It is, however, in the fourth and fifth chapters that Winstanley
concisely and eloquently summarises the fundamental articles of his
religious faith. In them he again emphatically warns his fellows against
looking to others for knowledge of Divine revelations, and strongly
advises them to look into their own hearts. In support of this view he
quotes the Scripture text--"Light is come into the world, and men love
darkness rather than light, because their deeds are evil" (John iii.
19), which he then proceeds to explain as follows:
"The world is mankind; and every particular man and woman is a
perfect creation of himself, a perfect created world. If a
particular branch of mankind desire to know what the nature of
other men and women are, let him not look abroad, but into his own
heart, and he shall see. So that I say, man is the world, a perfect
creation, from whose poisoned flesh proceeds the lust of the eye,
the lust of the flesh, and the pride of life: these are not of the
Father. Now _light is come into the world_; that is, the Spirit of
Right Understanding hath taken up his dwelling in this flesh. Hence
man is called a reasonable creature, which is a name given to no
other creature but man, because the Spirit of Reason appears acting
in him, which if men did submit themselves unto, they would act
righteously continually: and so man would become lord of all other
creatures in righteousness.
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