- Home
- Speakers
- George Fox
- Epistle 287
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
Topics
Sermon Summary
George Fox emphasizes the importance of remembering God's mercies and warns against the tendency to forget Him, as seen throughout biblical history. He reflects on how people have strayed from true worship and the teachings of Christ, often following man-made religions instead. Fox urges believers to remain faithful to the gospel and to train their children in the fear of God, ensuring they do not fall back into spiritual darkness. He highlights the necessity of walking in the Spirit and adhering to the new covenant, which empowers believers to live righteously. Ultimately, he reassures that God's grace is sufficient for salvation and guidance.
Scriptures
Epistle 287
Friends,—Consider, you that have known the mercies of the Lord God, and of Jesus Christ. Look back, and see how they that had known much of God, how soon they forgot him, as in the days of the old world, and in the days of Moses, and in the days of the Judges, how they soon forgot God, that had done great things for them, and forsook God, and his way, and religion, and worship, and followed such gods as men had made. And in the days of the prophets, how the people forsook the Lord God; and in the days of Christ and his apostles, how they were mostly gone astray from God; though they kept an outward profession of their words, yet denied Christ in his light, and life, and power; who was the end of the law and the prophets [Rom 10:4]. And they that did receive Christ Jesus, and believed in him, in a few ages after the apostles, how most of Christendom ran from the life into death, and ran from the light into darkness; and into error, from the holy spirit, and into Babylon, which is confusion [Gen 11:1-9]; and from the worship in the spirit, and in the truth [John 4:24], that Christ set up, and followed after the worship of the beast and the dragon [Rev 13:4]; and went from the true church after the whore; and from Christ, the way to God, after the ways that men had made; and from the religion that is pure from above [Jas 1:27/3:17], after the religions that men have made. And so, now the gospel is preached again, and the living way (Christ) to the living God, and his religion and his worship are set up and received of many, and they come to the true worship, which is in God. And all be faithful, and take heed of running back again, where you were before, lest you and your children perish, as others have done, that forsook the Lord God of mercies. And therefore train up your children in the fear of God [Prov 22:6/Psa 34:11], and in the way of Christ, and in his worship and religion, that they may observe and keep in it, when you are gone. And walk in the spirit and truth, in which God is worshipped, and keep in the order of the gospel, in the power of God [Rom 1:16], which was before the devil was; which power of God will keep you pure to God, that nothing may get betwixt you and the Lord God. And be obedient to <37> the law, that God hath written in your hearts [Jer 31:33], and put in your minds, that you may be the children of the new covenant; and that you may be the royal priesthood [1 Pet 2:9], offering up to God the spiritual sacrifices [1 Pet 2:5]. And sitting under your teacher, the grace of God, which bringeth salvation [Tit 2:11], and seasoneth your words [Col 4:6], and establisheth your hearts [Heb 13:9]. And this grace saveth [Eph 2:8], and is sufficient [2 Cor 12:9], saith God Almighty. And you need no man to teach you, but as the same anointing doth teach you to know all things: which anointing abideth in you [1 Jn 2:27]. And hearken all what the righteousness of faith saith, speaking on this wise, ‘The word is nigh thee, even in thy heart and in thy mouth, to obey it and do it. That thou need not say, who shall ascend to bring Christ from above, or descend to bring Christ from the grave, &c. for that is the word of faith which we do preach.’ 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.