Friends,—Know what the Lord doth require of you, and all have a sense of that in yourselves, that he doth require; which is, ‘to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with God [Mic 6:8].’ Now, the Lord who is merciful and just, holy and righteous, pure and perfect, he doth require, that man and woman should do justly and righteously, and live godlily and holily, by the holy light, and spirit, and truth, and grace, that the Lord hath given every man and woman to profit withal [1 Cor 12:7]. And so, to answer the holy, pure, righteous, just God of truth [Psa 31:5], in all their lives, and words, and conversations; and so, to glorify him upon the earth. And the more the Lord gives, the more he requireth [Luke 12:48]; and the less that he giveth, the less he requireth. But the Lord requireth of every man and woman as he giveth, who will judge the world in righteousness [Psa 96:13], by the man Christ Jesus, according to the gospel, the power of God [Rom 1:16], that is preached to every creature under heaven [Col 1:23]; that is, according to the invisible power; manifesting, that there is something of the invisible power of God in every man and woman. So, here the Lord Jesus Christ doth not judge according to the hearing of the ear, and to the seeing of the eye [Isa 11:3]; for with righteousness shall he judge you, according to the light, which is the life in the word, Christ, with which he doth enlighten every man that cometh into the world [John 1:9], to the salvation of them that believe in it, and the condemnation of them that do hate it [John 3:19f], and that will not receive the gospel, nor the grace, which bringeth salvation, which hath appeared to all men [Tit 2:11], but walk despitefully against the spirit of grace [Heb 10:29], and turn it into wantonness [Jude 1:4]. So, according to his grace, and light, and gospel, will the righteous God judge the world in righteousness, by Christ, the heavenly and spiritual man [1 Cor 15:47], who hath died for the sins of the world [1 Cor 15:3/1Jn 2:2]; though they deny him that bought them [2 Pet 2:1], and tasted death for every man [Heb 2:9]. Such deserve his judgment.
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."