Dear friends, to whom is my love in the blessed seed, which bruiseth the head of the serpent [Gen 3:15], and is over all, and changeth not, which is the first and last [Rev 1:11], in whom you have life and peace with the God of peace. So you few that are that ways, keep your meetings and meet together in the name of Jesus [Mat 18:20], whose name is above every name [Phil 2:9], and gathering is above every gathering; and there is no salvation in any other name, but by the name of Jesus [Acts 4:12]; and you gathering in his name, where salvation is, he is your prophet [Acts 3:22], your shepherd, your bishop [1 Pet 2:25], your priest, in the midst of you, to open to you, and to sanctify you, and to feed you with life, and to quicken you with life; wait in his power and light, that ye may be children of the light, by believing in the light [John 12:36], which is the life in Christ; that you may be grafted into him, the true root [Rom 11:17], and built upon him, the true foundation [1 Cor 3:11], who was the foundation of the holy prophets and apostles, and of all the holy martyrs, and is the foundation of all his holy people now; and is the rock of ages [Isa 26:4 KJV margin], yea, of the ages of the prophets, and of the ages of his apostles, and of the ages of his people now, and martyrs, who kept them above the raging of the seas, and doth now; which rock the wise men build upon [Mat 7:24f], the rock that stands against all the storms and tempestuous weather. And therefore be valiant for God's truth upon the earth [Jer 9:3], and his good spirit [Neh 9:20]; and live in it, by which you may profit in the things of God, through which ye may answer the witness of God [1 Jn 5:9] in all, and the spirit which they grieve and quench, which they are erred from, through which he may be served, and his truth spread abroad. So every one in your measures of the spirit of God and Christ, be faithful, that in it you may increase, and answer the Lord in a good life and conversation, for all his mercies. And as every one hath received the Lord Jesus Christ, so walk in him [Col 2:6], that you may serve the Lord in a new life, and worship <38> him in the spirit and truth, which the devil is out of; and by this truth you may be made free [John 8:32], by which ye may be espoused and married to Christ Jesus, for the marriage of the Lamb is come [Rev 9:7] and coming. And therefore, if you want wisdom, keep in the truth, that you may go to the treasure of life and of salvation, that you may be heirs of the same [Heb 1:14], and of life, and possessors of it. Yea, I say, heirs of life, and inherit that, and that will be more to you, than if all the world was your portion; and the riches you lay up there [Mat 6:20], will stand by, and be with you when time is gone, and shall be no more. For the truth is the truth, and changeth not, in which live, and it will be your peace and joy everlasting. And in the seed, Christ Jesus, (who bruises the serpent's head, who was before the devil was, glorified with the Father before the world began [John 17:5]; and was from everlasting to everlasting, the first and last, the top and corner-stone [Eph 2:20],) in him live, that you may inherit life everlasting; and dwell in the love of God in Christ Jesus, that will edify and build one another up; and therein walk in all holiness of life and conversation, for that becomes God's house [Psa 93:5]; and dwell, and live, and walk in the peaceable truth, that keeps you in peace, and in the holy fellowship of the spirit, the bond of peace [Eph 4:3]; by which spirit you may be led into all truth [John 16:13], up to God and Christ, from him who is out of the truth. Amen saith my soul.
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."