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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 importance of living in the everlasting seed of God, which embodies wisdom, life, and dominion over the fallen nature. He encourages believers to offer themselves to God through the suffering seed, aligning with the nature of the Lamb who must achieve victory over the rough nature that arose from the fall. Fox highlights the distinction between the two births: the flesh and the spirit, urging the faithful to embrace the spiritual birth that leads to eternal life. He calls for vigilance against grieving the Spirit and encourages believers to be a blessing and a good savor in the world by standing firm in truth.
Epistle 101
Dear friends and brethren in the everlasting seed of God, which hath the wisdom, and life eternal, and dominion over all that is in the fall, in which the blessing of the everlasting God is known, and his life that never fadeth; in which seed (that hath the dominion over all that is in the fall) is the wisdom that is pure and gentle [James 3:17], which was before the wisdom below was. And so, all Friends, be ready to offer up yourselves in the power of God, joining to the suffering seed, in which ye offer up yourselves to God in the patience, in your sufferings, feeling the seed which was before that was which makes to suffer. For the lamb must have the victory [Rev 17:14], mark, the lamb, and not the rough nature which hath gotten up since man fell from God's image [Gen 1:27]; the lamb must have the victory over that. So, give up all in the lamb's nature, that in that ye may all meet in life, in power, in victory, and dominion over all that which is in the fall, knowing the birth that will persecute, and the birth that is persecuted; and knowing the birth that is born of the flesh and the birth that is born of the spirit [Gal 4:29]. There are but these two births, and the elder must serve the younger [Gen 25:23]; and the elder is the first birth. Therefore all feel Jacob, and the seed of God, then ye come to feel that which shall remain for ever and ever. So in that all stand and dwell, that to the mighty God ye may be a blessing, and a good savour in the hearts of all people, being valiant for the truth upon the earth [Jer 9:3]. And take heed of grieving the spirit [Eph 4:30], but be faithful; and take heed of provoking, and keep down all that with the spirit of God, that is contrary to God, by which ye may answer that of God in every one. 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.