The opening epistle is addressed--"To the Twelve Tribes of Israel that are circumcised in heart, and scattered through all the Nations of the Earth." In it he admonishes them to be patient, for "this New Law of Righteousness and Peace which is raising up is David your King, which you have been seeking a long time"; that "He is now coming to reign, and the isles and nations of the Earth shall all come in unto Him"; that "He will rest everywhere, for this blessing will fill all places." But he reminds them that "the swords and counsels of the flesh shall not be seen in this work; the arm of the Lord only shall bring these mighty things to pass in the day of His power." "Therefore," he continues, "all that I can say is this--Though the world, even the seed of the flesh, despise you, and call you by reproachful names at their pleasure, yet wait patiently upon your King; He is coming; He is rising; the Son is up, and His glory will fill the Earth." In the opening chapter of this pamphlet Winstanley still further elucidates his interpretation of the allegorical stories of the Creation and the Fall. How in the beginning man was created perfect, and "the whole Creation lived in man, and man lived in his Maker." And how man fell from this high estate by following the promptings of self-love, covetousness, or the desires of the flesh, to which he attributes all the misery and suffering men bring upon themselves, and which he personifies as the First Adam. "All that this Adam doth," he says, "is to advance himself to be the one power. He gets riches and government in his hands so that he may lift up himself and suppress the universal liberty, which is Christ." He then continues: "And this is the beginning of particular interest, buying and selling the Earth from one particular hand to another, saying 'This is mine,' upholding this particular propriety by a law of government of his own making, and thereby restraining other fellow-creatures from seeking nourishment from their Mother Earth. So that though a man was bred up in a Land, yet he must not work for himself where he would, but for him who had bought part of the Land, or had come to it by inheritance of his deceased parents, and called it his own Land. So that he who had no Land was to work for small wages for those who called the Land theirs. Thereby some are lifted up in the chair of tyranny, and others trod under the footstool of misery, as if the Earth were made for a few, and not for all men." "As if the Earth were made for a few, and not for all men!" In these few pertinent and indignant words Winstanley strikes the keynote of all his subsequent writings, as that of those of many other later students of social problems, from John Locke,[71:1] who may be regarded as his immediate successor, to Thomas Spence, Patrick Edward Dove,[71:2] Thomas Paine,[71:3] and Henry George.