(To Friends in the Ministry)
ALL Friends, who are moved of the Lord to speak the Word of the Lord, whom the Lord hath made to be his Mouth, speak not your own Words to feed the sensual part of Man, in your own Wills; for there God is not honoured, and Wisdom is not justified. But ye that are moved to speak . . . speak the word of the Lord faithfully, neither add to it with your Reason, nor diminish from it with a disobedient Mind, but speaking the Word of the Lord (faithfully) it is sharper than a Two-edged Sword, to cut down all Deceit, and as a Fire to burn up the Chaff, and it purifies you, that speak it. And so as an Hammer, it will break down all the Contrary. And the Word is but One, which Sanctifies all, and cleanseth the heart, and sanctifies and reconciles to God. And the Light is but One; and all being guided by it, all are subject to One, and are One in the Unity of the Spirit. And if your Minds turn from the Light, and that Mind speak of the Light, there gets up Pride and Presumption,a nd the Will; and then ye begin to strike your Fellow-Servants.
Therefore all Dear Friends and Brethren, Be Servants to the Truth and do not strive for Mastery, but serve one another in Love. Wash one another's Feet, take Christ for your Example that I may hear of no Strife among you. . . . Children would be striving, but that which would have the Mastery, must dye, and shall not enter into the Kingdom of God. Therefore mind not high things, but fear, and condescend to Men of Low Degree; for the Fear of the Lord keeps the Heart clean, and the pure in Heart sees God.
And Friends, spread your selves abroad, that ye may be serviceable for the Lord and his Truth . . . and trample all that which is Contrary to God, under your Feet; that ye may Answer that of God in everyone.
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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."