George Fox - George Fox - An Autobiography

Elizabeth Hooton was a woman of good standing, who was born in Nottingham about the year 1600. She was the first person of her sex to become a minister in the newly-gathered Society. The preaching of women at this time was not entirely novel, as it was allowed by several of the religious sects of the period. Elizabeth Hooton had her faith severely tested by persecution and long imprisonment. She performed two religious visits to America and the West Indies and died in Jamaica in 1671.

All profound spiritual teachers contrast wisdom and knowledge – what is here called "knowledge in the Spirit" and "knowledge in the flesh," or, what is perhaps more frequently called "knowledge of the heart" and "knowledge of the head." The latter expression means a knowledge of fact – the knowing that a thing is so by evidence which satisfies the mind. The former expression means the soul's immediate grasp of truth by the test of practical experience. The goal in one case is the establishment of some fact; the goal in the other case is the production of positive life and character by the appreciation of the truth.

The "Separatists" – especially here the Congregationalists and Baptists.

Compare this great passage where George Fox describes his conversion with Paul's account of the spiritual fiat lux in 2 Cor. 4: 6, "For God who commanded the light to shine out of darkness [the first fiat lux ] hath shined in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ."

At the very beginning of his ministry in 1647 George Fox evidently preached the possibility of complete freedom from sin. But he was very careful to avoid presenting the mere theory or "notion" of perfection, which was common among all the types of "Ranters." He believed that Christ came to destroy sin, and he stoutly held that when He ruled in a man sin and the dominion of it were done away. Man could come into "the condition Adam was in before he fell," to use his own expression. One of his most frequent challenges was to demand that modern Christians should come into "the same life and power which those were in who gave forth the Scriptures." But George Fox's test of holiness was the practical test of daily life. No man was to be accounted holy if he were not in fact holy.

That is, why should I have suffered such troubles and temptations.

For those who are interested in the psychology of George Fox this is one of the most important passages in the Journal. These sweeping psychical and physical changes are most significant. On two other occasions of his life, which will be noted later, he underwent similar, though perhaps profounder, changes. These passages in the Journal reveal, to those who are familiar with such phenomena, the fact that George Fox was subject to deep subliminal transformations. The passage, too, throws much light back upon his long travail through distress and darkness.

In the year 1648.

"But above all he excelled in prayer. The inwardness and weight of his spirit, the reverence and solemnity of his address and behaviour, and the fewness and fulness of his words, have often struck, even strangers, with admiration, as they used to reach others with consolation. The most awful, living, reverent frame I ever felt or beheld, I must say, was his in prayer. And truly it was a testimony he knew and lived nearer to the Lord than other men." – Preface to George Fox's "Journal."

William Penn gives the following testimony to Fox's power in prayer:

This is a characteristic illustration of the way Fox passed beyond theories and doctrines, and demanded practical life-results .

That is, members of the English or Episcopal Church.

The Friends from the time of Fox until the present have been careful to use the word "church" only for the community of spiritual believers. The cathedrals and churches were called "steeple-houses," and their own places of worship were called "meeting-houses."

A beautiful valley southwest of Nottingham, near the edge of the counties of Nottinghamshire and Leicestershire, just west of Bardon Hills.

See Whittier's poem, "Revelation."

He means experience.

There is no account of the origin of this meeting, which seems to have been in existence before Fox came to Eton. There seems to have been considerable definite work done which is not detailed in the "Journal." [See "Epistles," Vol. I., page 2, "Truth sprang up (to us as to be a people of the Lord) in Derbyshire in 1647."] Eton is in Derbyshire.

This is an interesting illustration of Fox's sensitiveness to wrong social conditions and of the practical character of his religion.

This passage which records a striking personal experience is undated. It is strangely like an experience of the great German mystic, Jacob Boehme, whose works were published in England about the time Fox was beginning his missionary labors. He, too, had all nature opened to him, so that he says he saw the true significance and essence of things. See Jacob Boehme, "Signatura Rerum," which was published in English in 1649. Muggleton, in his "Looking Glass for G. Fox" (second edition, 1756, page 10), says that the writings of Boehme are the "chief books" bought by the followers of Fox.

The name "Friends" is apparently used as formerly on page 77 to designate the gatherings of persons who sympathized with Fox's message and who afterwards were called "Friends."

One could wish that this important account of Fox's practical mission to the world were more clearly expressed than is here done in his phraseology, which needs translation into modern terms. There is, he means to say, a universal Divine principle or law of life which finds expression or voice in every soul. "That of God" in the individual "answers" or corresponds with the universal Divine principle. But, unfortunately, this Divine Light within is disobeyed, and thus men are astray – out of their true life and function. Fox's mission is to call all such to obedience to "that of God" within them.

This is the central teaching of George Fox. Everything else comes out of this elemental truth. It is, as he says, clearly enough taught in the Scriptures, but he now saw the truth as an immediate revelation – as a primary fact of experience.

The soul's own assurance of salvation was well proclaimed by Luther, but the high and joyous experience was well-nigh lost in Calvinistic England. Fox reaffirms the privilege of this experience. He proclaims no man's infallibility, but rather the infallibility of the Spirit, in union with which a man may know that he pleases God.

By a clear spiritual insight Fox saw how large a contribution both Judaism and Paganism had made to the historic church. He went to work to carry the reformation to its logical conclusion. To re-instate primitive Christianity was his aim.

The real principles here involved were simplicity of life, equal respect for all men alike, and strict sincerity. It must be confessed that these principles have sometimes been lost sight of, and dress and language have sometimes become a form to those who opposed all forms.