The Digger Movement in the Days of the Commonwealth - As Revealed in the Writings of Gerrard Winstanley, the Digger, Mystic and Rationalist, Communist and Social Reformer by Lewis Henry Berens
page 127 of 360 (35%)
page 127 of 360 (35%)
![]() | ![]() |
|
Lords and Tenants, for one to call the land his, or another to hire
it of him, or for one to give hire and for another to work for hire: This is to dishonour the work of Creation, as if the righteous Creator should have respect to persons, and therefore made the Earth for some and not for all. So long as we, or any other, maintain this Civil Propriety, we consent still to hold the Creation in that bondage it groans under; and so we should hinder the Work of Restoration, and sin against the Light that is given into us, and so, through fear of the flesh man, lose our peace." And the pamphlet concludes with the following somewhat mystic words: "Thus you Powers of England, and of the whole World, we have declared our Reasons why we have begun to dig upon George Hill in Surrey. One thing I must tell you more, which I received in voice likewise at another time; and when I received it my eye was set towards you. The words were these--_Let Israel go free._ "Surely as Israel lay four hundred and thirty years under Pharaoh's bondage, before Moses was sent to fetch them out, even so Israel (the Elect Spirit spread in Sons and Daughters) hath lain three times so long already.... But now the time of Deliverance hath come.... For now the King of Righteousness is arising to rule in and over the Earth.... Therefore once more, _Let Israel go free_, that the Poor may labour the waste land, and suck the Breasts of their Mother Earth, that they starve not. In so doing thou wilt keep the Sabbath Day, which is a Day of Rest, sweetly enjoying the Peace of the Spirit of Righteousness, and find Peace by living among a people that live in Peace: This will be a Day of Rest which thou never knew yet. |
|