God’s Exercized His Will Twice giving Divine Right to Occupy “the Land”:
The Puritans and the Jews: In the Jewish case: Israel. In the Puritan case: America.
John Cotton in a speech to the Puritans in the year 1630
On their Establishment of
“The Massachusetts Bay Colony”
The Puritans give Their Reasons for it’s Creation
Written by John Winthrop, twelve time Governor of The Massachusetts Bay Colony October 1629 – 1649. His autograph manuscript was never preserved. However, five manuscript copies were made*. One now in the Library of Congress and another now in the Karpeles Manuscript Library Museum. The latter was written on November 12, 1629 by a Puritan named T.Mayist.
By the mid-1620s, with the ascension of Charles I and his subsequent appointment of William Laud as Archbishop of Canterbury, the English Reformation teetered on the verge of collapse and led to an intolerant, repressive attitude toward all non-conformist groups. Groups like the Puritans began to search for a means to escape the persecution and establish their own colonies based on their own ideals. During this time, groups of investors would pool their money and set up trading companies. These companies would receive charters granted by the king to establish new colonies and would begin to send workers to bring resources back to England for a profit.
In 1629, John Winthrop (1587/8-1649), himself a Puritan, became involved with one such company, the mostly Puritan Massachusetts Bay Company, which had been established in 1628 as a profit venture. He soon emerged as a leader within the group and, in August of 1629, he began to circulate this paper, which he had written, titled General Considerations for the Plantation of New England, with an Answer to several Objections, and in which he validates the Puritans intention to transfer to the New World by offering reasons for the migration and refuting possible objections to the move.
* Enumerated in “The Founders of New England”: 1. The copy printed by Hutchinson among the Higginson Papers, and reprinted by Young in his " Chronicles of Massachusetts." 2. The copy from Governor Winthrop's manuscripts, printed in "The Life and Letters of John Winthrop." 3. The rough draft of the last, found among the Winthrop papers, and printed by Robert C. Winthrop, in the Massachusetts Historical Society Proceeding 1872. 4, The copy indorsed " White of Dorchester, his instructions for the plantation of New England," obtained thirty or more years ago from the State Paper Office in London by Hon. Robert C. Winthrop, presented by him to the Massachusetts Historical Society, and printed in the Society's Proceedings for 1865. 5. The copy sent to the Massachusetts Historical Society by the Earl of St. Germans, from the paper's of Sir John Eliot, and printed in the same volume of the Society's Proceedings^ by Hon. Robert C. Winthrop.