THE NEW LAW OF RIGHTEOUSNESS
"The great Lawgiver in Commonwealth's Government is the Spirit of
Universal Righteousness dwelling in mankind, now rising up to teach
everyone to do to another as he would have another do to him.... If
any goes about to build up Commonwealth's Government upon Kingly
principles, they will both shame and loose themselves: for there is
a plain difference between the two Governments."--WINSTANLEY, _The
Law of Freedom_.
On January 26th, 1648 (1649), four days prior to the execution of
Charles the First, the very day the King's death-warrant lay at the
Painted Chamber, Westminster, awaiting the signatures of some of the
less resolute among his judges, Winstanley sat down to write the opening
epistle of the pamphlet we have now to make known to our readers.[68:1]
They were stirring and momentous times, of which, as it seems to us,
this pamphlet is in every way worthy. It reveals a most momentous step
in the development of Winstanley's mind; for in it we see him move from
the misty regions of cosmological, metaphysical, and theistical
speculations to the somewhat firmer ground of social thought. From the
time of its publication, Winstanley leaves the former almost untouched,
concentrates his mind almost exclusively on the latter, pleads
eloquently for the recognition of natural law in the social, or
political world, and steps boldly forward to a life of action, animated
and inspired by the conclusions concerning the necessary foundations of
a social state based upon righteousness that his previous reflections
and meditations, or the Inward Light to which he unhesitatingly
submitted himself, had revealed unto him.
The only indication that Winstanley was in any way influenced by the
exciting discussions which under the circumstances must have raged
everywhere around him, is to be found in his condemnation of Capital
Punishment, which may here find a fitting place. In accordance with his
favourite method, he summarises his views in answer to a hypothetical
question, as follows:
"But is not this the old rule, He that sheds man's blood by man
shall his blood be shed?
"I answer, It is true, but not as usually it is observed. If any
man can say, he can give life, then he hath the power to take away
life. But if the power of life and death be only in the hand of the
Lord, then surely he is a murderer of the Creation that taketh away
the life of his fellow-creature, man, by any law whatsoever.... For
if I kill you, I am a murderer; if a third come to kill me for
murdering you, he is a murderer of me; and so murder hath been
called Justice, when it is but the curse.... Therefore, O thou
proud flesh that dares hang or kill thy fellow-creatures that are
equal to thee in the Creation, know this, that none hath the power
of life and death but the Spirit, and that all punishments that are
to be inflicted amongst creatures called men are only such as to
make the offender to know his Maker, and to live in the community
of the Righteous Law of Love one with the other."
The opening epistle is addressed--"To the Twelve Tribes of Israel that
are circumcised in heart, and scattered through all the Nations of the
Earth." In it he admonishes them to be patient, for "this New Law of
Righteousness and Peace which is raising up is David your King, which
you have been seeking a long time"; that "He is now coming to reign,
and the isles and nations of the Earth shall all come in unto Him"; that
"He will rest everywhere, for this blessing will fill all places." But
he reminds them that "the swords and counsels of the flesh shall not be
seen in this work; the arm of the Lord only shall bring these mighty
things to pass in the day of His power." "Therefore," he continues, "all
that I can say is this--Though the world, even the seed of the flesh,
despise you, and call you by reproachful names at their pleasure, yet
wait patiently upon your King; He is coming; He is rising; the Son is
up, and His glory will fill the Earth."
In the opening chapter of this pamphlet Winstanley still further
elucidates his interpretation of the allegorical stories of the Creation
and the Fall. How in the beginning man was created perfect, and "the
whole Creation lived in man, and man lived in his Maker." And how man
fell from this high estate by following the promptings of self-love,
covetousness, or the desires of the flesh, to which he attributes all
the misery and suffering men bring upon themselves, and which he
personifies as the First Adam. "All that this Adam doth," he says, "is
to advance himself to be the one power. He gets riches and government in
his hands so that he may lift up himself and suppress the universal
liberty, which is Christ."
He then continues:
"And this is the beginning of particular interest, buying and
selling the Earth from one particular hand to another, saying 'This
is mine,' upholding this particular propriety by a law of
government of his own making, and thereby restraining other
fellow-creatures from seeking nourishment from their Mother Earth.
So that though a man was bred up in a Land, yet he must not work
for himself where he would, but for him who had bought part of the
Land, or had come to it by inheritance of his deceased parents, and
called it his own Land. So that he who had no Land was to work for
small wages for those who called the Land theirs. Thereby some are
lifted up in the chair of tyranny, and others trod under the
footstool of misery, as if the Earth were made for a few, and not
for all men."
"As if the Earth were made for a few, and not for all men!" In these
few pertinent and indignant words Winstanley strikes the keynote of all
his subsequent writings, as that of those of many other later students
of social problems, from John Locke,[71:1] who may be regarded as his
immediate successor, to Thomas Spence, Patrick Edward Dove,[71:2] Thomas
Paine,[71:3] and Henry George.
He then further emphasises his contention, in words similar to those
that are to-day resounding throughout the advanced political centres of
the world, as follows:
"And let all men say what they will, so long as such are Rulers as
call the land theirs, upholding this particular propriety of Mine
and Thine, the common people shall never have their liberty, nor
the Land be ever freed from troubles, oppressions, and
complainings, by reason whereof the Creator of all things is
continually provoked. O thou proud, selfish, governing Adam, in
this Land called England! know that the cries of the poor, whom
thou layeth heavy oppressions upon, are heard."
And in the closing passage of the chapter he formulates his social
ideals in the following words:
"This is the unrighteous Adam, that dammed up the water springs of
universal liberty, and brought the Creation under the curse of
bondage, sorrow, and tears. But when the Earth becomes a Common
Treasury, as it was in the beginning, and the King of Righteousness
comes to rule in every one's hearts, then He kills the first
Adam--for Covetousness thereby is killed.
"A man shall have meat and drink and clothes by his labour in
freedom, and what can he desire more in Earth? Pride and Envy
likewise are killed thereby; for everyone shall look upon each
other as equal in the Creation, every man, indeed, being a perfect
Creation of himself. And so this second Adam, Christ the Restorer,
stops or dams up the running of those stinking waters of
self-interest, and causes the waters of life and liberty to run
plentifully in and through the Creation, making the Earth one Store
House, and every man and woman to live in the Law of Righteousness
and Peace, members of one household."
In a subsequent chapter (chap. vi.) he returns to this subject, and
emphasises the differences of the views of the ethical-minded man and
the ordinary conventional materialist, in the following suggestive
passage:
"The man of the flesh judges it a righteous thing that some men who
are cloathed with the objects of the Earth, and so called rich men,
whether it be got by right or wrong, should be Magistrates to rule
over the poor; and that the poor should be servants, nay, rather
slaves, to the rich. But the spiritual man, which is Christ, doth
judge according to the light of equity and reason, that all mankind
ought to have a quiet subsistence and freedom to live upon Earth;
and that there should be no bondman nor beggar in all his holy
mountain."
For, he contends:
"Mankind was made to live in the freedom of the spirit, not under
the bondage of the flesh. For everyone was made to be a Lord over
the creation of the Earth, cattle, fish, fowl, grass, trees, not
anyone to be a bond-slave and a beggar under the Creation of his
own kind. That so everyone, living in freedom and love in the
strength of the Law of Righteousness in him, not under straits of
poverty, nor bondage of tyranny one to another, might all rejoice
together in righteousness, and so glorify their Maker. For surely
this must dishonor the Maker of all men, that some men should be
oppressing tyrants, imprisoning, whipping, hanging their
fellow-creatures, men, for those very things which those very men
themselves are guilty of. Let men's eyes be opened, and it appears
clear enough, that the punishers have and do break the Law of
Equity and Reason more or as much as those who are punished by
them."
But, he adds rejoicingly, just
"As the powers and wisdom of the flesh hath filled the Earth with
injustice, oppression, and complainings, by mowing the Earth into
the hands of a few covetous unrighteous men, who assume a lordship
over others, declaring themselves thereby to be men of the basest
spirits. Even so, when the spreading of wisdom and truth fill the
Earth, mankind, he will take off that bondage, and give a universal
liberty, and there shall be no more complainings against
oppression, poverty, or injustice."
Winstanley, however, warns his readers that "this is not to be done by
the hands of a few, or by unrighteous men that would pull down the
tyrannical government out of other men's hands and keep it in their own
heart, as we feel this to be a burden of our age. But it is to be done
by the universal spreading of the Divine Power, which is Christ in
mankind, making them all to act in one spirit, and in and after one law
of reason and equity."
In the next chapter (chap. viii.) Winstanley describes his peculiar
state of mind at the time he first arrived at his fundamental
conclusions, which he evidently regarded as directly revealed to him, in
the following mystic words:
"As I was in a trance not long since, divers matters were present
to my sight, which here must not be related. Likewise I heard these
words--_Work together: Eat bread together: Declare this all
abroad_. Likewise I heard these words--_Whosoever it is that labors
in the earth--for any person or persons that lift up themselves as
Lords and Rulers over others, and that doth not look upon
themselves as equal to others in the Creation, the hand of the Lord
shall be upon that laborer. I the Lord have spoke it and I will do
it. Declare this all abroad._"
He then continues:
"After I was raised up I was made to remember very fresh what I had
seen and heard, and did declare all things to them that were with
me, and I was filled with abundance of quiet peace and secret joy.
And since that time those words have been like very fruitful seed,
that have brought forth increase in my heart, which I am much
pressed in spirit to declare all abroad."
He further explains the meaning of this revelation in the following
words:
"The poor men by their labors in this time of the first Adam's
government, have made the buyers and sellers of land, or rich men,
to become tyrants and oppressors over them. But in the time of
Israel's restoration, now beginning, when the King of Righteousness
himself shall be Governor in every man, none then shall work for
hire, neither shall any give hire, but everyone shall work in love,
one with and for another, and eat bread together, as being members
of one household, the Creation, in whom Reason rules king in
perfect glory."
Under these circumstances, he contends:
"No man shall have any more land than he can labor himself,[74:1]
or have others to labor with him in love, working together, and
eating bread together, as one of the tribes or families of Israel,
neither giving hire nor taking hire."
After having given forcible expression to his profound contempt for all
mere lip-professions of brotherhood, sympathy, and love, with which
those whose actions are least in accord with the dictates of
righteousness, equity, and reason are so often the most profuse, and
reminding these that--"The talking of love is no love; it is the acting
of love in righteousness which the Spirit Reason, our Father, delights
in"; he addressed the following stirring warning to his fellow-workers:
"Therefore you dust of the earth that are trod under foot, you poor
people that make both scholars and rich men your oppressors by your
labors, take notice of your privilege, the Law of Righteousness is
now declared. If you labor the earth and work for others that live
at ease and follow the ways of the flesh, eating the bread which
you get by the sweat of your brow, not of their own, know this,
that the hand of the Lord shall break out upon every such hireling
laborer, and you shall perish with that covetous rich man that hath
held and yet doth hold the Creation under the bondage of the
curse."
Winstanley then declares his intentions as to the future, which, as we
shall see, he faithfully carried out, as follows:
"I have now obeyed the command of the Spirit that bid me declare
all this abroad. I have declared it and I will declare it by word
of mouth, I have now declared it with my pen. And when the Lord
doth show unto me the place and manner, how He will have us that
are called common people manure and work upon the common lands, I
will then go forth and declare it by my action, to eat my bread by
the sweat of my brow, without either giving or taking hire, looking
upon the land as freely mine as another's. I have now peace in the
Spirit, and I have an inward persuasion that the spirit of the poor
shall be drawn forth ere long to act materially this Law of
Righteousness."
Winstanley then proceeds to formulate the practical proposals, whereby
he deemed the disinherited many might reclaim their inheritance, and
that without infringing on the established rights or the property of the
rich: proposals, be it remembered, which, if acted on, would have
altered the whole future economic history of Great Britain. Before
judging of their efficacy, we should bear in mind that at the time he
was writing, before the era of Enclosure Acts, over a third of England
was still common land. However, whatever opinion may be held on this
point, there can be no denying the lucidity and incisiveness of his
words: he says:
"But be it so that some will say, This is my land, and call such
and such a parcel of land his own interest.... Therefore, if the
rich still hold fast to this propriety of Mine and Thine, let them
labor their own lands with their own hands. And let the common
people, that say the earth is _ours_, not _mine_, let them labor
together, and eat bread together upon the commons, mountains, and
hills."
Such, then, was the proposal by which Winstanley deemed the relative
merits of Individualism and Communism, as a system of social union,
might best be tested, and which he immediately proceeded to defend in
the following words:
"For as the enclosures are called such a man's land, and such a
man's land, so the Commons and Heath are called the common
people's. And let the world see who labor the Earth in
righteousness, and those to whom the Lord gives the blessing, let
them be the people that shall inherit the Earth. Whether they that
hold a civil propriety, saying, This is mine, which is selfish,
devilish, and destructive to the Creation; or those that hold a
common right, saying, The Earth is ours, which lifts up the
Creation from bondage."
Further, he contends that if his proposals were acted on--
"None can say their right is taken from them. For let the rich work
alone by themselves; and let the poor work together by themselves.
The rich in their enclosures, saying, _This is mine_; and the poor
upon the Commons, saying, _This is ours, the Earth and its fruits
are common_. And who can be offended at the poor for doing this?
None but covetous, proud, idle, pampered flesh, that would have the
poor work still for this devil (particular interest) to maintain
his greatness that he may live at ease."
And after expressing his intense conviction that "Surely the Lord hath
not revealed this in vain," he summarises the whole train of reasoning
that had led him to his final conclusion, as follows:
"Was the Earth made for to preserve a few covetous, proud men to
live at ease, and for them to bag and barn up the treasures of the
Earth from others, that these may beg or starve in a fruitful land;
or was it made to preserve all her children? Let Reason and the
Prophets' and Apostles' writings be judge, the Earth is the Lord's,
it is not to be confined to particular interests.... Did the light
of Reason make the Earth for some men to engross up into bags and
barns, that others might be oppressed with poverty? Surely Reason
did not make that law. For the Earth is the Lord's; that is, the
spreading Power of Righteousness, not the inheritance of covetous,
proud flesh that dies. If any man can say that he makes corn or
cattle, he may say, _That is mine_. But if the Lord made these for
the use of his Creation, surely then the Earth was made by the Lord
to be a Common Treasury for all, not a particular treasury for
some."
Winstanley then summarises the results of the prevailing system in the
following terse but telling passage:
"Divide England into three parts, scarce one part is manured. So
that here is land enough to maintain all her children, yet many die
of want, or live under a heavy burden of poverty all their days.
And this misery the poor people have brought upon themselves by
lifting up particular interest by their labors."
This long but most interesting chapter concludes with indicating the
three steps Winstanley deemed essential for both individual and social
salvation, with which our notice of this pamphlet may fittingly close:
"There are yet three doors of hope for England to escape destroying
plagues.
"First, Let everyone leave off running after others for knowledge
and comfort, and wait upon the Spirit, Reason, till he break forth
out of the clouds of your heart and manifest himself within you.
This is to cast off the shadow of learning, to reject covetous,
subtile, proud flesh that deceives all by the hearsay and
traditional preaching of words, letters, and syllables without the
Spirit, and to make choice of the Lord, the true teacher of
everyone in their own inward experience.
"Secondly, Let everyone open his bags and barns, that all may feed
upon the crops of the Earth, that the burden of poverty may be
removed. Leave off this buying and selling of land, or of the
fruits of the Earth, and, as it was in the light of Reason first
made, so let it be in action amongst all, a Common Treasury, none
enclosing or hedging in any part of the Earth, saying, _This is
mine_, which is rebellion and high treason against the King of
Righteousness. And let this word of the Lord be acted amongst all:
_Work together; Eat bread together._{5}
"Thirdly, Leave off dominion and lordship one over another; for the
whole bulk of mankind are but one living Earth. Leave off
imprisoning, whipping, and killing, which are but the actings of
the curse. Let those that have hitherto had no land, and have been
forced to rob and steal through poverty; henceforth let them
quietly enjoy land to work upon, that everyone may enjoy the
benefit of his Creation, and eat his own bread with the sweat of
his own brows. For surely this particular propriety of mine and
thine hath brought in all misery upon people. First, it hath
occasioned people to steal one from another. Secondly, it hath made
laws to hang those that did steal. It tempts people to do an evil
action, and then kills them for doing of it. Let all judge whether
this be not a great evil.
"Well, if everyone would speedily set about the doing of these
three particulars I have mentioned, the Creation would thereby be
lift up out of bondage, and our Maker should have the glory of the
works of His hands."
* * * * *
Before Winstanley found opportunity to declare in action the truths that
had been revealed unto him, he found time to write yet another pamphlet,
entitled _Fire in the Bush_.[78:1] In it he still further elucidates his
interpretation of the story of the Creation, and his conception of the
Tree of Knowledge and the Tree of Life, and reaffirms his basic
contention that "All the strivings that are in mankind are for the
Earth: Who shall have it? Whether some particular persons shall have it,
and the rest have none; or whether the Earth shall be made a Common
Treasury to all, without respect of persons?" As it traverses much the
same ground as the pamphlet from which we have just quoted at such
length, it really calls for no further notice from us. The following
verse on its title-page, however, seems to us worth quoting:
"The Righteous Law a government will give to whole mankind
How he should govern all the Earth, and therein true peace find;
This government is Reason pure, who will fill man with Love,
And wording justice, without deeds, is judged by this Dove."
FOOTNOTES:
[68:1] The full title reads--"_The New Law of Righteousness_: Budding
forth to restore the whole Creation from the Bondage or the Curse. Or a
glympse of the new Heaven and the new Earth, wherein dwells
Righteousness. Giving an Alarm to silence all that preach or speak from
hearsay or imagination." This pamphlet is very scarce. There is no copy
in the British Museum or in any other of the London Public Libraries,
nor in the Bodleian. The Jesus College Library, Oxford, however, is
fortunate enough to possess a copy, which, to judge from its marginal
notes, was once in the possession of one of Winstanley's followers or
admirers, and which was courteously placed at our disposal by the
librarian, Mr. Hazell, to whom we here desire to convey our grateful
acknowledgement.
[71:1] See his chapter "Of Property" in his classical work on _Civil
Government_, a chapter which, as the conservative Hallam observes,
"would be sufficient, if all Locke's other writings had perished, to
leave him a high name in philosophy."
[71:2] For a short account of the writings of Thomas Spence and Patrick
Edward Dove, see J. Morrison Davidson's _Four Precursors of Henry
George_. (Publisher, F. Henderson, London.)
[71:3] See his _Agrarian Justice_.
[74:1] "As much land as a man tills, plants, improves, cultivates, and
can use the product of, so much is his property."--JOHN LOCKE, _Civil
Government_. (Of Property.)
[78:1] "_Fire in the Bush_: The Spirit burning, not consuming, but
purging mankind." Published by Giles Calvert. This pamphlet, too, is
very scarce. There is no copy in the British Museum, but a copy is to be
found in the Bodleian Library.