If, among Friends, any reports or surmises be about any, or any backbitings, or whisperings, all such things must be stopped and searched out; for thus saith the Lord, ‘Thou shalt not raise a false report among my people [Exo 23:1]’ . . . .
And furthermore, that Friends take notice of all such Friends as go to sea, seamen, merchants, masters of ships and passengers, abroad and at home, that profess the truth, that if they have any ways dishonoured the Lord God [Rom 2:23], and brought an evil report, either in their trading, lives or conversations, upon the truth and the good land, and dishonoured the Lord God and his name, truth, and people; that they may search into the bottom of it; that so, if they have done any thing worthy of condemnation and judgment, it may be past upon them without any respect of persons [various, e.g. Lev 19:15]. And, if the report be false, let their innocency be manifest, and the reporter reproved. And so, that all that profess truth, may walk in the truth and the light of the Lord [Isa 2:5], who are ‘children of light [e,g. John 12:36],’ who have their name after the living God.
And all to be circumspect, diligent, and careful in all these things, that in nowise God may be dishonoured; but in all things your lives, and words may preach, that profess the truth. And all of them that have gone from England and dishonoured God beyond sea, to write over sea, to search out and know the ground of the matter, that all obstructions that have hindered the glory of God, and the spreading of his truth, may be taken away; that the Lord's name may not be dishonoured, nor his way and truth evil spoken of [2 Pet 2:2]. . . .
And all Friends that have dishonoured God, and his truth, and people, <223> and Friends have been to admonish them in a gospel-way, and they still go on in their wickedness and do not repent; Friends may draw up a paper at their meeting, (when they are clear of them,) against them and their disorderly walking [2 Th 3:6], and unruly spirits, and looseness, in general words, not mentioning the particulars, except they be notoriously known. And Friends to do this with speed, and to bring it to the meetings; and if any one be known to be an open offender, that then there may be an open testimony against him in the particular; showing that we have no unity nor fellowship with such workers of darkness [Eph 5:11], and how that they cast out themselves from amongst us, being gone from the life and power of God; in which our fellowship is. And that copies of the paper may be read in meetings, and the copies of the papers to be sent to the men's meetings in the countries where they live.
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."