God Blessed Jamestown ~ Part II

<body topmargin=0 leftmargin=0 marginheight=0 marginwidth=0> <table cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 border=0><tr> <td valign="top" colspan=2 height=90 BGCOLOR="#666633" TEXT="#080000" bgproperties="fixed" background="087005a2ddvuvs.gif"> <div> <FONT SIZE="5" COLOR="#FFFFFF" FACE="Times New Roman" ><B>El Shaddai Ministries of Florida, Inc.</B></FONT><B>     |     </B><A HREF="index.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="El Shaddai Ministries of Florida, Inc."><U><B>home</B></U></A></div> <div>                                                   </div> <div> </div> </td> </tr><tr> <td valign="top" width=210 BGCOLOR="#999966" TEXT="#080000"> <div> <A HREF="id22.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Providential HisStory of Jamestown"><U><B>Providential HisStory of Jamestown</B></U></A></div> <bR> </td> <td valign="top" height=390 BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF" TEXT="#080000"> <div> <I>God Blessed Jamestown ~ Part II</I></div> <div> <I>Viola Kay Moss ~ 5/12/97</I></div> <bR> <div> Reverend Crashaw's sermon of 1606 left his listeners with no doubt that the clerical conviction regarding the missionary work in Virginia was an imperative Christian duty.  After all, the prime purpose of the colony, as outlined in the charter, was the planting of an English Church and Commonwealth and the conversion of savages.  "The Indians are our brothers, said Crashaw, "for the same God made them as well as us" with souls and bodies like ours and the same "Saviour is sent to them as to us."  He exhorted his congregation "to give testimony to the world that some sparks of that spirit, which was so plentiful in the Apostles do yet remain in us."  Such testimony was especially incumbent on ordained ministers.  Of these, said Crashaw, "I will press non to go in person."  But "those who consciences and resolutions do press themselves . . . "</div> <bR> <div> Alexander Whitaker was one such young man whose conscience was persuaded and severely pressed.  By birth and by training he was intimately attached to the Puritan movement within the Church of England which desired reform, but not to separate or subvert.  He studied at Trinity with young men who would later be greatly known and associated with the Massachusetts Bay Colony:  John Winthrop (Governor), John Cotton (grandfather of Cotton Mather) and John Robinson (pastor of the Pilgrim Fathers).  </div> <bR> <div> As an undergraduate, Whitaker was touched by the same concern for signs of true faith which so exercised Cotton and Winthrop.  In 1609, at the age of twenty-four, Alexander was ordained priest and began his career in the Church of England.  He was "well approved by the greatest, and beloved of his people, and had competent allowance to his good liking, and was in as good possibility of better living, as any man of his time."  Seemingly, his future held sure success and an edifying career as a "godly pastor."</div> <bR> <div> Alexander was a pastor for less than two years when he began to strongly "entertain a purpose of going to Virginia."  For months he had "serious deliberations" and "many distractions and combats with himself" of "many inward temptations and outward discouragements and dissuasions" from friends.  He won his inward battle and "settled his resolution that God called him thither, and therefore he would go."  His heart had the motive of a missionary and without pressure or inducement he believed he was called an apostle to the gentiles in the "barbarous country of Virginia, where the name of God hath been yet scarce heard of."</div> <bR> <div> Obedient to the Lord's call, Alexander, not yet twenty-six, sailed from London with Sir Thomas Dale for Virginia.  Within weeks of his arrival, Whitaker began to write his accounts and sent them to Rev. Crashaw telling of God's goodness and preservation of the colony.  Whitaker observed that the harvest was great but the laborers were few.  Thus, he requested of Rev. Crashaw to send "any godly and learned ministers whom the Church of England hath nor, or refuseth, to set to work."  He further testified that God had dealt mercifully with him beyond his friends' opinions and his very own hopes.</div> <bR> <div> This young man was so convicted by God to give up his pleasures in England to live amongst the savages of Virginia that he prayed daily for the prosperity of the plantation.  In his most eventful account written in July of 1612 (published in 1613) entitled <B><U>Good News from Virginia</U></B>, his heart's cry was, "If this be their life, what think you shall become of them after death?  But to be partakers with the devil and his angels in hell forevermore.  Wherefore my brethren, put on the bowels of compassion, and let the lamentable estate of these miserable people enter in your consideration: One God created us, they have reasonable souls and intellectual faculties as well as we; we all have Adam for our common parent: yea, by nature the condition of us both is all one, the servants of sin and slaves of the devil.  Oh, I beseech you what was the state of England before the Gospel was preached in our Country?"</div> <bR> <div> Alexander requested of Crashaw to pray that his "ministration of the Gospel be powerful and effectual . . . to the salvation of many, and the advancement of the kingdom of Jesus Christ."  He believed his mission was prosperous for within two years he witnessed the conversion of Pocahontas.  Whitaker instructed her in dress, manners, the Bible including the Ten Commandments, the Apostles Creed and the Lord's Prayer.  She publicly renounced her idolatry, openly confessed her Christian faith and was baptized as she desired, upon which time, she was given the name Rebecca.</div> <bR> <div> Shortly thereafter, Rebecca married John Rolfe.  This marriage symbolized a bridge between two nations and paved the way for peace.  Their descendants have included many Christian teachers, statesmen, preachers and lawyers.  Even today, one of their descendants is a Christian woman lawyer for the Rutherford Institute which demonstrates Alexander's prayers were answered.</div> <bR> <div> This dedicated Apostle to Virginia who established the first effective missionary of the Church of England on the North American continent died in the Spring of 1617 at the age of thirty-two while crossing the James River.  Rev. Crashaw's final tribute to Alexander was, "without any persuasion (but God's, and his own heart) did he voluntarily leave his warm next, and to the wonder of his kindred, and amazement of them that knew him, undertook this hard, but in my judgement, heroical resolution to go to Virginia, and help to bear the name of God unto the Gentiles.  Men may must at it; some may laugh, and others wonder at it.  But will you know the reason?  God will be glorified in His own works, and what He hath determined to do, He will find means to bring to pass, for the perfecting therefore of this blessed work."</div> <bR> <div> Jamestown was blessed according to the Christian men living there who had "eyes to see" God's miracles and preservation of the colony.  These men witnessed and fought back the darkness with prayer and pen for the purpose of making known His works while others mocked God's plan.  Jamestown was not cursed; rather, it was as Alexander Whitaker's words stated, "For wheresoever any goodness shall begin to bud forth, the Devil will labour by all means to nip it in the head.  Wherefore, I do not marvel though there have been great discouragements, and many adversaries of this Plantation.  For the Devil knowing that where Christ wins, he loseth, doth with all his might and policy hinder the publishing, and propagation of the Gospel . . . Yea, God Himself of purpose suffers the Devil to rage thus for a while, that those that are His, might be tried."</div> <bR> <bR> <div> Copyright by Viola K. Moss, 1997, all rights reserved.  El Shaddai Ministries of Florida, Inc.</div> </td> </tr></table></body>