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Qu. But all men doe not see and know Reason to rule in them?
Ans. No: Therefore some are called unreasonable men; and though
they are in the shape of men, yet their actings are like their horses,
and they know the spirit that rules them, no more then their horses.
But now when a man knowes, that this King of righteousnesse, Reason,
doth dwell in him, and rule in him; to which all the powers of his
flesh are made subject, which indeed is Christ dwelling in the flesh.
Now he may be said to be a perfect man, for he acts like a man,
righteously: and so as the Father lives in him, he lives in the Father.
Qu. Who is he that cals men to an account for their
unrighteousnesse?
Ans. It is the mighty spirit, Reason, who is King of righteousnesse
and King of peace; wherefore art thou proud, saith Reason? Wherefore
art thou covetous? Wherefore art thou envious and bitter spirited
against thy fellow creatures? Wherefore art thou unclean?
Ans. The Flesh answers, It is to please my selfe.
Qu. Reason answers, Didst thou make thy selfe, that thou shouldst
live to thy selfe? Or did not I the Lord make thee to live unto me? I
tell you, when Reason puts these questions to the heart, the heart will
be struck dead.
Qu. What is it to walke righteously, or in the sight of Reason?
Ans. First, When a man lives in all acts of love to his fellow
creatures; feeding the hungry; cloathing the naked; relieving the
oppressed; seeking the preservation of others as well as himselfe;
looking upon himselfe as a fellow creature (though he be Lord of all
creatures) to all other creatures of all kinds; and so doing to them,
as he would have them doe to him; to this end, that the Creation may be
upheld and kept together by the spirit of love, tendernes and onenesse,
and that no creature may complaine of any act of unrighteousnesse and
oppression from him.
Secondly, when a man lives in the knowledge and love of the Father,
seeing the Father in every creature, and so loves, delights, obeyes,
and honours the Spirit which he sees in the creature, and so acts
rightly towards that creature in whom hee sees the spirit of the Father
for to rest, according to its measure.
And whereas before he exercised outward senses to follow creatures;
now he lives in the exercise of his spirituall senses, and hee doth
rightly, and he knowes wherefore; for his soul now sees, feels, tasts,
smels and hears the Father spiritually in all things, and so doth all
things in love and cheerfull obedience to the Spirit, that discovers
all things to him inwardly; whereby he is made able to doe acts of
righteousnesse outwardly.
This man that is thus drawn up, knowes that it is to live in
community with the Globe; and to live in community with the Spirit of
the Globe.
In the next place, I said that Jesus Christ at a distance from
thee, will not save thee; and that it is not the humane flesh, but the
Spirit in that body, that is the Saviour, and the Seed, that must
bruise the Serpents head in mankind. And hence they say I deny Christ.
Therefore I shall give accompt here unto by these questions.
Qu. What is Jesus Christ?
Ans. I answer, He is a man taken up to live wholly in the Father;
or a meek spirit drawn up to live in the light of Reason. And here note
two things.
1. That Jesus Christ that dyed at Jerusalem by the hands of the
Jewes, he was the first man in whom the Father did appeare bodily to
dwell in; and that humane body was the Lambe that answered all the
types of Moses Law: But that body tooke its name from the spirit that
dwelt within it.
Qu. What was that Spirit?
Ans. He was the spirit of meeknesse and humility, which saved
humane flesh from all distempers that ariseth from pride or
covetousnesse, and this is the Child Jesus, a Saviour; for he destroyes
the covetousnesse and pride in flesh, and frees the creature from all
distempring fears and passions; and rules King, in meeknesse and quiet
humility.
2. He was the spirit of the Father; that lived in the exercise and
use of all the spirituall senses: and therefore as the Father was said
to live in him, so he was said to live in the Father.
Qu. But shall not that humane body of Christ save me by his death?
Ans. The Spirit in that humane body is the Saviour: The flesh
profits nothing: the patient death of that humane body, declares the
excellent power of the Spirit within it to be the alone Saviour of
humane flesh from the curse and power of darknesse, that workes and
rules in it, and so hath taken it prisoner.
And therefore when the same Anointing or Spirit that was sent downe
into that body; is sent down into yours, changing your vile bodies and
making them like that glorious body, killing all the cursed powers in
the flesh; making your flesh subject to the Spirit; now you are become
one with Christ, and with the Father, which is your salvation.
Qu. But shall I not looke upon that body, which was called Jesus
Christ, and expect salvation from him?
Ans. Jesus Christ at a distance from thee, will never save thee;
but a Christ within is thy Saviour: and therefore Paul after he had
looked upon the Lambe a long time; that is looked upon Christ at a
distance from himselfe, he saw that would bring him no peace; therefore
saith he, Though I have known Christ after the flesh, yet henceforth
know I him no more: for now the mystery of God, that hath been kept
secret from ages and generations past, is in these last daies revealed,
which is, Christ in you the hope of glory.
--from Gerrard Winstanley's Truth Lifting Up Its Head Above Scandals
--Updated 29 February 2012