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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 temptation to prioritize worldly glory over God, referencing the devil's attempt to entice Christ with power and riches in exchange for worship. He challenges the audience to examine if they are being swayed by the lusts of the flesh and the pride of life, despite professing scriptures. Fox highlights the importance of not bowing down to falsehood and staying true to the seed appointed to defeat pride and evil. He emphasizes that the earth belongs to the Lord, and God alone has the authority to govern and establish kingdoms according to His will.
Scriptures
Mat 4:8f | Luk 4:5-7
GF4:48 (1655): O the glory of the world has swallowed up many of you! O! you have entered into the great temptation. What would the devil have given Christ to have bowed down to him? [Mat 4:8f | Luk 4:5-7] Have you not the lusts of the flesh? Have you not the pride of life? [1 Jn 2:16] And yet profess scriptures and bow down to him who is out of the truth [John 8:44]: have you not your heart's desire in these things? [Mat 6:21 | Luk 12:34] JN1:53 (1653): But there is a seed thou couldst never bring to fall down before thee, though thou hast often attempted it and divers ways: sometimes by great threatenings, even to destroy the whole seed at one blow, as in Haman to Mordecai and all the seed of the Jews, because he would not worship thee [Esth 3:6]; and sometimes by great promises and large dissembling proffers, as unto Christ the Son of God, showing him all the riches of the world and the glory thereof, saying, all this I will give thee if thou wilt fall down and worship me [Mat 4:8f]. But this seed is that which is appointed to bruise thy head [Gen 3:15] and lay all thy pride in the dust [Psa 7:5]. IP3:79 (1668): [Lodowick Muggleton] affirmeth that that "saying of the devil was true" which he said to Christ, "all the kingdoms of the earth are mine" [Luk 4:5f]. Observ. The earth is the Lord's, and the fulness thereof [Psa 24:1]. The devil hath no right to it. God never gave it him: but God himself is Judge, who throweth down one and setteth up another [Psa 75:7], disposing of the kingdoms of men according to his pleasure [Dan 4:25].
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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.