the Priests and Professors that are the successors of Judas and the bitter spirited Pharisees that put the man Christ to death.”  He then again advances the reasons on which he bases the equal claims of all to the use of the earth, denounces the sources whence the exclusive claims of the few have sprung, more especially the tyrannical claims of Lords of Manors, boldly claiming that from this tyranny of man to man England should have been freed by the recent casting out of kingly power—­and continues: 

“Therefore I say, the Common Land is my own Land, equal with my Fellow Commoners; and our true propriety by the Law of Creation. It is every ones, but not one single ones. Yea, the Commons are as truly ours by the last excellent two Acts of Parliament, the foundation of England’s new Righteous Government aimed at, as the Elder Brothers can say the Enclosures are theirs.  For they ventured their lives and covenanted with us to help them preserve their Freedom; and we adventured our lives and they covenanted with us to purchase and to give us our Freedom, that hath been hundreds of years kept from us.”

The first part of this pamphlet concludes as follows: 

“Damona non Armis sed Morte subegit Jesus.

“By patient sufferings, not by Death,
Christ did the devil kill: 
And by the same still to this day,
His foes he conquers still.

“True Religion and undefiled is this:  To make Restitution of the Earth, which hath been taken and held from the Common People by the power of Conquests formerly, and to set the oppressed free.  Do not all strive to enjoy the land?  The Gentry strive for land; the Clergy strive for land; the Common People strive for land; and Buying and Selling is an Art whereby People endeavour to cheat one another of the land.  Now, if any can prove from the Law of Righteousness that the land was made peculiar to him and his successively, shutting others out, he shall enjoy it freely for my part.  But I affirm, it was made for all; and true Religion is to let everyone enjoy it.  Therefore you Rulers of England, make restitution of the Land which the Kingly Power holds from us.  Set the Oppressed free; and come in and honor Christ, who is the Restoring Power, and you shall find rest.”

In the opening of the second part of this pamphlet Winstanley reverts somewhat to his earlier mystical style, and still further expounds the eternal struggle between the Spirit of Self Love and the Spirit of Universal Love, denouncing the former as the source of all social ills, extolling the latter as the source and inspirer of peaceful and equitable social life.  “In our present experience,” he contends, “Darkness or Self Love goes before, and Light or Universal Love follows after”; and hence “Darkness and Bondage doth oppress Liberty and Light.”  He illustrates this contention, as well as the essential difference of the spirits animating the Diggers and their opponents, by relating how one of the Colonels of the Army told him—­“That the Diggers did work upon Georges Hill for no other end than to draw a company of people into arms; and that our knavery was found out, because it takes not that effect”:  on which Winstanley comments as follows: