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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 importance of living in peace and love, urging his listeners to avoid strife and contention, which undermine the good and do not edify. He highlights that true peace is found in the Holy Spirit and encourages believers to support one another in faith and grace, fostering unity and patience. Fox reminds the congregation that they are called to be peacemakers, inheriting the kingdom of God, and to live in a way that reflects the love of Christ, which fulfills the law. He calls for a rejection of prejudice and urges everyone to embrace the seed of life and peace that reigns within them, leading to eternal joy and comfort. Ultimately, he concludes with a blessing for grace and guidance from the Lord Jesus Christ.
Epistle 158
Friends and brethren every where, dwell in that which makes for peace [Rom 14:19] and love; for ‘Blessed are the peacemakers, for theirs is the kingdom [Mat 5:8],’ that stands in righteousness, joy, and peace in the holy ghost [Rom 14:17], and in power. Therefore seek the peace, in which is the welfare and good of every one. And take heed of strife and contention [Hab 1:3], for that eats out the good, and does not edify, nor make for peace, for it is love that edifies the body [1 Cor 8:1. Therefore keep in the seed, and know that which was before enmity was, in which there is both peace and life. And all be careful to watch over one another, for one another's good; and be patient, and keep low and down in the power of the Lord God, that there ye may come to enjoy the kingdom of peace, and sit down with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the same [Mat 8:11]. For blessed are all ye that lie down in the power of the Lord, and rise up in it, and in faith remain; through which power ye come to be preserved and united to the God of life and truth. And take heed of any words or carriage that do not tend to edification and building up in the love and life. Therefore, ye that have tasted of the power of God, and of his good word, and of his light, wait for wisdom, and in it walk [Col 4:5], that ye may be preserved in unity, in the light and life, and in fellowship with God, and one with another; that to the Lord God ye may be a good savour, and to him a blessing in your generation, strengthening one another in the faith, in the grace, in the word by which all things were made and created [John 1:3]. And keeping the word of patience [Rev 3:10], herein ye will see the Lord keeping you from all the temptations, which come to try them that dwell upon the earth; by which word of God ye may all be preserved in the sweet and holy life, in which there is unity in the word, which was before enmity; which word doth fulfil the words. Therefore in that live, that ye may all feel life abundantly through the light and power, that come from the word which was in the beginning [John 1:1]; through which immortal word your immortal souls may be brought up to the immortal God, where is joy, peace, and comfort. So, above all things, live in that which stops strife, contentions, and janglings, and live in that by which ye come to serve one another in love [Gal 5:13], even in the love of God, which thinks no evil, nor envies not, neither is it easily provoked [1 Cor 13:4f]. Therefore, live in that which is not easily provoked, <151> and thinks no evil; which fulfils the law [Rom 13:10], which is love out of a pure heart [1 Pet 1:22]. And let not prejudice boil in any of your hearts, but let it be cast out by the power of God, in which is the unity, and the everlasting kingdom; that ye may all witness your being made heirs of the same kingdom of peace, and to be inheritors of it, sitting down in the same, knowing your own portion, and increasing in the heavenly riches. And this above all strife, that is below, and the man of it, which is born of the Egyptian woman, which genders to bondage [Gal 4:24]. Therefore know the seed, the second man, the heir of the promise [Gal 3:29, 1 Cor 15:47] set over all, and the blessing and presence of the Lord, which were before strife was. Therefore know the seed of life and peace to reign in you all, which possesses the kingdom, where there is no end. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all, to teach, season, and establish you, which brings your salvation [Tit 2:11]. 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.