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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 living in love, edifying the body of Christ, and keeping in the truth of God to walk in peace with Him and one another. He emphasizes the importance of righteousness, holiness, and unity in the spirit as ways to reflect God's presence among His people. Fox encourages his listeners to be the salt of the earth and the light of the world, showing forth Christ and godliness in their lives and words.
Epistle 290
Dear friends, live in love, for that is of God [1 Jn 4:7], and doth edify the body of Christ [Eph 4:16]; and keep in the truth of God, which the devil is out of [John 8:44]; and walk in the same peaceable truth, and do righteously to all people, and walk in righteousness: and then you will walk in peace with God, and one with another: and walk in holiness, for that becomes the house of God [Psa 93:5], and in holiness you will see the holy God [Heb 12:14] among you. And so that you may keep the unity in the spirit, which is the bond of peace [Eph 4:3], and dwell in love one with another: for all eyes are upon you, and some watch for evil [Jer 44:27], but do you answer the good in all, in your words and lives. This is the counsel of the Lord God to you all, and that you may be the salt of the earth, and the light of the world, and as a city set on a hill that cannot be hid [Mat 5:13f]: so that all that do profess Christ and God, may show forth Christ and godliness in life and word. 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.