The Digger Movement in the Days of the Commonwealth Part 5

"I have said that whosoever wors.h.i.+ps G.o.d by hearsay, as others tell him, and knows not what G.o.d is from light within himself; or that thinks G.o.d is in the heavens above the skies, and so prays to that G.o.d which he imagines to be there and everywhere, but from any testimony within, he knows not how nor where: this man wors.h.i.+ps his own imagination, which is the Devil. But he who is a true wors.h.i.+pper must know who G.o.d is and how He is to be wors.h.i.+pped, from the Power of Light s.h.i.+ning within him, if ever he have true peace."

"Hence," he continues, "a report is raised, and is frequent in the mouth of the teachers, that I deny G.o.d. Therefore, first, I shall give account of what I see and know Him to be; and let the understanding in heart judge me."

Winstanley then endeavours to formulate his theistic views and beliefs in a series of questions and answers, from which we feel compelled to quote the following:

"_Q._ What is G.o.d?

"_A._ I answer, He is the incomprehensible Spirit Reason;[63:1]

who as He willed the Creation should flow out of Him, so He governs the whole Creation in righteousness, peace, and moderation.

And He is called the Father, because as the whole Creation comes out of Him, so He is the life of the whole Creation, by whom every creature doth subsist.

"_Q._ When can a man call the Father his G.o.d?

"_A._ When he feels and sees, by experience, that the Spirit which made the flesh doth govern and rule king in his flesh. And so can say, I rejoice to feel and see my flesh made subject to the Spirit of Righteousness.

"_Q._ But may not a man call Him G.o.d till he have this experience?

"_A._ No: for if he do, he lies, and there is no truth in him. For whatsoever rules as king in his flesh, that is his G.o.d....

"_Q._ But I hope that the Father is my Governor, and therefore may I not call Him G.o.d?

"_A._ Hope without ground is the hope of the hypocrite. Thou canst not call Him G.o.d till thou be able in pure experience to say thy flesh is subject to Him. For if thy knowledge be no more but imagination or thoughts, it is of the Devil, and not of the Father.

Or if thy knowledge be merely from what thou hast read or heard from others, it is of the flesh, not of the spirit.

"_Q._ When then may I call him G.o.d, or the Mighty Governor, and not deceive myself?

"_A._ When thou art by that Spirit made to see Him rule and govern, not only in thee but in the whole creation.... Wait upon Him till He teach thee. All that read do not understand; the Spirit only sees truth, and lives in it."

Winstanley subsequently explains his views at considerable length. True knowledge, he contends, comes from within, not from without. "The whole Scriptures," he maintains, "are but a report of spiritual mysteries held forth to the eye of the flesh in words." The Gospel he explains to be "the Father Himself, that is, the Word and glad tidings that speak peace inwardly to pure souls." The writings of the Apostles and the Prophets he regards as "the report or declaration of the Gospel, which are to cease when the Lord Himself, who is the everlasting Gospel, doth manifest Himself to rule in the flesh of sons and daughters." Concerning Baptism he says: "I have gone through the ordinance of dipping, which the letter of the Scripture doth warrant, yet I do not press anyone thereunto, but bid everyone to wait upon the Father, till He teach and persuade, and then their submitting will be sound. For I see now that it is not the material water, but the water of life; that is, the Spirit in which souls are to be dipped, and so drawn forth into the one Spirit; and all these outward customs and forms are to cease and pa.s.s away."[65:1] As regards prayer, he contends that no one should pray "until the Power within thee gives words to thy mouth to utter, then speak, and thou canst not but speak."[65:2]

It is, however, in a subsequent pamphlet, _The New Law of Righteousness_, that Winstanley more fully expounds this characteristic Quaker doctrine, and summarises his deeply philosophic views concerning silence as the necessary precursor of all true prayer, as follows:

"All these declare the half-hour's silence that is to be in Heaven (Rev. viii. 1). For all mouths are to be stopped by the power of Reason's law s.h.i.+ning within the heart. And this abundance of talk that is amongst people by arguments, by disputes, by declaring expositions upon others' word and writing, by long discourse, called preaching, shall all cease (Jer. x.x.xi. 34).

"Some shall not be able to speak, they shall be struck silent with shame by seeing themselves in a loss and in confusion. Neither shall they care to speak till they know by experience within themselves what to speak; but wait with a quiet silence upon the Lord, till He break forth within their hearts, and give them words and power to speak.... Men must leave off teaching one another, and the eyes of all shall look upward to the Father, to be taught of Him. And at this time silence shall be a man's rest and liberty; it is the gathering time, the soul's receiving time: it is the forerunner of pure language.... He that speaks from the original light within can truly say, I know what I say, and I know whom I wors.h.i.+p."

Somewhat later he continues:

"None shall need to turn over books and writings (for indeed all these shall cease too) to get knowledge. But everyone shall be taken off from seeking knowledge from without, and with an humble quiet heart shall wait upon the Lord, till He manifest Himself: for He is a great king, and worthy to be waited upon. His testimony within fills the heart with joy and singing. He first gives experiences; and then power to set forth these experiences. Hence you shall speak to the rejoicing one of another, and to the praise of Him who declares His power in you. But he that speaks his thoughts, studies, and imagination, and stands up to be a teacher of others, shall be judged for his unrighteousness, because he seeks to honor flesh, and does not honor the Lord."

He then somewhat mystically continues:

"Behold the Annointing, that is to reach all things, is coming to create a new Heaven and a new Earth wherein Righteousness shall dwell, and there shall not be a vessel of humane earth but it shall be filled with Christ. If it were possible to have so many buckets as to contain the whole ocean, every one could be filled with the ocean, and being put all together it would make up the perfect ocean which filled them all. Even so Christ, which is the spreading power, is now beginning to fill every man and woman with Himself.

He will dwell and rule in everyone; and the Law of Reason and Equity shall be Christ in them. Every single body is a star s.h.i.+ning forth of Him, or rather a body in and out of whom He s.h.i.+nes; and He is the ocean of power that fills all. And so the words are true, the Creation, mankind, shall be the fulness of Him that fills all in all. This is the Church, the great Congregation, that, when the mystery is completed, shall be the mystical body of Christ, all set at liberty from inward and outward straits and bondage. And this is called the holy breathing that made all new by Himself and for Himself."

We think we have now dealt sufficiently with Winstanley's exposition of the theistical doctrines subsequently adopted, and almost in their entirety, by the Society of Friends. In a later chapter (Chap. XVI.) we shall show how far he himself modified his earlier views. And in the succeeding chapter we shall briefly lay before our readers the practical and fundamental social changes Winstanley deemed demanded by the dictates of Reason, as forming the necessary first steps towards laying the foundations of "a new Earth and a new Heaven wherein Righteousness, or Justice, shall dwell."

FOOTNOTES:

[53:1] _Clarke Papers_, vol. i. p. 379.

[54:1] British Museum, Press Mark, 4377, a. 2.

[54:2] In 1655, Giles Calvert published "A _Declaration from the Children of Light_ (who are by the world scornfully called Quakers)."

British Museum, Press Mark, E. 838.

[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 a.s.suming 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 t.i.tle 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."

[63:1] "The incomprehensible Spirit Reason!" It is interesting to note here that the "Tau" of the great Chinese philosopher, Lau-tsze,--the word he uses to denote the Absolute, which, consequently, he wisely leaves vague and undefined, and which apparently has no English word exactly equivalent to it,--suggests to his translator three English words--"the Way, Reason, and the Word." The latter's one objection to the word Reason as an equivalent is that to him it "seems to be more like a quality or attribute of some conscious being than Tau is." See _The Speculations of the old Philosopher Lau-tsze_, by John Chalmers, M.A. Introduction.

[65:1] See Barclay's _Apology_ (Concerning Baptism), p. 7.

[65:2] "All true and acceptable wors.h.i.+p to G.o.d is offered in the _inward_ and _immediate_ moving and drawing of his own Spirit, which is limited neither to places, times, nor persons. For though we be to wors.h.i.+p him always, in that we are to fear before him; yet as to the outward signification thereof in prayers, praises, or preachings, we ought not to do it where and when we will, but where and when we are moved by the secret inspiration of his Spirit in our hearts, which G.o.d heareth and accepteth of, and is never wanting to move us thereunto when need is, of which he himself is the alone proper judge."--Barclay's _Apology_ (Concerning Wors.h.i.+p), p. 6.

CHAPTER VII

THE NEW LAW OF RIGHTEOUSNESS

"The great Lawgiver in Commonwealth's Government is the Spirit of Universal Righteousness dwelling in mankind, now rising up to teach everyone to do to another as he would have another do to him.... If any goes about to build up Commonwealth's Government upon Kingly principles, they will both shame and loose themselves: for there is a plain difference between the two Governments."--WINSTANLEY, _The Law of Freedom_.

On January 26th, 1648 (1649), four days prior to the execution of Charles the First, the very day the King's death-warrant lay at the Painted Chamber, Westminster, awaiting the signatures of some of the less resolute among his judges, Winstanley sat down to write the opening epistle of the pamphlet we have now to make known to our readers.[68:1]

They were stirring and momentous times, of which, as it seems to us, this pamphlet is in every way worthy. It reveals a most momentous step in the development of Winstanley's mind; for in it we see him move from the misty regions of cosmological, metaphysical, and theistical speculations to the somewhat firmer ground of social thought. From the time of its publication, Winstanley leaves the former almost untouched, concentrates his mind almost exclusively on the latter, pleads eloquently for the recognition of natural law in the social, or political world, and steps boldly forward to a life of action, animated and inspired by the conclusions concerning the necessary foundations of a social state based upon righteousness that his previous reflections and meditations, or the Inward Light to which he unhesitatingly submitted himself, had revealed unto him.

The only indication that Winstanley was in any way influenced by the exciting discussions which under the circ.u.mstances must have raged everywhere around him, is to be found in his condemnation of Capital Punishment, which may here find a fitting place. In accordance with his favourite method, he summarises his views in answer to a hypothetical question, as follows:

"But is not this the old rule, He that sheds man's blood by man shall his blood be shed?

"I answer, It is true, but not as usually it is observed. If any man can say, he can give life, then he hath the power to take away life. But if the power of life and death be only in the hand of the Lord, then surely he is a murderer of the Creation that taketh away the life of his fellow-creature, man, by any law whatsoever.... For if I kill you, I am a murderer; if a third come to kill me for murdering you, he is a murderer of me; and so murder hath been called Justice, when it is but the curse.... Therefore, O thou proud flesh that dares hang or kill thy fellow-creatures that are equal to thee in the Creation, know this, that none hath the power of life and death but the Spirit, and that all punishments that are to be inflicted amongst creatures called men are only such as to make the offender to know his Maker, and to live in the community of the Righteous Law of Love one with the other."

The opening epistle is addressed--"To the Twelve Tribes of Israel that are circ.u.mcised in heart, and scattered through all the Nations of the Earth." In it he admonishes them to be patient, for "this New Law of Righteousness and Peace which is raising up is David your King, which you have been seeking a long time"; that "He is now coming to reign, and the isles and nations of the Earth shall all come in unto Him"; that "He will rest everywhere, for this blessing will fill all places." But he reminds them that "the swords and counsels of the flesh shall not be seen in this work; the arm of the Lord only shall bring these mighty things to pa.s.s in the day of His power." "Therefore," he continues, "all that I can say is this--Though the world, even the seed of the flesh, despise you, and call you by reproachful names at their pleasure, yet wait patiently upon your King; He is coming; He is rising; the Son is up, and His glory will fill the Earth."

In the opening chapter of this pamphlet Winstanley still further elucidates his interpretation of the allegorical stories of the Creation and the Fall. How in the beginning man was created perfect, and "the whole Creation lived in man, and man lived in his Maker." And how man fell from this high estate by following the promptings of self-love, covetousness, or the desires of the flesh, to which he attributes all the misery and suffering men bring upon themselves, and which he personifies as the First Adam. "All that this Adam doth," he says, "is to advance himself to be the one power. He gets riches and government in his hands so that he may lift up himself and suppress the universal liberty, which is Christ."