This year’s Lord’s Day readings will be a full audiobook (in instalments) of Thomas Brooks’ Precious Remedies against Satan’s Devices, a book widely acknowledged by Christians as being unequalled for its insights on how to “resist the devil and he will flee from you” (as the Epistle of James puts it).

Brooks—one of a whole crop of Puritans trained at Emmanuel College, Cambridge, in the lead-up to the English Civil War—was kicked out of the Church of England after the restoration of the monarchy, along with several thousand others of the best vicars, in the Great Ejection. He stayed in his parish after his banishment from the pulpit, and carried on spiritual warfare in writing.

Thomas Brooks was a particularly favourite author of the most successful Christian preacher of all time, Charles Haddon Spurgeon (a Baptist in Victorian London).

Satan’s device No. 1: to present the bait and hide the hook. (Thomas Brooks)

Footage has been widely shared of an eloquent lady attending a recent London pro-freedom rally wearing a woollen hat, whose comments begin with “I’m Sarah, a vicar’s wife, and I feel so strongly about it that I’ve come all the way up from Dorset.” (I’ve even seen that interview subtitled on a YouTube channel for learners of British English.)

À propos of this vicar’s wife (soon to be the wife of an ex-vicar?), read the below just in from a viewer local to her. The mendacious conduct of the parishioner described here puts me in mind of the Eight Woes uttered by Christ:
“Ye shut up the kingdom of heaven against men: for ye neither go in yourselves, neither suffer [allow] ye them that are entering to go in.” (Matt. 23:13)

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A group of 20-30 of us went to All Saints’ Church in Branksome (Poole) today as a show of support for the vicar Charlie Boyle and his wife Sarah, who have been forced to take a six-week sabbatical as the CofE decides what to do with him.

I arrived and was greeted outside by an elderly lady, wearing a mask, with a warm “Good morning!”. This was followed by “Our church has been taken over by bloody antivaxxers”. In retrospect, I was probably offered an opportunity there, but I was a couple minutes late so I rushed in.

Many of the congregation were gathered outside, also wearing masks, and refused to attend the service. Our group obviously refuses to wear masks and this further irritates the established congregation.

They left when it started and I’m told that one parishioner tried to inform a young family from our group, who were parking their car, that no service was taking place. The family attended anyway and found a service was taking place. This man had lied so that a young family would not attend his church, something which should delight any elderly Christian.

Like many churches, this church seemed like a social club for half Christians.

We plan to persist in the coming weeks and will not be letting it go.

Codicil: Christ’s Eight Woes against the scribes and Pharisees (Matthew 23)—see how closely applicable they are to today’s virtue signallers.

1. Being uninterested in real religion and getting angry when others are interested.

2. Extreme effort and eagerness to get even one person to come around to their mindset, and when he does, filling his mind with evil notions.

3. Being very keen on endowments and being remembered in old biddies’ wills, and making a show of godliness to achieve those results.

4. Insisting that church wealth is a holier asset than the church itself.

5. Demanding that everyone under their religious authority make small, visible sacrifices “to God”, while being perfectly unbothered about behaving unlawfully, unjustly, mercilessly and faithlessly.

6. Enjoying empty rituals not commanded by God, while gorging on meals “full of extortion and excess” (Christ’s own phrase in v. 25).

7. Going about in beautiful religious finery but being inwardly “full of dead men’s bones, and of all uncleanness” (Christ’s own phrase in v. 27); being utterly hypocritical.

8. Acknowledging that the persecutors of the righteous in former generations were their fathers, and thus indicating that they are a brood of vipers.


— With the above in mind, it’s clear that the virtue signaller and the Christian are polar opposites and mortal enemies. So if you find a church adherent lying to keep people away from God, ask them, “Are you a Christian or a virtue signaller? Your conduct tells me you’re a virtue signaller, so I wonder whether you’re a Christian.”

Some of those attending the service were told at the door, “You can’t come in; you’re smelly,” and, “You’re a rentamob”.

Count Julia Hartley-Brewer’s constitutional errors:

1. Blair was elected by the constituents of Sedgefield, Co. Durham. His name was not on the ballot paper in the other 650 constituencies.

2. No-one is elected to be “our nation’s prime minister”. “Prime minister” means “chief servant”. The master of that servant is the Sovereign. If our nation has a chief servant, it is Her Majesty. Did we elect her? Yes, by popular acclaim at her coronation, which is a qualification for office as requisite as lawful succession is.

3. Companionship of the Order of the Garter makes a man one of the Queen’s 23 most exclusive confidantes in a bizarre secret society with mediaeval questing aims. It is not “a knighthood”, which is a constitutional, regular and ancient estate of the realm.

And this is before we get on to the fiddling of the last general election (2005) of Blair’s premiership, about which the late great Ian R. Crane had a lot to say.

And right on cue here comes Mother Goose to inject confusion and defeat into the popular consensus while posing as the voice of the people.

https://t.me/iconoclastofficial/244

Finland’s girl-band Prime Minister, Sanna Marin, has told state broadcaster YLE that she is actively considering acceding to NATO. It’s at times like this that I wonder whether Dr Edward Dutton (The Jolly Heretic) is right to have suggested that she is damaged by foetal alcohol syndrome.

Principle 2 of 286: The first goal of sound government is to provide a "more perfect union". It's all well and good for small cells of liberty to secede, but will they then be picked off one by one?

One of the most spectacular conversions to Christianity in the last couple of years has been that of Roosh Valizadeh, formerly the world’s most notable consultant on how to debauch women in poor countries.
He has just published a very significant reflection. I am not necessarly endorsing his stance that the Lord’s return is imminent (though it might be).

https://www.rooshv.com/forecast-of-the-end-of-the-world

Principle 3 of 286: The constitution is designed to provide equal justice for all.

Codicil to Principle 3 (by Alex): Equal justice is one of the genuine types of equality (equality of opportunity), not one of the Marxist types (equality of outcome, alias “equity” or “social justice”).

Displeasure at the establishment media, expressed in the Gallic fashion.

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