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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 power of spiritual weapons over carnal weapons, emphasizing that what is established by the sword is sustained by the sword, while what is established by spiritual weapons is upheld by spiritual means. He encourages believers to be peacemakers, holding dominion over those who disrupt peace through the power of God. Fox prophesies a new and living way emerging from the north, transforming nations like waters, and urges against harming those who recognize the earth belongs to the Lord. He speaks of the days of virtue, love, and peace dawning, with the Lamb overcoming earthly kings with the sword of the spirit, ensuring victory.
That Which Is Set Up by the Sword
That Which Is Set Up By The Sword (1652) Friends, - that which is set up by the sword, is held up by the sword; and that which is set up by spiritual weapons, is held up by spiritual weapons, and not by carnal weapons. The peacemaker hath the kingdom, and is in it; and hath dominion over the peace-breaker, to calm him in the power of God. And friends, let the waves break over your heads. There is rising a new and living way out of the north, which makes the nations like waters. Hurt not the vines, nor the oil, nor such as know that "the earth is the Lord's, and the fullness thereof." The days of virtue, love, and peace, are come and coming, and the Lamb hath and had the kings of the earth to war withal, who will overcome with the sword of the spirit, the word in his mouth; for the Lamb shall have the victory. And are not some like Ephraim, with a miscarrying womb? which have not brought forth the substance, the birth form above; but have brought forth children to murder? 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.