ALL Friends every where, who with the Light, that never changeth, are Convinced, and turned from Darkness, In the Light dwell, that ye may come to know the Movings of the Spirit of Life in you, that moves against all the Works of Death, and so works Freedom.
A Measure of this living Spirit and Power being known in every one, and ye kept to it, with it ye are kept diligent, quick and lively, to walk in the Life, for it is the Life that Redeems, which only Overcomes, and gives an entrance into Rest.
. . . Take heed of Judging the measures of other, but every one mind your own; and there ye famish the busie Minds and high Conceits, and so Peace springs up among you, and Division is Judged. And this know, That there are Diversities of Gifts, but one Spirit and Unity therein to all, who with it are guided. And though the Way seems to thee divers, yet Judge not the Way, lest thou Judge the Lord, and knowest not, that several Ways (seeming to Reason) hath God to bring his People out by, yet are all but one in the End. . . . Therefore Silence all Flesh, and see your own Ways be Clean; and as ye grow therein, the Way of Peace will be more prized by you, and the perfect Bond ye will come to know: And all who are here established, shall stand in strength, when others fall on the right hand, and on the left.
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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."