Attersoll’s logic is unsparing: if you’d condemn someone for hamstringing a man already struggling to walk, why is it harder to condemn those who find elaborate reasons to push down people already barely keeping their heads above water? If we thrust down the brother in necessity, he asks, how dwelleth the love of God in us? It’s a reasonable question. Modern discourse has yet to produce a satisfying answer.

#puritan #christian #philemon #bible #justice

#Puritan poet and Oliver Cromwell's secretary John Milton attacking the money culture:
Mammon led them on,
Mammon, the least erected Spirit that fell
From heav’n, for ev’n in heav’n his looks and thoughts
Were always downward bent, admiring more
The riches of Heav’ns pavement, trod’n Gold,
Then aught divine or holy else enjoy’d
In vision beatific; by him first
Men also, and by his suggestion taught,
Ransack’d the Center, and with impious hands
Rifl’d the bowels of thir mother Earth
For Treasures better hid.

My understanding is that at the time of the publication of Paradise Lost, Spanish Pieces of Eight were the most common coinage in England.

Hildersham—Puritan, expounding Psalm 51—identifies reluctance to give to the poor as a faith problem. If you genuinely believed God’s promises, giving would present no difficulty. Preachers regularly deploy “if you truly believed, you would” for tithing and attendance. Curiously rarely for the poor. Hildersham would have found that selective.

#puritan #values #faith #presbyterian #giving

Sibbes—Puritan, encouraging the backslider—offers a self-check for election. Colossians 3:12: put on bowels of mercy toward the fatherless and needy. That’s how you demonstrate you’re one of the elect. Modern conservative Christianity has developed different assurance criteria. Mercy toward the needy as evidence of election has been quietly retired. Sibbes didn’t get that memo.

#puritan #grace #presbyterian #empathy #compassion #salvation

Manton—Puritan, expounding James—observes that hypocrites are deficient in one area specifically. They pray much, know much, hear much. They do not give much. Basil noticed the same centuries earlier: many excel at fasting and sighing, demonstrations costing nothing but personal discomfort, while remaining sordid toward the poor. Paul noticed. Basil noticed. Manton noticed. One wonders why it keeps needing to be said.

#christian #puritan #bible

A quotation from Hilaire Belloc

Hilaire Belloc (1870-1953) Franco-British writer, historian [Joseph Hilaire Pierre René Belloc]
Poem (1923), “Epigram 45: On a Puritan,” Sonnets and Verse (1923 ed.)

More about this quote: wist.info/belloc-hilaire/83345…

#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #hilairebelloc #damnation #devil #endsandmeans #God #hell #Puritan #zealot

#Puritan Samuel Annesley limits our liberty with money two ways: don’t hoard so much you deny yourself daily comfort, and don’t withhold what the poor genuinely need. Spend on your own needs and comforts — but reserve a share for the poor’s necessities.

We can picture Dickens’ miser shivering over his coins. But do we hoard against ourselves from fear? And who among us keeps a seat at our table for what the poor require? How many preachers urge this today?​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

#christian #greed

Thomas Watson, that wonderfully blunt Puritan, basically says: lovely speeches about compassion are useless if the poor are still hungry. You can drizzle honeyed words everywhere—but the wounded need bread, not poetry. Better to be a saint with a loaf than an angel with a microphone.

#puritan #christian #theologymatters #reformed #puritanscholastics