- Home
- Speakers
- George Fox
- All Friends Everywhere, Who Are Dead To Carnal Weapons
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
Topic
Sermon Summary
George Fox preaches to all Friends who have renounced carnal weapons, urging them to stand in the power that eliminates the need for wars and violence, emphasizing the importance of maintaining peace for the sake of truth. He advises believers to pay tribute to rulers for the sake of peace but highlights the inability of those living in peace to engage in warfare. Fox encourages Friends to continue paying tribute for the sake of peace and to claim their liberty through peaceful means.
All Friends Everywhere, Who Are Dead to Carnal Weapons
All Friends Everywhere, Who Are Dead To Carnal Weapons (1659) All Friends everywhere, who are dead to all carnal weapons, and have beaten them to pieces, stand in that which takes away the occasion of wars, in the power which saves men's lives, and destroys none, nor would have others. And as for the rulers, that are to keep peace, for peace's sake, and the advantage of truth, give them their tribute. But to bear and carry carnal weapons to fight with, the men of peace, (which live in that which takes away the occasion of wars,) they cannot act in such things under the several powers; but have paid tribute. Which they may do still for peace sake, and not hold back the earth, but go over it; and in so doing, Friends may better claim their liberty. G.F.
- 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.