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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 waiting in the light of the Lord Jesus Christ during meetings, which brings power and refreshment to the soul. He encourages believers to know one another in the life and power of Christ, who reigns in them, and to recognize their identity as joint-heirs with Him. Fox speaks of the everlasting covenant of light, life, and peace that protects against sin and darkness, urging the faithful to walk in truth and light. He highlights the transformative power of the Word of God, which reconciles and purifies, and calls for patience in receiving this divine truth. Ultimately, he reassures that in this light, believers can witness the eternal Word that has been manifest since the beginning.
Scriptures
Epistle 105
All Friends every where, keep your meetings waiting in the light which comes from the Lord Jesus Christ; so will ye receive power from him, and have the refreshing springs of life opened to your souls, and be kept sensible of the tender mercies of the Lord. And know one another in the life, (ye that be turned to the light,) and in the power, which comes from the Lord Jesus Christ, who is your light, who is your life; that ye mayall in the life see Christ to reign in you, who is the truth, from whence ye have light. Here the old serpent is chained, and put into the bottomless pit [Rev 20:2f], and Christ is known to reign, and ye to reign with him[Rev 20:4]; heirs with him, joint-heirs, and heirs of God [Rom8:17]. Here is the dominion received and witnessed of the world that is without end, and the promise of life from the Father of life to you,who are turned to the son, who to the Father is the way [John 14:6], who is the mediator between the Father and you [1 Tim 2:5]. All wait to receive the everlasting priest [Heb 6:20], the everlasting covenant of God, of light,life, and peace [Isa 42:6, Ezek 37:26]; into which covenant no sin, no darkness, nor deathcomes, but the blessing of the only wise God [1 Tim 1:17], the Father of life, here is known, where no earthly man can approach [1 Tim 6:16]. But he that is of God knows God's truth; and he that is of the devil, doth his lusts,who was a murderer from the beginning, in whom is no truth, who in it abode not. So he it is thatspeaks alie, and speaks of himself [John 8:44], and not God's word; for he is out of the truth. But ye that are turned to the light walk in the light, walk in the truth, where no darkness is; with which light, that never changeth, ye may come to see that which was in the beginning, before the world was, where there is no shadow nor darkness. In which light as ye wait, ye will come to receive into your hearts the word of faith [Rom 10:8], which reconciles to God, and is as a hammer [Jer 23:29], to beatdown all that is contrary; and as a sword, to divide the precious from the vile [Jer 15:19]; and as a fire [Jer 23:29], to burn up that which is contrary to the precious: which word is pure [Psa 119:40], and endureth for ever [1 Pet 1:25, Isa 40:8 ]; which was in the beginning [John 1:1], and is now again witnessed and made manifest. Therefore wait in the light, that ye may all receive it, the same word that ever was, which the scriptures were given forth from.<108> . . . . 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.