To all you that minister abroad in those parts, this is the word of the Lord to you all: live in lowliness of mind, and meekness of spirit, and pureness of heart, and be examples in your lives, and chaste in your conversations [1 Tim 4:12], in holiness of mind, that you may be a good savour amongst the people where you come. Let all ungracious, light, unseasoned expressions, be kept out of your minds and mouths, which edify not the new life; and keep single unto God, and single-hearted to man, and plain in all things, and low. For it is the word of the Lord, and the light of God, that prophesieth and revealeth the dispensation of the gospel [1 Cor 9:17] of Christ unto people. Be ye faithful in it, and walk answerable to it, and to that holy gift or manifestation of prophecy. And let none be lifted up with it, for life brings low, and down, as you are kept in the holiness of it, and the wisdom of God [1 Cor 1:24]; through which you answer that of God in all [Col 4:6/Rom 1:19]. This doth not hinder the effect of that which you have to minister; but the life is opened to receive it, in walking and <305> answering that which you have to minister; though the contrary part may rise up against you. Be at unity amongst yourselves, that you may not make sects nor schisms, nor stumble the weak. For you know that cursed spirit that made rents and got into the affections and uppermost part of people, hath buried the witness of God [1 Jn 5:9] in many, and made open rents, (which may break also into other ages against truth, and them that live in it,) which in time will wither and fade away, as grass upon the house top [Psa 129:6], and their arrows will turn into their own bowels, that are shot against the righteous, both of the professor and profane. And so be valiant for the truth upon the earth [Jer 3:9], abhorring all uncleanness and unrighteousness, flying all youthful ways and fond affections below, being kept above them, showing the new life to them that be in the old, and a new conversation to them that be in the vain, and gentleness to all the perverse, and straightness to all the crooked, and plainness to all the rough, and lowliness to all the mountains of ungodliness and unrighteousness [Isa 40:4]; for the Lamb must have the victory [Rev 17:14]. And so you may be one another's crown, joy and rejoicing in the Lord [1 Th 2:19]: and not one another's sorrow and grief. . . . So, now turn to the Gentiles, to whom Christ is given for a covenant of light, and of salvation, to the ends of the earth [Isa 42:6/49:6]. So that the light must be preached and sounded throughout all the heathen kings and princes' countries; and therefore, as you feel and are moved, about six or more persons, living in those parts near unto them, to go with you, as I said, and desire the king to gather his council and subjects together, that they may hear that which hath been promised to them, God's everlasting covenant of light, and life, and salvation, to the ends of the earth. And so, be faithful in his power, which was before the devil was; who hath darkened people, and set them one against another. You having on the armour of light [Rom 13:12], which was before the power of darkness, (and which must stand against them,)[Eph 6:12] and having on the breast-plate of righteousness [Eph 6:14], that you may stand against all unrighteousness, and the shield of faith [Eph 6:16], the helmet of salvation, and the sword <306> of the spirit, which is the word of God [Eph 6:17], which was before the world was [John 1:1]; through which you may savour and discern in wisdom, and in understanding you may judge, and feel by the word of reconciliation committed to God's servants [2 Cor 5:19], his sons, and his daughters; which word of faith is now preached [Rom 10:8], even the same which was amongst the apostles; which all must obey and do; which reconciles to God, and to just men's spirits [Heb 12:23], and to one another. . . .
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."