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 ReformerBerens, Lewis Henry
History
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
Berens, Lewis Henry
Communism; Land use; Winstanley, Gerrard, 1609-
[55:1] The full truth of these words comes home to us when we bear in
mind that the law (_De Comburendo Heretico_) sanctioning the burning of
heretics was only repealed in the reign of Charles the Second (in 1677),
the Bishops of the day opposing its repeal almost to a man.
[56:1] King's Pamphlets. British Museum, Press Mark, E. 2137.
[58:1] "The early Friends were men of prayer, and diligent searchers of
the Holy Scriptures. Unable to find true rest in the various opinions
and systems which in that day divided the Christian world, they believed
that they found the Truth in a more full reception of Christ, not only
as the living and ever-present Head of the Church in its aggregate
capacity, but also as the life and light, the spiritual ruler, teacher
and friend of every individual member."--_Book of Discipline of the
Society of Friends_. Quoted by J. S. Rowntree, _Society of Friends: its
Faith and Practice_, p. 24. See also Barclay's _Apology for the true
Christian Divinity_, p. 1: Second Proposition.
[60:1] "It is the inward master (saith Augustine) that teacheth, it is
Christ that teacheth, it is inspiration that teacheth: where this
inspiration and unction is wanting, it is vain that words from without
are beaten in." And thereafter: "For he that created us, and redeemed
us, and called us by faith, and dwelleth in us by his Spirit, unless he
speaketh unto you inwardly, it is needless for us to cry out."--From
Barclay's _Apology_, p. 13.
[61:1] "If instead of assuming the being of an awful deity, which men,
though they cannot and dare not deny, are always unwilling, sometimes
unable, to conceive, we were to show them a near, visible, inevitable,
but all-beneficent deity, whose presence makes the earth itself a
heaven, I think there would be fewer deaf children sitting in the
market-place."--John Ruskin, _Modern Painters_.
[62:1] British Museum, Press Mark, 4372, a.a. 17. Below the title
appears the following words: "Professors of all forms, behold the
Bridegroom is coming, your profession will be tried to purpose, your
hypocricy shall be hid no longer. You shall feed no longer upon the Oil
that was in other men's Lamps (the Scriptures), for now it is required
that everyone have Oil in his own Lamp, even the pure testimony of truth
within himself. For he that wants this, though he have the report of it
in his book, he shall not enter with the Bridegroom into the chamber of
peace."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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