Friends,—Let not your knowledge be after the flesh [2 Cor 5:16], but in the spirit. Let not your fellowship be in the flesh, but let it be in the spirit, and in the gospel. Let not your affections be in the flesh, and on things below, but let them be set on things that are above [Col 3:2], and on things that <243> are heavenly, above the things below. Let not your souls be subject to the lower power of darkness, which is out of the truth, lest you bring destruction upon your own selves [2 Pet 2:1]; but let your souls be subject to the higher power [Rom 13:1], that is above the lower power of darkness. Let your acquaintance and familiarity be in the spirit, over that which would ensnare or entangle you, and bring you into bondage [Gal 2:4]. Let all your minds be heavenly, and not earthly. Let all your minds be spiritual, and kept above all that which is carnal; then they are kept out of death, in life, and in peace [Rom 8:6]. For . . . the true worship in the spirit and in the truth [John 4:24] is above the false, which is out of the spirit and the truth [John 8:44], and the true belief and faith and hope are above the false belief, which is unbelief, and the living faith is above the dead faith [Jas 2:17], and the hope that is the anchor, both sure and steadfast, anchors the soul [Heb 6:13] in the great sea, the world, when the leviathan maketh a storm, among the tongues, peoples, nations, and languages, which are as waters [Rev 17:15]; then the true hope standeth and stayeth, and is sure and steadfast, and keeps the soul up to God, atop of the sea, when the false hope of the hypocrite sinks therein [Job 8:13], which are the waters, and it goes over them, and in it they are swallowed up. The unity in the spirit is the bond of the Prince of princes' peace [Eph 4:3, Dan 8:25], and the fellowship in the gospel [Phil 1:5], and the liberty in it is a perfect one [James 1:25], above the imperfect, where is bondage.
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."