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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 reigning as kings in the Father's hand, following the King of kings who gives abundant life, and experiencing the endless kingdom and dominion with joy and comfort. He encourages dwelling in the light, minding the seed of God, and being diligent in serving the Lord to be a blessing and sweet savour unto Him. Fox emphasizes feeling and knowing the power of an endless life, a kingdom with no end, and a dominion over all dominions, leading to possessing everlasting life and meeting together to wait upon the Lord.
Epistle 203
What, Friends! Do ye reign as kings [1 Cor 4:8]? Can they pluck never a one (of you) out of the Father's hand [John 10:20]? Are ye put forth? Do ye witness that scripture fulfilled; put forth to follow the King of kings [Rev 19:16), (the shepherd,) who gives life abundantly [John 10:10f]? In that let your joy be still, and your comfort remain; in which ye will feel the endless kingdom and dominion [Psa 145:13, Dan 4:3,34]. In that the Lord be with you, who is your strength, comfort, and fulness for evermore, world without end [Eph 3:21]! And, friends, mind the light, and dwell in it, and it will keep you atop of all the world; and mind the seed of God, and know it, and in it be content. Dwell in the power of truth [1 Esd 4:40], and be not negligent in that, but diligent, serving the Lord, every one in your measures; that to the Lord God every one of you may be a blessing [Gen 12:2], and a sweet savour [2 Cor 2:15] unto him in your creation and generation, feeling and knowing the Lord's power every one in yourselves, yea, the power of an endless life [Heb 7:16], and of a kingdom that hath no end [Luke 1:33], and of a dominion that is over all dominions. <200> And in the power of the Lord God everlasting, ye may feel the seed of God in every particular of you raised up, which doth inherit the same; that ye may sit down in your own possession of everlasting life. And in that meet together, waiting upon the Lord [e.g. Isa 40:31], and in it keep your meetings, where ye may feel the chief shepherd leading you into pastures of life [Psa 23:2, Ezek 34:14]. And so the blessing of the Lord 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.