George Fox: Friend and Prophet

8/3/2019 George Fox: Friend and Prophet

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/george-fox-friend-and-prophet 1/12

GEORGE FOX: FRIEND AND PROPHET

A Biography

Presented to

Dr. Nathan Finn

in partial fulfillment of the requirements for

HIS5120C: Church History: Reformation and Modern

Kevin P. McAloon

Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary

April 1, 2011



INTRODUCTION

“You must all of you know much more about that honored man than I could possibly tell

you, and I can only say that if you do not you should, for his “Life” well repays the earnest

student. It is a rich mine. Every page of it is precious as solid gold.”1 Such are the words C.H.

Spurgeon spoke in reference to the life story of George Fox. One of the most enigmatic

Christian Dissenters during the 17th

Century, George Fox is a name that to this day continues to

stir controversy and discussion among those who are familiar with his life and teachings. For

those who are not, he is often overlooked as some misguided remnant of religious history who

helped establish a strange and quiet group that has no relevance today. To think the latter is to

make an utterly grave mistake. The man's life simply demands the utmost attention, especially

among evangelical Christians who live in the shadows of early forefathers such as he. Although,

like all of the great men of the Faith, not without his errors, if there is one man in Church History

whose life most resembled those of the Apostles, it is Fox's. The presence of God in his life, the

power of God in his ministry, the unceasing travels, slanders, persecutions, imprisonments, etc.;

all force one to have to make a conclusion regarding this man. Akin to what has been said about

the One he claimed to serve, after examining the life and claims of George Fox, one is left with

only three possible options regarding this person: he was a brazen liar; he was a crazed fanatic;

he was a prophet of God.

1 C.H. Spurgeon,"George Fox": An Address Delivered to the Society of Friends in the Devonshire

House Meeting House, Bishopsgate Street, London, on Tuesday Evening, November 6th, 1866 ., (Philadelphia: Henry

Longstreth, 1898), p. 1.



THE LIFE OF GEORGE FOX

“The Puritans shined and were beginning to fade, same with the Independents, and at

that very moment God sent into the world George Fox, who must have been the most

troublesome of men to those good easy souls who counted upon a quiet season of sleep.”2

At the time, 17th

Century England was a place with much religious and political unrest.

Protestantism had diverged into multiple sects, primarily out of the common objections many

had to the Church of England. Among the more popular of these sects were the Presbyterians,

Congregationalists, and Baptists. It seems as if within each subsequent generation God had shed

new light where the old had faded, thus building upon their foundations and continuing the

purification of His Church from the corruptions inherited by Rome. Similar to the Anabaptists

during the beginnings of the Reformation, George Fox may be viewed as that new light of

progression sent as a beacon to alert the contemporary Church as to where it was falling short.

In fact, his work with the Quakers has been said to be the logical outcome of Puritanism. The

shift from Presbyterians, to Congregationalists, to Baptists, and finally Quakers appears to be a

smooth logical development.3

The validity of this statement may be open to some debate;

however, it is apparent that Fox’s entire ministry was a reaction against the errors he saw in the

Christendom of his day, which stemmed from both his walk with God and experiences with his

contemporaries that began to affect him from the very beginning.



Longstreth, 1898), p. 4.

3 Geoffrey F. Nuttall, The Holy Spirit in Puritan Faith and Experience (Chicago: University of

Chicago Press, 1992), p.xxvii, p. 14.



satisfy his soul with simply smoking tobacco and singing psalms.6

During this time Fox was also spending much time alone with God and reading the Bible.

He had many “openings”, which he reported were direct revelations God had given him of

biblical truths. After many years of praying, reading, fasting, and searching God in solitude, this

all culminated in his conversion sometime during the middle of the century:

“But as I had forsaken the priest, so I left the separate preachers also, and those esteemedthe most experienced people; for I saw there was none among them all that could speak to

my condition. When all my hopes in them and in all men were gone, so that I had nothing

outwardly to help me, nor could I tell what to do, then, oh, then, I heard a voice which said,

‘There is one, even Christ Jesus, that can speak to thy condition’; and when I heard it, my

heart did leap for joy.Then the Lord let me see why there was none upon the earth that could speak to my

condition, namely, that I might give Him all the glory. For all are concluded under sin, andshit up in unbelief, as I had been; that Jesus Christ might have the pre-eminence who

enlightens, and gives grace, and faith, and power. Thus when God doth work, who shall

hinder it? And this I knew experimentally.”7

Thus marked the beginning of Fox's experimental walk with Christ and His salvation.

Unlike the majority of professors he came across, his was a faith based upon an intimate abiding

with Christ in His Spirit as opposed to what he saw as merely intellectual assents and opinions.

This experiential knowledge and walk with Christ was the flame that ignited Fox to labor

unceasingly for the rest of his in speaking out against the errors he saw during his day, and to

bring others into what he believed to be authentic New Testament Christianity.

6 Ibid.; C.H. Spurgeon,"George Fox": An Address Delivered to the Society of Friends in the

Devonshire House Meeting House, Bishopsgate Street, London, on Tuesday Evening, November 6th, 1866 .,

(Philadelphia: Henry Longstreth, 1898), p. 6.

7 George Fox, Autobiography of George Fox, ed. Dr. Rufus M. Jones, Chapter I,

http://strecorsoc.org/gfox/title.html (accessed March 29, 2011).

http://strecorsoc.org/gfox/title.html





Ministry

Following his conversion Fox spent some time battling with trials and temptations, all the

while traveling and ministering and gaining popularity. He felt extremely burned by the Lord to

call everyone out of the churches (which he labeled “steeple-houses “), false religions, and

secular enjoyments. He suffered as he discerned the worldly spirit of the “priests”, and he would

often grieve when he heard the church bells summoning people to worship.8

Soon he began to

speak out more publicly and thus received more resistance. His first of many imprisonments

took place in Nottingham in 1649 for interrupting a church service. He recollects the oft-

repeated incident in his journal:

“And when I came there, all the people looked like fallow ground, and the priest, like a great

lump of earth, stood in his pulpit above. He took for his text these words of Peter, [2 Pet.

1:19]. And he told the people that the Scriptures were the touchstone and judge by which

they were to try all doctrines, religions, opinions. . . . [I] was made to cry out and say, 'Oh,no; it is not the Scriptures!' and I told them what it was, namely, the Holy Spirit, by which the

holy men of God gave forth the Scriptures, whereby opinions, religions, and judgments were

to be tried; for it led into all truth, and so gave the knowledge of all truth. The Jews had theScriptures, and yet resisted the Holy Spirit, and rejected Christ, the bright morning star. . . .

they erred in judgment, and did not try them aright, because they tried without the Holy

Ghost.”9

After spending a brief time in prison, Fox went on his way traveling all over England

preaching, being attacked, beaten, imprisoned in unimaginable conditions, and stoned while in

stocks. He showed partiality to no one, only using the common “Thees” and “Thous” as opposed

to the formal custom of his day, refused to bow to those in high positions, and took of his hat

only in prayer. He believed in working with his hands and avoided all materialism and luxury,

8 Henry Van Etten, George Fox and the Quakers, trans. E. Kelvin Osborn (London: Longman,

Green & Co., 1959), p. 30-31.

9 George Fox, Autobiography of George Fox, ed. Dr. Rufus M. Jones, Chapter III,

http://strecorsoc.org/gfox/title.html (accessed March 29, 2011).






and because of his simple dress was commonly known as “the man in leather breeches.”10

During his travels the power of the Lord was upon him, and often when opponents

confronted and tried to argue with him they would either become “convinced” (Fox's term for

both theological and spiritual conversions), or bested by the wisdom and Scriptural insight that

Fox reported the Spirit gave him. It was a matter of time before he began to attract a following

throughout the country who referred to each other as Friends and Children of Light, and who

were later dubbed “Quakers” because of an incident when Fox bade a local justice to tremble at

the word of the Lord. The inauguration of this movement occurred in June 1652 in

Westmoreland. As he and his companions traveled Fox felt led to climb to the top of Pendle

Hill, where he reported that the Lord had given him visions where he saw places where He had

people to be gathered. Something of a revival broke out has he ministered in the towns, and a

week later he stood upon that same hill and preached Christ to over one thousand people. 11 It

was during this time that he greatly influenced Margaret Fell, wife of local judge Thomas Fell

and who later became Fox's wife in 1669 after the death of her husband. Margaret joined the

movement, and although her husband never became an official Quaker, he was quite sympathetic

to Fox and his movement; and as a result of his legal protection, the Fell's home became the

center of the movement throughout the 1650s.

The movement continued spreading as Fox, despite being repeatedly imprisoned,

zealously preached all throughout England and abroad his apocalyptic “Day of the Lord”

proclamation. According to Gwyn, this proclamation was based upon three assertions: 1. Christ


Green Co., 1959), p. 30-31.

11 Douglas Gwyn, Apocalypse of the Word: The Life and Message of George Fox (Richmond, IN:

Friends United Press, 1984), p. 29.



had come at that time in history to lead His people in new paths, setting up a new government

and order; 2. The general tenor of Church government since the Apostles were 1600 years of

apostasy, the government and oppression of antichrist; 3. Christ's teaching and government were

by means of the Spirit and the emphasis was on Christ Himself as the creating and redeeming

Word of God. He denied Scripture by itself to be the intrinsic Word of God and touchstone of

doctrine, instead affirmed it to be the words which God inspired the prophets and Apostles to

write in order to record the true Word's — Jesus Christ's — dealings with the world.12

In response to these convictions, Fox felt led to organize a “Gospel order”, a Society

where Friends could maintain functional openness to Christ's own direct government as a tight-

knit community.13 He was not authoritative, but believed that each person's inspiration should be

checked in light of the collective whole. True gospel ministers did not become so through

educational or “man-made” systems, but rather they received vocation and inspiration directly

from God. He recommended that each fellowship take care of its poor and provide work for

those who were unemployed for valid reasons; parents were to help educate their children so that

there would be no poor among Friends; alms-houses and hospitals were to be set up for elderly

Friends who were past work; houses should be set up to take care of the mentally insane who

were generally neglected by society; and he also founded many schools. 14 He also adamantly

rejected to taking up arms and swearing any sort of oath whatsoever, both of which Spurgeon

greatly commended him for and could not understand how other Christians did not hold these

12 Ibid. p. 30.

13 Ibid. p. 74.


Green Co., 1959), p. 67-69.



same positions.15

Fox and Quakers were also especially hated and persecuted for the latter, so

much so that a Quaker Act was passed in 1672 which penalized anyone who refused to take

oaths.

As has been seen, Fox's relationship with governing officials wavered throughout his

ministry. In fact, early on he won the support and sympathy of Oliver Cromwell, whose heart

knit with him and who pleaded Fox to keep in contact.16

The Quakers were even invited to

participate in Parliament in 1659, and even Charles II was at first favorable towards them;

however, after the failed insurrection attempt by Fifth Monarchists in 1661 things began turning

bitter for Dissenters, Quakers included. Two Conventicle Acts were passed forbidding religious

assemblies of four or more people to be held outside of the Church of England, and thus many

Friends bore the brunt end of this policy. This was to result in Fox's last imprisonment in

England from 1673 to 1675, where he was falsely accused and offered pardon, but refused

because he said that he did not commit any crime in need of pardoning.17

After being released, Fox spent some time traveling throughout Northern Europe and

corresponding with groups of Friends he established overseas His health continued to fail him

and, after preaching his last sermon, he died on January 13 1691. After zealously preaching all

throughout Northern Europe, America, and the West Indies; being imprisoned eight times and



Longstreth, 1898), p. 18-19.

16 Douglas Gwyn, Apocalypse of the Word: The Life and Message of George Fox (Richmond, IN:

Friends United Press, 1984), p.


Green Co., 1959), p. 64.



spending six years of his life in dungeons and rat infested cells; witnessing God's power and

revelations mightily throughout his life; George Fox was ready to exclaim right before his death,

“It is clear! It is clear!”

18

Indeed, Fox's life was one of unusual labor and self abandonment to

his God, and it was worthy of the complement repeated by the Prince of Preachers: “Many sons

have done virtuously, but thou excellest them all.”19

Contributions to the Church

William Livingston, first governor of New Jersey, once said of George Fox, “George Fox

alone has, without human learning, done more than any other reformer in Protestant Christendom

towards the restoration of real, primitive, unadulterated Christianity and the destruction of priest

craft, superstition, and ridiculous, unavailing rites and ceremonies.”20

Although like many other

more pietistic-minded men of God throughout the history of the Church, George Fox had slight

deficiencies when it came to methodical and prudent theology; nevertheless he is unequaled in

his life and practice of authentic Spirit lead, experiential Christianity. Unlike the worldly

members of the “apostasy from the days of the apostles”, his unwavering conviction was that the

same Spirit who was in the prophets and apostles in the New Testament truly continued to dwell

in and lead all followers of Christ. He saw the dead formalism of his day, and considered all of

their ideas to be merely “notional” if not grounded in experience. This especially applied to his



Longstreth, 1898), p. 12

19 Ibid. p. 3.

20 Leonard Ravenhill, “George Fox: The Unshakeable Quaker”, Dayspring (Minneapolis,MN:

Bethany House Publishers, 1963), p.2.



approach to Scripture. Without a living experience of the “indwelling Word”, men may speak

and discuss the words of the Apostles, but they neither truly know what they were saying nor the

God they are talking about. However, contrary to popular opinion due to some of his

overreactions, Fox was not in any sense opposed to Scripture. His contemporaries were often

confounded with his insight and intimate knowledge of the word, and it was said that “though the

Bible was lost, it might be found in the mouth of George Fox.”21

Rather, what Fox was opposed

to was the fact that the “Christendom” of his day lacked the power and Spirit of those who gave

forth the Scriptures. For him, the truths of the Scriptures were to be internalized by the Spirit ,

not by the letter, and the the former could take place even outside the pages of the Bible.

Perhaps most importantly, however, was Fox's confidence that the Holy Spirit was the

means for all true biblical and vital Christian community. Although many others during his day

recognized the need for more freedom within the assemblies, and “prophesying” (expositing) by

the laity was commonly practice in Independent churches , Fox continued to push the envelope

and seek to allow the Spirit to have full governance over the people. He exposed traditions that

seemed to be foreign to the churches observed in the New Testament, and sought to avoid

quenching the Spirit in everything he did. His entire life and ministry can be summed up in the

following words: “to George Fox, 'Our Father who is in heaven' was one near at hand, and the

Holy Spirit was one who dwelt with him, and remained with him for ever. He did not imagine

that God was oblivious of his servants, but he expected that God would speak to him, commune

with him, cheer him, guide him, comfort him, chide him, uphold him. He had inward

communications from God, in the strength of which he went his way to suffer and to serve with

21 Geoffrey F. Nuttall, The Holy Spirit in Puritan Faith and Experience (Chicago: University of

Chicago Press, 1992), p.26



all his hear, and soul, and strength.”22



Longstreth, 1898), p.

George Fox: Friend and Prophet

Documents

Transcript of George Fox: Friend and Prophet