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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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Sermon Summary
George Fox emphasizes the identity of believers as sons and daughters of God, highlighting that they possess God's law in their hearts and know eternal life through Jesus Christ. He describes believers as new creatures clothed in Christ, who is unchanging and the true light of the world. Fox contrasts the eternal nature of Christ with the changeable aspects of worldly religions and practices, urging believers to walk in the light of Christ and remain steadfast in their faith. He reassures that the true church of Christ, which is unchanging, stands firm above the transient nature of worldly influences. Ultimately, he calls for a life that glorifies God through the unchanging truth of Jesus.
Epistle 411
Dear friends, who are the sons and daughters of God [2 Cor 6:18], who have his law written in your hearts [Jer 31:33], by which you know God and Jesus Christ, which is eternal life to know [John 17:3]; and you that have put on Christ Jesus [Gal 3:27] are the new creatures, and are in him [2 Cor 5:17], clothed with Christ the son of righteousness [Mal 4:2], who is the light of the world [John 8:12]; and you that believe in the light, have the light of life, and are clothed with the son of God <305> that doth not change, and are the true and living members of the church of Christ Jesus, that is in God, and have the moon (that is changeable) under your feet [Rev 12:1]. So all changeable religions, worships, ways, churches, and teachers, which are like the changeable moon, and the changeable world, with its changeable fashions; the true church of Christ, that is clothed with Christ, the son, that doth not change, hath all these changeable things, like the moon that changes, under her feet. For the son of God never changes; for all things were made by him [John 1:3], who is the first and last, the beginning and ending [Rev 22:13]. So, as every one hath received Christ Jesus, the son of righteousness, walk in him to the praise and glory of God. Amen. 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.