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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 one's spiritual foundation and first love for Christ, urging believers to remain steadfast in their faith and not stray from the inner light and truth. He reassures that by adhering to this divine guidance, they will find comfort, instruction, and ultimately immortality. Fox encourages believers to not be ashamed of their faith in Christ, despite societal pressures and opposition, and highlights the blessings that come from living a pure and powerful life in the Lord.
Epistle 238
My dear friends and brethren, all every where, keep your habitation [Jude 1:6] and your first love [Rev 2:4], and do not go forth from your rule of faith and life within; in which you all have unity and fellowship, and the Lord will be your comforter and teacher. And if you do not go forth from the light, spirit, and truth within, the light you will feel to guide and lead you, and instruct you. And by it you may have immortality put upon you. And be not ashamed of Christ Jesus [Luke 9:26] the light, and life, and teacher; nor of his spirit to lead you. For, can they find no occasion against you, but because you worship God in spirit, and obey the command of Christ Jesus. And so, as the old cry was, ‘away with such a fellow from the earth, it is not fit for him to live [Acts 22:22];’ so it is now. But blessed are those that keep their habitations clean, and live in the power of the Lord, which was before the curse was. 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.