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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 emphasizes the supremacy of truth, asserting that it will ultimately prevail over those who oppose it, leading to their own downfall. He vividly describes the desolation that befalls the wicked when their false foundations crumble, leaving them in spiritual darkness and turmoil. Fox contrasts this with the peace found in Christ, which is only accessible through the covenant of light, warning that without it, one is destined for trouble. He calls for a recognition of the futility of opposing truth and the necessity of embracing the light of Christ for true peace.
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Epistle 294
Friends, the truth is above all, and will stand over all [1 Esd 4:35-41] them that hate it, who labour in vain against it, and will bring their old house on their own heads [Psa 127:1?], to their great trouble; and in the winter, and cold weather, when that their house is down, and their religion is frozen, and their rivers are dried up, and their husks are gone, and the swine begin to cry about the plantations, and the vermin run up and down amongst their old rubbish, and their sparks and candles are gone out [Job 18:5f], and hail and storms lighteth upon the head of the wicked [Jer 23:19], then wo will be to Gog and Magog [Rev 20:8], and to all the wicked [Isa 3:11], who have no covering [Job 26:6?]. In Christ you have peace, in the world you have trouble [John 16:33]. No peace with God can be enjoyed, but in the covenant of light; without it trouble. 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.