Chapter A NEW YEAR'S GIFT FOR THE PARLIAMENT AND ARMY

CHAPTER XII

A NEW YEAR'S GIFT FOR THE PARLIAMENT AND ARMY

 「Hear, O thou Righteous Spirit of the Whole Creation, and judge,
 who is the thief, he who takes away the Freedom of the Common Earth
 from me, which is my Creation Right; Or I, who take the Common
 Earth to plant upon for my free livelihood, endeavouring to live as
 a Free Commoner, in a Free Common-wealth, in Righteousness and
 Peace.「--WINSTANLEY, _The Law of Freedom_.

It was probably during the anxious times that beset the little community of Diggers during the winter of 1649-1650, that Winstanley wrote the long and bitter pamphlet, to which is attached a detailed list of the injuries inflicted upon them, and which early in 1650 appeared in book form under the following title:

 「A NEW YEAR'S GIFT FOR THE PARLIAMENT AND ARMY:[132:1]

 Showing what the Kingly Power is; and that the Cause of those they
     call Diggers is the Life and Marrow of that Cause the
     Parliament hath declared for and the Army fought for. The
     perfecting of which work will prove England to be the First of
     Nations, or the Tenth Part of the City Babylon, that falls off
     from the Beast first, and that sets the Crown upon Christ's
     head, to govern the World in Righteousness.

 By JERRARD WINSTANLEY,
 A Lover of England's Freedom and Peace.

       Die Pride and Envy; Flesh take the Poor's advice.
       Covetousness begone: Come Truth and Love arise.
       Patience take the Crown; throw Anger out of doors:
       Cast out Hypocrisy, and Lust, and mere invented Laws.[133:1]
       Then England sit in rest; Thy Sorrows will have end;
       Thy Sons will live in Peace, and each will be a friend.

 LONDON.
 Printed for Giles Calvert, 1650.「

Winstanley first gives a rapid sketch of recent events, as follows:

 「Gentlemen of the Parliament and Army; You and the Common People
 have assisted each other to cast out the head of oppression, which
 was Kingly Power seated in one man's hand, and that work is now
 done, and till that work was done you called upon the people to
 assist you to deliver this distressed, bleeding, dying Nation out
 of bondage. And the people came and failed you not, counting
 neither purse nor blood too dear to part with to effect this work.

 「The Parliament after this have made an Act to cast out Kingly
 Power and to make England a free Common-wealth. These Acts the
 people are much rejoiced with, as being words forerunning their
 freedom, and they wait for their accomplishment that their joy may
 be full. For as words without actions are a cheat, and kill the
 comfort of a righteous spirit, so words performed in action do
 comfort and nourish the life thereof.

 「Now, Sirs, wheresoever we spy out Kingly Power, no man I hope
 shall be troubled to declare it, nor afraid to cast it out, having
 both Act of Parliament, the Soldier's Oath, and the Common People's
 Consent on his side. For Kingly Power is like a great spread tree;
 if you lop the head or top bough and let the other branches and
 root stand, it will grow again and recover fresher strength.

 「If any ask me, what Kingly Power is? I answer, there is a twofold
 Kingly Power. The one is the Kingly Power of Righteousness, and
 this is the power of the Almighty God, ruling the whole Creation in
 Peace, and keeping it together. And this is the Power of Universal
 Love, leading people unto all truth, teaching everyone to do as he
 would be done unto.... But the other Kingly Power is the power of
 Unrighteousness.... This Kingly Power is the Power of Self Love,
 ruling in one or in many men over others, and enslaving those who
 in the Creation are their equals; nay, who are in the strictness of
 equity rather their masters. And this Kingly Power is usually set
 in the Chair of Government, under the name of Prerogative, when he
 rules in one over another; and in the name of State Privilege of
 Parliament, when he rules in many over others.... While this Kingly
 Power ruled in a man called Charles, all sorts of people complained
 of oppression, both Gentry and Common People, because their lands,
 enclosures and copyholds were entangled, and because their Trade
 was destroyed by Monopolising Patentees, and your troubles were
 that you could not live free from oppression in the earth.
 Thereupon you that were the Gentry, when you were assembled in
 Parliament, you called upon the Common People to come and help you
 to cast out oppression: and you that complained are helped and
 freed, and that top-bough is lopped off the Tree of Tyranny, and
 Kingly Power in that one particular is cast out. But, alas!
 oppression is a great tree still, and keeps off the Sun of Freedom
 from the poor Commons still. He hath many branches and great roots
 which must be grubbed up, before everyone can sing Zion's song in
 peace.「

After again praising the two Acts of Parliament--「the one to cast out Kingly Power; the other to make England a free Common-wealth「--and detailing his grievances against the Tything Priests and Lords of Manors, he continues:

 「Search all your Laws, and I'll adventure my life, for I have
 little else to lose, that all Lords of Manors hold Title to the
 Commons by no stronger hold than the King's Will, whose head is cut
 off; and the King held title as he was a Conqueror. Now if you cast
 off the King who was the head of that power, surely the power of
 Lords of Manors is the same. Therefore perform your own Act of
 Parliament, and cast out that part of the Kingly Power likewise,
 that the People may see that you understand what you say and do,
 and that you are faithful. For truly the Kingly Power reigns
 strongly in the Lords of Manors over the Poor. For my own
 particular, I have in other writings, as well as in this, declared
 my reasons why the Common Land is the Poor People's propriety; and
 I have digged upon the Commons; and I hope in time to obtain the
 freedom to get food and raiment therefrom by righteous labour:
 which is all I desire. And for so doing the supposed Lord of that
 Manor hath arrested me twice. First in an Action of L20 trespass
 for plowing upon the Commons, which I never did.... And now they
 have arrested me again in an Action of L4 trespass for digging upon
 the Commons, which I did, and own the work to be righteous and no
 trespass to any. This was the Attorney at Kingstone's advice,
 either to get money from both sides ... or else that I should not
 remove the action to a Higher Court, but that the cause might be
 tried there. For they know how to please Lords of Manors, that have
 resolved to spend hundreds of pounds but they will hinder the Poor
 from enjoying the Commons.「

Then he gives utterance to the sense of indignation which filled his heart in the following bitter and contemptuous words:

 「Do these men obey the Parliament's Acts, to throw down Kingly
 Power? O no! The same unrighteous doing that was complained of in
 King Charles' days, the same doing is among them still. Money will
 buy and sell Justice still. And is our eight years' war come round
 about to lay us down again in the Kennel of Injustice as much or
 more than before? Are we no farther learned yet? O ye Rulers of
 England, when must we turn over a new leaf? Will you always hold us
 in one lesson? Surely you will make Dunces of us; then all the Boys
 in other Lands will laugh at us! Come, I pray, let us take forth
 and go forward in our learning!「

Winstanley's zeal for the cause he had espoused was, however, too real to allow him to continue long in this strain, so he immediately adopts a more persuasive tone, as follows:

 「You blame us who are the Common People as though we would have no
 government. Truly, Gentlemen, we desire a righteous government with
 all our hearts. But the Government we have gives freedom and
 livelihood to the Gentry, to have abundance, and to lock up
 Treasures of the Earth from the Poor; so that rich men may have
 chests full of gold and silver, and houses full of corn and goods
 to look upon, while the Poor who work to get it can hardly live;
 and if they cannot work like slaves, then they must starve. Thus
 the Law gives all the Land to some part of mankind, whose
 predecessors got it by conquest, and denies it to others, who by
 the Righteous Law of Creation may claim an equal portion. And yet
 you say this is a Righteous Government, but surely it is no other
 than selfishness.「

His indignation again gets the mastery of him, and he continues bitterly:

 「England is a prison; the varieties of subtilties in the Laws
 preserved by the Sword are the bolts, bars and doors of the prison;
 the Lawyers are the Jailers; and Poor Men are the prisoners. For
 let a man fall into the hands of any, from the Bailiff to the
 Judge, and he is either undone or weary of his life. Surely this
 power, the Law, which is the great Idol that people dote upon, is
 the burden of the Creation, a nursery of idleness, luxury and
 cheating, the only enemy of Christ, the King of Righteousness! For
 though it pretends Justice, yet the Judges and Law Officers buy and
 sell Justice for money, and say it is my calling, and never are
 troubled at it.「

He then makes the following manly appeal to his persecutors:

 「You Gentlemen of Surrey, and Lords of Manors, and you Mr. Parson
 Platt especially ... my advice to you is this, hereafter to lie
 still and cherish the Diggers, for they love you and would not have
 your finger ache if they could help it, then why should you be so
 bitter against them? O let them live beside you. Some of them have
 been Soldiers, and some Countrymen that were always friends to the
 Parliament's cause, by whose hardships and means you enjoy the
 creatures about you in peace. And will you now destroy part of them
 that have preserved your lives? O do not do so; be not so besotted
 with the Kingly Power.... Bid them go and plant the Commons. This
 will be your honor and your comfort; for assure yourselves that you
 can never have true comfort till you be friends with the Poor.
 Therefore, come, come, love the Diggers, make restitution of their
 land you hold from them; for what would you do if you had not such
 laboring men to work for you?「

A pertinent question, truly, and one which those whom he addressed, as well as those who are to-day in their places, would find it somewhat inconvenient to answer.

He then appeals to the Officers of the Army in the following bold and manly words:

 「And you, great Officers of the Army and Parliament, love your
 common Soldiers (I plead for Equity and Reason) and do not force
 them, by long delay of payment, to sell you their dearly bought
 Debentures for a thing of nought, and then to go and buy our Common
 Land, and Crown Land, and other Land that is the spoil, one of
 another therewith. Remember you are Servants to the Commons of
 England, and you were volunteers in the Wars, and the Common People
 have paid you for your pains largely.... As soon as you have freed
 the Earth from one entanglement of Kingly Power, will you entangle
 it more? I pray you consider what you do, and do righteously. We
 that are the Poor Commons, that paid our money and gave you
 free-quarter, have as much right in those Crown Lands and Lands of
 the spoil as you. Therefore we give no consent that you should buy
 and sell our Crown Lands and Waste Lands; for it is our purchased
 inheritance from under oppression! it is our own, even the poor
 Common People's of England.... We paid you your wages to help us
 recover it, but not to take it yourselves and turn us out, and to
 buy and sell it among yourselves.... If you do so, you uphold the
 Kingly Power, and so disobey both Acts of Parliament, and break
 your Oath; and you will live in the breach of these two
 commandments, Thou shalt not kill, Thou shalt not steal, by denying
 us the Earth which is our livelihood, and thereby killing us by a
 lingering death.「

Winstanley then summarises his contentions, as follows:

 「Well, the end of all my speech is to point out the Kingly Power
 where I spy it out. And you see it remains strongly in the hands of
 Lords of Manors, who have dealt so discourteously with some who are
 sincere in heart, though there have some come among the Diggers
 that have caused scandal, but we disown their ways.[137:1]

 「The Lords of Manors have sent to beat us, to pull down our houses,
 spoil our labours; yet we are patient, and never offered any
 violence to them again these forty weeks past, but wait upon God
 with love till their hearts thereby be softened. All that we
 desire is but to live quietly in the Land of our Nativity by our
 righteous labour upon the Common Land, which is our own; but as yet
 the Lords of the Manors, so formerly called, will not suffer us,
 but abuse us. Is not that part of the Kingly Power? In that which
 follows I shall clearly prove it is; for it appears so clear that
 the understanding of a child does say, 'It is tyranny; it is the
 Kingly Power of Darkness.' Therefore we expect that you will grant
 us the benefit of your Act of Parliament, so that we may say--Truly
 England is a Common-wealth, and a Free People indeed.「

Winstanley then declares that despite all their trouble and anxiety the Diggers were still 「mightily cheerful,「 and resolved 「to wait upon God to see what He will do ... taking it a great happiness to be persecuted for righteousness' sake by the Priests and Professors that are the successors of Judas and the bitter spirited Pharisees that put the man Christ to death.「 He then again advances the reasons on which he bases the equal claims of all to the use of the earth, denounces the sources whence the exclusive claims of the few have sprung, more especially the tyrannical claims of Lords of Manors, boldly claiming that from this tyranny of man to man England should have been freed by the recent casting out of kingly power--and continues:

 「Therefore I say, the Common Land is my own Land, equal with my
 Fellow Commoners; and our true propriety by the Law of Creation.
 _It is every ones, but not one single ones._ Yea, the Commons are
 as truly ours by the last excellent two Acts of Parliament, the
 foundation of England's new Righteous Government aimed at, as the
 Elder Brothers can say the Enclosures are theirs. For they ventured
 their lives and covenanted with us to help them preserve their
 Freedom; and we adventured our lives and they covenanted with us to
 purchase and to give us our Freedom, that hath been hundreds of
 years kept from us.「

The first part of this pamphlet concludes as follows:

   「_Damona non Armis sed Morte subegit Jesus._

   「By patient sufferings, not by Death,
     Christ did the devil kill:
   And by the same still to this day,
     His foes he conquers still.

 「True Religion and undefiled is this: To make Restitution of the
 Earth, which hath been taken and held from the Common People by the
 power of Conquests formerly, and to set the oppressed free. Do not
 all strive to enjoy the land? The Gentry strive for land; the
 Clergy strive for land; the Common People strive for land; and
 Buying and Selling is an Art whereby People endeavour to cheat one
 another of the land. Now, if any can prove from the Law of
 Righteousness that the land was made peculiar to him and his
 successively, shutting others out, he shall enjoy it freely for my
 part. But I affirm, it was made for all; and true Religion is to
 let everyone enjoy it. Therefore you Rulers of England, make
 restitution of the Land which the Kingly Power holds from us. Set
 the Oppressed free; and come in and honor Christ, who is the
 Restoring Power, and you shall find rest.「

In the opening of the second part of this pamphlet Winstanley reverts somewhat to his earlier mystical style, and still further expounds the eternal struggle between the Spirit of Self Love and the Spirit of Universal Love, denouncing the former as the source of all social ills, extolling the latter as the source and inspirer of peaceful and equitable social life. 「In our present experience,「 he contends, 「Darkness or Self Love goes before, and Light or Universal Love follows after「; and hence 「Darkness and Bondage doth oppress Liberty and Light.「 He illustrates this contention, as well as the essential difference of the spirits animating the Diggers and their opponents, by relating how one of the Colonels of the Army told him--「That the Diggers did work upon Georges Hill for no other end than to draw a company of people into arms; and that our knavery was found out, because it takes not that effect「: on which Winstanley comments as follows:

 「Truly thou Colonel, I tell thee, thy knavish imagination is
 thereby discovered, which hinders the effecting of that Freedom
 which by Oath and Covenant thou hast engaged to maintain. For my
 part and the rest, we had no such thought. We abhor fighting for
 Freedom; it is acting of the Curse, and lifting him up higher. Do
 thou uphold it by the Sword; we will not. We will conquer by Love
 and Patience, or else we count it no Freedom. Freedom gotten by the
 Sword is an established Bondage to some part or other of the
 Creation. This we have declared publicly enough. Therefore thy
 imagination told thee a lie, and will deceive thee in a greater
 matter, if Love doth not kill him. VICTORY THAT IS GOTTEN BY THE
 SWORD IS A VICTORY SLAVES GET ONE OVER ANOTHER; BUT VICTORY
 OBTAINED BY LOVE IS A VICTORY FOR A KING!「

Surely, surely, if all other writings of Winstanley had perished, this one passage would have given us sufficient insight into his philosophy, into the noble principles animating his life, to entitle him to our admiration and respect.

He then continues:

 「This is your very inward principle, O ye present Powers of
 England, you do not study how to advance Universal Love. If you did
 it would appear in action. But Imagination and Self Love mightily
 disquiet your mind, and makes you to call up all the Powers of
 Darkness to come forth and help you to set the Crown upon the head
 of Self, which is that Kingly Power you have oathed and vowed
 against, but yet uphold it in your hands.... All this falling out
 and quarrelling among mankind is about the Earth, and who shall,
 and who shall not enjoy it, when indeed it is the portion of
 everyone, and ought not to be striven for, nor bought, nor sold,
 whereby some are hedged in and others are hedged out. Far better
 not to have had a body than to be debarred the fruit of the Earth
 to feed and clothe it. And if every one did but quietly enjoy the
 Earth for food and raiment, there would be no wars, prisons, nor
 gallows, and this action which men call theft would be no sin. For
 Universal Love never made it a sin, but the Power of Covetousness
 made it a sin, and made Laws to punish it, though he himself lives
 in that sin in a higher manner than those he hangs and punishes....
 Well, He that made the Earth for us as well as for you will set us
 free, though you will not. When will the Veil of Darkness be drawn
 off your faces? Will you not be wise, O ye Rulers?「

After further expatiating on the blessings inherent in Righteousness and Universal Love, and on the inevitable evil consequences of Self Love or Covetousness, he indicates the practical steps by which these evils might be removed, as follows:

 「If ever the Creation is to be restored, this is the way, which
 lies in this two-fold power:

 「First, Community of Mankind, which is comprised in the Unity of
 the Spirit of Love, which is called Christ within you, or the Law
 written in the Heart, leading Mankind unto all Truth, and to be of
 one heart and one mind.

 「The Second is Community of the Earth, for the quiet livelihood in
 food and raiment, without using force or restraining one another.

 「These Two Communities, or rather one in two branches, is that true
 Levelling which Christ shall work at His more glorious appearance.
 FOR JESUS CHRIST, THE SAVIOUR OF ALL MEN, IS THE GREATEST, FIRST
 AND TRUEST LEVELLER THAT EVER WAS SPOKEN OF IN THE WORLD.「

 「Therefore you Rulers of England, be not afraid nor ashamed of
 Levellers, hate them not; Christ comes to you riding upon these
 clouds. Look not upon other Lands to be your pattern. All Lands in
 the World lie under Darkness, so doth England yet, though the
 nearest to Light and Freedom than any other. Therefore let no other
 Land take your Crown....

 「At this very day poor people are forced to work, in some places
 for 4, 5, and 6 pence a day, in other places for 8, 10, and 12
 pence a day, for such small prices that now, corn being dear, their
 earnings cannot find them bread for their families. Yet if they
 steal for maintenance, the murdering Law will hang them.... Well
 this shows that if this be Law, it is not the Law of Righteousness.
 It is a murderer; it is the Law of Covetousness and Self Love. And
 this Law that frights people and forces people to obey it by
 prisons, whips and gallows, is the very Kingdom of the Devil and
 Darkness, which the Creation groans under at this day.「

After this characteristic outburst, he gives them the following equally characteristic advice:

 「Come, make peace with the Cavaliers, your enemies, and let the
 oppressed go free, and let them have a livelihood. Love your
 enemies, and do to them as you would have had them do to you, if
 they had conquered you. Well, let them go in peace, and let Love
 wear the Crown. For I tell you and your Preachers, that Scripture
 which saith 'The Poor shall inherit the Earth,' is really and
 materially to be fulfilled. For the Earth is to be restored from
 the bondage of Sword-propriety, and is to become a Common Treasury
 in reality to the whole of mankind. For this is the work for the
 true Saviour to do, who is the true and faithful Leveller, even the
 Spirit and Power of Universal Love, that is now rising to spread
 itself in the whole Creation, who is the Blessing, who will spread
 as far as the Curse has spread, to take it off and cast it out, and
 who will set the Creation in peace.「

The pamphlet then concludes with the following words:

 「The time is very near when the people generally shall loathe and
 be ashamed of your Kingly Power, in your preaching, in your Laws,
 in your Councils, as now you are ashamed of the Levellers. I tell
 you Jesus Christ, who is that powerful Spirit of Love, is the Head
 Leveller: and as He is lifted up, He will draw all men after Him,
 and leave you naked and bare.... This Great Leveller, Christ our
 King of Righteousness in us, shall cause men to beat their swords
 into plough-shares, their spears into pruning-hooks, and Nations
 shall learn war no more. Everyone shall delight to let each other
 enjoy the pleasures of the Earth, and shall hold each other no more
 in bondage. Then what will become of your power? Truly he must be
 cast out as a murderer. I pity you for the torment your spirit must
 go through, if you be not fore-armed as you are abundantly
 fore-warned from all places. But I look on you as part of the
 Creation that must be restored; and the Spirit may give you wisdom
 to fore-see a danger, as he hath admonished divers of your rank
 already to leave those high places and to lie quiet and wait for
 the breaking forth of the powerful day of the Lord. Farewell, once
 more, Let Israel go free.「

As a sort of appendix to this pamphlet there appears the following interesting document:

 「A BILL OF ACCOUNT OF THE MOST REMARKABLE SUFFERINGS THAT THE
     DIGGERS HAVE MET WITH SINCE APRIL 1ST, 1649, which was the
     first day they began to dig and to take possession of the
     Commons for the Poor on George Hill in Surrey.

 「1. The first time divers of the Diggers were carried prisoners
 into Walton Church, where some of them were struck in the Church
 by the bitter Professors and rude multitude; but after some time
 they were freed by a Justice.

 「2. They were fetched by above a hundred rude people, whereof John
 Taylor was the leader, who took away their spades, and some of them
 they never had again: and carried them first to prison in Walton,
 and then to a Justice in Kingston, who presently dismissed them.

 「3. The enemy pulled down a house which the Diggers had built upon
 George Hill, and cut their spades and hoes to pieces.

 「4. Two Troops of Horse were sent from the General to fetch us
 before the Council of War, to give account of our Digging.

 「5. We had another House pulled down, and our Spades cut to pieces.

 「6. One of the Diggers had his head sore wounded, and a Boy beaten,
 and his clothes taken from him: divers being by.

 「7. We had a Cart and Wheels cut in pieces, and a Mare cut over the
 back with a Bill when we went to fetch a load of wood from Stoak
 Common, to build a house upon George Hill.

 「8. Divers of the Diggers were beaten upon the Hill, by William
 Star and John Taylor, and by men in women's apparel, and so sore
 wounded that some of them were fetched home in a Cart.

 「9. We had another House pulled down, and the Wood they carried to
 Walton in a Cart.

 「10. They arrested some of us, and some they cast into Prison, and
 from others they went about to take away their Goods, but that the
 Goods proved another man's, which one of the Diggers was servant
 to.

 「11. And indeed at divers times besides, we had all our corn
 spoiled. For the enemy were so mad that they tumbled the earth up
 and down, and would suffer no Corn to grow.

 「12. Another Cart and Wheels were cut to pieces, and some of our
 Tools taken by force from us, which we never had again.

 「13. Some of the Diggers were beaten by the Gentlemen, the Sheriff
 looking on, and afterwards five of them were carried to White Lion
 Prison, and kept there about five weeks, and then let out.

 「14. The Sheriff, with the Lords of Manors and Soldiers standing
 by, caused two or three poor men to pull down another House: and
 divers things were stolen from them.

 「15. The next day two Soldiers and two or three Countrymen, sent
 by Parson Platt, pulled down another House, and turned a poor old
 man and his wife out of doors to lie in the fields in a cold
 night.「

 「And this is the last hitherto. And so you Priests, as you were the
 last that had a hand in our persecution, so it may be that our
 misery may rest in your hand. For assure yourselves God in Christ
 will not be mocked by such Hypocrites that pretend to be His
 nearest and dearest Servants, as you do, and yet will not suffer
 His hungry and naked and houseless members to live quiet by you in
 the Earth, by whose Blood and Monies in the Wars you are in peace.

 「And now those Diggers that remain have made little Hutches to lie
 in, like Calf-cribs, and are cheerful, taking the spoiling of their
 Goods patiently, and rejoicing that they are counted worthy to
 suffer persecution for Righteousness' sake. And they follow their
 work close, and have planted divers acres of Wheat and Rye, which
 is come up and promises a very plentiful crop, and have resolved to
 preserve it by all the diligence they can. And nothing shall make
 them slack but want of food, which is not much now, they being all
 poor people, and having suffered so much in one expense or other
 since they began. For Poverty is their greatest burthen; and if
 anything do break them from the Work, it will be that.「

After this confession of their weakness, and of the probable end of their work, Winstanley again bursts out into verse as follows:

 「You Lordly Foes, you will rejoice
   this news to hear and see.
 Do so, go on; but we'll rejoice
   much more the Truth to see.
 For by our hands Truth is declared,
   and nothing is kept back;
 Our faithfulness much joy doth bring,
   though victuals we may lack,
 This trial may our God see good,
   to try, not us, but you;
 That your profession of the Truth
   may prove either false or true.「

And after another and much worse specimen of his poetry, which we will spare our readers, he concludes as follows:

 「And here I end, having put my Arm as far as my strength will go
 to advance Righteousness. I have writ; I have acted; I have Peace.
 And now I must wait to see the Spirit do His own work in the hearts
 of others; and whether England shall be the first Land, or some
 other, wherein Truth shall sit down in triumph.

 「But, O England, England, would God thou didst know the things that
 belong to thy peace before they be hid from thine eyes. The Spirit
 of Righteousness hath striven with thee, and doth yet strive with
 thee, and yet there is hope. Come in thou England, submit to
 righteousness before the voice go out, my Spirit shall strive no
 longer with flesh, and let not Covetousness make thee oppress the
 poor....

 「Gentlemen of the Army, we have spoken to you; we have appealed to
 the Parliament; we have declared our Cause with all humility to you
 all; and we are Englishmen, your friends that stuck to you in your
 miseries, when those Lords of Manors that oppose us were wavering
 on both sides. Yet you have heard them, and answered their request
 to beat us off; and yet you would not afford us an answer.

 「Yet Love and Patience shall lie down and suffer; let Pride and
 Covetousness stretch themselves upon their beds of ease, and forget
 the afflictions of Joseph, and persecute us for Righteousness'
 sake, yet we will wait to see the issue. The Power of Righteousness
 is our God; the Globe runs round; the longest sunshine day ends in
 a dark night. Therefore to Thee, O Thou King of Righteousness, we
 do commit our cause. Judge Thou between us and them that strive
 against us, and those that deal treacherously with Thee and us; and
 do Thine own work, and help weak flesh in whom the Spirit is
 willing.「

「To thee, O thou King of Righteousness, we do commit our cause. Judge Thou, and help weak flesh in whom the Spirit is willing.「 At this very hour the same prayer, the same cry for Justice, is still ascending to the throne of the King of Righteousness from the disinherited masses, on whose shoulders the weight of our civilisation rests, and whom it presses down to helpless poverty, misery, and wretchedness, and who are still suffering from the same fundamental injustice against which, as we have seen, Gerrard Winstanley protested so eloquently over two hundred and fifty years ago.

FOOTNOTES:

[132:1] King's Pamphlets. British Museum, Press Mark, E. 587.

[133:1] In deference to prevailing conventionalities, we have ventured to alter this line.

[137:1] In the next chapter we shall learn something of those 「Diggers that have caused scandal,「 and whose actions and views Winstanley found it necessary to disown.