trying to make the colonists believe that because they were part of God's elect, they would be rewarded for being a part of the elect and therefore will act the part.
Later in the account, Bradford tells the anecdote of a young man who harasses other colonists on the way to America. While the colonists would gently reprove of what he did, the young man's behavior worsened toward them. He started cursing them and making the claim that certain colonists would be the first to get thrown overboard. In an act of providence, "...it pleased God before they came half seas over, to smite this young man with a grievous disease, of which he died in a desperate manner, and so was himself the first that was thrown overboard. Thus his curses light on his own head, and it was an astonishment to all his fellows for they noted it to be the just hand of God upon him." This illness, and later death, of the young man created a strong argument to those whom did not believe in providence or in the intervention of God through faith alone.
Bradford later tells the story of a man named John Howland to create an argument of sorts, making the claim that because Howland was a nice, gentle, upright man; he was saved from death by being thrown overboard through God's grace alone. During a storm, Howland was thrown overboard, but he grabbed onto a topsail and held on through the storm until some of the passengers were able to get him back on board. Howland lived through the incident, and
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