A successful covenant is evidence of God's divine favor, but what if things go wrong? What does that prove?

Colonialism is hard work; nothing was ever going to go precisely according to plans, but when internal dissent, chaotic relationships with Indigenous peoples, and external political pressures mounted, Puritans rarely recognized that the nature 0f colonialism had anything to do with it. Instead, they were convinced Satan was stalking them.

That's bad for the covenant.

How Puritans responded was bad for religion.