well as to friends:  nay, towards those who oppress me, endeavouring to make me a beggar to them.  And since I did obey thy voice, to speak and act this truth, I am hated, reproached and oppressed on every side.  Such as make professions of thee, yet revile me.  And though they see I cannot fight with fleshy weapons, yet they will strive with me by that power.  And so I see, Father, that England yet doth choose rather to fight with the Sword of Iron and Covetousness than with the Sword of the Spirit, which is Love.  And what thy purpose is with this Land or with my body, I know not, but establish thy power in me, and then do what pleases thee.

“These and such like sweet thoughts dwelt in my heart as I went along; and I feel myself now like a man in a storm, standing under shelter upon a hill in peace, waiting till the storm be over to see the end of it, and of many other things that my eye is fixed upon.”

The pamphlet concludes as follows: 

“You have arrested us for digging upon the common land, you have executed your unrighteous power, in destraining cattle, imprisoning our bodies, and yet our cause was never publicly heard, neither can it be proved that we broke any Law that is built upon equity and reason.  Therefore we wonder whence you had your power to rule over us by will, more than we to rule over you by our will....  We request that you would let us have a fair open trial.... let your Ministers plead with us in the Scriptures, and let your Lawyers plead with us as to the equity and reason of your own Law.  And if you prove us transgressors, then we shall lay down our work and acknowledge that we have trespassed against you in digging upon the Commons, and then punish us.  But if we prove by Scripture and Reason that undeniably the Land belongs to one as well as another, then you shall own our work, justify our cause, and declare that you have done wrong to Christ, who you say is your Lord and Master, in abusing us His servants and your fellow-creatures, while we are doing His work.  Therefore, knowing you to be men of moderation in outward show, I desire that your actions towards your fellow-creatures may not be like one beast to another, but carry yourselves like man to man, for your proceeding in your pretence of Law hitherto against us is both unrighteous, beastly, and devilish, and nothing of the spirit of man seen in it.  You Attornies and Lawyers, you say you are Ministers of Justice, and we know that equity and reason is or ought to be the foundation of Law.  If so, then plead not for money altogether, but stand for Universal Justice and Equity:  then you will have peace; otherwise both you and the corrupt Clergy will be cast out as unsavoury salt.”

As will have been seen from the above, and as we shall show more fully later on, the little company of Diggers were having a rather troublesome time.  Within two days of the delivery of their first letter to Lord