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 17, 2024.

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Fourthly, All ancient men, above sixty years of age, are general Overseers.

And wheresoever they go, and see things amiss in any Officer or Tradesman, they shall call any Officer or others to account for their neglect of Duty to the Commonwealths Peace: And these are called Elders.

And every one shall give humble respect to these, as to Fathers, and as to men of the highest experience in the Laws, for the keeping of Peace in the Commonwealth.

And if these see things amiss, and do speak, all Officers and others shall assist and protect them, to see the Laws carefully executed: and eve∣ry one that affronts or abuses these in words or deeds, shall suffer punish∣ment according to the sentence of the Judg.

And all these shall be generall assistances and encouragers of all Officers in the doing the work of their places.

And the Reason of all is this, That many eyes being watchfull, the Laws may be obeyed, for to preserve Peace.

But if any of these Elders should vent their passion, or express envy against any one, and set up his own will above the Law, and do things contrary to Law, upon complaint, the Senators at the Judges Court shal examine the matter, if he be faulty the Judge shal reprove him the first time, but the se∣cond time he does so the Judge shall pronounce, That he shal lose his Autho∣ritie and never beare Office nor generall over-sight more while he lives, onely he shal have respect as a man of Age.