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Berens, Lewis Henry

"The Digger Movement in the Days of the Commonwealth As Revealed in the Writings of Gerrard Winstanley, the Digger, Mystic and Rationalist, Communist and Social Reformer"

... Now, Friends, what have
we to do with any of these unfruitful works of darkness? Let us
take Peter's advice (1 Pet. iv. 3)--_The time past of our lives may
suffice that we have wrought the will of the Gentiles, when we
walked in lascivious lusts, excess of wine, revellings,
banquetting, and abominable idolatry._ And let us not receive the
Beast's mark lest that the doom in Revelation (xiv. 9-10) befall
us: but let us oppose the Beast's power, and follow the Lamb
withersoever he goeth."
The pamphlet then dwells on the chief causes impelling "wicked men," the
privileged classes and their parasites, to stand up for a king:
"Rich men cry for a king, so that the Poor should not claim his
right, which is his by God's gift.
"The horseleech Lawyer cries for a king, because else the supreme
power will come into the People's representatives lawfully
elected....
"The things, Lords, Barons, etc., cry for a king, else their
tyrannical House of Peers falls down, and all their rotten honour,
and all Patents and Corporations: their power being derived from
him; if he go down, all their tyranny falls too."
But now, it continues:
"The honest man that would have liberty cries down all interests
[or special privileges, as they would be termed to-day] whatsoever;
and to this end he desires Common Rights and Equity: which consist
of these particulars following:
"1.


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