#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?
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
Thomas Adams—called the “Shakespeare of the Puritans”—warned that God sees every injustice and is not mocked. He rebuked rich oppressors and greedy commoners alike, then turned the knife inward: our sins include hardness toward the poor and flattering the rich. The reckoning begins at home.
Arthur Dent, an English Puritan, reflects on salvation and recalls Job’s grim scenes of cruelty. Under feudal lords, the poor—farmers, laborers, widows—trembled and hid at their approach. One wonders: where do the poor still hide today? And can we be the sort whose voice, like in Job 29, brings them relief rather than dread?
Watson on the 6th Commandment: mercy works adorn the gospel as fruit adorns a tree (Matt. 5:16)—they credit religion and silence its critics. Westminster-level conviction.
Contrast today: God is fine with our bad PR, gainsayers deserve snark, a few meals last month covers it. Watson’s question lingers: how do you let your light shine?
James Pilkington, a #Puritan minister, reflects on Nehemiah’s rebuke of economic abuse. He names everyday injustices—rent-racking, fines on tenants, forced labor without pay—so common that cries fill the land, yet nothing changes. Still, he insists they must be named. Like daily chores, justice requires constant effort. How might you ease the burdens others carry for you?
Picture Baxter, the #Puritan leader, peering over your shoulder like a disappointed British uncle: “You know that lavish dinner? Straight from wallet to waist to sink.” He says when food doesn’t even nourish—just parades in and exits—it’s money literally flushed away. Not banning menus, mind you, just social side-eye. Epicures of all ranks: did we really need takeaway… again?
Richard Greenham, an English Puritan, taught that the Eighth Commandment reaches far beyond burglary: theft includes harsh bargaining and deceitful dealing. We praise “voluntary” transactions and mock moral limits, yet still sense when dealings are plainly unmerciful. Oddly, we resent both the theft and the commandment that names it.
How do you refuse to steal in ordinary life?
#christian #freedom #tencommandments #puritan #reformedscholastics
Greg Johnson
Liam O'Mara IV, PhD