Dear friends and brethren, amongst whom the vine is manifest, and who are (by faith) grafting into it [Rom 11:23], through and in which ye may bear fruit to glorify God [John 15:8]; be wise in all things, and harmless [Mat 10:16], that your lives, conversations, and innocency may preach, and reach to the hearts of all your opposers and persecutors. And be faithful and valiant for the truth upon the earth [Jer 9:3], and tender to one another in all convenient outward things, for that is the least love. And dwell in that which redeems you from the earth [Rev 14:3], the power of God, in which ye may know the kingdom which is everlasting, and come to be heirs of that [James 2:5] ; that ye may sit down in your own possession, knowing the seed of God, which was before the seed of the serpent was, knowing the birth born of the spirit, which was before the birth born of the flesh was. And so live in the truth, by which ye may see over that which stains, corrupts, cankers, loads, and burdens the creation; by which power of God and truth ye may answer the spirit of God in all, which the wicked grieve [Eph 4:30], vex [Isa 63:10], and quench [1 Th 5:19] by their ungodly lusts [Jude 1:8], and filthy conversation [2 Pet 2:7], and unsavoury words. Fear not sufferings, which bring to wear the crown [Rev 2:10]. Fear not him that can kill the body only, but cannot hurt the soul [Mat 10:28]; for that that is immortal goes over him. Fear God, and fear not him that can spoil the goods [Heb 10:34]; for the earth is the Lord's and the fulness of it [Psa 24:1]. But mind <216> God's power, and let your patience be perfect [James 1:4], and all your words seasoned with grace [Col 4:6], that they may edify; by which ye may season the earth [Mat 5:13], your hearts being established in the same [Heb 13:9], over all the unsavoury words and talkers, and live in the truth above them. And let your backs and cheeks be ready to the smiters [Isa 50:6]; that ye may overcome the evil with the good, and may heap coals of fire upon their heads [Rom 12:20f]. For it is the good that overcomes the evil, and the lamb that hath the victory [Rev 17:14]; the rough goat must not [Dan 8:21,25]. So let your moderation be known unto all men [Phil 4:5], honouring all men [1 Pet 2:17], that is, having them all in esteem; that ye may set them in the way of salvation and life. That the power of God may come over them, that your meekness and gentleness may prevail over the rough, and in boldness in the unalterable, holy way, you may be preserved; which is the new and living way [Heb 10:20], which is the light and life, which brings into covenant with God, in which there is peace. In which the Lord God Almighty give you dominion, and preserve you by his power, into the endless life [Heb 7:16], where ye all may know happiness and peace in the pasture of life, where all the sheep and lambs feed [Ezek 34:14]; in that the Lord God Almighty preserve you!
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."