[50:2] Coomber had already pointed out that Quakerism arose in the North of England, and mainly in Winstanley’s native county of Lancashire. His reference to Giles Calvert, the printer, is also most suggestive; for Calvert published almost all Winstanley’s pamphlets, and later was one of the first authorised publishers of the official publications of the Society of Friends. Calvert’s establishment seems to have been the source, as well as the depository, of much of the advanced literature of his times. In his Protest against Toleration of Printing Pamphlets against Non-Conformists, Baxter refers to it as follows: “Let all the Apothecaries of London have liberty to keep open shop. But O do not under that pretence let a man keep an open shop of poisons for all that will destroy themselves freely, as Giles Calvert doth for Soul-poisons.” Calvert was suspected of having provided the funds for one of the later risings of the Fifth Monarchy Men. He subsequently joined the Quakers.
CHAPTER VI
WINSTANLEY’S EXPOSITION OF THE QUAKER DOCTRINES (1648-1649)
“There is nothing more sweet and satisfactory to a man than this, to know and feel that spiritual power of righteousness to rule in him which he calls God.... Wait upon the Lord for teaching. You will never have rest in your soul till He speaks in you. Run after men for teaching, follow your forms with strictness, you will still be at a loss, and be more and more wrapped up in confusion and sorrow of heart. But when once your heart is made subject to Christ, the Law of Righteousness, looking up to Him for instruction, waiting with a meek and quiet spirit till He appear in you: then you shall have peace; then you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.”—The New Law of Righteousness.
The Mystery of God concerning the whole Creation, Mankind, is the title of Winstanley’s first published pamphlet, to which we have already referred, and which was written early in the year 1648, probably in April or May. As already mentioned, it opens with a Dedicatory Epistle to “My beloved countrymen of the County of Lancaster,” in which he first apologises for venturing into print in the following suggestive words: “Dear countrymen, when some of you see my name subscribed to this ensuing discourse, you may wonder at it, and it may be despise me in your hearts ... but know that God’s works are not like men’s; He does not always take the wise, the learned, the rich of the world to manifest Himself in, and through them to others, but He chooses the despised, the unlearned, the poor, the nothings of the world, and fills them with the good tidings of Himself, whereas He sends the others empty away.” He further apprehends that his view, that “the curse that was declared to Adam was temporary,” and that ultimately the curse shall be removed off the whole Creation, and the whole of mankind shall be saved, will not be favourably received by those whom he is specially addressing. But he avows it a necessary truth, and concludes his appeal by saying that since the pamphlet was written he had met with “more Scripture to confirm it, so that it is not a spirit of private fancy, but it is agreeable to the Written Word.”
The pamphlet opens with Winstanley’s interpretation of the story of the fall of Adam, the outline of which we have already given. Subsequently he describes his own experiences: how he lay under bondage to the serpent self-love, and saw not his bondage; how God had manifested His love to him by causing him to see that the things in which he did take pleasure were, in truth, his death and his shame. He again repeats his contention that in due time God will not lose any of His work, but redeem “His own whole Creation to Himself.” Though this, he holds, will not be done all at once, but in several dispensations, “some whereof are passed, some in being, and some yet to come.” He quotes largely from the Scriptures, more especially from Revelation, in support of this view; and argues most vehemently against the objection that if this were true, if eventually all will be saved, then men need not trouble about their own individual salvation. He also protests against the doctrine of an everlasting Hell, as unconfirmed by the Holy Scriptures, as destructive of God’s work, and as incompatible with His great goodness.
The prevalence of the belief in dispensations, past, present, and future, may be gathered from the following extract from one of Cromwell’s speeches to the Army Council, November 1st, 1647: “Truly, as Lieut. Col. Goffe said, God hath in several ages used several dispensations, and yet some dispensations more eminently in one age than another. I am one of those whose heart God hath drawn out to wait for some extraordinary dispensations, according to those promises He hath set forth of things to be accomplished in the latter time, and I cannot but think that God is beginning of them.”[53:1]
The same idea reappears, in fact influences the whole of Winstanley’s second pamphlet, of some 127 closely printed duodecimo pages, as might almost be inferred from its title, The Breaking of the Day of God,[54:1] which is in itself a revelation of its main contents. The Dedicatory Epistle, which is dated May 20th, 1648, some twelve months prior to the outbreak of the Digger Movement, already recorded, is the most interesting and suggestive portion of this long, wearisome, and almost unreadable volume. It is addressed to—“The Despised Sons and Daughters of Zion, scattered up and down the Kingdom of England.” He first reminds them that “they are the object of the world’s hatred and reproach,” “branded as wicked ones,” “threatened with ruin and death,” “the object of every one’s laughter and reproach,” “sentenced to be put to death under the name of round-heads,” and so on. That they “are counted the troublers of Kingdoms and Parishes where they dwell, though the truth is that they are the only peaceable men in the Kingdom, who love the People’s peace, the Magistrate’s peace, and the Kingdom’s peace.” He continues—“But what’s the reason the world doth so storm at you, but because you are not of this world, nor cannot walk in the dark ways of the world. They hated your Lord Jesus Christ, and they hate you. They knew not Him, and they know not you. For if they had known Him, they would not have crucified Him; and if they did truly know the power of the God that dwells in you, they would not so despise you.” “But, well,” he goes on to say, “these things must be. It is your Father’s will that it shall be so; the world must lie under darkness for a time; that is God’s dispensation to them. And you that are the Children of Light must lie under the reproach and oppression of the world;[54:2] that is God’s dispensation to you. But it shall be but for a little time. What I have here to say is to bring you glad tidings that your redemption draws near.”
In the pamphlet itself Winstanley attempts to prove that the coming reign of Righteousness, and the overthrow of the Covetous, Self-Seeking Power, are entirely in accordance with the prophesies of the Scriptures, more especially with Revelation and John. In its final pages he vehemently protests against the continued union of Church and State, or rather against the continued upholding of the persecuting power of the Church by the secular authorities. “The misery of the age” he attributes to the fact that men are still striving “to uphold the usurped Ecclesiastical Power, which God never made,” and that in upholding this they are “so mad and ignorant” as “to count Magistracie no government unless the Beast reign cheek by chaw with it, as formerly in the days of ignorance.” This, however, he contends, should not be so, “for Magistracie in the Commonwealth must stand, it’s God’s ordinance. But this Ecclesiastical power in and over the Saints must fall.” “This Ecclesiastical power,” he contends, “hath been a great troubler of Magistracie ever since the deceived Magistracie set it up.” The function of Magistracie, “which is God’s Ordinance,” is “to be a terror to the wicked, and to protect them that do well; whereas by this Ecclesiastical power, established by deceived Magistracie, the sincere in heart that worship God in spirit and truth, according as God hath taught them and they understand, these are and have been troubled in Sessions, in Courts, and punished by fine and prisons. But the loose-hearted that will be of any religion that the most is of, these have their liberty without restraint. And so Magistracie hath acted quite backward, in punishing them that do well, and protecting in a hypocritical liberty them that do evil. O that our Magistrates would let Church-work alone to Christ, upon whose shoulders they shall find the government lies, and not upon theirs. And then, in the wisdom and strength of Christ, they would govern Commonwealths in justice, love, and righteousness more peaceably.”[55:1]
This pamphlet concludes with the following wise and beautiful thought:
“All that I shall say in conclusion is this: Wait patiently upon the Lord; let every man that loves God endeavour by the spirit of wisdom, meekness, and love to dry up Euphrates, even this spirit of bitterness, that like a great river hath overflowed the earth of mankind. For it is not revenge, prisons, fines, fightings, that will subdue a tumultuous spirit; but a soft answer, love and meekness, tenderness and justice, to do as we would be done unto: this will appease wrath. When this Sun of Righteousness and Love arises in Magistrates and people, one to another, then these tumultuous national storms will cease, and not till then. This Sun is risen in some; this Sun will rise higher, and must rise higher; and the bright shining of it will be England’s liberty.”