The law of freedom in a platform: or, True magistracy restored Humbly presented to Oliver Cromwel, General of the Common-wealths army in England. And to all English-men my brethren whether in church-fellowship, or not in church-fellowship, both sorts walking as they conceive according to the order of the Gospel: and from them to all the nations in the world. Wherein is declared, what is kingly government, and what is Commonwealths government. By Jerrard Winstanley.

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Title: The law of freedom in a platform: or, True magistracy restored Humbly presented to Oliver Cromwel, General of the Common-wealths army in England. And to all English-men my brethren whether in church-fellowship, or not in church-fellowship, both sorts walking as they conceive according to the order of the Gospel: and from them to all the nations in the world. Wherein is declared, what is kingly government, and what is Commonwealths government. By Jerrard Winstanley.
Author: Winstanley, Gerrard, b. 1609.
Publication: London :: printed by J.M. for the author, and are to be sold by Giles Calvert at the black Spred-Eagle at the west end of Pauls,; 1652.
Rights/Permissions: To the extent possible under law, the Text Creation Partnership has waived all copyright and related or neighboring rights to this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above, according to the terms of the CC0 1.0 Public Domain Dedication (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/). This waiver does not extend to any page images or other supplementary files associated with this work, which may be protected by copyright or other license restrictions. Please go to http://www.textcreationpartnership.org/ for more information.
Subject terms: Great Britain -- Politics and government -- 1649-1660 -- Early works to 1800.
Cite this Item: "The law of freedom in a platform: or, True magistracy restored Humbly presented to Oliver Cromwel, General of the Common-wealths army in England. And to all English-men my brethren whether in church-fellowship, or not in church-fellowship, both sorts walking as they conceive according to the order of the Gospel: and from them to all the nations in the world. Wherein is declared, what is kingly government, and what is Commonwealths government. By Jerrard Winstanley." In the digital collection Early English Books Online. https://name.umdl.umich.edu/A66685.0001.001. University of Michigan Library Digital Collections. Accessed May 19, 2024.

Pages

The Rise of a Commonwealths Army.

After that the necessity of the People in a Parish, in a County, and in a Land, hath moved the People to chuse Officers to preserve common peace, the same necessity causeth the People to say to their Officers,

Do you see our Laws observed for our common preservation, and we will assist and protect you.

This word assist and protect, implies the rising of the people by force of Arms, to defend their Laws and Officers, who rule well, against any In∣vasion, Insurrection or Rebellion of selfish Officers, or rude people; yea to beat down the turbulency of any foolish spirit that shall arise to break our common Peace.

So that the same Law of Necessity of common Peace, which moved the people to chuse Officers, and to compose a Law for to be a Rule of Go∣vernment: The same Law of Necessity of Protection doth raise an Ar∣my; so that an Army, as well as other Officers in a Commonwealth, spring from one and the same root, viz. from the Necessity of common Preservation.