Friends,—All are to receive your spiritual bread and water from the Father of life, by which ye may be strengthened and watered from the Father of life, in your passing and travelling on in your spiritual journey heartily and comfortably; that ye may come to your heavenly rest, being come and coming out of the great city of Sodom [Rev 11:8], towards the city of heavenly Jerusalem [Heb 12:22], where ye shall abide eternally for ever.
Reason not with flesh and blood [Gal 1:16], that shall never enter; take not counsel of that which draws thee nearer to carnal things, and draws thee to consult with carnal reason [Rom 8:6f], and so draws thy eye and mind to visible things, and so brings thee to wander from going on thy journey; and if thou followest that, thou goest to death, hell, and destruction, and <46> to the pit and the snare, and that gets dominion over thee, and comes to rule over thee, which ought not. But every one wait in the pure spirit to guide you to God, then ye shall see the promise of God fulfilled in you, and the springs of life opened to you, and refreshment daily coming in from the Lord; and then ye will come to walk with the Lord, forsaking all, father, mother, wife, and children, lands, livings, and all. [Mat 19:29] Here is joining to the Lord, as one spirit; and he that doth not forsake all, is not worthy of him [Mat 10:37, Luke 14:33]. All who are in the first birth, and all who reason with flesh and blood, stand here, and are for persecuting them who are born of the spirit Gal 4:29], that are passing out of this city, towards the city whose foundation and builder is God [Heb 11:10]. For in that city the righteous ones are slain, by them who are of Cain's generation [1 Jn 3:12]. All ye, who are got up into his steps, professing Christ and to be ministers of Christ, who stand in the envy, and have ‘the chiefest place in the assemblies, and are called of men master,’ [Mat 23:6f] which Christ forbids! lie down all for shame [Jer 3:25], who are in pride and oppression, and in the steps and places of the Pharisees, and have got a form of the words which the apostles said, and which Christ said, and have got it in three or four languages; the Lord hath discovered you now; the Lord God Almighty hath discovered you by his prophets and servants. All honour, and glory, and thanks be to him for ever, who now is come to rule alone in his saints. Rejoice, O all ye prophets and righteous ones! The beast, which made war with the lamb and the saints, the lamb hath got the victory over the beast, and the ten horns [Rev 17:12-14, Dan 7:19 -22], which pushed at him. Powerful Father and eternal God, to thee alone be all glory, honour, and thanks for ever. . . .
Now all ye teachers, and hearers that hold you up, I witness against you, that ye may be witnesses against yourselves [Mat 23:31], and that ye witness yourselves to be in Cain's generation, and in the generation of the false prophets, and antichrists, and seducers, (who have the form of godliness, but deny the power, [2 Tim 3:5]) and in the generation of them that ever slew the righteous seed [Mat 23:31-35], as it will appear.
Now all people, take notice! who are they, that bear rule by their means [Jer 5:31]? Who are the hirelings [John 10:12f] now, that the scriptures speak of? Who seek for their gain from their quarters [Isa 56:11] now ? Who feed themselves with the fat now? Who seek for the fleece, and clothe themselves with the wool now [Ezek 34:3, Mat 7:15], and so make a prey [Ezek 34:8] of the people? Where are the hirelings now? The priests preach for hire, and the prophets prophesy for money [Mic 3:11]. Who sue men at the law [Mat 5:40] now, which Christ spake against; which the apostle speaks against [1 Cor 6:7], who was a minister of the living truth which testifies against all such practices? Who go in the way of Balaam now for gifts and rewards? [2 Pet 2:15, Jude 1:11] Where are the covetous teachers now [Mic 3:11]? Who are called of men master now? Who love the chiefest places of the assemblies now? [Mat 23:6f] Who go in long robes now? Who stand praying in the synagogues now, [Luke 20:46f] and speak a divination of their <47> own brain, which the wo was pronounced against by Christ Jesus, (the substance of all the prophecies,) who cried wo against all such Pharisees and false prophets? Who hale out of the synagogues now? Who stone and stock, prison and beat now, and hale before magistrates? . . . Where any prophet comes to cry against any of you, ye seek to imprison him, or to destroy him, which Abel did not, (as ye may read,) but Cain, who was the first birth, whose sacrifice God had no respect to [Gen 4:5]; no more hath God to your customary will-worships [Col 2:23], praying and prayers, than to Cain's. For Cain's generation was and is the same that ever it was, and is not of the generation of the righteous. And except ye all be born again, ye cannot inherit the kingdom of God [John 3:3]. So, here be ye witnesses against yourselves, that ye are in the generation of Cain, which ever slew the righteous seed [Mat 23:31-35]; and in the generation of all the false prophets. Put it not far from you, as they did who put Christ to death. If thou hadst lived at that day, (thou mayst say,) thou wouldst not have put Christ to death. But thou shalt see the same nature in thee now, as was then. For now is the son of God come; and ye are of the same generation that they were, seeking to put him to death where he is manifest.
But the eternal, glorious God of heaven and earth, the same as ever he was, is manifesting himself in his sons and daughters, who are called out of that generation and worship. For he said, ‘Come out from among them, be ye separate, touch no unclean thing, and I will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters;’ [2 Cor 6:17f] and this we witness, and this is fulfilled. The generation of the wicked we know, and the generation of the faithful we know; here is a separation between the precious and the vile [Jer 15:19], between the holy and the profane [Lev 10:10]. So all people, weigh and see, in what generation ye are! The generation of the righteous shall shine; the generation of the wicked are for the fire prepared, and to be turned into hell. Ye are the stubble; ye that are proud, are for the fire [Mal 4:1]; ye that are wicked, ye are chaff that the wind drives to and fro [Psa 1:4]; ye that are scorners, are turned from God: ye that are heathenish, know not God; and all that are heathen, <48> know not God [1Th4:5]; the Lord will render vengeance in flames of fire upon you [2Th 1:8]. The mighty day of the Lord is coming, that shall burn as an oven. The fire is kindling in the earth, which shall burn up all, root and branch, head and tail [Mal 4:1]; the Lord of hosts hath spoken it. The Lord God of power will reign. O happy day! praises! praises! Praise ye the Lord, ye righteous ones; sing praises to the Lord God Almighty for ever!
All ye liars and dissemblers ye must never inherit the holy city [Rev 21:7f] in that state. And all ye, who commit sin, and live in sin, know not God; and who are disobedient, and hold the truth in unrighteousness, the wrath of God abides upon you. All ye, that work iniquity, (and live and die in that,) are to depart from God, as cursed, to everlasting punishment; (where then will ye find him, that ye talk of with your mouths, and call your saviour? Ye that live in your vain, wicked, profane ways, and take him to be your cloak, and say, ye are redeemed by him, and live in your wickedness,) ‘Go, ye cursed,’ he will say, ‘I know you not [Luke 13:27; Mat 25:41] Plagues, wo, and misery will be poured upon you all. Let every one that nameth the name of the Lord, depart from iniquity [2Tim 2:19]. None can call him Lord, but by the holy ghost [1 Cor 12:3]; and where the holy ghost is come, there he is Lord and king. This is witnessed in all his saints, where he is so; but in Cain's generation it is not, but these persecute it. But he is risen and come in his saints, who is Lord and king, who will reign over all the world, and bear the government upon his shoulders [Isa 9:6]. For the Lord is king in his saints, he guards them, and guides them with his mighty power, and doth preserve his seed and children from the seed of evil doers, in his kingdom of glory and eternal rest, where they find joy, and peace, and rest eternal. All glory and praise be to the Lord God Almighty for ever!
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."