Well I
have done here."
"LET US NOW EXAMINE YOUR DIVINITY."
Winstanley then carries the war into the camp of his clerical opponents,
and that in so forcible a manner that we cannot refrain from quoting at
length. He says:
"Let us now examine your Divinity, which you call heavenly and
spiritual things; for herein speeches are made, not to advance
knowledge, but to destroy the true knowledge of God. For Divinity
does not speak the truth, as it is hid in everybody, but it leaves
the motional knowledge of a thing as it is, and imagines, studies
or thinks what may be, and so runs the hazard of true or false.
This Divinity is always speaking words to deceive the simple, that
he may make them work for him and maintain him, but he never comes
to action himself, to do as he would be done by; for he is a
monster who is all tongue and no hand.
"This Divining Doctrine, which you call spiritual and heavenly
things, is the thief and the robber, he comes to spoil the Vineyard
of a man's peace, and does not enter in at the door, but he climbs
up another way. And this Doctrine is two-fold: First, it takes upon
him to tell you the meaning of other men's words and writings, by
his studying or imagining what another man's knowledge might be,
and by thus doing darkens knowledge, and wrongs the spirit of the
Authors who did write and speak those things which he takes upon
him to interpret.
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