He cites Scripture and chops logic after
a masterly manner. Characteristic is this declaration: "St. Paul
doth, with one breath, reckon up seventeen sins, and yet usury is
none of them; but many preachers can not reckon up seven deadly
sins, except they make usury one of them." Filmer followed Fenton
not only through his theology, but through his political economy,
with such relentless keenness that the old doctrine seems to have
been then and there practically worried out of existence, so far as
England was concerned.
Departures from the strict scriptural doctrines regarding interest
soon became frequent in Protestant countries, and they were
followed up with especial vigour in Holland. Various theologians in
the Dutch Church attempted to assert the scriptural view by
excluding bankers from the holy communion; but the commercial
vigour of the republic was too strong: Salmasius led on the forces
of right reason brilliantly, and by the middle of the seventeenth
century the question was settled rightly in that country.
Pages:
1184
1185
1186
1187
1188
1189
1190
1191
1192
1193
1194
1195
1196
1197
1198
1199
1200
1201
1202
1203
1204
1205
1206
1207
1208