Selected quad for the lemma: authority_n
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A70290
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Usury explain'd, or, Conscience quieted in the case of putting out mony at interest by Philopenes.
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J. D. (John Dormer), 1636-1700.
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1695
(1695)
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Wing H3249; ESTC R12079
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43,383
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127
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USURY Explain'd OR Conscience Quieted in the Case OF Putting out Mony AT INTEREST By PHILOPENES LONDON Printed by D. E. in Fetter-Lane 1695 6. ERRATA'S Pag. 10 l. 7. del and p. 13. l. 2. r. Prefixing l. 22. r. Operation p. 16. l. 7. r. Mutuare l. 15. r. lend l. 21. r. to Mony r. to Place l. 25. r. some truths l. 16. r. truths I think p. 27. l. 24. r. Aedil p. 29. l. 9. r. a person p. 33. l. r. r. then l. 10. r. § Nota. l. 14. r. Vsura l. 15. r. Contractus p. 35. l. 17. r. a fort p. 37. l. 22. r. quaerat sorte minime l. 29. r. Proventus p. 37. l. 4. r. consists p. 42. l. 25. r. Illation p. 50. l. 16. r. exclude p. 51. l. 26. r. quintus p. 52. l. 1. r. Partner p. 53. l. 4. r. Bullarium p. 55. l. 19. r. a hundred p. 62. l. 12. r. should p. 74. l. 13 r. sin of Usury l. 25. r. an Actual p. 76. l. 15. r. at a Reasonable p. 79. l. 6. r. borrower accrues p. 70. l. 21. r. debuerat p. 75. l. 27. r. Owner p. 102 l. 1022. 5. after 9th dI even THE PRINTER TO THE Courteous Reader GEntle Reader in compliance with my Calling I present thee with a small Treatise upon the Case of Putting out Mony at Use The Subject is of a Publick concern and the Press is ordered to the Publick good Written Papers are like Spirits appear to some and not to others and often Prove illusions The Publick eye is the quickest and the surest in discerning good from evil The Author who writ what I now Print is no farther Known to me than by the Name of Philopenes a lover of Poverty or a friend of the Poor If he be what his name implies The fitter he is to discourse impartially a Point in which Reason alone can concern him I hope he will not take it in evil Part that I set forth for some small Advantage what for more than a year has past thro' several hands That were to blame his own Judgment in letting it be seen by so many or to give suspicion of some dark Design by avoiding the Publick If what he writes be True 't is one of those Truths which ought not to be conceal'd nor hidden under the Bushel that were envious If erroneous not to secure Error by discovery that were uncharitable If he fears Truth may displease some he might as well desire to put out all light as offensive to weaker sights unuseful to the Blind and unacceptable to such as wilfully shut their Eyes The Book is but short well if it be clear short as it is Divines Lawyers and all concern'd in Mony may find in it somewhat for their Turns Be it what it will take it for what it is The Print is only mine and may be thine too at a small Charge Farewell THE Author TO THE READER ZEal when Kindled by Divine Love temper'd with Humility fed by the Spirit of Meekness and govern'd by Discretion cherishes Piety and Observance Vsurpation of Rigor carried on with excesses of Fervor Not according to Knowledge Rom. the 10th disquiets both To make a Sin of no Sin is as irregular as to make no Sin of a Sin To declare unlawful what consists with Conscience breeds an undervalue of the Declarer no less than if he declare lawful what Conscience condemns Conscience censures nothing but upon Evidence of Obligation Prepossession of Mans Liberty is so good a title that it cannot be overthrown but by a manifest Proof of Gods restraining it To alledge a Command for his not his is to impose upon God and Man the worst of Presumptions Faith requires an Evidence of Credibility in reference to what we are to believe and Part of that we are to believe are the Rules of well and evil Doing Whence clearly ensues a certainty must be had of those Rules For where a Rational Debate is admitted upon the whether an Action be sinful or no so as to leave it undecided Possession of Liberty against Restraint holds good in Reason and Law where Possession carries so great a Portion that no man is oblig'd to relinquish it before evidence brought in against him for its forfeiture and sentence Pronounced in due form by a Competent Judge Without this whoever disturbs the quiet Possessor is guilty of Violating the Peace This discourse I have in Occasions Promoted against Modern Pretended Reformers in Point of Religion in the Present Case I renew it A settled Practice of Putting out of Mony has been long in Possession with all Ranks and Qualities such as take upon them to Reform it must Produce Evidence and Sentence given by a Lawful Judge against it whether any Verdict has yet past to that Purpose be your self the Arbitor after a due Perusal of what I shall impartially set down in this short Tract My Method is to Discourse the Matter in hand as to the Laws of Nature Scripture and Church I wish my Endeavours may answer my Intentions or at least that my Intentions may justifie my Endeavours in Case they answer not thy Expectation Farewel THE CONTENTS PART 1. AS to the Law of Nature CHAP. 1. The Case Considered as to the nature of Mony CHAP. 2. The Original Notion of Vsury with its Names CHAP. 3. The strict Definition of Vsury CHAP. 4. Assertions drawn from the said Definition CHAP. 5. Whether the Law of England Justifie the Case CHAP. 6. Whether Mony be capable of being Lett. CHAP. 7. Of the Obligation of Lending CHAP. 8. Titles alledged by Divines for the Lawfulness of taking Interest CHAP. 9. Whether in some Case it stand with Law and Conscience to take more than the Current CHAP. 10. Of the Bristol Bargain Pawn-Brocage and Interest upon Interest PART 2. As to Scripture CHAP. 1. Vsury Considered as to the Old Testament CHAP. 2. The same Considered as to the New PART 3. As to the Church CHAP. 1. Testimonies of the Latin Fathers examined CHAP 2. Testimonies of the Greek CHAP. 3. Authorities of Councils CHAP. 4. Authorities of Popes ' The Conclusion PART I. As to the Law of Nature CHAP. I. The Case Considered as to the Nature of MONY ARistotle defining Liberality lib. 4. c. 1. to be a Vertue moderating the Love of Mony and Prompting to spend by the dictates of Reason Under the Name of Mony comprehends all things priz'd by Mony as the standing Measure of their Worth The present Discourse admits not of so much Latitude but confines it solely to the being the Measure of Valuation and Price of Wares so becoming the common Instrument of Sales and Purchases the Soul of Traffick and the Life of Markets As to its Origin not over Noble I find it to have been the Child of Want tho' since become the Parent of Abundance When all other Creatures bearing different Coins issued out of the Mint if I may be so bold to say of nothing No Mony appear'd
Counsel with others of Precept Be pleas'd to peruse it This saying Divines hold to be only of Counsel and the Conjunction of Lending with other Works which are not of Precept Is no feeble Confirmation of it Verse 29. 'T is said Vnto him that smiteth thee on the one cheek offer also the other And verse 30. Give to every man that asketh This lays no Obligation of Giving no more doth the first of Lending Besides Reason dictates the Proposition to be capable of Restriction For tho' a Lender be bound to hope no Increase by Lending he may hope for a Requital of Gratitude Friendship or a like return This indeed as being of less Perfection than to hope it from God we are Counselled to abstain from by hoping nothing from Man Otherwise why might not the unnam'd Contract Do ut Des. I give to be given to as well hold Good being Authoris'd by Christ in the same Chapter if words be taken as Writen Give and it shall be given to you But no need of all this This particle thereby Moderates and restrains the Negative nothing So that the words of Christ as I Apprehend contains both Counsel and Precept Counsels in the Affarmitive part Lend out of the Case of Necessity in Case of Necessity Precept and Prohibition in the Negative part hoping nothing thereby viz. for Lending Three other Places in the New Testament present themselves The first Mat. 25. v. 27. in the Parable of the Talents Thou oughtst therefore says the Lord to the Idle Servant to have put my Mony to the Bankers and then at my coming I should have receiv'd mine own with Vsury The second is Luke the 19. v. 23. Where the Noble Man to the same Purpose utters himself Wherefore then gav'st not thou my Mony into the Banks that at my coming I might have required mine own with Vsury My intent go's no farther than to shew by these Parables How the putting out Mony at Use was Customary among the Jews a Parable being The application of a well known thing as the Putting out Mony was to aless known as the Kingdom of Heaven The Parable moreover represents unto us a twofold Gain the one of Trade the other by Putting out Mony at Use The omission of this as obvious and of less Trouble as also less Profit is reproached to the idle Servant Usury in that place being taken in a good Sense as Interpreters observe It having then been a Custom of the Jews to put out Mony had it been Usury so to do expressly against Law Christ so Zealous in the reform of other Disorders had never passed so great an one in silence The third place Matth. the 21th and Jo. the 2. relating the Execution done by our Saviour upon the Bankers in the Temple has scarce a shadow of Difficulty that Comportment of his having proceeded from the abhorrence not of Usury but of the Profanation of the Temple as appears from his Words Make not the House of my Father a House of Trading St. Paul in his first to the Corinthians Chap. 6. in the Number of the excluded from the Kingdom of Heaven specifies Thieves and Avaricious but makes no mention of the Putters out of Mony the true Son of Usury being comprehended in Theft and Avarice For Avarice is the Parent of Extortion Fraud and other unlawful Dealings and therefore Extortioners are nam'd there For such is the violence of Avarice where it reigns that it murders all thoughts of Charity and breeds such a Passion for Lucre that it catches at all Means Just or Unjust and one of its proper Effects questionless is Usury A Disposition of this Nature constitutes an habitual Usurer its Execution and Actual More than this is not to be cull'd out of Scripture as to the true Conception of Usury so frequently and severely reprov'd by Holy Fathers Out of whom Monsieur Du Tertre has handed the choicest places to me Wherefore my next work is to give them their true Construction that by Mistake they may not work upon the Weaker ART III. Of the Case as to Church TESTIMONIES of Fathers Councils and Popes Answer'd CHAP. XIII CITATIONS of the Latin Fathers AS beyond all Doubt Holy Fathers were given to the Church for Interpreters of the Divine Law and true Sense of Scripture so the Practice of the Church interprets them and is to be their final Rule and Judge as well as ours Some things are spoken by them Orator like others Dogmatically Dictates of the first Nature are no ways Obligatory Sayings of the Second are yet no farther binding than the Church accepts of them I say not this that I meet with any one Quotation that condemns the Common Practice but only to give a true Account how far their Authority reaches They generally run down Usury viz. Either taking Interest for Lending or Extortion And he that puts out his Mony at Reasonable Rate cannot be said to receive meerly for Lending or to Extort A regard also is to be had to the Times and Circumstances in which they Writ Mony then Running at Cent. per Cent. and Heathenish Customs of Exacting upon the Poor still being in Vogue These Reasons might influence their Zeal and give Fire to their Vehement expressions and tho' chief respect is to be had to the Primitive Doctors of the Church yet we are not to lose the Esteem due to those who according to the Apostle God has plac'd in his Church from time to time to Succeed them nor ought they to be Slighted with the Lessening Character of a few Casuists as du Tertre makes bold to do The Casuists are Devines neither a few but the greatest Part and the Learnedst on which we ground our selves as to the Case The Holy Father most quoted is St. Amb. in his Book upon Tobias The Title of his 14. Chap. is de Vsura Divina Lege Prohibita Of Vsury forbidden by the Divine Law There he thus defines Quod cunque sorti accedit Vsura est quod velis ei nomen imponas Whatever accrues to the Principal is Usury call it as you Please and in the following Chapter Expounding that Passage of Deut. Non Feneraberis Fratri tuo sed Alieno Thou shalt not Lend Mony for Vsury to thy Brother but to the Stranger Quis erat says he Tunc Alienegena nisi Amalec nisi Amorrhaeus nisi Hostis Ibi Vsuram exige cui merito nocere desideras cui jure inferuntur Arma huic Legitime indicantur Vsura- -Ab hoc Vsuram exige quem non sit Crimen occidere Vbi Jus belli ibi etiam Jus Vsurae Who was then the Stranger but Amalec but the Amorrhaeans but an Enemy From him who justly thou desires to Harm Exact Vsury Take Vsury from him who it is not a Crime to Kill Where there is Right to War There then is Right to Vsury So far St Amb. after his Eloquent Manner in a Transport of Zeal For these words of his contain much Matter of