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 99 of 360 (27%)
page 99 of 360 (27%)
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This long but most interesting chapter concludes with indicating the three steps Winstanley deemed essential for both individual and social salvation, with which our notice of this pamphlet may fittingly close: "There are yet three doors of hope for England to escape destroying plagues. "First, Let everyone leave off running after others for knowledge and comfort, and wait upon the Spirit, Reason, till he break forth out of the clouds of your heart and manifest himself within you. This is to cast off the shadow of learning, to reject covetous, subtile, proud flesh that deceives all by the hearsay and traditional preaching of words, letters, and syllables without the Spirit, and to make choice of the Lord, the true teacher of everyone in their own inward experience. "Secondly, Let everyone open his bags and barns, that all may feed upon the crops of the Earth, that the burden of poverty may be removed. Leave off this buying and selling of land, or of the fruits of the Earth, and, as it was in the light of Reason first made, so let it be in action amongst all, a Common Treasury, none enclosing or hedging in any part of the Earth, saying, _This is mine_, which is rebellion and high treason against the King of Righteousness. And let this word of the Lord be acted amongst all: _Work together; Eat bread together._{5} "Thirdly, Leave off dominion and lordship one over another; for the whole bulk of mankind are but one living Earth. Leave off imprisoning, whipping, and killing, which are but the actings of |
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