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CHAPTER FOUR

THE PILGRIMS

(To Holland and America)

(Adventure with God a glorious success)

“But the eyes of the LORD are on those who fear him, on those whose hope is in his unfailing love,” Psalms 33:18.

All those desiring that the Church of England adopt a purer way of worship and service to God were called Puritans. Eventually, Queen Elizabeth decided that these Puritan reformers were going further than she desired. Elizabeth then issued her Articles of Religion which prohibited further reform. When the Puritans learned of these new restrictions, some of them gave up hope of ever seeing the needed church reform and separated themselves from the Church of England. Thus, the Separatist (later Pilgrim) movement of the Puritan group was born around 1580. When James I came to the throne he began an intense persecution which caused many of the Separatists to flee England. One of these Separatists, John Robinson, wrote “...since the first breaking out of the light of the gospel... [there have been] wars and oppositions.... [Some have met] bloody death and cruel torments, others... imprisonment, banishments and other hard usages....¹³ ⁽¹³Peter Marshall/David Manuel, The Light and the Glory, Fleming H. Revell, Division of Baker Book House Co., Grand Rapids, MI., 1977, pp. 108,109.

The Puritans were hounded, bullied, forced to pay assessments to the Church of England, clapped into prison on trumped-up charges and driven underground. They met in private homes, to which they came at staggered intervals and by different routes, because they were constantly being spied upon.” In the town of Scrooby, persecution finally reached the point where the congregation decided to move to Holland.^{14
(14}Peter Marshall/David Manuel, The Light and the Glory, Fleming H. Revell, Division of Baker Book House Co., Grand Rapids, MI., 1977, pp. 107,108.)

A large number of these Separatist/Pilgrims located a ship and made arrangements with the shipmaster to meet them at Boston, in Lincoln-shire England, on a certain date and take them and their possessions to Holland. When their possessions were loaded, the shipmaster betrayed them. He had previously plotted with corrupt officers of the town to come to the ship in small boats and remove them from his ship. The officers forced the Pilgrims into the small boats and then searched and robbed the Pilgrims of all their money and valuable possessions. The Pilgrims were then hulled back to Boston and thrown into prison where they remained for one month. When the month passed, they were released and sent home.^{15
(15}Mark A. Beliles & Stephen K. McDowell, America’s Providential History, The Providence Foundation, Charlottesville, VA., Copyright 1989, p.63.)

The next spring, the Pilgrims made another attempt to go to Holland. This time, they contracted with a Dutchman who owned his own ship. He promised to meet them at a spot some distance from town. At the appointed time, the women, children and their possessions were sent in a small boat, to the place where they were to be loaded onto the big ship. Due to the smallness of the boat the men walked beside the river. They planned to meet the women and children at a prescribed point. Though the water was rough, the small boat arrived at the meeting place a day before the men got there. The women were seasick so they asked the boatman to take them to the shore so they could lie on the ground. The next morning, the shipmaster saw the Pilgrim men walking toward the ship so he sent boats to pick them up. The Pilgrim men had no sooner gotten into the ship when the shipmaster saw an army of men on horses heading toward them. Fearing for his ship, the master pulled anchor, hoisted the sails and sailed away. The Pilgrim men were horrified as they saw themselves being separated from their families. The women and children were then captured and taken with their possessions back to town.

A terrible storm came up which the men endured on board for 14 days. The storm blew the ship 500 miles north and nearly to the coast of Norway. It was reported that every ship that was in the North Sea, during those 14 days, was sunk because of that terrible storm.¹⁶ ⁽¹⁶Richard Wheeler, The Complete Pilgrim Adventure VHS cassette, Mantle Ministries, Bulverde, TX.) All of the ships in the North Sea were dashed to pieces and sunk with the exception of one ship. The ship the Pilgrims was on stayed afloat. Finally, after another seven days, they came to port. The Pilgrim men quickly jumped ship and made their way back to their women. Eventually, the whole group was united and made it safely to Holland.^{17 (17}Mark A. Beliles & Stephen K. McDowell, America’s Providential History, The Providence Foundation, Charlottesville, VA., Copyright 1989, pp. 64, 65.)

The Providence of God can certainly be seen in the saving of the Pilgrim men and their reunion with their wives and families.

In Holland the Pilgrims qualified for only the most menial labor and struggled for 12 years at

extremely hard work. Everyone who was old enough worked from 12 to 15 hours a day. They had dreamed of a way to be a stepping stone in carrying the light of Christ to others, but their dream was not realized in Holland.^{18
(18}Peter Marshall/David Manuel, The Light and the Glory, Fleming H. Revell, Division of Baker Book House Co., Grand Rapids, MI., 1977, pp. 108,109.)

The Pilgrims were tolerated in Holland, but as said, their labor was excruciating and they were not able to bring more people into their circle of belief. Increasingly, the Pilgrims came to realize that America was the place to which God intended for them to go. They dreamed, they counted the cost and determined that it would be worth the sacrifice. In 1619, they finally decided to make their move.

The skeptic might ask, “Where was God’s fantastic promise in all this?” God’s intervention was in strengthening the Pilgrims for the rigorous journey that lay before them. If God had not prudentially encouraged the Pilgrims to work so hard, many of them would have surely died during the horrible months at sea; and no doubt the rest of the colony would have perished during that first difficult winter. This story reminds me of the difficulty of the Israelite women at the time of Moses’ birth. They were forced to make and carry heavy loads of bricks. We again might ask, “Where was God?” God providentially allowed the women to strengthen their stomach muscles so that they could quickly and easily give birth without needing the assistance of the midwives. If the midwives had been called, their babies would have been slaughtered. The hard work of the Israelite slaves also made the people strong for the years of difficult wilderness life that was to follow.

The Pilgrims eventually purchased an old ship named the Speedwell to take them from Delfthaven, Holland to Southampton, England. There, they hired a ship called the Mayflower. With these two ships, only one third of their 600-member congregation could go to the new country. When the time finally came for the Pilgrims to set sail, they first proclaimed a day of fasting and prayer. At Southampton none other than John Smith, from the Virginia Company asked if he could travel with them. They turned him down. On August 5, 1620, they set sail for the New World, but when they were three days out into the Atlantic, they realized that the seams in the sides of the Speedwell were working open and water was coming in. As a result, they returned to land. One week later, they again set sail only to encounter the same problem. They again turned back to land. This time, they sold the Speedwell and added her passengers to the Mayflower. About 20 men volunteered to remain in England. God was sifting the wheat from the chaff.^{19
(19}Peter Marshall/David Manuel, The Light and the Glory, Fleming H. Revell, Division of Baker Book House Co., Grand Rapids, MI., 1977, p. 116.) Only the committed would survive. One-hundred two (102) Pilgrims huddled in the lantern-lit darkness of the low-ceilinged deck. It took seven weeks to cross the Atlantic.

One of the sailors harassed the Pilgrims unmercifully. Suddenly, this crewman became gravely ill with an unknown fever and died. No one else caught this mysterious disease.^{20 (20}Peter Marshall/David Manuel, The Light and the Glory, Fleming H. Revell, Division of Baker Book House Co., Grand Rapids, MI., 1977, p. 117.) Again, we see the providence of God at work.

Just after the Mayflower passed the halfway mark, it encountered a violent storm and the huge cross-beam that supported the main mask suddenly cracked and sagged. After prayer, Brewster remembered the iron screw of his printing press. It was placed under the sagging beam and the beam was shoved back into place. With this, the sailors joined the Pilgrims in their Praises of God!^21
(21Peter Marshall/David Manuel, The Light and the Glory, Fleming H. Revell, Division of Baker Book House Co., Grand Rapids, MI., 1977, p. 119) And, we see the providence of God.

During one violent storm, young John Howland came on deck; and because of the extreme rocking of the ship, he was thrown into the sea. This was in November, and in that region of the Atlantic, it only takes a few minutes in the frigid water for hypothermia to set in. John’s chances were very slim, but God intervened. As John came up, he felt a rope against his hand. He grabbed the rope and hung on. Sailors noticing him in the water quickly pulled him aboard. John was sick for several days, but by God’s providence, he lived for many years and became a profitable member of the church and community. In the entire voyage, only one passenger died.^{22
(22}William Bradford, Of Plymouth Plantation, The Vision Forum, Inc. San Antonio, TX. p. 89.)

After 66 days at sea, in a space no larger than a volleyball court, the 102 passengers aboard the Mayflower finally reached America.

Study Guide

Chapter Four

1. What were the people called who wanted the Church of England to adopt a purer way to worship and serve God?

2. When some of the Puritans learned of the “Articles of Religion”, what did they give up?

3. What two names were given this group of Puritans?

4. What happened to the Pilgrims the first time they tried to leave England?

5. What happened to the Pilgrims the second time they tried to leave England?

6. What shows the providence of God in the mighty storm that the Pilgrim men rode out?

7. How was life for the Pilgrims in Holland?

8. Why did God make the Pilgrims work so hard in Holland?

9. What story in the Old Testament seems to parallel the story of the Pilgrims hard work?