Dear friends, who are captives in Algiers, whom the Lord hath enlightened with his day spring from on high [Luke 1:78], and visited you with his tender mercies in your slavery and captivity, that you may know his will, and do it in his light, grace, truth, and spirit, that you may serve and worship the holy, eternal, and invisible God [1 Tim 1:16] that made you.
Now, dear friends, to you is my love, and to all the rest that fear God, that meet with you; my desires are, that you may all keep low in humility, in the fear of God, there is no danger; for God dwells with the humble, and teaches the humble the way they should walk [Psa 25:9]. And therefore be careful of God's glory, you who profess the name of God, and his son, that your lives, and words, and conversations may preach godliness, righteousness, holiness, virtue, sobriety, and modesty, both to Turks, Moors, Jews, and to your patrons, and to the families where you live; for Christ hath enlightened every man that comes into the world [John 1:9], he hath enlightened the Turks, Jews, and Moors, with the light, (which is the life in him the word [John 1:4],) that all in the light might know God and Christ; and ‘the grace of God which brings salvation hath appeared unto all men [Tit 2:11];’ so to the Turks, Jews, and Moors, yea, to all nations; so that with the grace of God they may be taught to deny ungodliness and unrighteousness, and live righteously and godly [Tit 2:12]; and therefore all must come to this grace of God in their hearts, which brings their salvation, (if they have salvation,) and come to the throne of grace [Heb 4:16]; and this is the covenant of grace, in which is the election; and God, who made all, pours out of his spirit upon all men and women in the world [Joel 2:28], in the days of his new covenant, yea, upon whites and blacks, Moors, and Turks, and Indians, Christians, Jews, and Gentiles, that all with the spirit of God, might know God and the things of God [1 Cor 2:12], and serve and worship him in his spirit and truth [John 4:24], that he hath given them. But they that do resist the truth [2 Tim 3:8], and quench, and vex, and grieve, and rebel against the spirit [1 Th 5:19/Isa 63:10/Eph 4:30] that God hath given them, such are not like to serve and worship God in his spirit and truth; but he that endures to the end in God's grace, spirit, light, and truth, shall be saved [Mat 10:22]. And the gospel of salvation is preached to every creature under heaven; which gospel is the power of God [Col 1:23/Rom 1:16], and the gospel of peace; and so it is glad <236> tidings [Rom 10:16] to every creature under heaven, and to all nations, to the Turks, Jews, Indians, Moors, Christians, and Gentiles, if they receive and obey the gospel of salvation, it is glad tidings to them all. Now, this is the day of God's gathering: and therefore all must come to the light, grace, truth, power, and spirit of God in their own particulars, which they have from God and Christ, that by it they might be built upon Christ, their heavenly rock and foundation [Mat 7:24f], who is their way to God [John 14:6], who bruises the serpent's head [Gen 3:15], and through death destroyed death, and the devil the power of death, and so destroys death, and so destroys the devil [Heb 2:14] and his works [1 Jn 3:8]; for sin brought death [Rom 5:12]; and now Christ, who destroys death that sin brought, and makes an end of sin, is the sanctuary for all his believers in all storms and tempests, trials, and troubles, and sufferings, to rest upon, in whom they have peace; yea, life and salvation.
Now there is a common saying among the Turks to the Christians, ‘Your crucified God,’ meaning Christ. Now this is their mistake; though God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself [2 Cor 5:19], it was not the eternal God that died, and was crucified, that was in Christ; for Christ said, when he was about to suffer, ‘My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? [Mat 27:46]’ So Christ suffered in the flesh [1 Pet 4:1], and died, and was crucified, as he was man, not as he was God, the word, which was in the beginning [John 1:1]; but as he was man, who bore the sins and iniquities of all mankind, and was an offering for the sins of the whole world [1 Jn 2:2], who through death tasted death for every man [Heb 2:9]; all being in death in Adam [1 Cor 15:22]. So that they might have life through Christ the second Adam [1 Cor 15:45]: so, I say again, that Christ did not die as he was God, but as man. ‘He was crucified and buried, and rose again the third day [1 Cor 15:4], and ascended, and is at the right hand of God;’ this he did by the power of God, as he was man. So the Turks are mistaken, to say, or to think, that the eternal God could be crucified or die.
Dear friends, I thought it needful to write a letter to you concerning this their mistake, which you may be wise in making use of; and my desires are, that you may be preserved, and exalt God's name [Psa 34:3] in your places of captivity, and in your lives, words, and conversations, answering God's witness [Col 4:6/1 Jn 5:9] in the Turks, Jews, Moors, and your patrons. And keep low, and walk wisely [Prov 28:26], that you may be a good savour in the hearts of all there-aways; and then the blessings of the Lord, and his presence, will rest upon you, and be in you. . . .<237> . . . .
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."