Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
spirit_n	heart_n	love_n	love_v	7,424	5	6.5073	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A96695	A letter to the Lord Fairfax, and his Councell of VVar, with divers questions to the lawyers, and ministers: proving it an undeniable equity, that the common people ought to dig, plow, plant and dwell upon the commons, without hiring them, or paying rent to any. Delivered to the Generall and the chief officers on Saturday June 9. / By Jerrard Winstanly, in the behalf of those who have begun to dig upon George-Hill in Surrey.	Winstanley, Gerrard, b. 1609.; Fairfax, Thomas Fairfax, Baron, 1612-1671.	1649 (1649)	Wing W3046; Thomason E560_1; ESTC R204419	8,484	12

buying or renting Land of any seeing every one by Agreement and Covenant among themselves have paid taxes given free-quarter and adventured their lives to recover England out of bondage we affirm they ought 10. Whether the Laws that were made in the daies of the Kings does give freedom to any other people but to the gentry and Clergy all the rest are left servants and bondmen to those task-masters none have freedom by the Laws but those two sorts of people all the common people have been and still are burdened under them And surely if the common people have no more freedom in England but only to live among their elder brothers and work for them for hire what freedom then have they in England more then we can have in Turkie or France For there if any man will work for wages he may live among them otherwise no therefore consider whether this be righteous and for the peace of the Nation that Laws shall be made to give freedom to impropriators and Free-holders when as the poor that have no land are left still in the straights of beggery and are shut out of all livelihood but what they shall pick out of fore bondage by working for others as Masters over them and if this be not the burthen of the Norman yoke let rationall men judge therefore take not away men but take away the power of tyranny and bad government the price is in your hand and let no part of the Nation be wronged for want of a Representative And here now we desire your publike Preachers that say they preach the righteous law to consider these questions which confirms us in the peace of our hearts that we that are the common people born in England ought to improve the Commons as we have declared for a publike Treasury and livelihood and that those that hinder us are rebells to their Maker and enemies to the Creation First we demand I or No whether the earth with her fruits was made to be bought and sold from one to another and whether one part of mankind was made a Lord of the land and another part a servant by the law of Creation before the fall I affirme and I challenge you to disprove that the earth was made to be a common Treasury of livelihood for all without respect of persons and was not made to be bought and sold And that mankind in all his branches is the lord over the Beasts Birds Fishes and the Earth and was not made to acknowledge any of his owne kind to be his teacher and ruler but the spirit of righteousnesse only his Maker and to walk in his light and so to live in peace and this being a truth as it is then none ought to be Lords or Landlords over another but the earth is free for every son and daughter of mankind to live free upon This question is not to be answered by any text of Scripture or example since the fall but the answer is to be given in the light of it self which is the law of righteousnesse or that Word of God that was in the beginning which dwells in mans heart and by which he was made even the pure law of creation unto which the creation is to be restored Before the fall Adam or the Man did dresse the garden or the earth in love freedom and righteousnesse which was his rest and peace But when covetousnesse began to rise up in him to kill the power of love and freedom in him and so made him mankind to set himself one man above another as Cain lifted up himself above Abel which was but the outward declaration of the two powers that strive in the man Adams heart and when he consented to that serpent covetousnesse then he fell from righteousnesse was cursed and was sent into the earth to eat his bread in sorrow And from that time began particular propriety to grow in one man over another and the sword brought in propriety and holds it up which is no other but the power of angry covetousnesse For Cain killed Abel because Abels principles or religion was contrary to his And the power of the sword is still Cain killing Abel lifting up one man still above another But Abel shall not alwaies be slain nor alwaies lie under the bondage of Cains cursed propriety for he must rise And that Abel of old was but a type of Christ that is now rising up to restore all things from bondage 2. I demand whether all wars blood-shed and misery came not upon the Creation when one man indeavoured to be a lord over another and to claime propriety in the earth one above another your Scripture will prove this sufficiently to be true And whether this misery shall not remove and not till then when all the branches of mankind shall look upon themselves as one man and upon the earth as a common Treasury to all without respecting persons every one acknowledging the law of righteousnesse in them and over them and walking in his light purely then cast away your buying and selling the earth with her fruits it is unrighteous it lifts up one above another it make● one man oppresse another and is the burthen of the Creation 3. Whether the work of restoration lies not in removing covetousnesse casting that Serpent out of heaven mankind and making man to live in the light of righteousnesse not in words only as Preachers do but in action whereby the Creation shines in glory I affirm it 4. Whether is the King of righteousnesse a respecter of persons yea or no If you say no then who makes this difference that the elder brother shall be lord of the land and the younger brother a slave and beggar I affirm it was and is covetousnesse since the fall not the King of righteousnesse before the fall that made that difference therefore if you will be Preachers hold forth the law of righteousnesse purely and not the confused law of covetousnesse which is the murtherer the law of righteousnesse would have every one to injoy the benefit of his creation that is to have food and rayment by his labour freely in the land of his nativity but covetousnesse will have none to live free but he that hath the strongest arme of flesh all others must be servants 5. Whether a man can have true peace by walking in the Law of covetousnesse and self as generally all do or by walking in the Law of universall righteousnesse doing as he would be done by I affirm there is no tr●e peace till men talk lesse and live more actually in the power of universall righteousnesse Then you Preachers lay aside your multitude of words and your selfish doctrines for you confound and delude the people 6. Whether does the King of righteousnesse bid you love or hate your enemies if you say love them then I demand of you why do some of you in your Pulpits and elswhere stir up the people to beat to imprison put to death or banish or not to buy and sell with those that endeavour to restore the earth to a common treasury again surely at the worst you can make them but your enemies therefore love them win them by love do not hate them they do not hate you 7. Whether it be not a great breach of the Nationall Covenant to give two sorts of people their freedom that is Gentry and Clergy and deny it to the rest I affirm it is a high breach for mans Laws makes these two sorts of people the Antichristian task-masters over the common people The one forcing the people to give them rent for the earth and to work for hire for them The other which is the Clergy that force a maintenance of tithes from the people a practise which Christ the Apostles and Prophets never walked in therefore surely you are the false Christs and false Prophets that are risen up in these latter daies Thus I have declared to you and to all in the whole world what that power of life is that is in me And knowing that the Spirit of righteousnesse does appear in many in this Land I desire all of you seriously in love and humility to consider of this businesse of publike community which I am carried forth in the power of love and clear light of universall righteousnesse to advance as much as I can and I can do no other the Law of love in my heart does so constrain me by reason whereof I am called fool mad man and have many slanderous reports cast upon me and meet with much fury from some covetous people under all which my spirit is made patient is guarded with joy and peace I hate none I love all I delight to see every one live comfortably I would have none live in poverty straits or sorrows therefore if you find any selfishnesse in this work or discover any thing that is destructive to the whole Creation that you would open your hearts as freely to me in declaring my weaknesse to me as I have been open-hearted in declaring that which I find and feel much life and strength in But if you see righteousnesse in it and that it holds forth the strength of universall love to all without respect to persons so that our Creator is honored in the work of his hand then own it and justifie it and let the power of love have his freedom and glory Jerrard Winstanly THe Reformation that England now is to endeavour is not to remove the Norman Yoke only and to bring us back to be governed by those Laws that were before William the Conqueror came in as if that were the rule or mark we aime at No that is not it but the Reformation is according to the Word of God and that is the pure Law of righteousnesse before the fall which made all things unto which all things are to be restored and he that endeavours not that is a Covenant-breaker This Letter with the Questions were delivered by the Authors own hand to the Generall and the chief Officers and they very mildly promised they would read it and consider of it FINIS

A LETTER TO The Lord Fairfax AND His Councell of VVar WITH Divers Questions to the Lawyers and Ministers Proving it an undeniable Equity That the common People ought to dig plow plant and dwell upon the Commons without hiring them or paying Rent to any Delivered to the Generall and the chief Officers on Saturday June 9. By Jerrard Winstanly in the behalf of those who have begun to dig upon George-Hill in Surrey London Printed for Giles Calvert at the black Spread-Eagle at the West end of PAULS 1649. standing portion of livelihood to us and our children without that cheating intanglement of buying and selling and we shall not arrest one another And then what need have we of imprisoning whipping or hanging Laws to bring one another into bondage and we know that none of those that are subject to this righteous law dares arrest or inslave his brother for or about the objects of the earth because the earth is made by our Creator to be a common Treasury of livelihood to one equall with another without respect of persons But now if you that are elder brothers and that call the Inclosures your own land hedging out others if you will have Magistrates and Laws in this outward manner of the Nations we are not against it but freely without disturbance shall let you alone and if any of we Commoners or younger Brothers shall steal your corne or cattell or pull down your hedges let your laws take hold upon any of us that so offends But while we keep within the bounds of our Commons and none of us shall be found guilty of medling with your goods or inclosed proprieties unlesse the Spirit in you freely give it up your laws then shall not reach to us unlesse you will oppresse or shed the blood of the innocent and yet our corn and cattell shall not be locked up as though we would be propriators in the middle of the Nation no no we freely declare that our corn and cattell or what we have shall be freely laid open for the safety and preservation of the Nation and we as younger brothers living in love with you our elder brothers for we shall endeavour to do as we would be done unto that is to let every one injoy the benefit of his Creation to have food and rayment free by the labour of his hands from the earth And as for spirituall teachings we leave every man to stand and fall to his own Master if the power of covetousnesse be his Master or King that rules in his heart let him stand and fall to him if the power of love and righteousnesse be his Master or King that rules in his heart let him stand and fall to him let the bodies of men act love humility and righteousnesse one towards another and let the Spiri● of righteousnesse be the Teacher Ruler and Judge both in us and over us and by thus doing we shall honor our Father the Spirit that gave us our being And we shall honor our Mother the earth by labouring her in righteousnesse and leaving her free from oppression and bondage We shall then honor the higher powers of the left hand man which is our hearing seeing tasting smelling feeling and walk in the light of reason and righteousnesse that is the King and Judge that sits upon this five cornered Throne and we shall be strengthned by those five well springs of life of the right hand man which is understanding will affections joy and peace and so live like men in the light and power of the Son of righteousnesse within our selves feelingly What need then have we of any outward selfish confused Laws made to uphold the power of covetousnesse when as we have the righteous Law written in our hearts teaching us to walk purely in the Creation Sir The intent of our writing to you is not to request your protection though we have received an unchristian-like abuse from some of your souldiers for truly we dare not cast off the Lord and make choice of a man or men to rule us For the Creation hath smarted deeply for such a thing since Israel chose Saul to be their King therefore we acknowledge before you in plain English That we have chosen the Lord God Almighty to be our King and Protector Yet in regard you are our brethren as an English Tribe and for the present are owned to be the outward Governors Protectors and Saviours of this Land and whose hearts we question not but that you endeavour to advance the same King of righteousnesse with us therefore we are free to write to you and to open the sincerity of our hearts freely to you and to all the world And if after this report of ours either you or your Forces called souldiers or any that owns your Laws of propriety called freeholders do abuse or kill our persons we declare to you that we die doing our duty to our Creator by endeavouring from that power he hath put into our hearts to lift up his Creation out of bondage and you and they shall be left without excuse in the day of Judgement because you have been spoken to sufficiently And therefore our reason of writing to you is this in regard some of your foot souldiers of the Generalls Regiment under Captain Stravie that were quartered in our Town we bearing part therein as well as our neighbours giving them sufficient quarter so that there was no complaining did notwithstanding go up to George-hill where was onely one man and one boy of our company of the diggers And at their first coming divers of your souldiers before any word of provocation was spoken to them fell upon those two beating the boy and took away his coat off his back and some linnen and victualls that they had beating and wounding the man very dangerously and fired our house Which we count a strange and Heathenish practise that the souldierie should meddle with naked men peaceable men Countrymen that meddled not with the souldiers businesse nor offered any wrong to them in word or deed unlesse because we improve that victory which you have gotten in the name of the Commons over King Charles do offend the souldierie In doing whereof we rather expect protection from you then destruction But for your own particular we are assured of your moderation and friendship to us who have ever been your friends in times of straits and that you would not give Commission to strike us or fire or pull down our houses but you would prove us an enemy first Yet we do not write this that you should lay any punishment upon them for that we leave to your discretion only we desire in the request of brethren that you would send forth admonition to your souldiers not to abuse us hereafter unlesse they have a Commission from you and truly if our offences should prove so great you shall not need to send souldiers for us or to beat us for we shall freely come to you