The Digger Movement in the Days of the Commonwealth Part 24

"A Monarchial Army lifts up mountains and makes valleys, viz., advances Tyrants and treads the oppressed in the barren lanes of poverty. But a Commonwealth's Army is like John the Baptist, who levels the Mountains to the Valleys, pulls down the Tyrant, and lifts up the Oppressed: and so makes way for the Spirit of Peace and Freedom to come in to rule and inherit the Earth.

"By this which has been spoken an Army may see wherein they may do well and wherein they may do hurt."

THE OFFICE OF THE POST-MASTER.

Under this heading Winstanley describes an office by which he evidently thought the social bonds uniting the whole Nation might be strengthened and all parts thereof be brought into closer and more intimate relations one with the other. He describes its functions as follows:

"In every Parish throughout the Commonwealth shall be chosen two men (at the time when the other Officers are chosen), and these shall be called Post-Masters. And whereas there are four parts of the Land, East, West, North, South, there shall be chosen in the chief City two men to receive what the Post-Master of the East Country brings in"; and so on. "Now the work of a Country Post-master shall be this: They shall every month bring up or send by tidings from their respective Parishes to the chief City, of what accidents or pa.s.sages fall out, which is either to the honor or dishonor, hurt or profit, of the Commonwealth. And if nothing have fallen out in that month worth observation, then they shall write down peace or good order in such a Parish.

"When these respective Post-masters have brought up their Bills or Certificates from all parts of the Land, the Receiver of these Bills shall write down everything in order from Parish to Parish in the nature of a Weekly Bill of Observation. And those eight Receivers shall cause the Affairs of the Four Quarters of the Land to be printed in one Book with what speed may be, and deliver to every Post-master a Book, that as they bring up the affairs of one Parish in writing, they may carry down in print the Affairs of the Whole Land."

ITS BENEFITS.

"The benefit lies here, that if any part of the Land be visited with Plague, Famine, Invasion or Insurrection, or any casualties, the other parts of the Land may have speedy knowledge, and send relief. And if any accident fall out through unreasonable action, or careless neglect, other parts of the Land may thereby be made watchful to prevent like dangers. Or if any through industry or through ripeness of understanding have found out any secret in Nature, or new invention in any Art or Trade, or in the tillage of the Earth, or such like, whereby the Commonwealth may more flourish in peace and plenty, for which virtues those persons received honor in the places where they dwelt; then, when other parts of the Land hear of it, many thereby will be encouraged to employ their Reason and Industry to do the like; that so in time there will not be any Secret in Nature, which now lies hid (by reason of the iron age of Kingly Oppressing Government) but by some or other will be brought to light, to the beauty of our Commonwealth."

With this suggestive pa.s.sage this chapter may fittingly close. Like his great successor in the Nineteenth Century, Winstanley evidently realised that "Liberty means Justice, and Justice is the Natural Law--the law of health and symmetry and strength, of fraternity and co-operation."

FOOTNOTES:

[197:1] Law Reform was at that time very popular, and undoubtedly much needed. The month previous to the publication of the book we are now considering, in January 1652, a Law Reform Commission consisting of twenty-one members had been appointed. It evidently went to work in a very thorough manner. For, according to a modern Lawyer, Mr. Inderwick (see his book _The Interregnum_, referred to by Gardiner), it appears that of eight draft Acts proposed on March 23rd, 1652, one became Law in 1833, one in 1846, and a third in 1885.

[197:2] "Things of this world," says Locke (_Of Civil Government_, part ii. chap. xiii. -- 157), "are in so constant a flux, that nothing remains long in the same state.... But ... private interest often keeps up customs and privileges when the reasons of them are ceased."

[200:1] In his great work _Of Civil Government_, John Locke takes practically the same view as Winstanley of the duties of Parliaments and of the function of Law. In chapter ix. (part ii.) he says: "The legislative or supreme power of any Commonwealth, is bound to govern by established _standing laws_, promulgated and known to the people, and not by extemporary decrees; by indifferent [impartial] and upright judges, who are to decide controversies by those laws; and to employ the force of the community at home, _only in the execution of such laws_, or abroad, to prevent or redress foreign injuries, and secure the community from inroads and invasion. _And all this to be directed to no other end, but the peace, safety, and public good of the people._" Italics are ours.

CHAPTER XVI

GERRARD WINSTANLEY'S UTOPIA

THE LAW OF FREEDOM (_concluded_)

"Day unto day utters speech-- Be wise, O ye Nations! and hear What yesterday telleth to-day, What to-day to the morrow will preach.

A change cometh over our sphere, And the old goeth down to decay.

A new light hath dawned on the darkness of yore, And men shall be slaves and oppressors no more."

CHARLES MACKAY.

It is in the chapter we have just been considering, the fourth chapter of "The Law of Freedom," that we find Winstanley's last recorded utterances on cosmological and theological problems. Nothing seems to us more strikingly to show the broadening and development of his powerful mind than a comparison of the views here expressed with those contained in his earlier writings on the subject. True, the underlying ideas are practically the same: he still realises the existence of a Divine Spirit, the Spirit of Reason and of Love, of Righteousness and of Peace, animating, inspiring, pervading and governing the whole Creation; he still holds to his doctrine of the Inward Light, the spark of the Divine Spirit of Reason, within man, prompting each and all to act righteously and equitably one toward the other. Yet he is decidedly less mystical.

He lays emphasis on the necessity to study the works of G.o.d rather than the Word of G.o.d; and has evidently become less anthropomorphic and more spiritual, less mystical and more rational, less religious and more ethical, less theological and more philosophic, less scholastic and more scientific. However, we had better let him speak for himself.

Immediately after his reflections on the duties and functions of a Commonwealth's Parliament, he proceeds to consider the work of a Commonwealth's Ministry, as follows:

"THE WORK OF A COMMONWEALTH'S MINISTRY, AND WHY ONE DAY IN SEVEN MAY BE A DAY OF REST FROM LABOR.

"If there were good Laws and the People be ignorant of them, it would be as bad for the Commonwealth as if there were no Laws at all. Therefore it is very rational and good that one day in seven be still set apart, for three reasons:

"_First_, That the People in such a Parish may generally meet together to see one another's faces, and beget or preserve fellowship in friendly love.

"_Secondly_, To be a day of rest, or cessation from labor; so that they may have some bodily rest for themselves and cattle.

"_Thirdly_, That he who is chosen Minister (for that year) in that Parish may read to the People three things. First, the affairs of the whole Land, as it is brought in by the Post-Master. Secondly, to read the Law of the Common-wealth, not only to strengthen the memory of the ancients, but that the young people also, who are not grown up to ripeness of experience, may be instructed to know when they do well and when they do ill. For the Law of a Land hath the power of Freedom and Bondage, life and death, in its hand, therefore the necessary knowledge to be known; and he is the best Prophet that acquaints men therewith, that as men grow up in years they may be able to defend the Laws and Government of the Land. But these Laws shall not be expounded by the Reader; for to expound a plain Law, as if a man would put a better meaning than the letter itself, produces two evils: First, the pure Law and the minds of the people will be thereby confounded, for mult.i.tude of words darken knowledge. Secondly, the reader will be puffed up in pride to contemn the Law-makers, and in time that will prove the father and nurse of tyranny, as at this day is manifested by our Ministry."

WHAT SHALL BE SPOKEN OF.

"But because the minds of people generally love discourses, therefore, that the wits of men, both old and young, may be exercised, there may be speeches made in a threefold nature:

"_First_, To declare the acts and pa.s.sages of former ages and governments, setting forth the benefit of freedom by well-ordered Governments, as in Israel's Commonwealth, and the troubles and bondage which hath always attended oppression and oppressors, as the State of Pharaoh and other tyrant kings, who said the Earth and People were theirs, and only at their disposal.

"_Secondly_, Speeches may be made of all Arts and Sciences, some one day some another, as in Physics, Chyrurgery, Astrology, Astronomy, Navigation, Husbandry, and such like. And in these speeches may be unfolded the nature of all herbs and plants, from the Hysop to the Cedar, as Solomon writ of. Likewise men may come to see into the nature of the fixed and wandering Stars, those great powers of G.o.d in the heavens above. And hereby men will come to know the secrets of Nature and Creation, within which all true knowledge is wrapped up, and the light in man must arise to search it out.

"_Thirdly_, Speeches may be made sometimes of the nature of mankind, of his darkness and of his light, of his weakness and of his strength, of his love and of his envy, of his inward and outward bondages, of his inward and outward freedoms, etc. And this is that at which the ministry of Churches generally aim; but only that they confound their knowledge by imaginary study.... And thus to speak, or thus to read the Law of Nature (or G.o.d) as He hath written His name in every body, is to speak a pure language, and this is to speak the truth as Jesus Christ spake it, giving to everything its own weight and measure. By this means in time men shall attain to the practical knowledge of G.o.d truly, that they may serve Him in spirit and in truth: and this knowledge will not deceive a man."

HIS ANSWER TO OBJECTIONS.

Then follows a pa.s.sage which even to-day would bring down the wrath of "zealous but ignorant professors" upon the head of any author acknowledging it, if within their sphere of influence. He continues:

"'I,' but saith the zealous but ignorant Professor, 'this is a low and carnal Ministry indeed; this leads men to know nothing but the knowledge of the earth and the secrets of nature; but we are to look after spiritual and heavenly things.'

"I answer: 'To know the secrets of nature is to know the works of G.o.d; and to know the works of G.o.d within the Creation, is to know G.o.d himself; for G.o.d dwells in every visible work or body. Indeed, if you would know spiritual things, it is to know how the Spirit or Power of Wisdom and Life, causing motion or growth, dwells within and governs both the several bodies of the stars and planets in the heavens above, and the several bodies of the earth below, as gra.s.s, plants, fishes, beasts, birds and mankind. For to reach G.o.d beyond the Creation, or to know what he will be to a man after the man is dead, if any otherwise than to scatter him into his essences of fire, water, earth and air, of which he is composed, is a knowledge beyond the line or capacity of man to attain to while he lives in his compounded body. And if a man should go to imagine what G.o.d is beyond the Creation, or what he will be in a spiritual demonstration after a man is dead, he doth, as the proverb saith, but build castles in the air, or tells us of a world beyond the Moon or beyond the Sun, merely to blind the reason of man.

"'I'll appeal to yourself in this question, What other knowledge have you of G.o.d but what you have within the circle of the Creation? For if the Creation in all its dimensions be the fullness of Him that fills all with Himself; and if you yourself be part of this Creation: where can you find G.o.d but in that line or station wherein you stand? G.o.d manifests Himself in actual Knowledge, not in Imagination. He is still in motion, either in bodies upon earth or in the bodies in the heavens, or in both; in the night and in the day, in Winter, in Summer, in cold, in heat, in growth or not in growth.'"

THE CAUSE OF IGNORANCE, EVIL AND SORROWS.

"But when a studying imagination comes into man, which is the devil, for it is the cause of all evil and sorrows in the world; that is he who puts out the eyes of man's knowledge, and tells him he must believe what others have writ or spoke, and must not trust to his own experience. And when this bewitching fancy sits in the Chair of Government, there is nothing but saying and unsaying, frowardness, covetousness, fears, confused thoughts, and unsatisfied doubtings, all the days of that man's reign in the heart."

EXAMINE THE WAYS OF MEN, NOT ONLY THEIR PRECEPTS.

"Or, secondly, examine yourself and look likewise into the ways of all Professors, and you shall find that the enjoyment of the earth below, which you call a low and a carnal knowledge, is that which you and all Professors (as well as the men of the world, as you call them) strive and seek after. Wherefore are you so covetous after the world, in buying and selling, counting yourself a happy man if you be rich, and a miserable man if you be poor? And though you say, _Heaven after death is a place of glory where you shall enjoy G.o.d face to face_, yet you are loth to leave the earth and go thither.

"Do not your Ministers preach for to enjoy the earth? Do not professing Lawyers, as well as others, buy and sell the Conquerer's justice that they may enjoy the earth? Do not professing Soldiers fight for the earth, and seat themselves in that Land which is the birth-right of others, as well as theirs, shutting others out? Do not all Professors strive to get earth, that they may live in plenty by other men's labors? Do you not make the earth your very rest? Doth not the enjoying of the earth please the spirit in you?

and then you say G.o.d is pleased with your ways and blesseth you. If you want earth, and become poor, do you not say, G.o.d is angry with you? Why do you heap up riches? why do you eat and drink, and wear clothes? Are not all these carnal and low things of the earth? and do you not live in them and covet them as much as any, nay more than many which you call men of the world?

"It being thus with you, what other spiritual and heavenly things do you seek after more than others? What is in you more than in others? If you say there is, then surely you should leave these earthly things alone to the men of the world, as you call them, whose portions these are, and keep you within the compa.s.s of your own sphere, that others seeing you live a life above the world in peace and freedom, neither working yourselves, nor deceiving, nor compelling others to work for you, they may be drawn to embrace the same spiritual life by your single hearted conversation. Well I have done here."

"LET US NOW EXAMINE YOUR DIVINITY."