And the Earth, which was made to be a Common Storehouse for
all, is bought and sold and kept within the hands of a few, whereby
the Great Creator is mightily dishonoured, as if He were a
respecter of persons, delighting in the comfortable livelihood of
some, and rejoicing in the miserable poverty and straits of
others."
Winstanley then makes his appeal to those who had been entrusted with
the government of the Nation, in the following touching and yet
suggestive words:
"O thou Powers of England! though thou hast promised to make this
people a Free People, yet thou hast so handled the matter, through
thy self-seeking humour, that thou hast wrapped us up more in
bondage, and oppression lies heavy upon us.... If some of you will
not dare to shed your blood to maintain tyranny and oppression
upon the Creation, know this, That our blood and life shall not be
unwilling to be delivered up in meekness to maintain Universal
Liberty, that so the Curse, on our part, may be taken off the
Creation. We shall not do this by force of arms; we abhor it, for
it is the work of the Midianites to kill one another, but by
obeying the Lord of Hosts, by laboring the Earth in Righteousness
together, to earn our bread by the sweat of our brows, neither
giving hire nor taking hire, but working together and eating
together as one man, or as one house in Israel restored from
Bondage.
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