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heretics was only repealed in the reign of Charles the Second (in 1677),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.
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