Month: March 2021

Dwell in faith, patience, and hope, having the word of life to keep you, which is beyond the law; and having the oath of God, his covenant, Christ Jesus, which divides the waters asunder, and makes them to run all on heaps; in that stand, and ye will see all things work together for good to them that love God. In that triumph, when sufferings come, whatever they be.  –The Works of George Fox [1831] vol. 1, p. 385)

On the morning of Third month, the 13^th, six gathered via Zoom to study a 1658 passage from Fox’s journal (1:381-5). Fox speaks of this time as one of “great suffering” for Friends who were being held in noxious prisons, despite their petitions and warnings to professors in parliament admonishing their persecution and hypocrisy: “ye imprison them that are in the life and power of truth, and yet profess to be the ministers of Christ; but if Christ had sent you, ye would bring out of prison, out of bondage, and receive strangers” (page 382).

A brief second epistle (page 385) shows Fox encouraging Friends – “in prison or out of prison” – to not let reports of persecution frighten them, but to stand in the covenant, Christ, where triumph is found. Offsetting the threats around them, Friends met to worship, and in this passage, Fox describes two gatherings as powerful in the Lord’s presence: one at Isaac Penington’s in Buckinghamshire, and the other near London where “the scriptures were largely and clearly opened, and Christ exalted above all, to the great satisfaction of the hearers” (page 384).

Our discussion begins at 14:12 with the observation that Fox asserts the power of the Lord is stronger than suffering or sin. From there, the mention of “fasting” in the text turns our thoughts to how forms of the tradition can be used to oppose Christ. Fox’s reference to Matthew 25:43 (page 382) brought forward some ideas on Jesus’s direction throughout Matthew 25 to those awaiting the coming of the Son of Man (23:25 in the recording). A new participant to our study offered a few initial responses to Fox’s writing (beginning at 31:15), and also some thoughts on the ability to grasp Fox’s thought requiring some knowledge of the Bible, a knowledge that often is lacking among present-day Quakers.

The recording has been edited to reduce silent times between speakers.

To you all this exhortation is from the word of the Lord: Dwell in the life, that with it ye may see the Father of life. And dwell in the light, with which light the world is condemned; which light comprehends the world’s wisdom; which light comprehends the world and their knowledge, and all the deceivers, which are entered into the world, (who are turned from the light,) with which light they are condemned, that is, the world, who hate the light, because their deeds are evil, and they will not bring their deeds to the light, because the light will reprove them, they hating it, and you that live in it. –The Works of George Fox [1831] vol. 7, p. 49-50)

On the evening of February 22, ten gathered for New Foundation Fellowship’s monthly study of Fox’s epistles. The beginning sentences of Epistle 41 (quoted above) introduce most of the themes presented in this writing: an exhortation to dwell in the Life and Light; the Light’s comprehension and condemnation of the world’s knowledge and deceivers, who are turned from the Light; and deceivers’ hatred of the Light and those who live in it.

We began by discussing the convincing, self-authenticating power of the Light that is recognizable by the elect, who are not deceived by man-made replication of it. The world’s hatred of the Light is one of the epistle’s themes and is examined beginning at 27:00 in the recording. That the Light actively leads out of sin is asserted starting at 37:50, and is followed by a detailed description of this life-giving activity, beginning at 39:30. A distinction is made between the nature of sin and its particular manifestations around 44:45, which includes a reference to Rom. 6:3-4 and Penington’s words on obedience:

There is no birth can believe aright but one; nor is there any birth can obey aright, but that birth which believes aright. The true believing is from the quickening virtue of God’s Spirit (all other faith is but dead faith); and the true obedience is in the newness of the Spirit Rom. 6:4 and 7:6 (Works, III:295)

The recording has been edited to reduce silence between speakers and runs a little short of an hour 

Paul in Prison, 1627 Rembrandt