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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 maintaining a relationship with the Holy Spirit rather than relying solely on knowledge and familiarity that can lead to spiritual danger. He warns that while initial conviction is safe under God's judgment, familiarity without the Spirit can lead to a withering faith, akin to grass that fades away. True knowledge comes from the eternal Word of God, which sustains us spiritually, contrasting with the temporary nature of worldly knowledge. Fox encourages believers to seek the divine nourishment that comes from God’s Word, which is essential for spiritual life.
Epistle 295
Friends, at the first convincement there is not so much danger, for the spirit of God keeps in the fear of the Lord, and under judgment; then after getting acquaintance or knowledge, and a familiarity, and a liberty, <45> but not in the holy spirit, there is greater danger; and therefore your knowledge and familiarity must be in the invisible spirit; for the flesh fadeth and withereth, as the grass [Isa 40:6f]. So that knowledge and familiarity is as grass that withers; but the word of the Lord endureth for ever [Isa 40:8]. And the right knowledge of one another is this: to know one another in that word which was in the beginning [John 1:1], before man fell; ‘for man liveth not by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God [Deut 8:3].’ This is the fresh and heavenly food from above, and above all the husks that the swineherd feedeth his swine with, in the unrepented state [Luke 15:16]. 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.