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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 praying in the spirit and with understanding, leading to unutterable sighs and groans. He distinguishes between true spiritual prayer and the Pharisees' long prayers filled with doubt and wrath. Fox highlights the necessity of owning the light and truth that come from Jesus to truly know the Father and the Son, guiding believers out of earthly distractions and into heavenly-mindedness.
Know the Praying in the Spirit
Know The Praying In The Spirit (1657) Friends, - Know the praying in the spirit, and with the understanding; then ye will come to know the sighs and groans than cannot be uttered. For such as have not the spirit that gave forth the scriptures to guide them, are as the Pharisees were, in the long prayers, and in the wrath, and in the doubting, and do not lift up holy hands. This makes a difference between praying in the spirit, and the Pharisees' long prayers, that devoured widows' houses. And none owns the light as it is Jesus, but he that owns the light that Christ lighteth him withal. And none owns the truth, but who owns the light that cometh from Christ, the truth. And none cometh to the Father, but such who owns the light that cometh from Christ, which leads to him. Nor none owns the son, except he owns the light that cometh from him. For all dwelling in the light that comes from Jesus, it leads out of wars, leads out of strife, leads out of the occasion of wars, and leads out of the earth up to God, out of earthly-mindedness to heavenly-mindedness, and bringeth your minds to heaven. 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.