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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.
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George Fox preaches about the importance of staying within God's boundaries and fearing Him to receive divine wisdom, enabling believers to order their lives to glorify God and reflect His witness in all interactions. He emphasizes godly sincerity, simplicity, meekness, patience, humbleness, justice, truth, and mercy as qualities that honor God and serve as a praise to those who do well, while being a terror to evildoers. Fox warns against straying from God's witness within one's conscience, urging listeners to maintain the just weight, measure, balance, and true understanding to uphold God's principles.
Epistle 103
Friends, take heed of darkness, or going beyond your bounds or limits [2 Cor 10:14], <105> but keep in God's fear, that ye may receive his wisdom from above [James 3:17], that with it ye may order all things [Wis 8:1] to his glory, answering the witness of God in every one [Col 4:6/1 Jn 5:9f], keeping in godly sincerity and simplicity [2 Cor 1:12], meekness, patience, and humbleness, justice, truth, and mercy [Psa 89:14]; this graceth a government, and is a praise to them that do well [1 Pet 2:14], and is a terror to them that do evil [Rom 13:3]. For they that do evil, go from the witness of God in their own conscience [Rom 2:15], and then the higher power comes over them. Therefore keep to the witness of God in yourselves, and that is the word of the Lord to you; and then ye will have the just weight, and measure, and balance [Deut 25:15, Prov 16:11], and true understanding, to answer the just principle of God in every one. Bow and submit yourselves to the power of the mighty God of heaven and earth, and to no deceit, and take heed of bringing any into it. And take heed of respecting persons in judgment [Deut 1:17]; and that is the way to obtain favour from the Lord, and his blessing. From him who loves your soul's eternal peace and good. G. F.
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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.