Friends, let your affections be set on things that are above [Col 3:2]; for if they be on things below, then your minds, bodies, souls, and spirits, will be brought into bondage, and in that the evil will get into you and burden you, which ought to be kept down by the seed of life: and learn the true humility of Christ the second Adam [1 Cor 15:45,47]. And so all they that watch for the soul [Heb 13:17], must have the immortal eye; for the soul is immortal: and therefore all eyes must be kept above that which is mortal, and out of it up to the immortal God, whose dwelling is in the light. And so mind the gospel, which is immortal, and the government of him that never sinned nor fell, and to know the increase of it daily, which hath no end. For the Lord is establishing his church in righteousness and truth, whose church is without spot, wrinkle, and blemish [Eph 5:27], or any such thing; and his people are a holy generation [1 Pet 2:9], and they are to stand up for holiness, in which holiness they will see God [Heb 12:14] among them: and let every one see that they do keep their own vineyard clean.
Dear friends, mind the gospel, which is the power of God [Rom 1:16], that was before the devil and old Adam were; in this power is the comely order; and out of this power is all the uncomely orders. And so know the government of Christ, and the increase thereof, which hath no end [Isa 9:7]: and this governor and government was before the devil and old Adam was, and will stand when all that is gone.
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."