they would not have crucified Him; and if they did truly know the power
of the God that dwells in you, they would not so despise you." "But,
well," he goes on to say, "these things must be. It is your Father's
will that it shall be so; the world must lie under darkness for a time;
that is God's dispensation to them. And you that are the Children of
Light must lie under the reproach and oppression of the world;[54:2]
that is God's dispensation to you. But it shall be but for a little
time. What I have here to say is to bring you glad tidings that your
redemption draws near."

In the pamphlet itself Winstanley attempts to prove that the coming
reign of Righteousness, and the overthrow of the Covetous, Self-Seeking
Power, are entirely in accordance with the prophesies of the Scriptures,
more especially with Revelation and John. In its final pages he
vehemently protests against the continued union of Church and State, or
rather against the continued upholding of the persecuting power of the
Church by the secular authorities. "The misery of the age" he attributes
to the fact that men are still striving "to uphold the usurped
Ecclesiastical Power, which God never made," and that in upholding this
they are "so mad and ignorant" as "to count Magistracie no government
unless the Beast reign cheek by chaw with it, as formerly in the days of
ignorance." This, however, he contends, should not be so, "for
Magistracie in the Commonwealth must stand, it's God's ordinance. But
this Ecclesiastical power in and over the Saints must fall." "This
Ecclesiastical power," he contends, "hath been a great troubler of
Magistracie ever since the deceived Magistracie set it up." The function
of Magistracie, "which is God's Ordinance," is "to be a terror to the
wicked, and to protect them that do well; whereas by this Ecclesiastical
power, established by deceived Magistracie, the sincere in heart that
worship God in spirit and truth, according as God hath taught them and