The next fruit of Winstanley’s prolific pen is a volume of some 134 closely printed pages, entitled The Saint’s Paradise: Or the Father’s Teaching the only Satisfaction to Waiting Souls,[56:1] from which in the previous chapter we have already quoted somewhat freely. The words on its title-page, “The inward testimony is the Soul’s strength,” indicate the characteristic teachings of this remarkable book, which are also admirably suggested by the two biblical quotations that also appear thereon. “And they shall teach no more every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord: for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest of them, saith the Lord” (Jer. xxxi. 34). “But the annointing which ye have received of him abideth in you; and ye need not that any man teach you: but as the same annointing teacheth you all things, and is truth” (1 John ii. 27).
As was his usual custom, Winstanley opens with a Dedicatory letter, addressed this time “To my Beloved Friends whose Souls hunger after sincere milk,” in which he relates his experience of the insufficiency of mere traditional, or book, or imparted knowledge, in the following words:
“I myself have known nothing but what I received in tradition from the mouths and pen of others. I worshipped a God, but I neither knew who he was nor where he was, so that I lived in the dark, being blinded by the imagination of my flesh.... I spoke of the name of God, and Lord, and Christ, but I knew not this Lord, God, and Christ. I prayed to a God, but I knew not where he was nor what he was, and so walking by imagination I worshipped the devil, and called him God. By reason whereof my comforts were often shaken to pieces, and at last it was shown to me, that while I builded upon any words or writings of other men, or while I looked after a God without me, I did but build upon the sand, and as yet I knew not the Rock.”
He then admonishes his friends that, though they may not as yet be aware of it, and though they will probably be offended with him for saying so, yet that, in reality, “this ignorant, unsettled condition is yours at this time.” However, he protests that nevertheless:
“I do not write anything as to be a teacher of you, for I know you have a teacher within yourselves (which is the Spirit) and when your flesh is made subject to him, he will teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, so that you shall not need to run after men for instruction, for, your eyes being opened, you shall see the King of Righteousness sit upon the throne within yourselves, judging and condemning the unrighteousness of the flesh, filling your face with shame, and your soul with horror, though no man see or be acquainted with your actions or thoughts but yourselves, and justifying your righteous thoughts and actions, and leading you into all ways of truth.”
Winstanley then further explains that the Father, the Spirit of Righteousness, of Reason, pervades the whole Universe, and “dwells in every creature, but supremely in man,” and then continues:
“Truly, Friends, the King of Righteousness within you is a meek, patient, and quiet spirit, and full of love and sincerity.... And when you come to know, feel, and see that the Spirit of Righteousness governs your flesh, then you begin to know your God, to fear your God, to love your God, and to walk humbly before your God, and so to rejoice in Him. Therefore if you would have the peace of God, as you call it, you must know what God it is you serve, which is not a God without you, visible among bodies, but the Spirit within you, invisible in every body to the eye of flesh, yet discernible to the eye of the spirit. And when souls shall have communion with that spirit, then they have peace, and not till then.”
In the first chapter Winstanley emphasises the essential difference between the teachings of men and the teachings of God in the following words:
“The teachings of men and the teachings of God are much different. The former being but the light of the moon, which shines not of itself, but by the means and through the help of the sun. The latter is the light of the sun, which gives light to all, not by means and helps from others, but immediately from himself.
“Men’s teachings are twofold. First, when men speak to others what they have heard or read of the Scriptures, or books of other men’s writings, and have seen nothing from God Himself.... Secondly, others speak from their own experience, of what they have heard and seen from God, and of what great things God hath done for their souls.... It is very possible that a man may attain to a literal knowledge of the Scriptures, of the Prophets and Apostles, and may speak largely of the history thereof, and yet both they that speak and they that hear may be not only unacquainted with, but enemies to that Spirit of truth by which the Prophets and Apostles writ.[58:1] “For it is not the Apostles’ writings, but the spirit that dwelt in them, that did inspire their hearts, which gives life and peace to all.”