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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 walking in the light of God’s love and truth, urging believers to remain steadfast in their faith and avoid turning away from the light that Jesus Christ provides. He warns against the corrupting influences of the world and the dangers of following false teachers, likening those who stray from the light to biblical figures like Judas and Cain. Fox encourages the faithful to embrace the light, which leads to unity with God and true understanding of the scriptures, while condemning the empty knowledge of those outside the life of Christ. He calls for a commitment to the light that brings salvation and fellowship with the Father and the Son, urging all to wait in the light for Christ, the savior of their souls.
Epistle 25
Friends, the love of God is to you, the springs are opening, and the plants are refreshing with the living waters. Now friends, walk in the truth, as ye have received it; and wait in that which keeps you in the yea and nay, in the pure communication [Mat 5:37], in the good manners [1 Cor 15:33]. In the pure conversation over all the world ye will reign, whose conversation is in heaven [Phil 3:20]; and here the world ye will judge, walking in the life. And ye which turn from the light, which Jesus Christ hath enlightened <33> you withal, here are the corrupt manners, the evil communication [1 Cor 15:33], the filthy conversation, which with the light are all to be condemned. Ye which turn from the light, are in Esau's nature, and choosing the earth, there is profaneness [Heb 12:16] : therefore take heed to the light, and wait to receive power from God, to stand against that which the light discovers to be evil. And ye who are turned from the light, which Jesus Christ hath enlightened you withal [John 1:9], and do turn to the hireling priests who are changeable, from the priest who never changes [Heb 13:8], ye walk in Judas' steps, and wo will be your end; ye had better never have been born, ye are betrayers of the just [Mark 14:21, Acts 7:52]. Ye that turn from the light, ye turn from Christ, as Judas did; and ye that walk in the light, ye walk after Christ, and he is your way [John 14:6]; but ye that turn from it to the hireling priests, Judas is your way, which is destruction. And ye that turn from the light, turn from the command of God; Cain is your way. And ye that turn from the spirit, Balaam is your way. And ye that get up into presumption, Core is your way, which leads into self-separation [Jude 1:11]. And this fruit will wither [Jude 1:12], which is natural knowledge, which is seen with the light, and is to be condemned with the light [John 3:19], which never withers, which is the condemnation of the world; which all the children of the light [1 Th 5:5] walk in. Walking in which light [1 Jn 1:7], it will bring you to receive Christ, from whence it comes. Here is the way to salvation; and as many as receive him, to them he gives power to become the sons of God [John 1:12]. And the son of God is but one in all, male and female [Gal 3:28]; and the light of God is but one. So all walk in it, to receive the son; in which light is the unity, which brings to fellowship with the Father and the son [1 Jn 1:3]. And the oneness is in the light, as the Father and the son are one, and brings you to where he is, out of the world [John 15:19], from the world, and not to be of the world. Therefore walk in the light, which is all the world's condemnation, even them of the highest religion, who act contrary to the light. And to you this is given forth from the word of the living God. And thou that lovest thy soul, love the light, to wait for Christ, the saviour of thy soul: and ye that hear the word, wait in the light, which comes from the word, which leads up to the word which was in the beginning [John 1:1], which breaks the world to pieces that lies in wickedness, and burns it as with a fire [Jer 23:29; 1 Jn 5:19]; and divides asunder the precious from the vile [Jer 15:19]. This is the word, which makes all clean, which is received into the heart; and this is the word of faith which we preach [Rom 10:8]: and the world preaches the words without, being out of the life, and in the brutish knowledge [Jer 10:14], which is condemned of God, and by all who are of God, that have (and are in) the life of the holy scriptures. Therefore I charge you all in the presence of the living God, to wait in the light which comes from Christ, that with it ye may receive the life; that with the light and life, which are one, ye may come to have the scriptures <34> opened to you, which were given forth from the light. And so all the world, who have not the light guiding their understandings, nor the life, but are strangers to it, there are the sects, there are the many opinions, there is the heresy, which makes a profession of the letter declared from the light, but are out of the life; with the light all this is condemned: and the children of light are in unity, in that which gave forth the holy scriptures. And so to you all this testimony is from the word of God. This is to be read among all Friends every where; for this was I moved to send among you. 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.