Concerning the Spiritual Warfare (1653)
The world of the Lord God to all my brethren, babes, and soldiers, that are in the spiritual warfare of our Lord Jesus Christ. Arm yourselves, like men of war, that ye may know, what to stand against. Spare not, pity not that which is for the sword (of the spirit,) plague, and famine, and set up truth, and confound the deceit, which stains the earth, and cumbers the ground. The dead stinks upon the earth, and with the the earth is stained, therefore bury it. And wait in the light which comes from jesus, to be clothed with his zeal, to stand against all them who act contrary to the light which comes from Jesus, and yet profess the words declared from the light; which are sayers, but not doers. All such are to be trodden with the city under foot; and woe proceeds from the Lord against all such, and the stone is falling upon such, and fallen, to grind them to powder. Arm yourselves like men of war; the mighty power of God goes along with you, to enable you to stand over all the world, and (spiritually) to chain, to fetter, to bind, and to imprison, and to lead out of prison; to famish, to feed, and to make fat, and to bring into green pastures.
So the name and power of the Lord Jesus Christ be with you! And go on in the work of the Lord, that ye may trample upon all deceit within and without, and their minds turned towards Christ Jesus, who doth enlighten them, that they may all see the Lord Jesus among them, their head, and they his branches; in the light waiting, and growing up in Christ Jesus, from whence it comes, that they may bring forth fruit to the glory of his name. And all waiting and walking in the light, with it ye will see the Lord Jesus amongst you. And ye will see with the light all that hate it, who profess Christ Jesus' words declared from his light, and walk not in it; by his light are they, and all their profession, condemned. And to you this is the word of the Lord.
G.F.
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George Fox (1624 - 1691)
Was an English Dissenter and a founder of the Religious Society of Friends, commonly known as the Quakers or Friends. This was a group the Lord started through the ministry of George Fox. God called him apart from all other forms of Christendom in his day because of the lack of Biblical obedience and holiness.The emphasis in George Fox's ministry was firstly prophetic. He called out the people of God to show them that they had the Holy Spirit of God and could be taught of Him and not to solely rely on the teachings of ecclesiastical leaders. Secondly, he spoke directly to many ministers in his day to show them they were hirelings and did not have a true shepherds heart for the people of God rather they were seeking after financial gain.
Founder of the Society of Friends (Quakers). George Fox was born in Drayton-in-the-Clay, Leicestershire, England, the son of Puritan parents. Little is known of his early life, apart from what he wrote in his journal: "In my very young years, I had a gravity and stayedness of mind and spirit not usual in young children. Insomuch that, when I saw old men behave lightly and wantonly toward each other, I had a dislike thereof raise in my heart, and I said within myself, `If ever I come to be a man, surely I shall not do so, nor be so wanton.'"
At the age of 19, he gained deep, personal assurance of his salvation and began to travel as an itinerant preacher, seeking a return to the simple practices of the New Testament. He abhorred technical theology, and preached a faith borne of experience, freshly fed and guided by the immediate presence of the Holy Spirit.
Fox was persecuted almost daily, yet his power of endurance was phenomenal. He was beaten with dogwhips, knocked down with fists and stones, brutally struck with pikestaves, hard beset by mobs, incarcerated eight times in the pestilential jails, prisons, castles and dungeons--yet he went straightforward with his mission as though he had discovered some fresh courage which made him impervious to man's inhumanity.
He undertook as far as possible to let the new life in Christ take its own free course of development in his ministry. He shunned rigid forms and static systems, and for that reason he refused to head a new sect or to start a new denomination, or to begin a new church. He would not build an organization of any kind. His followers at first called themselves "Children of the Light," and later adopted the name "The Society (or Fellowship) of Friends."
Fox preached and traveled for 40 years throughout England, Scotland, Holland, and America. His life demonstrated the truth of his famous saying, "One man raised by God's power to stand and live in the same spirit the apostle and prophets were in, can shake the country for ten miles around."