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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 importance of living in the spirit rather than the flesh, emphasizing the need to set our affections on heavenly things and subject our souls to the higher power of truth. He urges believers to maintain spiritual minds above earthly concerns, highlighting the significance of true worship in spirit and truth. Fox also stresses the unity in the spirit as the bond of peace, fellowship in the gospel, and the liberty found in perfect unity above bondage.
Epistle 229
Friends,—Let not your knowledge be after the flesh [2 Cor 5:16], but in the spirit. Let not your fellowship be in the flesh, but let it be in the spirit, and in the gospel. Let not your affections be in the flesh, and on things below, but let them be set on things that are above [Col 3:2], and on things that <243> are heavenly, above the things below. Let not your souls be subject to the lower power of darkness, which is out of the truth, lest you bring destruction upon your own selves [2 Pet 2:1]; but let your souls be subject to the higher power [Rom 13:1], that is above the lower power of darkness. Let your acquaintance and familiarity be in the spirit, over that which would ensnare or entangle you, and bring you into bondage [Gal 2:4]. Let all your minds be heavenly, and not earthly. Let all your minds be spiritual, and kept above all that which is carnal; then they are kept out of death, in life, and in peace [Rom 8:6]. For . . . the true worship in the spirit and in the truth [John 4:24] is above the false, which is out of the spirit and the truth [John 8:44], and the true belief and faith and hope are above the false belief, which is unbelief, and the living faith is above the dead faith [Jas 2:17], and the hope that is the anchor, both sure and steadfast, anchors the soul [Heb 6:13] in the great sea, the world, when the leviathan maketh a storm, among the tongues, peoples, nations, and languages, which are as waters [Rev 17:15]; then the true hope standeth and stayeth, and is sure and steadfast, and keeps the soul up to God, atop of the sea, when the false hope of the hypocrite sinks therein [Job 8:13], which are the waters, and it goes over them, and in it they are swallowed up. The unity in the spirit is the bond of the Prince of princes' peace [Eph 4:3, Dan 8:25], and the fellowship in the gospel [Phil 1:5], and the liberty in it is a perfect one [James 1:25], above the imperfect, where is bondage. 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.