- Home
- Speakers
- George Fox
- Epistle 201
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.
Download
Sermon Summary
George Fox emphasizes the importance of dwelling in the stillness and silence of God's unchanging power, which transcends all earthly changes in worship, religion, and authority. He encourages believers to remain rooted in the everlasting kingdom of Christ, who is the same yesterday, today, and forever, and to embrace the unchangeable life and wisdom that comes from Him. By doing so, they will experience the presence and blessing of God, becoming heirs to His eternal promises and power. Fox urges the faithful to resist worldly influences and to abide in the divine kingdom that offers eternal life and grace.
Epistle 201
Dear Friends,—In the stillness and silence of the power of the Almighty dwell, which never varies , alters, nor changes [James 1:17], but preserveth over and out of, and above all the changeable worships, religions, ministers, churches, teachings, principalities, and powers [various, e.g. Col 2:15], with the power of God, which keepeth over all this, to the kingdom of Christ, that is everlasting, in which there is no changing, who is King of kings, and Lord of lords [Rev 19:16]. All power in heaven and earth is given unto him [Mat 28:18], of whose light, life, power, and wisdom, grace, and riches have ye received [John 1:16f], which comes from him, that doth not change. So in that live, that doth not change, the unchangeable life, the unchangeable mind, the unchangeable spirit and wisdom, and the unchangeable worship and church, of which Christ is the unchangeable head, who remains the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever [Heb 13:8]; in that ye will feel the blessing and presence of the Lord God of life amongst you, as ye all abide in the unchangeable kingdom, dominion, power, and life, who are heirs of it according to your measures, who have received the light, and received <199> the life and grace, and the power of a kingdom and a world that hath no end [Luke 1:33]. So wait all in it, that ye may be possessors and inheritors of the kingdom, and of the life and power which hath no end, and of the promises, that are yea and amen [2 Cor 1:20]; and let nothing, that is of the world, alter you, but keep ye in that which keepeth you in the everlasting kingdom of God [e.g. Dan 4:3]. G. F.
- Bio
- Summary
- Transcript
- Download
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.