[Here, as also in other Laws yet to follow, Winstanley, and as it seems to us without sufficient grounds, gives up the position taken up in The New Law of Righteousness, that capital punishment was absolutely unjustifiable.]

4.  The Laws shall be read by the Minister to the People four times in the year, viz., every quarter; that everyone may know whereunto they are to yield obedience, that none may die for want of knowledge.

5.  No accusation shall be taken against any man unless it be proved by two or three witnesses, or his own confession.

6.  No man shall suffer any punishment but for matter of fact or reviling words.  But no man shall be troubled for his judgement or practice in the things of his God, so he live quiet in the Land.

7.  The accuser and the accused shall always appear face to face before any Officer; that both sides may be heard, and no wrong to either party.

8.  If any Judge execute his own will contrary to the Law, or where there is no Law to warrant him in, he shall be cashiered, and never bear Office more.

9.  He who raises an accusation against any man, and cannot prove it, shall suffer the same punishment as the other should, if proved.  An accusation is, when one man complains of another to an Officer, all other accusations the Law takes no notice of.

10.  He who strikes his neighbor shall be struck himself by the executioner, blow for blow, and shall lose eye for eye, tooth for tooth, limb for limb, life for life.  And the reason is that men should be tender of one another’s bodies, doing as they would be done by.

11.  If any man strike an Officer, he shall be made a servant under the Task-master for a whole year.

12.  He who endeavours to stir up contention among neighbors, by tale-bearing or false reports, shall the first time be reproved openly by the Overseers among the people.  The second time he shall be whipped.  The third time he shall be a servant under the Task-master for three months.  And if he continue, he shall be a servant for ever, and lose his Freedom in the Commonwealth.

13.  If any give reviling or provoking words, whereby his neighbor’s spirit is burdened, if complaint be made to the Overseers, they shall admonish the offender privately to forbear.  If he continue to offend his neighbor, the next time he shall be openly reproved and admonished before the Congregation when met together.  If he continue, the third time he shall be whipped; the fourth time, if proof be made by witnesses, he shall be a servant under the Task-master for twelve months.

14.  He who will rule as a Lord over his Brother, unless he be an Officer commanding obedience to the Law, he shall be admonished as aforesaid, and receive like punishment, if he continue.

LAWS FOR THE PLANTING OF THE EARTH.