" He quotes largely from the
Scriptures, more especially from Revelation, in support of this view;
and argues most vehemently against the objection that if this were true,
if eventually all will be saved, then men need not trouble about their
own individual salvation. He also protests against the doctrine of an
everlasting Hell, as unconfirmed by the Holy Scriptures, as destructive
of God's work, and as incompatible with His great goodness.
The prevalence of the belief in dispensations, past, present, and
future, may be gathered from the following extract from one of
Cromwell's speeches to the Army Council, November 1st, 1647: "Truly, as
Lieut. Col. Goffe said, God hath in several ages used several
dispensations, and yet some dispensations more eminently in one age than
another. I am one of those whose heart God hath drawn out to wait for
some extraordinary dispensations, according to those promises He hath
set forth of things to be accomplished in the latter time, and I cannot
but think that God is beginning of them."[53:1]
The same idea reappears, in fact influences the whole of Winstanley's
second pamphlet, of some 127 closely printed duodecimo pages, as might
almost be inferred from its title, _The Breaking of the Day of
God_,[54:1] which is in itself a revelation of its main contents. The
Dedicatory Epistle, which is dated May 20th, 1648, some twelve months
prior to the outbreak of the Digger Movement, already recorded, is the
most interesting and suggestive portion of this long, wearisome, and
almost unreadable volume.
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