cast out
unrighteousness: and all men made perfect by the Inward Light, the
Spirit of Christ within them, will rejoice in the knowledge and glory of
God.

It is almost impossible to read Winstanley's earlier theological
pamphlets without being struck by the similarity in thought and doctrine
with those to-day still held by the Society of Friends, or Quakers,
whose original name amongst themselves, be it remembered, was the
Children of Light. And it is interesting to note that during the
seventeenth and eighteenth centuries the opponents of the Quakers
repeatedly taunted them with being disciples of Winstanley the
Leveller.[49:1] Thus the Right Reverend Thomas Coomber, Dean of Durham,
in a pamphlet significantly entitled _Christianity no Enthusiasm: Or the
several kinds of inspiration and Revelation pretended to by the Quakers
tried and found destructive to Holy Scripture and True Religion_,
published in 1678, wrote as follows:

"First for their original, it may seem more difficult to discover,
where Sects are not called after their Founder, but after some
property, etc., it may be harder to trace them to their head. In
1652 their beginning is supposed, and then abouts they were so
called and known. John Whitehead fixes it in the year 1648;[49:2]
and Hubberthorne in 1660 told the King that they were then twelve
years standing.[49:3] In that black year to these kingdoms (1648)
their pretended light appeared.[50:1] ... But the very draughts and
even body of Quakerism are to be found in the several works of
Gerrard Winstanley, a zealous Leveller, wherein he tells us of the
arising of new times and dispensations, and challengeth Revelation
very much for what he writ."

Coomber proceeds to quote from every one of Winstanley's theological
pamphlets, and then continues:

"That these are the Quaker principles is well enough known,
allowing for some little alterations, as few Sect-Masters but have
their doctrines varied by their Proselytes.... Now, considering
these opinions, the year, the country[50:2] (as _The Mystery of
God_ is dedicated to his "beloved countrymen of the County of
Lancaster"), the printer Giles Calvert, and that several Levellers
settled into Quakers, we incline to take them for Winstanley's
Disciples and a branch of the Levellers. And what this man writes
of--levelling men's estates, of taking in of