Dear friends, in Holland, Friesland, Hamborough, Frederickstadt, Dantzic, Palatinate, and all other places thereaway, where God's truth and ensign are set up [Isa 11:12]; peace, grace, and truth be multiplied [1 Pet 1:2] among you from God the Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ, the fountain of all life, peace, grace, and heavenly wisdom, and understanding; and the God of all power and peace, through our Lord Jesus Christ, fill you with it, and his heavenly riches, and that you may all walk worthy of his heavenly calling [Eph 4:1/Phil 3:14], in all holiness, righteousness, and godliness, &c. in life and conversation, and that by the word of life [1 Jn 1:1] and patience [Rev 3:10], you may answer the truth in all both high and low; so that you may be of good savour to God in the hearts of all people.
For you know there is no other way to God but by Christ Jesus [John 14:6]; and you know, that God has raised up Christ to be a prophet in his new testament to be heard in all things [Acts 3:22]; and you know, ‘he opens, and none can shut, and he shuts and none can open [Rev 3:7];’ and you know, that Christ is the bishop of your souls, to oversee, that you do not go astray from God [1 Pet 2:25]. And you know that Christ is the true shepherd, and has laid down his life for his sheep [John 10:15], ‘and they know his voice, and they follow him, and he gives them life eternal [John 10:27f].’ And also you know, that Christ is your high priest, made higher than the heavens [Heb 7:27], by the power of an endless life [Heb 7:16], and by him you are made a spiritual priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices to God [1 Pet 2:5].
And as for our Yearly Meeting, the presence of the eternal God was amongst us, and his glory, which shines over all; and all was quiet and peaceable; and it was the Lord's doing [Psa 118:23], blessed be his name 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."