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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 gathering in the power of the Lord, encouraging believers to meet regularly and provoke one another to love and good works. He stresses that true edification, life, and peace come from being united in Christ, who is the head of the church and the source of eternal life. Fox urges the community to be established in their faith, demonstrating a steadfastness that reflects God's glory and serves as a blessing to others. He reassures them that their worship and truth are already found in Christ, who overcomes all that causes suffering. Ultimately, he calls for a deep connection with the Lord, who reigns above all and provides life everlasting.
Epistle 164
My dear friends,—Keep your meetings in the power of the Lord God, in which ye may all feel life eternal among you. And do not forsake the assembling of yourselves together [Heb 10:25], but provoke one another to love [Heb 10:24], in which is edification, life, peace, truth, and dominion; in which ye may feel the blessing of God covering you, ye dwelling in the same. And so, meet together in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ [Mat 18:20], whose gathering is above the gatherings of the sons and daughters of Adam in the fall, and will stand when they are all gone . . . . And so, in that the Lord God Almighty preserve you all to his glory; that to the Lord God <154> ye may be a blessing in your generation, and a good savour to God [2 Cor 2:15], and in the hearts of all people. That none may say, ye are an unstayed, unestablished, or a fickle people, and have your religion, truth, and worship to seek; but that ye have it already, and are established in the life and power of God, and in his worship, church, and religion, which Christ is the head and the life of [Col 1:18], (which destroyeth the devil and his works [Heb 2:14/1 Jn 3:8],) who is the pasture of life, who was before death was. And so, feel him set over all that, which makes to suffer, who was before it was, and will remain when it is gone: and so, feel the top-stone over all laid, and Christ to reign. 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.