- Home
- Speakers
- George Fox
- Epistle 41
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.
Download
Sermon Summary
George Fox urges believers to dwell in the life and light of God, emphasizing that this light reveals the truth and condemns the world's wisdom and evil deeds. He warns against deceivers who have turned away from the light and encourages the faithful to remain steadfast in their profession of faith, ensuring that their actions align with their words. Fox stresses the importance of being genuine in one's faith, as mere profession without true dwelling in the light leads to deception and emptiness.
Scriptures
Epistle 41
Friends,—To you all this exhortation is from the word of the Lord: Dwell in the life, that with it ye may see the Father of life. And dwell in the light, with which light the world is condemned; which which light comprehends the world's wisdom; which light comprehends the world and their knowledge, and all the deceivers, which are entered into the world, (who are turned from the light,) with which light they are condemned, that is, the world, who hate the light, because their deeds are evil, and they will not bring their deeds to the light, because the light will reprove them, they hating it, and you that live in it [John 3:19f, John 15:18]. And all the deceivers, and all the antichrists [2 Jn 1:7], they are such as are turned from the light, which oppose Christ. To you all, my brethren, who dwell in the light, which is the condemnation of the world, and of all the deceivers, who are turned from the light; it is not possible, that those deceivers should deceive you, who are the elect [Mat 24:24], who dwell in the light, which comprehends the world. I do charge you all in the presence of the living God, to ‘dwell in what ye speak and profess; and none to profess, what he doth not dwell in; and none to profess, what he is not; a sayer, and not a doer [Jas 1:22]; such beget vain talkers [Tit 1:10]. So, with the light all such are to be condemned from the life. ... <50> .... G. F.
- Bio
- Summary
- Transcript
- Download

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.