![]() The writings of William Bradford almost never survived intact, but for the effort of a few in later American history. Intertwined are the stories of the religious persecution and the voyage to become a profitable colony in the new world. They would be the founders of a new nation, even in spite of the disunity of the passengers aboard the ship Mayflower- a speculative group in its broadest sense, sent to establish a profitable colony in America. This tiny but determined group of people went forward with plans that would affect the world like no other. They wanted to see a new sort of life, unhampered by monarchy, and what they saw as Roman Catholic hierarchy that beset the Church of England. He and the other separatists caught a vision of what could be. William Bradford had read this account in the New Testament and envisioned such a kingdom on this Earth. Wherefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he hath prepared for them a city. But now they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one. And truly, if they had been mindful of that country from whence they came out, they might have had opportunity to return. ![]() For they that say such things declare plainly that they seek another country. these all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them, embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear. For by it, the elders obtained a good report. ![]() Hebrews 11: Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. Pieced together over twenty years, the story developed with these passages from the New Testament as its strongest theme: Bradford was keenly intelligent and aware of his part in the history of Plymouth colony. The sounds of the New Testament echoed in the ear of William Bradford before he ever made the voyage. The story of William Bradford comes directly to us from his writings of the early history of America, from the time he grew up in England, to his time in Amsterdam and Leiden, Holland, to his journey aboard the Mayflower, concluding with the first thirty years of the Plymouth colony in America.
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