precursor of all real prayer, if not as in itself a form of worship;
and his intense conviction of the ultimate salvation of the whole of
mankind. To Winstanley, Reason is the Ruling Spirit of the whole
Creation, is God, the Spirit of Righteousness, who is ever seated within
the hearts of men combating the lusts of the flesh, the promptings of
the brute animal nature of mankind. Disobedient man may know him not,
because covetous flesh, the promptings of self-love, hath deceived him,
and "so he looks abroad for a God, and so doth imagine or fancy a God in
some particular place of glory beyond the skies; or else, if men do look
for a God within them, yet are they led by the notions of King Flesh,
and not of King Spirit."[47:1] Reason, in short, is the spark of the
Divine in man, the Spirit of Light that dwells within and may rule the
mind and actions of every man. Conscience is but the promptings of
Reason, inspiring men to right action, to deal justly and brotherly and
to live in peaceful and harmonious association with their fellows.
Self-love, covetousness, the desire of the flesh, is ever the enemy of
Reason. And life is but a continuous struggle between these two powers
for dominion in the Creation, over the hearts and actions of mankind.
Self-love ruling the hearts of man, is the Adam that causes him to sin,
not the crime of the man Adam who lived so many thousand years ago. And
similarly it is the ruling of the spirit of Jesus Christ, the Inward
Light, within the hearts of man, not the sufferings of a man Christ
Jesus, which is the essential condition of individual and social
salvation. "This is the lightning that shall spread from East to West.
This is the Kingdom of Heaven within you, dwelling and ruling in your
flesh. Therefore learn to know Jesus Christ as the Father knows him;
that is, not after the flesh; but know that the Spirit within the flesh
is that mighty man Christ Jesus. He within governs the flesh; he within
laid down the flesh, when he was said to die; he within is to arise, not
at a distance from man, but he will rise up in men, and manifest himself