All Friends, wait upon the unlimited power and spirit of the Lord, which baptizes into one body [1 Cor 12:13]: where ye will have all unity in that which crucifies the flesh [Gal 5:24], and mortifies all evil desires [Col 3:5], and puts off the body of sin, the old man with his deeds [Rom 6:6, Col 3:9], and circumcises without hands [Col 2:11], and joins together your hearts up to God [Col 2:2], from whence the living mercies come, from the living God alone, who is God over all, blessed for ever. To that in every one of your consciences [Rom 2:15] do I appeal and <54> speak, to the measure that God hath given, the light; loving it, and taking heed to it, and waiting in it for power from God, it will guide you to the Father of light, in which ye will have all unity; and hating the light it will be your condemnation. [John 3:19f] Oh! wait, wait upon the living God to nourish the tender plant in you, that ye may bring forth fruits of righteousness unto God, for he accepts such, and none else. Therefore wait upon God, he hath a pure seed among you. Let your waiting be in the light; and mind that he is a wise man whose eye is in his head [Eccl 2:14], which is Christ, the end of all priests [Heb 7], the end of the outward temple: and the fool's eye is abroad [Prov 17:24], after many priests, and they are led away with conceivings, and divers temptations. Therefore in the light wait, where ye will see all deceits within and without. For it is a sin to enter into temptations; but it is no sin to be tempted. Christ was tempted, but he entered not into the temptation. Therefore in the fear of the Lord wait and watch. The light is that, which lets thee see sin, and evil, and temptations; which if thou enter into, the light will be thy condemnation; then thy heart will not be right towards God [Acts 8:21]. But in the light of God all wait, which will bring you to see where wisdom's gate [Prov 1:20f] is; the fear of the Lord is the beginning of it [Psa 111:10]. Pure wisdom [James 3:17] is let out of the treasury into the pure heart, which sees God [Mat 5:8]; and fearing the living God, it keeps the heart pure and clean, to receive the wisdom from the treasury freely, who doth not upbraid. [James 1:5] And as ye depart from evil and iniquity, he breaks the bonds by showing mercy; and then the understanding grows pure and clear. [Prov 16:6, Job 28:28, Acts 8:23] So in the power of the Lord God fare ye well.
And the Lord God of power keep you all in his measure up to himself, from and above all the world's evil ways, baits, customs, and teachings, to trample upon them in his power; that wisdom may be justified of you all [Mat 11:19], and ye may be preserved, and God glorified. To whom be all glory, honour, and thanks over all, God blessed for ever!
Read these among all my brethren and friends, and send it abroad to Friends, that ye may all know the power of the living God in one another, not in words, but in power [1 Cor 4:20]. So farewell.
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."