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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 dwelling in purity and waiting for the power of God to preserve believers in that purity. He emphasizes knowing the seed of God in one another to overcome worldly wisdom and carnal knowledge, urging faith to stand against earthly nature and human pride. By dwelling in purity, believers can discern what is impure, have their minds guided by God, and confront their evil thoughts and desires. Fox warns against lusting, which veils the purity and leads to deception by dreamers, lying spirits, and false prophets. He encourages waiting on God in purity to receive His living nourishment for everlasting life.
Epistle 50
All Friends, dwell in that which is pure, and wait for the power of God to preserve you in that which is pure, up to God. And know the seed of God in one another, that the knowledge which is after the flesh may die; and know the power of God in one another. Let your faith stand in that which throws out the earthly nature, and the loftiness of man [Isa 2:17]; which overturns the worldly wisdom and the carnal knowledge, which is brutish [Jer 10:14] and devilish [James 3:15]. Dwell in that which is pure, that ye may be able to discern, and savour, and comprehend that which is not pure; and wait in that which is pure, to have your minds guided thereby, which will let you see God, and show you your evil thoughts, and judge them; and is a cross to your evil desires, wills, and lusts. I say, dwell in that which is pure, which will guide you to God; but if ye lust, (as aforesaid,) then the pure is veiled, and the light mind speaks at random, with a drunken spirit, and not from the mouth of the Lord. And there lodgeth the dreamer [Deut 13:1, Jer 27:9], and the lying spirit [1 Ki 22:22f], and the false prophet [Rev 16:13], and that which is like the truth but is not the truth; but dwelling in the truth, this will be discovered. And wait upon God in that which is pure, for the receiving of that which comes from God, which is living, which nourisheth up to everlasting life. So God Almighty be with 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.