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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 the wisdom of God, being gentle, and bearing one another's burdens to fulfill the law of Christ. He encourages the congregation to cover weaknesses with love, as love covers a multitude of sins and preserves the body of believers. By dwelling in love, which is not easily provoked, they are dwelling in God, who is love. Keeping the law of love helps to prevent words of condemnation and allows the body to edify itself in love.
Epistle 256
My dear friends,—Live in the wisdom of God, which is gentle and pure from above, and easy to be entreated [Jas 3:17]; all ‘bear one another's burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ [Gal 6:2].’ And if any weakness should appear in any in your meetings, not for any to lay it open and tell it abroad, that is not wisdom that doth so; for love covereth a multitude of sins [1 Pet 4:8], and love preserves and edifies the body [Eph 4:16]; and he that dwells in love dwells in God; for God is love [1 Jn 4:16], and love is not easily provoked [1 Cor 13:5]; and therefore keep the law of love [James 2:8?], to keep down that which is so provoked; for that which is easily provoked hath words, which are for condemnation. Therefore, let the law of love be amongst you, which is not easily provoked; and this law of love being amongst you, it will keep down that which is so provoked, and its words; and so the body edifies itself in love. 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.