"Mark this, poor people, what the Levellers would do for you. Oh
why are you so mad as to cry up a king? It is he and his Court and
Patentee-men, as Majors Aldermen, and such creatures, that like
cormorants devour what you should enjoy, and set up Whipping-posts
and Correcting-houses to enslave you. 'Tis rich men that oppress
you, saith James.
"Now in this right Common-wealth he that had least had no want.
Therefore the Scriptures call them a Family or Household of Israel.
And amongst those who received the Gospel, they were gathered into
a Family, and had all things common (Acts 2. 44); yet so that each
one was to labor and get his own bread. And this is Equity as
aforesaid. For it is not lawful nor fit for some to work and the
others to play; for it's God's command that all work, let all eat.
And if all work alike, is it not fit for all to eat alike, have
alike, and enjoy alike privileges and freedoms? And he that doth
not like this, is not fit to live in a Common-wealth. Therefore
weep and howl, ye rich men, by what vain name or title soever, God
will visit you for all your oppressions. You live upon other men's
labors, giving them bran to eat, extorting extreme rents and taxes
from your fellow-creatures. But now what will you do? for the
people will no longer be enslaved by you, for the knowledge of the
Lord shall enlighten them.
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