- Home
- Speakers
- George Fox
- Famish The Busie Minds
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.
Download
Topic
Sermon Summary
George Fox preaches about the importance of dwelling in the Light that never changes, being convinced and turned from darkness to know the movings of the Spirit of Life within, which works against death and brings freedom. He emphasizes the need to be diligent, quick, and lively in walking in the Life that redeems and overcomes, leading to rest. Fox also advises against judging others, encouraging each individual to focus on their own spiritual journey to foster peace and unity, recognizing the diversity of gifts but the unity in the Spirit that guides.
Famish the Busie Minds
ALL Friends every where, who with the Light, that never changeth, are Convinced, and turned from Darkness, In the Light dwell, that ye may come to know the Movings of the Spirit of Life in you, that moves against all the Works of Death, and so works Freedom. A Measure of this living Spirit and Power being known in every one, and ye kept to it, with it ye are kept diligent, quick and lively, to walk in the Life, for it is the Life that Redeems, which only Overcomes, and gives an entrance into Rest. . . . Take heed of Judging the measures of other, but every one mind your own; and there ye famish the busie Minds and high Conceits, and so Peace springs up among you, and Division is Judged. And this know, That there are Diversities of Gifts, but one Spirit and Unity therein to all, who with it are guided. And though the Way seems to thee divers, yet Judge not the Way, lest thou Judge the Lord, and knowest not, that several Ways (seeming to Reason) hath God to bring his People out by, yet are all but one in the End. . . . Therefore Silence all Flesh, and see your own Ways be Clean; and as ye grow therein, the Way of Peace will be more prized by you, and the perfect Bond ye will come to know: And all who are here established, shall stand in strength, when others fall on the right hand, and on the left.
- Bio
- Summary
- Transcript
- Download

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.