as nation builders. As they began to organize themselves and covenant together their true Puritan identity returned to the fore.
Like many who would come after them they pursued their quest to fashion a 'nation under God', even a 'city on a hill' based on a Biblical Christian faith. By God's grace they had crossed the Atlantic Ocean and arrived safely to drop anchor at Plymouth Rock. From there they would set foot into the New World.
Before them lay an entirely new continent. It offered them all a new and fresh opportunity. Surely here in the American colonies they could begin to establish the model Christian society they had dreamed of. It would be based upon a simple congregational government of the sort that had eluded them back in England.
As they gathered on board the Mayflower to lay out the basis for their Christian government their dream took on political form in that famous document known as the 'Mayflower Compact'. This document was more than just a document for them and their colony. The Mayflower Compact was a type and a pattern of things to come. It crystallized the hopes and the aspirations of many Christians of Biblical Christian faith who would come after them.
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