- Home
- Speakers
- George Fox
- The Aggravating Part
George Fox
George Fox (1624 - 1691). English Dissenter, founder of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers), born in Drayton-in-the-Clay, Leicestershire. Apprenticed as a shoemaker, he left home at 19, seeking spiritual truth amid Puritan and Anglican tensions. In 1647, after visions and direct experiences of God, he began preaching an “inner light” accessible to all, rejecting clergy and formal worship. By 1652, he gathered followers in northern England, forming the Quakers, known for pacifism and simplicity. Fox traveled across England, Ireland, the Netherlands, and America, enduring eight imprisonments for his beliefs, including at Lancaster Castle. He wrote Journal (1694) and numerous letters, shaping Quaker theology with calls for equality and justice. Married to Margaret Fell in 1669, a key Quaker leader, they had no children, but she had eight from her prior marriage. His 1660 Declaration rejected violence, influencing conscientious objection. Fox’s emphasis on personal revelation transformed Protestantism, and his writings remain central to Quaker thought.
Download
Topics
Sermon Summary
George Fox emphasizes the importance of patience and love among friends, urging them to refrain from judging one another and speaking ill behind each other's backs, as this breeds enmity. He warns against allowing the world's spirit to influence their actions, advocating for a community rooted in the life of God where they can truly see Jesus among them. Fox encourages believers to avoid the 'Aggravating Part' that leads to strife and confusion, reminding them that patience must prevail to align with God's truth and wisdom.
The Aggravating Part
FRIENDS, Keep to Patience, this is the counsel of the Lord to you. Do not Judge one another behind one anothers backs, nor speak Evil one of another, for that is that, which soweth the Enmity among Brethren. Nor do not Judge one another before the World, for that is that, which is in the Extremes, Passion and Hastiness; and there ye do let in the World's Spirit to rejoyce over you, and that is out of the Patience, and Love, and Wisdom and Fear of God and his Truth. And every one dwell in the Seed and Life of God, and in that know one another, and Meeting together in that, ye may see the Lord Jesus in the midst of ou. And Friends, go not into the Aggravating Part to strive with it, lest ye do hurt to your souls and run into the same Nature; for Patience must get the Victory and answers to that of God in every one, which will bring every one from the contrary. So let your Moderation and Temperance and Patience be known to all, for that which joins to the Aggravating Part sets up the Aggravating Part, and breeds confusion, and reaches not to the Witness of God in every one.
- Bio
- Summary
- Transcript
- Download
George Fox (1624 - 1691). English Dissenter, founder of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers), born in Drayton-in-the-Clay, Leicestershire. Apprenticed as a shoemaker, he left home at 19, seeking spiritual truth amid Puritan and Anglican tensions. In 1647, after visions and direct experiences of God, he began preaching an “inner light” accessible to all, rejecting clergy and formal worship. By 1652, he gathered followers in northern England, forming the Quakers, known for pacifism and simplicity. Fox traveled across England, Ireland, the Netherlands, and America, enduring eight imprisonments for his beliefs, including at Lancaster Castle. He wrote Journal (1694) and numerous letters, shaping Quaker theology with calls for equality and justice. Married to Margaret Fell in 1669, a key Quaker leader, they had no children, but she had eight from her prior marriage. His 1660 Declaration rejected violence, influencing conscientious objection. Fox’s emphasis on personal revelation transformed Protestantism, and his writings remain central to Quaker thought.