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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 preaches about the immediate, working power of the Lord that renews and refreshes believers, urging them to wait upon God in purity despite their feelings of emptiness, nakedness, and unworthiness. He emphasizes the role of the Light in revealing our shortcomings and the love of God, encouraging believers to stand still and seek their Savior for freedom from evil. Fox also proclaims the arrival of Christ among the prisoners, offering hope of release, free pardon, and the opportunity to reign for those who wait for His manifestation.
Prisoners of Hope
TO all of you, My dear Friends, who have tasted of the immediate, working Power of the Lord, . . . and do see, from whence doth Vertue come, and Strength that doth renew the Inward Man, and doth refresh you. . . . To you all I say, Wait upon God in that which is pure. Tho' you see little, and know little, and have little, and see your Emptiness, and see your Nakedness, and Barrenness, and Unfruitfulness, and see the Hardness of your Hearts, and your own Unworthiness; it is the Light that discovers all this, and the Love of God to you, and it is that which is Immediate, but the dark Understanding cannot comprehend it. So, wait upon God in that which is pure, in your Measure, and stand still in it every one to see your Saviour, to make you free from that which the Light doth discover to you (to be Evil). For the Voice of the Bridegroom is heard in our Land; and Christ is come amongst the Prisoners, to visit them in the Prison-Houses; they have all Hopes of releasment and free Pardon and to come out freely, for the Debt is paid; wait for the Manifestation of it, and he that comes out of Prison, shall reign. . . .
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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.