To Friends In The Ministry In Pennsylvania and New Jersey (1685)
Dear Friends, - With my love to you all, and all the rest of Friends; I was glad to hear from you; but you gave me no account of the increase of truth amongst you, nor what meetings you have had amongst the Indian kings and their people abroad in the countries, and of your visiting Friends in New England, Virginia, and Carolina, nor of your travels and labours in the gospel; who have in all those countries, liberty to serve and worship God, and preach the truth. And I understand many have a desire to live in it, especially in Carolina; and you who travel now from Friends, to Friends thither, it is thought strange that you do not visit them; therefore I desire that you may all improve your gifts and talents, and not hide them in a napkin, lest they be taken from you; and not to put your candle under a bushel, lest it go out; and not to be like the foolish virgins, which kept their name of virgins, but neglected having oil in their lamps. Such were not diligent in the work of God, nor in the concerns of the Lord, nor in their own particulars. And therefor my desires are, that you may all be diligent, serving the Lord and minding his glory, and the prosperity of his truth, this little time that you have left to live; and be not Adam in the earth, but use this world as thought you did not use it; for they that covet after this world, fall into divers snares and hurtful lusts. And therefore consider, that you are but sojourners here, that you may pass your time in the fear of God; and you being many, and having many of the Friends of the ministry, going over into those parts, you may be a hindrance one unto another, if you do not travel in the life of the universal truth, that would have all men to be saved, and come to the knowledge of the truth. And if you would have them come to the knowledge of the truth, let them know it, and where it is to be found. So I desire that you be valiant for it upon the earth, that you may give a good account unto God at the last with joy. So, I desire that all Friends in the ministry may see this in Pennsylvania and New Jersey.
And so with my love to you all in the holy seed of life that reigns over all. Amen.
G.F.
Enfield, the 30th of the 5th month, 1685
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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."