The Digger Movement in the Days of the Commonwealth

guage! But when it comes to trial, it is but a husk without the kernel, words without life. The Spirit is in t

Fox (born 1624). Of his earlier years we know nothing; but, to judge from many passages in his writings, he appears to have received a good middle-class education, and to have been brought up a dutiful follower of the Church as by law established. When arrived at man's estate, he settled as a small trader in London, of which City he probably became a freeman; for in a pamphlet addressed to

which had fallen so heavily upon him? How was it going to advantage the masses of the people? Was it ever intended that it should benefit them? was it possible that it should do so? Could any such struggle be a means of delivering the great masses of the people, "the younger brothers," out of the straits of poverty, with its attendant train of ignorance, misery, vice, and crime, to which they had hitherto been ruthlessly and hopelessly condemned? Was it, in truth, inevitable, was it inherent in the very nature of things, was it God's intention that a privileged few, "the elder brothers," should be lords and masters, and that the great majori

he turned to the pages of the Holy Scriptures themselves for guidance and information, for consolation and revelation. In these inspired writings, if anywhere, there surely must be found some expression, some revelation, of God's intentions towards His children, some indication of His holy will, which, if men would wholly

his days; his last utterance on theological questions, as we shall see, might have been penned by an advanced thinker of the present day, imbued with modern scientific views, and recognising the necessary relation and co-ordinati

hich he describes as originally filled with herbs and pleasant plants, "as love, joy, peace, humility, delight, and purity of life." The serpent he holds to be self-love, the forbidden fruit to be "selfishness," following the promptings of which "the whole garden becomes a stinking dunghill of weeds, and brings forth nothing but pride, envy, discontent, disobedience, and the whole actings of the spirit and power of darkness." And he argues that-"If the creature shou

Him. For it is Reason that made all things; and it is Reason that governs the whole Creation. If flesh were but subject thereunto, that is, to the Spirit of Reason within itself, it would never act unrighteously.... For this Spirit of Reason is not without a man, but within every man; hence he need not run after others to tell him or to teach him; for this Spirit is his maker, he dwells in him, and if the flesh were subject thereunto, he would daily find teaching therefrom, though he dwelt alone and saw the face of no other man."45:1 "This is the Spirit, or Father, which as he made the Globe and every creature, so he dwells in every creature, but supremely in man. He it is by whom everyone lives, and moves, and

into himself. It is but a candle lighted by that soul, and this light, shining through flesh, is darkened by the imagination of the flesh. So that many times men act contrary to reason, though they think they act according to Reason.... The Spirit Reason, which I call God, the Maker and Ruler of all things, is that spiritual power that guides all m

ns to preserve their fellow-creatures as well as themselves. Therefore some may call him King of Righteousness, or Prince of Peace; some may call him Love, and the like. But I can and I do call him Reason, because I see him to be that living, powerful

ur flesh, if Pride and Covetousness rule your flesh, then is Envy, Covetousness, or Pride your God. If you fear man so greatly that you dare not do righteously for fear of angering men, then slavish fear is your God. If r

life is but a continuous struggle between these two powers for dominion in the Creation, over the hearts and actions of mankind. Self-love ruling the hearts of man, is the Adam that causes him to sin, not the crime of the man Adam who lived so many thousand years ago. And similarly it is the ruling of the spirit of Jesus Christ, the Inward Light, within the hearts of man, not the sufferings of a man Christ Jesus, which is the essential condition of individual and social salvation. "This is the lightning that shall spread from East to West. This is the Kingdom of Heaven within you, dwelling and ruling in your flesh. Therefore learn to know Jesus Christ as the Father knows him; that is, not after the flesh; but know that the Spirit within the flesh is that mighty man Christ Jesus. He within governs the flesh; he within laid down the flesh, when he was said to die; he within is to arise, not at a distance from man, but he will rise up in men, and manifest himself to be the light and life of every man and woman that is saved by him."47:2 By following the desires of the flesh, the promptings of selfish covetousness, we can never gain true happiness, which is Heaven, for the voice of Reason within us, of our conscience, or the Inward Light illumining the inner darkness, will upbraid us and cast us into Hell within us. True happiness, complete satisfaction, which is Heaven, can only

ed, was the Children of Light. And it is interesting to note that during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries the opponents of the Quakers repeatedly taunted them with being disciples of Winstanley the Leveller.49:1 Thus the Right Reverend Thomas Coomber,

ey were so called and known. John Whitehead fixes it in the year 1648;49:2 and Hubberthorne in 1660 told the King that they were then twelve years standing.49:3 In that black year to these kingdoms (1648) their pretended light appeared.50:1 ... Bu

ery one of Winstanley's theologic

ty of Lancaster"), the printer Giles Calvert, and that several Levellers settled into Quakers, we incline to take them for Winstanley's Disciples and a branch of the Levellers. And what this man writes of-levelling men's estates, of taking in of Commons, that none should have more ground than he was able t

has been satisfied: for through them he has, indeed, influenced the thought of his country, the thought of the whole world, which owes more than we even yet realise to their pure and altruistic teachings. Howe

rrard Winstanlie, son of Edward Winstanlie." The first pamphlet he wrote, The Mystery of God concerning the whole Creation, is dedicated "To my beloved countrymen of the County of Lancaste

ord to the Ci

nslated into English. All Winstanley's theological pamphlets were published in the ye

n, Mankind. British Museum, Press Mark, 4377, a. 1. The

d above Scandals. British Mus

dise. British Museum,

ing up its Head

ing up its Head

Saint's

Saint's

, are the people of God; and that those who live in disobedience to it, are not God's people, whatever name they bear, or profession they may make of religion.... By this principle they understand something that is Divine, and though in man, not of man, but o

s in every man a certain excusing and condemning principle, which indeed is nothing but some remainder of the Divine Image left by the compassion of God upon the conscience of man after his fall.... They scoffed at

1, referring to the origin of the various sorts of dissenters, speaks of the time "when Winstanley publish

published 1696, says, "The Quakers themselves date their f

berthorne, after the delivery of George Fox his letter to the King,

fting up its Head above Scandals is dated October 16th, 1648; The Saint's Paradise bears no date, but was certainly written before The

icial 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 hav