Status Updates From The Puritans: A Sourcebook ...

Be always prepared for disappointments

"May men of great understanding are too wise, and of too great spirits to labour after wealth; or if they do, their designs are unsuccessful"

But as for men, they are ignorant of future things. No man knows so much as who shall be his heir, or enjoy the estate which he has laboured for.

"We live by faith in our vocations, in that faith, in serving God, serves men, and in serving men, serves God"

All the men in the world are divided into two ranks, Godly or Ungodly, Righteous or Wicked; of wicked men two sorts, some are notoriously wicked, others are Hipocrites: Of Hypocrites two sorts some are washed Swines, others are Goats.

All men must live among men, and as men, whether their souls are filled with the Holy Ghost or not, they must suffer the diseases and decays to which men are subject.

## **Selective Liberty**

The Puritans loudly defended freedom and liberty for all men—until slavery entered the room. John Wise, a Puritan minister, writes: *“Man must be conceived to be perfectly in his own power… and every man acknowledged equal to every man.”* Fine words, selectively applied. Hypocrisy, plain and unvarnished.

In peace, most people destroy themselves through slothfulness and a sense of security. In war, they would be destroyed by others, were it not for the wisdom and courage of the valiant.

... there is never peace where full liberty is not given, nor never stable peace where more than full liberty is granted.

Let all the world learn to give mortal men no greater power than they are content they shall use, for use it they will

Truth is the daughter of time.

Man was once left free to learn from reason and nature, and promptly abused the privilege; he must now submit his comprehension to the instituted law before he be allowed to seek meanings once more in the natural world.

The Biblical institution must fill the place man made empty through his own folly and since he has thrown away his ability to profit from natural wisdom he must have an explicit law imposed on him

... all ideas and things go in pairs, like the animals in the ark, because the word is symmetrical. Ideas in turn are divided into two sorts, those which establish themselves to our own experience and those which rests upon the authority of a witness, as do facts in history or the assertions of the Bible.

Knowledge is no knowledge without zeal