of their Creation Freedom 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 anything, but rather increase our sorrow by our knowledge of our bondage.”

     “WHAT IS LAW IN GENERAL?”

Winstanley then proceeds to consider the question, What is Law? and to emphasise the essential difference between customary, conventional or written Law and that unwritten Law, proceeding from the Inward Light of Reason, that inspires men, in action as in words, to do as they would be done unto.  He first gives the following clear, rational and sufficient definition of Law: 

     “Law is a Rule, whereby men and other creatures are governed in
     their actions for the preservation of Common Peace.”

Then follows a most philosophic consideration of the whole question, which seems to us to reveal that Winstanley was groping, and by no means so blindly as many who succeeded him, after some Natural Law, some unalterable and immutable principle, which should serve as a basis, as well as the test and touchstone, of all man-made customs, laws and institutions.  He continues: 

THE TWO-FOLD NATURE OF LAW.

“This Law is two-fold:  First, it is the power of Life (called the Law of Nature within the Creatures) which doth move both man and beast in their actions, or that causes grass, trees, corn and all plants to grow in their several seasons.  And whatsoever anybody does, he does it as he is moved by this inward Law.  And this Law of Nature moves two-fold, viz., irrationally or rationally.”

THE LAW OF THE FLESH.

“A man by this inward Law is guided to actions of present content, rashly, through a greedy self-love, without any consideration, like foolish children, or like the brute beasts.  By reason whereof much hurt many times follows the body.  And this may be called the Law of the Members warring against the Law of the Mind.”

THE LAW OF THE MIND.

“Or where there is an inward watchful oversight of all motions to action, considering the end and effect of those actions, so that there be no excess in diet, in speech, or in action break forth, to the prejudice of a man’s self or others:  and this may be called the Light in Man, the Reasonable Power, or the Law of the Mind.  And this rises up in the heart by an experimental observation of that peace or 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 man’s heart above the former unreasonable power:  and it may be called the witness or testimony of a man’s own conscience:  and this moderate watchfulness is still the Law of Nature, but in a higher resurrection than the former.  It hath many terms, which for brevity sake I let pass.”

THEIR STRUGGLE FOR SUPREMACY.