All ye prisoners of the Lord [Eph 4:1] for his truth sake, and for keeping the testimony of Jesus Christ, against all the inventions, traditions, rudiments [Col 2:8], will-worships, feigned humilities [Col 2:23] and self-righteousnesses, that are in the fall, (and are out of God's power and righteousness,) who have no weapons but carnal [2 Cor 10:4], like themselves; your patience must overcome all the rough spirits in the world, and your love must bear all things [1 Cor 3:7]. For patience obtains the crown which is immortal, which runs the race [Heb 12:1/1 Cor 9:24f]: so, it is the Lamb must have the victory [Rev 17:14] over all the unclean, airy spirits, and over him that is out of the truth [John 8:44]. So, be meek and low, then ye follow the example of Christ, and come to bear the image of the just, who suffered by the unjust [1 Pet 3:18]; and put on his righteousness, who suffered by the unrighteous, whose back was struck, hair was plucked off, and face was spit upon [Isa 50:6, Mat 26:67], and yet cried, ‘Father, forgive them [Luke 23:34]:’ here he kept his dominion, though a sufferer, who had the victory, which the followers of the Lamb do (in measure) attain to. So, put on courage, put on patience: let your loyalty be known for your King, that hath conquered the devil, death, and hell; in walking in righteousness, peace, and truth, feeling the power of God preaching and reaching the witness of God in every one, when words are not uttered. And let your faith be in the power, that goes through all things, and over all things, and every one hearken to it. So, the power of the mighty God then ye will know, and his arm, how it works, and the hand, how it carries you, which will bring you out of tribulation and thraldom, and spiritual Egypt [Rev 11:8], into peace. And this is the power of God, in which live and dwell, in which ye will feel him, which was before enmity was. And be at peace one with another, then ye will live in the Prince of princes [Dan 8:25]' peace, and in his kingdom, dominion, and life, in which is unity, which was before enmity was, and which destroys it [Eph 2:16]. And so, in the power of the Lord God ye are made strong [Eph 6:10], which goes over the power of darkness [Col 1:13], and was before all that was which is out of the power of God. . . . For all people that are gone from the witness of God in their own particulars, that are erred from it, and hate the light [John 3:20], they are full of darkness, sin, and iniquity, and <209> are far from inspiration and revelation, while their minds are erred from the spirit [Isa 29:24] of God in themselves, that is hid from them. . . .
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."