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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 unity in the spirit, being baptized into one body through the eternal bread of life and communion with the blood of Jesus Christ. He urges the congregation to stay pure in their desires, allowing for clear discernment between the earthly and the spiritual. By humbling themselves and eagerly awaiting the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ within them, they can experience God's power and be transformed.
Epistle 31
Dear Friends,—Mind the steadfast guide to the Lord, where we do all meet in the eternal spirit, in oneness, all being baptized by it into one body [1 Cor 12:13], having one food, the eternal bread of life [John 6:51], which the immortal feed upon, and all made to drink into one spirit [1 Cor 12:13], which is the cup of the communion of the blood of our Lord Jesus Christ [1 Cor 10:16], which makes perfect, and redeems from all that is vain, fleshly, and earthly, up to God, who is holy, pure, spiritual, and eternal. And let not any of you in your desires wander from that which is pure in you; then your conditions will be kept clear and pure to see all things as they are, and a clear separation will be made from that which is of man, and of your <38> own, and that which is of God; and there will be a growing up in that which is pure. And so, be low in your minds, waiting for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ in you all, who is Lord over all, to be Lord over all in you. And so the Lord God of power keep you all! Farewell. 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.