of freedom righteousness and peace or whether you will return to Monarchy to embrace that Egyptian bondage still Well here is life and death set before you take whether you will but know that unless your righteousness exceed the righteousness of the Kingly and Lordly Scribes and Pharisees you shall never enjoy true peace in your spirit CHAP. VI The Kings old laws cannot govern a free Commonwealth THey cannot govern in times of bondage and in times of freedom too they have indeed served many masters Popish and Protestant they are like old souldiers that will but change their name and turn about and as they were and the reason is because they are the prerogative will of those under any Religion that count it no freedom to them unless they be lords over the minds persons and labors of their brethren They are called the Kings laws because they are made by the Kings If any say they were made by the Commoners It is answered They were not made by the Commoners as the Commoners of a free Commonwealth are to make laws For in the dayes of the Kings none were to chuse nor be chosen Parliament men or law makers but Lords of Mannors and Freeholders such as held title to their inclosures of Land or Charters for their liberties in trades under the King who called the land his as he was the Conquerer or his successor All inferior people were neither to chuse nor to be chosen and the reason was because all freeholders of land and such as held their liberties by Charter were all of the Kings interest and the inferior people were successively of the rank of the conquered ones and servants and slaves from the time of the conquest And further when a Parliament was chosen in that manner yet if any Parliament man in the uprightness of his heart did endeavor to promote any freedome contrary to the Kings will or former customes from the Conquest he was either committed to prison by the King or by his house of Lords who were his ancient Norman successive councel of war or else the Parliament was dissolved and broke up by the King So that the old laws were made in times under kingly slavery not under the liberty of Commonwealths freedome because Parliament men must have regard to the Kings prerogative interest to hold his Conquest or else indanger themselves As sometimes it is in these dayes some officers dare not speak against the minds of those men who are the chief in power nor a private souldier against the minde of his officer lest they be cashiered their places and livelihood And so long as the promoting of the Kings will and prerogative was to be in the eye of the law makers the oppressed Commoners could never enjoy Commonwealths freedome thereby Yet by the wisdome courage faithfulness and industry of some Parliament men the Commoners have received here a line and there a line of freedome inserted into their laws as those good lines of freedom in Magna Charta were obtained by much hardship and industry Secondly they were the Kings laws because the Kings own creatures made the laws or Lords of Mannors Freeholders c. were successors of the Norman souldiers from the Conquest therefore they could do no other but maintaine their own and their kings interest And do we not see that all laws were made in the dayes of the Kings to ease the rich Landlord but the poor laborers were left under bondage still they were to have no freedome in the earth by those pharisaical laws for when laws were made and Parliaments broke up the poor oppressed Commoners had no relief but the power of Lords of Mannors withholding the free use of the Common land from them remained still for none durst make use of any Common land but at the Lords leave according to the will and law of the Conquerer therefore the old laws were called the Kings laws And these old laws cannot govern a free Commonwealth because the land now is to be set free from the slavery of the Norman Conquest and the power of Lords of Mannors and Norman freeholders is to be taken away or else the Commoners are but where they were if not faln lower into straights then they were and the old laws cannot look with any other face then they did though they be washed with Commonwealths water their countenance is still withered therefore it was not for nothing that the Kings would have all their Laws written in French and Latine and not in English partly in honour to the Norman Race and partly to keep the common people ignorant of their Creation-freedoms lest they should rise to redeem themselves and if those Laws should be writ in English yet if the same Kingly principles remain in them the English language would not advantage us any thing but rather increase our sorrow by our knowledge of our bondage What is Law in general Law is a Rule whereby Man and other creatures are governed in their actions for the preservation of the common peace And this Law is twofold First it is the power of Life called the Law of Nature within the creatures which does move both man and beast in their actions or that causes grass trees 〈◊〉 and all plants to grow in their several seasons and whatsoever any body does he does it as he is moved by this inward Law And this law of Nature moves twofold viz. unrationally or rationally A man by this inward Law is guided to actions of generation and present content rashly through a greedy self-love without any consideration like foolish children or like the bruit beasts by reason whereof much hurt many times follows the body And this is called the law in the 〈◊〉 warring against the law of the minde Or when there is an inward watchful oversight of all motions to action considering the end and effects of those actions that there be no excess in diet in speech or in action break forth to the prejudice of a mans self or others And this is called the light in man The reasonable power Or the law of the minde And this rises up in the heart by an experimental observation of that peace and trouble which such and such words thoughts and actions bring the man into And this is called the record on high for it is a record in a mans heart above the former unreasonable power And it is called the witness or testimony of a 〈◊〉 own 〈◊〉 And it is said To the law and to the testimony c. for this moderate watchfulness is still the law of Nature in a higher resurrection then the former 〈◊〉 it hath many terms which for 〈◊〉 sake I let pass And this twofold work of the law within man strives to bring 〈◊〉 themselves in writing to 〈◊〉 numbers of bodies on their fides And that power that begets the biggest number alwayes Rules as King and Lord in the creature and in the creation till the other part overtop him even as
free Commonwealth Now saith the whisperings of the people The inferior Tenants and Laborers bears all the burdens in laboring the Earth in paying Taxes and Free-quarter beyond their strength and in furnishing the Armies with Souldiers who bear the greatest burden of the War and yet the Gentry who oppress them and that live idle upon their labours carry away all the comfortable livelyhood of the Earth For is not this a common speech among the people We have parted with our Estates we have lost our Friends in the Wars which we willingly gave up because Freedom was promised us and now in the end we have new Task-masters and our old burdens increased and though all sorts of people have taken an Engagement to cast out Kingly Power yet Kingly Power remains in power still in the hands of those who have no more right to the Earth then our selves For say the people If the Lords of Manors and our Task-masters hold Title to the Earth over us from the old Kingly power behold that power is beaten and cast out And two Acts of Parliament are made The one to cast out Kingly power back'd by the Engagement against King and House of Lords The other to make England a free Commonwealth And if Lords of Mannors lay claim to the earth over us from the Armies Victories over the King then we have as much right to the Land as they because our labours and blood and death of friends were the purchasers of the Earths freedome as well as theirs And is not this a slavery say the People That though there be Land enough in England to maintain ten times as many people as are in it yet some must beg of their brethren or work in hard drudgery for day wages for them or starve or steal and so be hanged out of the way as men not fit to live in the earth before they must be suffered to plant the waste land for their livelihood unlesse they will pay Rent to their brethren for it wel this is a burthen the Creation groans under and the subjects so called have not their Birth-right Freedomes granted them from their brethren who hold it from them by club law but not by righteousness And who now must we be subject to seeing the Conqueror is gone I Answer we must either be subject to a Law or to mens wils If to a Law then all men in England are subjects or ought to be thereunto but what Law that is to which every one ought to be subject is not yet established in execution If any say the old Kings Laws are the Rule then it may be Answered That those Laws are so full of confusion that few knows when they obey and when not because they were the Laws of a Conqueror to hold the people in subjection to the will of the Conqueror therefore that cannot be the rule for every one besides we dayly see many actions done by State Officers which they have no Law to justifie them in but their Prerogative will And again if we must be subject to men then what men must we be subject to seeing one man hath as much right to the earth as another for no man now stands as a Conqueror over his Brethren by the Law of righteousness You will say We must be subject to the Ruler it is true but not to suffer the Rulers to call the Earth theirs and not ours for by so doing they betray their trust and run into the line of 〈◊〉 and we lose our freedome and from thence 〈◊〉 and Wars arise A Ruler is worthy double honour when he rules well that is when he himself is subject to the Law and requires all others to be subject thereunto and makes it his work to see the Laws obeyed and not his own will and such Rulers are faithfull and they are to be subjected unto us therein for all Commonwealths Rulers are servants to not Lords and Kings over the people But you will say Is not the Land your brothers and you cannot take away 〈◊〉 mans Right by claiming a share therein with him I Answer It is his either by creation right or by right of Conquest If by Creation right he call the earth his and not mine then it is mine as well as his for the Spirit of the whole Creation who made us both is no respecter of persons And if by Conquest he call the earth his and not mine it must be either by the Conquest of the Kings over the Commoners or by the Conquest of the Commeners over the Kings If he claim the earth to be his from the Kings Conquest The Kings are beaten and cast out and that title is undone If he claim Title to the earth to be his from the Conquest of the Commoners over the Kings then I have right to the Land as well as my brother for my brother without me nor I without my brother did not cast out the Kings but both together assisting with person and purse we prevailed so that I have by this Victory as equall a share in the earth which is now redeemed as my brother by the Law of righteousnesse If my brother still say he will be Landlord through his covetous ambition and I must pay him Rent or else I shall not live in the Land then does he take my right from me which I have purchased by my money in Taxes free quarter and blood And O thou Spirit of the whole Creation who hath this Title to be called King of Righteousness and Prince of Peace judge thou between my brother and me Whether this be righteous c. And now say the people is not this a grievous thing that our brethren that will be Landlords right or wrong will make Laws and call for a Law to be made to imprison crush nay put to death any that denies God Christ and Scripture and yet they will not practise that golden Rule Do to another as thou wouldst have another do to thee which God Christ and Scriptures hath Enacted for a Law are not these men guilty of death by their own Law which is the words of their own mouth is it not a flat denyall of God and Scripture O the confusion and thick darkness that hath over-spread our Brethren is very great I have no power to remove it but lament it in the secrets of my heart when I see Prayers Sermons Fasts Thanksgiving directed to this God in words and-shews and when I come to look for actions of obedience to the Righteous Law suitable to such a profession I finde them men of another Nation saying and not doing like an old Courtier saying Your Servant when he was an Enemy I wil say no more but groan and waite for a restoration Thus Sir I have reckoned up some of those burdens which the people groan under And I being sensible hereof was moved in my self to present this Platform of Commonwealths Government unto you wherein I have declared a full Commonwealths Freedome
There is no need of them for there is to be no buying and selling neither any need to expound Laws for the bare letter of the Law shall be both Judg and Lawyer trying every mans actions And seeing we shall have successive Parliaments every year there will be Rules made for every action a man can do But there is to be Officers chosen yearly in every parish to see the Laws executed according to the letter of the Laws so that there will be no long work in trying of Offences as it is under Kingly Government to get the Lawyers mony and to enslave the Commoners to the Conquerors prerogative Law or Will The sons of contention Simeon and Levi must not beat Rule in a free Commonwealth At the first view you may say this is a strange Government but I pray judg nothing before tryal Lay this Platform of Commonwealths Government in one scale and lay Monarchy or Kingly Government in the other scale and see which give true weight to righteous Freedom and Peace There is no middle path between these two for a man must either be a free and true Commonwealths man or a Monarchial tyrannical Royalist If any say This will bring poverty surely they mistake for there will be plenty of all Earthly Commodities with less labor and trouble then now it is under Monarchy There will be no want for every man may keep as plentiful a house as he will and never run into debt for common stock pays for all If you say Some will live idle I answer No It will make idle persons to become workers as is declared in the Platform There shall be neither Beggar nor idle person If you say This will make men quarrel and fight I answer No It will turn swords into plowshares and settle such a peace in the Earth as Nations shall learn War no more Indeed the Government of Kings is a breeder of Wars because men being put into the straits of poverty are moved to fight for Liberty and to take one anothers Estates from them and to obtain Mastery Look into all Armies and see what they do more but make some poor some rich put some into freedom and others into bondage And is not this a plague among Mankinde Well I question not but what Objections can be raised against this Commonwealths Government they shall finde an Answer in this Platform following I have been something large because I could not contract my self into a lesser volume having so many things to speak of I do not say nor desire That every one shall be compelled to practise this Commonwealths Government for the spirits of some will be Enemies at first though afterwards will prove the most cordial and true friends thereunto Yet I desire That the Commonwealths Land which is the ancient Commons and waste Land and the Lands newly got in by the Armies Victories out of the oppressors hands as Parks Forests Chases and the like may be set free to all that have lent assistance either of person or purse to obtain it and to all that are willing to come in to the practice of this Government and be obedient to the Laws thereof And for others who are not willing let them stay in the way of buying and selling which is the Law of the Conqueror till they be willing And so I leave this in your hand humbly prostrating my self and it before you and remain Novemb. 5. 1651. A true Lover of Commonwealths Government Peace and Freedom Jerrard Winstanley To the Friendly and Unbyassed READER Reader IT was the Apostles advice formerly to try all things and to hold fast that which is best This Platform of Government which I offer is the Original Righteousness and Peace in the Earth though he hath been buried under the clods of Kingly Covetousness Pride and Oppression a long time Now he begins to have his Resurrection despise it not while it is small though thou understand it not at the first sight yet open the door and look into the house for thou mayst see that which will satisfie thy heart in quiet rest To prevent thy hasty rashness I have given thee a short Compendium of the whole First Thou knowest that the Earth in all Nations is governed by buying and selling for all the Laws of Kings hath relation thereunto Now this Platform following declares to thee the Government of the Earth without buying and selling and the Laws are the Laws of a free and peaceable Commonwealth which casts out every thing that offends for there is no pricking Briar in all this holy Mountain of the righteous Law or peaceable Ruler Every Family shall live apart as now they do every man shall enjoy his own wife and every woman her own husband as now they do every Trade shall be improved to more excellency then now it is all children shall be educated and be trained up in subjection to parents and elder people more then now they are The Earth shall be planted and the fruits reaped and carried into Store-houses by common assistance of every Family The riches of the Store-houses shall be the Common Stock to every Family There shall be no idle person nor Begger in the Land And because offences may arise from the spirit of unreasonable ignorance therefore was the Law added For if any man abuse his neighbor by provoking words by striking his person by offering offence to his neighbors wife or children or to his house or furaiture there in or to live idle upon other mens labours here are Laws to punish them sharply and Officers to see those Laws executed according to the right Order of Commonwealths Government for the peace of every familyin the Land This Commonwealths Government unites all people in a Land into one heart and mind And it was this Government which made Moses to call Abrahams seed one house of Israel though they were many Tribes and many Families And it may be said Blessed is the people whose earthly Government is the Law of Common Righteousness While Israel was under this Commonwealths Government they were a terror to all oppressing Kings in all Nations of the World and so will England be if this righteous Law become our Governor But when the Officers of Israel began to be covetous and proud they made a breach or as Isaiah said The Rulers of the people caused them to err and then the Government was altered and fell into the hand of Kings like other Nations and then they fled before their enemies and were scattered The Government of Kings is the Government of the Scribes and Pharisees who count it no freedom unless they be Lords of the Earth and of their Brethren But Commonwealths Government is the Government of Righteousness and Peace who is no Respecter of persons Therefore Reader here is a tryal for thy sincerity Thou shalt have no want of food rayment or freedom among Brethren in this way propounded See now if thou 〈◊〉 be content as the Scriptures
Magistracy of a Commonwealth and they do not act righteously and because of this sorrows and tears poverty and bondages are known among Mankinde and now that City mourns And surely if it be carefully looked into the necessity of the people never chose such Officers but they were either voluntary Soldiers 〈◊〉 Officers chosen by them who ran before they were called and so by policy and force they sat down in the chair of Government strengthening one sort of people to take the free use of the Earth from another sort and these are sons of bondage and they act in darkness by reason whereof the Prophet Esay cries out Darkness hath covered the Earth and thick darkness the people for the Leaders of the people have caused them to err I fear so O England c. All Officers in a Commonwealth are to be chosen new ones every year When publique Officers remain long in place of Judicature they will degenerate from the bounds of humility honesty and tender care of brethren in regard the heart of man is so subject to be overspred with the clouds of covetousness pride and vain-glory for though at the first entrance into places of Rule they be of publique spirits seeking the Freedom of others as their own yet continuing long in such a place where honors and greatness is coming in they become selfish seeking themselves and not common Freedom as experience proves it true in these days according to this common Proverb Great Offices in a Land and Army have changed the disposition of many sweet spirited men And Nature tells us That if water stand long it corrupts whereas running water keeps sweet and is fit for common use Therefore as the necessity of common preservation moves the people to frame a Law and to chuse Officers to see the Law obeyed that they may live in peace So doth the same Necessity bid the People and cries aloud in the ears and eyes of England to chuse new Officers and to remove the old ones and to chuse State-Officers every year And that for these Reasons First To prevent their own evils for when pride and fulness take hold of an Officer his eyes are so blinded therewith that he forgets he is a servant to the Commonwealth and strives to lift up himself high above his Brethren and oftentimes his Fall proves very great witness the Fall of oppressing Kings Bishops and other State-Officers Secondly To prevent the creeping in of Oppression into the Commonwealth again for when Officers grow proud and full they will maintain their greatness though it be in the poverty ruine and hardship of their Brethren Witness the practice of Kings and their Laws that have 〈◊〉 the Commoners of England a long time And have we not experience in these days that some Officers of the Commonwealth are grown so mossy for want of removing that they will hardly speak to an old acquaintance if he be an inferior man though they were very familiar before these Wars began c. And what hath occasioned this distance among friends and brethren but long continuance in places of honour greatness and riches Thirdly Let Officers be chosen new every year in love to our posterity for if Burthens and Oppressions should grow up in our Laws and in our Officers for want of removing as Moss and Weeds grow in some Land for want of stirring surely it will be a foundatian of misery not easily to be removed by our posterity and then will they curse the time that ever we their fore-fathers had opportunities to set things to rights for their ease and would not do it Fourthly To remove Officers of State every year will make them truly faithful knowing that others are coming after who will look into their ways and if they do not do things justly they must be ashamed when the next Officers succeed And when Officers deal faithfully in the Government of the Commonwealth they will not be unwilling to remove The Peace of London is much preserved by removing their Officers yearly Fifthly It is good to remove Officers every year that whereas many have their portions to obey so many may have their turns to rule and this will encourage all men to advance Righteousness and good Manners in hopes of Honor but when money and riches bears all the sway in the Rulers hearts there is nothing but Tyranny in such ways Sixthly The Commonwealth hereby will be furnished with able and experienced men fit to govern which will mightily advance the Honor and Peace of our Land occasion the more watchful care in the Education of children and in time will make our Commonwealth of England the Lilly among the Nations of the Earth Who are fit to choose and fit to be chosen Officers in a Commonwealth All uncivil livers as drunkards quarrelers fearful ignorant men who dare not speak truth lest they anger other men likewise all who are wholly given to pleasure and sports or men who are full of talk all these are empty of substance and cannot be experienced men therefore not fit to be chosen Officers in a Commonwealth yet they may have a voyce in the choosing Secondly All those who are interessed in the Monarchial Power and Government ought neither to choose nor be chosen Officers to manage Commonwealths Affairs for these cannot be friends to common Freedom And these are of two sorts First Such as have either lent money to maintain the Kings Army or in that Army have been Souldiers to fight against the recovering of common Freedom these are neither to choose nor be chosen Officers in the Commonwealth as yet for they have lost their Freedom yet I do not say that they should be made servants as the conquered usually are made servants for they are our brethren and what they did no doubt they did in a conscionable zeal though in ignorance And seeing but few of the Parliaments friends understand their Common Freedoms though they own the name Commonwealth therefore the Parliaments party ought to bear with the ignorance of the Kings party because they are brethren and not make them servants though for the present they be suffered neither to choose nor be chosen Officers left that ignorant spirit of revenge break out in them to interrupt our common Peace Secondly All those who have been so hasty to buy and sell the Common-wealths Land and so to entangle it upon a new accompt ought neither to choose nor be chosen Officers for hereby they declare themselves either to be for Kingly Interest or else are ignorant of Commonwealths Freedom or both therefore unfit to make Laws to govern a free Commonwealth or to be Overseers to see those Laws executed What greater injury could be done to the Commoners of England then to sell away their Land so hastily before the people knew where they were or what Freedom they had got by such cost and bloodshed as they were at And what greater ignorance could be declared by Officers then to sell
was this Do you maintain our Laws and Liberties and we will protect and assist you Secondly A Parliament is to make choyce of understanding able and publique spirited men to be Leaders of an Army in this case and to give them Commissions and Power in the name of the Commonwealth to manage the work of an Army Thirdly A Parliaments work in this case is either to send Embassadors to another Nation which hath invaded our Land or that intends to invade to agree upon terms of peace or to proclaim War or else to receive and hear Embassadors from other Lands for the same business or about any other business concerning the peace and honor of the Land For a Parliament is the Head of a Commonwealths power or as it may be said it is the great Councel of an Army from whom originally all Orders do issue forth to any Officer or Soldier For if so be a Parliament had not an Army to protect them the rudeness of the people would not obey their proceedings and if a Parliament were not the Representative of the People who indeed is the body of all Power the Army would not obey their Orders So then a Parliament is the Head of Power in a Commonwealth and it is their work to manage publique affairs in times of War and in times of Peace not to promote the Interest of particular men but for the Peace and Freedom of the whole Body of the Land viz. of every particular man that none be deprived of his Creation Rights unless he hath lost his Freedom by Transgression as by the Laws is expressed The work of a Commonwealths Ministry and why one day in seven may be a Day of Rest from Labor If there were good Laws and the People be ignorant of them it would be as bad for the Commonwealth as if there were no Laws at all Therefore according to one of the Laws of Israels Commonwealth made by Moses who was the Ruler of the People at that time It is very rational and good that one day in seven be still set apart for three Reasons First That the People in such a Parish may generally meet together to see one anothers faces and beget or preserve fellowship in friendly love Secondly to be a day of rest or cessation from labor so that they may have some bodily rest for themselvs and cattel Thirdly that he who is chosen Minister for that year in that parish may read to the people three things First the affairs of the whole Land as it is brought in by the Post-master as it is related in his office hereafter following Secondly to read the Law of the Common-wealth not onely to strengthen the memory of the Ancients but that the young people also who are not grown up to ripeness of experience may be instructed to know when they do well and when they do ill for the Laws of a Land hath the power of freedom and bondage life and death in its hand therefore the necessary knowledge to be known and he is the best Prophet that acquaints men therewith That as men grow up in 〈◊〉 they may be able to defend the Laws and Government of the Land But these Laws shall not be expounded by the Reader for to expound a plain Law as if a man would put a better meaning then the letter it self produces two evils Fast the pure Law and the minds of people will be thereby consounded for multitude of words darken knowledge Secondly the Reader will be puffed up in pride to contemn the Law-makers and in time that will prove the father and nurse of Tyranny as at this day is 〈◊〉 by our Ministry And thirdly because the mindes of people generally love discourses therefore that the wits of men both young and old may be exercised there may be speeches made in a three-fold nature First to declare the acts and passages of former ages and Governments setting forth the benefit of freedom by well ordered Governments as in Israels Common Wealth and the troubles and bondage which hath always attended oppression and oppressors as the State of Pharaoh and other Tyrant Kings who said the earth and people were theirs and onely at their dispose Secondly Speeches may be made of all Arts and Sciences some one day some another As in Physick 〈◊〉 Astrology Astronomy Navigation Husbandry and such like And in these Speeches may be unfolded the nature of all herbs and plants from the Hysop to the Cedar as Solomon writ of Likewise men may come to see into the nature of the fixed and wandring stars those great powers of God in the heavens above and hereby men will come to know the secrets of Nature and Creation within which all true knowledg is wrapped up and the light in man must arise to search it out Thirdly Speeches may be made sometimes of the Nature of Mankind of his darkness and of his light of his weakness and of his strength of his love and of his envy of his sorrow and of his joy of his inward and outward bondages and of his inward and outward freedoms c. And this is that which the Ministry of Churches generally aim but only that they confound their knowledg by imaginary study when any one takes upon him to speak without experience Now this is the way To attain to the true knowledg of God who is the Spirit of the whole Creation as he hath spread himself forth in every form and more eminently in man as Paul writ The Creation in all the several bodies and forms are but the Mansions or fulness of him who hath filled all things with himself And if the Earth were set free from Kingly Bondage so that every one were sure to have a free livelyhood and if this liberty were granted then many secrets of God and his Works in Nature would be made publike which men now adays keep secret to get a living by so that this Kingly Bondage is the cause of the spreading of ignorance in the Earth But when Commonwealths Freedom is established and Pharisaical or Kingly Slavery cast out then will knowledg cover the Earth as the Waters cover the Seas and not till then He who is the chosen Minister for that year to read shall not be the only man to make Sermons or Speeches but every one who hath any experience and is able to speak of any Art or Language or of the Nature of the Heavens above or of the Earth below shall have free liberty to speak when they offer themselves and in a civil manner desire an audience and appoint his day yet he who is the Reader may have his liberty to speak too but not to assume all the power to himself as the proud and ignorant Clergy have done who have bewitched all the World by their subtle Covetousness and pride And every one who speaks of any Herb Plant Art or Nature of Mankind is required to speak nothing by imagination but what he hath found out
such as are not of your minde and having food and raiment therewith be content Now here is a trial for you whether you will be faithful to God and Christ in obeying his Laws or whether you will destroy the man-childe of true Freedom righteousness and peace in his resurrection And now thou wilt give us either the tricks of a Souldier Face about and return to Egypt and so declare thy self to be part of the Serpents seed that must bruise the heel of Christ or else to be one of the plain-hearted sons of promise or members of Christ who shall help to bruise the Serpents head which is Kingly oppression and so bring in everlasting righteousness and peace into the earth Well the eye is now open Store-houses shall be built and appointed in all places and be the common Stock There shall be Store-houses in all places both in the Country and in Cities to which all the fruits of the earth and other works made by Tradesmen shall be brought and from thence delivered out again to particular Families and to every one as they want for their use or else to be transported by Ship to other Lands to exchange for those things which our Land will not or does not afford For all the labours of Husbandmen and Trades-men within the Land or by Navigation to or from other Lands shall be all upon the common Stock And as every one works to advance the Common Stock so every one shall have a free use of any commodity in the Store-house for his pleasure and comfortable livelihood without buying and selling or restraint from any And having food and raiment lodging and the comfortable societies of his own kinde what can a man desire more in these days of his travel Indeed covetous proud and beastly-minded men desire more either to lie by them to look upon or else to waste and spoil it upon their lusts while other brethren live in straits for want of the use thereof But the Laws and faithful Officers of a free Commonwealth do regulate the unrational practice of such men There are two sorts of Store-houses general and particular The general Store-houses are such houses as receive in all commodities in the gross as all Barns and places to lay Corn and the fruits of the earth at the first reaping and these may be called Store-houses for Corn Flax Wool for Leather for Iron for linen and woollen Cloth or for any commodity that comes into our hand by Shipping from whence particular Family or Shop-keepers may fetch as they need to furnish their lesser shops So likewise herds of Cattel in the field flocks of Sheep and Horses are all common Store-houses so that from the Herds and Flocks every Family may fetch what they want for food or pleasure without buying and selling So likewise all Publike Dayries are Store-houses for Butter and Cheese yet every Family may have Cows for their own use about their own house And these general Store-houses shall be filled and preserved by the common labour and assistance of every Family as is mentioned in the Office of Overseer for Trades And from these Publike Houses which are the general stock of the Land all particular Trades-men may fetch materials for their particular work as they need or to furnish their particular dwellings with any commodities Secondly there are particular Store-houses or shops To which the Trades-men shall bring their particular works as all instruments of Iron to the Iron-shops Hats to shops appointed for them Gloves Shooes linen and woollen Cloth in smaller parcels to shops appointed for every one of them and the like Even as now we have particular trade in Cities and Towns called Shopkeepers which shall remaine still as they be only altered in their receiving in and delivering out for whereas by the Law of Kings or Conquerers they do receive in and deliver out by buying and selling and exchanging the Conquerers picture or stampe upon a piece of Gold or Silver for the fruits of the earth Now they shall by the Laws of the Commonwealth receive into their Sops and deliver out againe freely without buying and selling They shall receive in as into a Storehouse and deliver out againe freely as out of a common Store-house when particular persons or Familes come for any thing they need as now they do by buying and selling under kingly government For as particular Families and tradesmen do make several works more then they can make use of As Hats Shooes Gloves Stockings Linnen and Woolen cloth and the like and do carry their particular work to Store-houses So it is all reason and equity that they should go to other Store-houses and fetch any other commodity which they want and cannot make for as other men partakes of their labors it is reason they should pertake of other mens And all these Store-houses and Shops shall be orderly kept by such as shall be brought up to be waiters therein as is mentioned in the Office of Overseers for trades For as there are some men more ingenious to work so other men are more ingenious in keeping of Store-houses and Shops to receive in and deliver out commodities And all this easie work may be called waiting at such and such a Store-house As some may waite at Corn-houses some at linen and woolen houses some at Leather some at iron-shops and every general and particular commodity shall be known where they are by their houses and shops as it is at this day so that Townes and Cities and every Family almost are but Store-houses of one commodity or other for the uses of the Commonwealth or to transport to other lands Now this same free practice will kill covetousness pride and oppression for when men have a Law to buy and sell then as I said before the cuning cheaters get great estates by others mens labors and being rich thereby become oppressing Lords over their brethren which occasions all our troubles and wars in all Nations Come hither now all you who chalenge your brethren to deny Christ as though you were the only men that love Christ and would be true to him Here is a trial of your love can you be as ready to obey the law of liberty which is the command of Christ as you would have others to obey your Kingly laws of bondage It may be you will either storme or go away sorrowful does not Christ tell you that if you have food and rayment you should therewith be content and in this common freedome here will be food and rayment ease and pleasure plentiful both for you and your brethren so that none shall beg or starve or live in the straits of poverty and this fulfils that righteous law of Christ Do as you would be done by for that law of Christ can never be performed till you establish Common-wealths freedome Therefore now let it appear seeing the child is come to the birth whether you will receive Christ who is the spreading spirit