Friends, keep to patience: this is the counsel of the Lord to you. Do not judge one another [Rom 14:13] behind one another's backs, nor speak evil one of another [James 4:11], for that is that which soweth the enmity among brethren. Nor judge one another before the world, for that is that which is in the extremes, passion, and hastiness; and there ye let in the world's spirit to rejoice over you, and that is out of the patience, and love, and wisdom, and fear of God and his truth. And every one dwell in the seed and life of God, and in that know one another, and meeting together in that ye may see the Lord Jesus in the midst ofyou [Mat 18:20]. And, friends, go not into the aggravating part to strive with it, lest ye do hurt to yoursouls, and run into the same nature; for patience must get the victory, and answers to that of God in everyone, which will bring every one from the contrary. So let your moderation, and temperance, and patience be known to all [Phil 4:5], for that which joins to the aggravating part, sets up the aggravating part, and breeds confusion, and reaches not to the witness of God in every one. And Friends, keep out of the worldly wise part, for that will never let people join and unite together (in truth) which enters into the earth, and the apprehensions of words; but let innocency be the garment, and truth and simplicity the covering.Then in the innocency ye will have unity, where there is no evil thought, but love that thinks no evil [1 Cor 13:5].Therefore cover one another's nakedness [Gen 9:23]; let all things be done in love, and that will edify. And let the weight and preciousness of truth be in your eye, and esteemed above all things by you. For here is my grief, when I hear any thing amongst Friends, that hinders their unity, and makes a breach,(whereby the wrong gets ground,) who should live in the seed, which breaks the bond of iniquity [Acts 8:23], and makes up all breaches [Psa 60:2, Isa 58:12]; in which seed shine,answering the witness of God in everyone [Col 4:6/1 Jn 5:9], which bruises the earthly part under that brings forth briars and thorns [Heb 6:8], and spreads over the world, and all the contrary. . . . <110>
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."