The Lord God who created man and woman in his image [Gen 1:27], and after his likeness, in righteousness and holiness [Eph 4:24], he blessed them, and said unto them, be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it; and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over all cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing upon the earth, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth [Gen 1:28]. Gen. i.
Now, here you may see the power and authority that God gave unto man over all the earth, and the sea, and all things therein.
And now when Cain had done wickedly, and killed his brother about religion [Gen 4:3-8], the Lord told him, he was cursed from the earth; and when thou tillest the earth, it shall not henceforth yield unto thee her strength [Gen 4:11f]. And then Cain said, it shall come to pass, that every one that findeth me shall slay me [Gen 4:14]. And then Cain went and built a city in the land of Nod [Gen 4:16f]. Gen. iv.
Now, here you may see what was the cause that the earth should not yield her strength after it was tilled; and of Cain's fear of being killed; and of building the city.
And John saith in his epistle, he that hateth his brother, is a murderer, or a man slayer; and no murderer hath eternal life abiding in him [1 Jn 3:15]. 1 John iii. 15. <295>
Now, here you may see that Cain and such murderers have not eternal life abiding in them; and then they are not like to have dominion, but be in fears and get into cities. But Abraham, who sojourned in the land of promise, as in a strange country, dwelt in tabernacles with Isaiah and Jacob, as heirs with him in the same promise; for he looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God [Heb 11:9f].
So they looked above all the cities that were built by men in the land of promise; as in Heb. xi. 9, 10. For Abraham was in the faith, in which he pleased God [Heb 11:6] and had victory [1 Jn 5:4].
And the Lord God blessed Noah and his sons when they came out of the ark, and said unto them, be fruitful and multiply, and replenish the earth; and the fear of you and the dread of you, shall be upon every beast of the earth, and upon every fowl of the air, and upon all that moveth upon the earth, and upon all the fish of the sea, into your hands are they delivered [Gen 9:1f]. Gen. ix.
Here again you may see that faithful Noah had power over all the creatures that God made upon the earth and in the sea, and they were delivered unto Noah and his sons' hands; and the Lord said unto the children of Israel, in Levit. xxvi. if that they were obedient, and kept his commandments, ‘he would give them their rain in due season, and the land should yield her increase, and the trees of the field should yield their fruit, and their thrashing should reach to their vintage, and their vintage unto their sowing time, and you shall eat your bread unto the full, and shall dwell in your land safely, (mark, safely,) and I will give peace in the land, and ye shall lie down, and none shall make you afraid; and I will rid evil beasts out of your land, neither shall the sword go through the land [Lev 26:4-6]: I will set my tabernacle among you, and my soul shall not abhor you; and I will walk among you, and will be your God, and you shall be my people [Lev 26:11f].’ This is to all them that are faithful, and obey and serve the Lord; but if you be disobedient, then see what fears, and judgments, and plagues, and sorrows come upon you. And the curse will come upon you, both in city and field, when thou goest out, and when thou comest in; and the curse will be in thy basket and in thy store, and the fruit of thy body, and the fruit of thy land, and the increase of thy flocks. And the Lord will send his vexations and rebukes upon all that thou sets thy hands unto; and the Lord will smite with consumptions and fevers, and blastings, and mildews, &c. and the heavens that are over their heads shall be iron; and the earth that is under thee shall be as brass; and the Lord shall make the rain of the land powder and dust [Deut 28:15-24]; thou shalt carry much seed into thy field, and shalt gather little; the locusts shall consume it; and thou shalt plant vineyards, and the worms shall eat them [Deut 28:38f], because thou hearkenest not to the voice of the Lord thy God to keep his commandments [Deut 28:45], &c. And because thou <296> servest not the Lord God with joyfulness, and with gladness of heart, for the abundance of all things the Lord thy God giveth thee; and therefore shalt thou serve thine enemies, which the Lord thy God shall send against thee, in hunger, and in thirst, and in nakedness, and in want of all things. And thine enemy shall put a yoke of iron about thy neck [Deut 28:46-48], to yoke thee down: who will not bear the yoke of Christ [Mat 11:29], and doth not hearken to the Lord to serve and obey him. But they that diligently hearken to the Lord their God, and obey and serve him in truth and righteousness, he blesses them in the city, and in the field, and in their basket, and in their store house, and in all they set their hands to; and he blesses the fruit of their body, and the fruit of their ground, and the cattle, and their flocks [Deut 28:1-6]; and the Lord shall open his good treasure, the heavens to give them rain upon their land in his season, and to bless all the works of their hands, that thou mayst lend to other nations, and shalt not borrow [Deut 28:12]. And these are the blessings of them that hearken to the Lord, and serve him, as you may see in Deut. xxviii. the blessings that come upon the faithful, and the judgments upon the disobedient and unfaithful.
‘When God giveth quietness, who then can make trouble? &c. whether it be done against a nation, or against a man only [Job 34:29].’ Job. xxxiv. 29.
The Lord shall save the humble person; he shall deliver the island of the innocent; it is delivered by the pureness of thy hands [Job 22:29f].’ Job xxii. 29, 30.
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."