Selected quad for the lemma: honour_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
honour_n	faithful_a	house_n	moses_n	1,705	5	9.8309	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A66685	The law of freedom in a platform: or, True magistracy restored Humbly presented to Oliver Cromwel, General of the Common-wealths army in England. And to all English-men my brethren whether in church-fellowship, or not in church-fellowship, both sorts walking as they conceive according to the order of the Gospel: and from them to all the nations in the world. Wherein is declared, what is kingly government, and what is Commonwealths government. By Jerrard Winstanley.	Winstanley, Gerrard, b. 1609.	1652 (1652)	Wing W3045A; ESTC R220031	79,685	104

according to the Rule of Righteousness which is Gods Word It was intended for your view above two years ago but the disorder of the Times caused me to lay it aside with a thought never to bring it to light c. Likewise I hearing that M. Peters and some others Propounded this request That the Word of God might be consulted with to finde out a healing Government which I liked well and waited to see such a Rule come forth for there are good rules in the Scripture if they were obeyed and practised thereupon I laid aside this in silence and said I would not make it publick but this word was like fire in my bones ever and anon Thou shalt not bury thy talent in the earth therefore I was stirred up to give it a 〈◊〉 and to pick together as many of my scattered papers as I could finde and to compile them into this method which I do here present to you and do quiet my own spirit And now I have set the candle at your door for you have power in your hand in this other added opportunity to Act for Common Freedome if you will I have no power It may be here are some things inserted which you may not like yet other things you may like therefore I pray you read it and be as the industrious Bee suck out the honey and cast away the weeds Though this Platform be like a peece of Timber rough hewd yet the discreet workmen may take it and frame a handsome building out of it It is like a poor man that comes cloathed to your door in a torn country garment who is unacquainted with the learned Citizens unsetled forms and fashions take of the clownish language for under that you may see beauty It may be you will say If Tythes be taken from the Priests and Impropriators and Copy-hold Services from Lords of Mannors how shal they be provided for again for is it not unrighteous to take their estates from them I Answer when Tythes were first enacted and Lordly power drawn over the backs of the oppressed the Kings and Conquerors made no seruple of Conscience to take it though the people lived in sore bondage of poverty for want of it and can there be seruple of conscience to make restitution of this which hath been so long stoln goods It is no scruple arising from the Righteous Law but from 〈◊〉 who goes away sorrowfull to heare he must part with all to follow righteousness and Peace But though you do take away Tythes and the Power of Lords of Mannors yet there will be no want to them for they have the freedome of the Common stock they may send to the Storehouses for What they want and live more free then now they do for now they are in care and vexation by servants by casualties by being cheated in buying and selling and many other incumbrances but then they will be free from all for the common Store-houses is every 〈◊〉 not any ones Is not buying and selling a righteous Law No It is the Law of the Conqueror but not the righteous Law of Creation how can that be righteous which is a cheat 〈◊〉 is not this a common practise when he hath a bad Horse or Cow or any bad commodity he will send it to the Market to cheat some simple plain hearted man or other and when he comes home will laugh at his neighbours hurt and much more c. When Mankinde began to buy and sell then did he fall from his Innocency for then they began to 〈◊〉 and cozen one another of their Creation Birth-right As for example If the Land belong to three persons and two of them buy and sell the Earth and the third give no consent his Right is taken from him and his posterity is engaged in a War When the Earth was first bought and sold many gave no consent As when our Crown Lands and Bishops Lands were sold some foolish Soldiers yeelded and covetous Officers were active in it to advance themselves above their Brethren but many who payd Taxes and Freequarter for the purchase of it gave no consent but declared against it as an unrighteous thing depriving posterity of their Birth-rights and Freedoms Therefore this buying and selling did bring in and still doth bring in discontents and wars which have plagued Mankinde sufficiently for so doing And the Nations of the world will never learn to beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks and leave of warring until this cheating device of buying and selling be cast out among the rubbish of Kingly power But shall not one man be richer then another There is no need of that for Riches make men vain-glorious proud and to oppress their Brethren and are the occasion of wars No man can be rich but he must be rich either by his own labors or by the labors of other men helping him If a man have no help 〈◊〉 his neighbor he shall never gather an Estate of hundreds and thousands a year If other men help him to work then are those Riches his Neighbors as well as his for they be the fruit of other mens labors as well as his own But all rich men live at ease feeding and clothing themselves by the labors of other men not by their own which is their shame and not their Nobility for it is a more 〈◊〉 thing to give then to receive But rich men receive all they have from the laborers hand and what they give they give away other mens labors not their own Therefore they are not righteous Actors in the Earth But shall not one man have more Titles of Honor then another Yes As a man goes through Offices he rises to Titles of Honor till he comes to the highest Nobility to be a faithful Commonwealths man in a Parliament House Likewise he who findes out any secret in Nature shall have a Title of Honor given him though he be a young man But no man shall have any Title of Honor till he win it by industry or come to it by age or Office-bearing Every man that is above sixty years of age shall have respect as a man of Honor by all others that are younger as is shewed hereafter Shall every man count his Neighbors house as his own and live together as one Family No Though the Earth and Storehouses be common to every Family yet every Family shall live apart as they do and every mans house wife children and furniture for ornament of his house or any thing which he hath fetched in from the Storehouses or provided for the necessary use of his Family is all a propriety to that Family for the peace thereof And if any man offer to take away a mans wife children or furniture of his house without his consent or disturb the peace of his dwelling he shall suffer punishment as an Enemy to the Commonwealths Government as is mentioned in the Platform following Shall we have no Lawyers

THE Law of Freedom IN A PLATFORM Or True Magistracy Restored Humbly presented to Oliver Cromwel General of the Common-wealths Army in England And to all English-men my brethren whether in Church-fellowship or not in Church-fellowship both sorts walking as they conceive according to the Order of the Gospel and from them to all the Nations in the World Wherein is Declared What is Kingly Government and what is Commonwealths Government By Jerrard Winstanley In thee O England is the Law arising up to shine If thou receive and practise it the crown it wil be thine If thou reject and stil remain a froward Son to be Another Land wil it receive and take the crown from thee Revel. 11. 15. Dan. 7. 27. LONDON Printed by J. M. for the Author and are to be sold by Giles Calvert at the black Spred-Eagle at the West end of Pauls 1652. To His Excellency OLIVER CROMWEL General of the Commonwealths Army in ENGLAND SIR GOD hath honored you with the highest Honor of any man since Moses time to be the Head of a People who have cast out an Oppressing Pharaoh For when the Norman Power had conquered our Forefathers he took the free use of our English Ground from them and made them his servants And God-hath made you a successful Instrument to cast out that Conqueror and to recover our Land and Liberties again by your Victories out of that Norman hand That which is yet wanting on your part to be done is this To see the Oppressors Power to be cast out with his person And to see that the free possession of the Land and Liberties be put into the hands of the oppressed Commoners of England For the Crown of Honor cannot be yours neither can those Victories be called Victories on your part till the Land and Freedoms won be possessed by them who adventured person and purse for them Now you know Sir that the Kingly Conqueror was not beaten by you onely as you are a single man nor by the Officers of the Army joyned to you but by the hand and assistance of the Commoners whereof some came in person and adventured their lives with you others stayd at home and planted the Earth and payd Taxes and Freequarter to maintain you that went to war So that whatsoever is recovered from the Conqueror is recovered by a joynt consent of the Commoners therefore it is all Equity That all the Commoners who assisted you should be set free from the Conquerors power with you As Davids Law was The spoyl shall be divided between them who went to War and them who stayd at home And now you have the Power of the Land in your hand you must do one of these two things First either set the Land free to the oppressed Commoners who assisted you and payd the Army their wages and then you will fulfil the Scriptures and your own Engagements and so take possession of your deserved Honor Or secondly you must onely remove the Conquerors Power out of the Kings hand into other mens maintaining the old Laws still And then your Wisdom and Honor is blasted for ever and you will either lose your self or lay the Foundation of greater Slavery to posterity then you ever knew You know that while the King was in the height of his oppressing Power the People onely whispered in private Chambers against him But afterwards it was preached upon the house tops That he was a Tyrant and a Traytor to Englands peace and he had his overturn The righteous Power in the Creation is the same still If you and those in power with you should be found walking in the Kings steps can you secure your selves or posterities from an overturn Surely No The Spirit of the whole Creation who is God is about the Reformation of the World and he will go forward in his work For if he would not spare Kings who have sat so long at his right hand governing the World neither will he regard you unless your ways be found more righteous then the Kings You have the eyes of the People all the Land over nay I think I may say all neighboring Nations over waiting to see what you will do And the eyes of your oppressed friends who lie yet under Kingly power are waiting to have the possession given them of that Freedom in the Land which was promised by you if in case you prevailed Lose not your Crown take it up and wear it But know that it is no Crown of Honor till Promises and Engagements made by you be performed to your friends He that continues to the end shall receive the Crown Now you do not see the end of your work unless the Kingly Law and Power be removed as well as his person Jonah's Gourd is a remembrancer to men in high places The worm in the Earth gnawed the root and the Gourd dyed and Jonah was offended Sir I pray bear with me my spirit is upon such a lock that I must speak plain to you lest it tell me another day If thou hadst spoke plain things might have been amended The Earth wherein your Gourd grows is the Commoners of England The Gourd is that Power which covers you which will be established to you by giving the People their true Freedoms and not otherwise The root of your Gourd is the heart of the People groaning under Kingly Bondage and desiring a Commonwealths Freedom in their English Earth The worm in the Earth now gnawing at the root of your Gourd is Discontents because Engagements and Promises made to them by such as have power are not kept And this worm hath three heads The first is a spirit waiting opportunities till a blasting wind arise to cause your Gourd to wither and yet pretends fair to you c. Another spirit shelters under your Gourd for a livelyhood and will say as you say in all things and these are called honest yet no good friends to you nor the Commonwealth but to their own bellies There is a third spirit which is faithful indeed and plain dealing and many times for speaking truth plainly he is cashiered imprisoned and crushed And the Oppressions layd upon this spirit kindles the fire which the two former waits to warm themselves at Would you have your Gourd stand for ever Then cherish the root in the Earth that is the heart of your friends the oppressed Commoners of England by killing the Worm And nothing will kill this worm but performance of professions words and promises that they may be made free men from Tyranny It may be you will say to me What shall I do I answer You are in place and power to see all Burthens taken off from your friends the Commoners of England You will say What are those Burthens I will instance in some both which I know in my own experience and which I hear the people dayly complaining of and groaning under looking upon you and waiting for Deliverance Most people cry We have payd Taxes

wives and children within such a Lordship to his Lords of Manors 〈◊〉 do with them as they pleased And for this cause now doth an Army arise to keep out an Invasion of a Forraigner that by the defence of our Army who is part of our selves the rest of our brethren in the Commonwealth may plow sow and reap and enjoy the fruits of their labours and so live in peace in their own Land Or secondly If a Land be conquered and so enslaved as England was under the Kings and conquering Laws then an Army is to be raised with as much secrecy as may be to restore the Land again and set it free that the Earth may become a Common Treasury to all her children without respecting persons as it was before Kingly Bondage came in as you may read 1 Sam. 8. This latter is called Civil Wars and this is the Wars of the Commoners of England against King Charls now cast out for he and his Laws were the successive Power of that Norman Conquest over England And now the Commeners of England in this age of the World are rise up in an Army and have cast out that Invasion of the Duke of Normandy and have won their Land and Liberties again by the Sword if they do not suffer their Councels to 〈◊〉 into slavery again upon a new accompt Therefore you Army of Englands Commonwealth look to it the Enemy could not beat you in the field but they may be too hard for you by policy in 〈◊〉 if you do not stick close to see Common Freedom established For if so be that Kingly Authority be set up in your Laws again King Charls hath conquered you and your posterity by policy and won the field of you though you seemingly have cut off His Head For the strength of a King lies not in the visible appearance of his body but in his Will Laws and Authority which is called 〈◊〉 Government But if you remove Kingly Government and set up true and free Commonwealths Government then you gain your Crown and keep it and leave peace to your posterity otherwise not And thus doing makes a War either lawful or unlawful An Army may be Murtherers and unlawful If an Army be raised to cast out Kingly Oppression and if the Heads of that Army promise a Commonwealths Freedom to the oppressed people if in case they will assist with person and purse and if the people do assist and prevail over the Tyrant those Officers are bound by the Law of Justice who is God to make good their Engagements And if they do not set the Land free from the branches of the Kingly Oppression but reserve some part of the Kingly Power to advance their own particular Interest whereby some of their friends are left under as great slavery to them as they were under the Kings Those Officers are not faithful Commonwealths Souldiers they are worse Thieves and Tyrant then the Kings they cast out and that Honor they seemed to get by their Victories over the Commonwealths Oppressor they lose again by breaking Promise and Engagement to their oppressed friends who did assist them For what difference is there between a professed Tyrant that declares himself a Tyrant in words Laws and deeds as all Conquerors do and him who promises to free me from the Power of the Tyrant if I 'le assist him and when I have spent my estate and blood and the health of my body and expect my bargain by his Engagements to me he sits himself down in the Tyrants Chair and takes the possession of the Land to himself and calls it 〈◊〉 and none of mine and tells me he cannot in Conscience let me enjoy the Freedom of the Earth with him because it is another mans 〈◊〉 And now my health and estate is decayed and I grow in age I must either beg or work for day wages which I was never brought up to for another when as the Earth is as freely my Inheritance and birthright as his whom I must work for and if I cannot live by my weak labors but take where I need as Christ sent and took the Asse coìt in his need there is no dispute but by the Kings and Laws he will hang me for a thief But hear O thou Righteous Spirit of the whole Creation and judg who is the thief Him who takes away the freedom of the common-earth from me which is my Creation rights and which I have helped to purchase out of the hands of the Kingly Oppressor by my purse and person and which he hath taken for wages of me Or I who takes the Common-earth to plant upon for my free livelyhood endeavouring to live as a free Commoner in a free Common-wealth in righteousness and peace Such a souldier as this engagement breaker is neither a friend to the Creation nor to a particular Common-wealth but a self lover and a hypocrite for he did not fight to set the Earth free from the bondage of the Oppressor as he pretended by his Engagements but to remove that power out of the others hand into his own And this is just like the beasts who fight for mastery and keeps it not releaving but still Lording and Kinging over the weak These are Monarchial souldiers not Common-Wealths souldiers and such a souldier is a murderer and his warfare is unlawful But souldiers of true noble spirits will help the weak and set the oppressed free and delight to see the Common-wealth flowrish in freedom as wel as their own gardens There is none of this true nobility in the Monarchial Army for they are all self lovers the best is as a briar and the most upright amongst them is as a thorne held speak you Prophers of old if this be not true A Monarchial Army lifts up mountains and makes vallies viz. Advances Tyrants and treads the oppressed in the barran lanes of poverty But a Commonwealths Army is like John Baptist who levels the Mountains to the Valleys pulls down the Tyrant and 〈◊〉 up the Oppressed and so makes way for the spirit of Peace and Freedom to come in to rule and 〈◊〉 the Earth And by this which hath been spoken an Army may see wherein they may do well and wherein they may do hurt CHAP. V. Education of mankinde in Schools and Trades MAnkinde in the days of his youth is like a young Colt wanton and foolish till he be broke by Education and correction and the neglect of this care or the want of wisdom in the performance of it hath been and is the cause of much division and trouble in the world Therefore the Law of a Common-wealth does require that not onely a father but that all Overseers and Officers should make it their work to educate children in good manners and to see them brought up in some trade or other and to suffer no children in any Parish to live in idleness and youthful pleasure all their days as many have been but that they be brought up