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A59607
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The true Christians test, or, A discovery of the love and lovers of the world by Samuel Shaw ...
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Shaw, Samuel, 1635-1696.
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1682
(1682)
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Wing S3045; ESTC R39531
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240,664
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418
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no great matter whether it be believed or no or may as well be confirm'd and believ'd by a bare assertion will wish they may never see the Sun more never open their hands more that the drink might never go through them the meat might be their poyson that they might never stir more might be hang'd that God would judge them or that they might never enter into the Kingdom of Heaven if such a thing or such a thing be not so or so This I'm sure is more than Yea and Nay it is highly foolish and indeed prophane Mans knowledge is fallible his Memory frail Senses deceitful And if this thing should prove otherwise then thou wicked man out of thy own mouth thou shalt be condemned so shall thy Judgment be There are instances of Gods taking such men at their words but I need not insist upon them It is an argument that men stand not in awe of God when they dare invocate his Judgments and challenge his Justice Secondly But when upon no occasion at all to confirm nothing men will dare God to damn them oh horrible and impudent impiety These men have not so much mercy for themselves as the devils They pray'd that they might not be tormented before their time these pray that they may Of these sure if of any unbeleevers it may be properly said that they are condemned already Thirdly It is worse than no occasion when men use cuâ—sing in design to commend themselves to acceptance as an ornament and imbellishment of speech Secondly Of others 1. When ever and anon upon every small provocation or offence men will passionately call for venveance lay the Pox or Plague upon others or it may be send men to the devil upon no other errand but to tell him they are making hast after them 2. When upon no provocation in no passion but in a familiar jocular way men curse one another nay with the same breath curse their friend and swear how much they love him 3. It is by some reputed a piece of familiarity You must take it as a kindness especially if you be an inferiour that they will be so great with you as to curse you Sic sâ—lent beare amicos There is another sort of prophane cursing inferior to all these a cursing in Short-hand Many men are asham'd to curse in words at length but boggle not to do it in Characters and Abbrevations If these men know the true original of these Characters and the meaning of them it is all one as if they spoke in words at length If they do not but yet suspect them it is bold it is an adventuring upon an appearance of evil which is flatly forbidden Suppose they suspect nothing of this meaning in these common words If they have no meaning they are idle words and that is bad enough And if they profoss sincerely they know not what they mean they proclaim themselves fools that know not what they say It is a miserable shift to embrace foolishness and madness to avoid prophaneness But it is to be suspected that they that mince the matter do know the meaning of these characters well enough how else could they apply them so patly so seasonably as they do One may know they stand in stead of a curse because they come in the order and place of one When I hear a man say a pound on him or a shackle on him for I am much beholden to him and he has much befriended me then I will believe he knows not what he says It seems to be cleanly and charitable to wish men in Heaven and that God had them But I have heard it come out of as prophane mouths and with as spiteful a design as any curse Blessed God who blessest us daily communicate to us of thy gracious nature that we also may bless and not curse let us never presume to reckon our selves a part of Christs purchase till we find our selves actually redeemed from our vain conversation received by tradition from our fathers MEDITAT LIV. Of Idleness AMongst sensual or phantastical pleasures or a mixture of both Idleness must be ranked The greatest sensualists are usually most idle yea though they take more pains in pursuit of their pleasure than other men in their honest employments It is strange that Pleasure should be painful and Idleness operose yet so it is Whosoever is not ordinarily well employ'd in good business is idle Such is the generation of all those that play away sleep away chat away visit away their time from day to day or who fearing lest time should not pass away fast enough make use of that sovereign Receipt called Pastime This Idleness turns man into a Cypher makes him insignificant and surely I do not know a greater reproach to man than to be unprofitable An idle person is convicted and shamed by the whole Creation in which there is nothing insignificant or useless I am persuaded the Devil himself would account it a shame to be idle he seems to glory in his activity Job 2. though it be in mischief The Sun never rises nor sets the Year never begins nor ends but it is to the reproach of the idle person We have all great cause to lament the idleness and playfulness of our Childhood and Youth and the many idle hours and days that we have spent in which we have been no Factors for God no one the bâ—â—â—er for us nor we oâ—r selves been betteâ—ed Some say They have no Trade they have nothing to do And are they too old to learn Can they no way assist their Neighbor by Head nor Hand Can they not read good Books write good Letters or give good advice Oh how is the want of Education to be lamented Parents teach their Children nothing when they are young and so they are good for nothing when they are old Hinâ— illâ—e 〈◊〉 But have they indeed nothing to do but to dress and feed themselves How do many of them live then They live of their money But what they cannot eat money No but they live upon Usury And will that excuse Idleness Or rather Is it not a monstrous thing that the Money the silly inanimate Metal should be active and the man idle Therefore O Man thy Money shall be thy Judge The brightness of the Usurer's Money shall be a Witness against his Idleness as well as the Rust of the covetous Hoarders against them If the Money-man would turn his money or part of it into some kind of stock or other and trade therewith buy and sell and maintain Commerce in the World he might serve the publick good and at least have the comfort of being an example of righteousness But still it will be pleaded We need noâ— work To which I answer If the Command of God make a Necessity all have Need. Men should not be employ'd only to get wealth to themselves but as Members of the Publick they ought to be doing some good God never gave Men
Nyssen Gregory Nazianzen Chrysostom Tertullian Lactantius Ambrose Jerome Augustine and many others The Canon Law contained in the Decretals and the Civil Law gives the same Verdict And our Statute Law both in the time of the Britains Saxons and Normans until Edward the Sixth is to the same purpose for which I refer any one that has a mind to be particularly acquainted to Dr. Fenton's Book written upon this Subject The Heathen Writers generally tax it Cato says The Usurer was condemned in a four-fold restitution by the Law The Philosophers Plato Aristotle and the rest bring many Arguments against it The Poets after their manner condemn it by Epithetes calling it Usura vorax turpia lucra Foenoris turpiter exhauriens privatas opes depascens publica commoda and the Usurer with them is a man Divitias injusto Foenore quaerens It would be Voluminous almost to give in but the Names of Modern Divines however different in their Persuasions concerning other things that consent in the censuring of Usury For both the Presbyterian Assembly of Divines in their Annotations and how many Eminent Divines there were in that Assembly I know not and the Low-Countrey Divines Select Learned Men in their Annotations and the Episcopal Divines in their Books some of which were written on purpose do speak to the same purpose and do represent Usurers to be what Erasmus in plain terms calls them Personas odiâ—sas As for the Annotations both English and Dutch in the composing of which so many Famous Men were employ'd I need not save to refer any man thither that has a mind to know their sense I will therefore conclude this Testimony with three of the most Learned Casuists among the Bishops of the Church of England since the Reformation Bishop Jewel Bishop Andrews Bishop Sanderson As for Bishop Andrews it is well known that he wrote a Theological Treatise on purpose to condemn Vsâ—ry and that he wrote it in Defence of the Church of England against the Slander that She lay under so that he seems to speak the mind of the whole Church of England out of whom I will only observe what he quotes from Hottomannus as to the Civil Law though he is otherwise full of Authorities and Arguments against Usury From him he quotes these Maxims against Usury That it is of the very essence of Lending that it be free and gratuitous That Men are not to receive certain Profit from uncertain Negotiation or Adventures That nothing of Gain is to be Exacted where nothing is Exchanged That Society cannot subsist without the communication of Damages and Hazards as well as Profits That things that are consumed in their Using are not capable of Usus fructus which is the Use or Profit of what is anothers the Propriety or Substance of the thing being still the Owners That Humane Laws regulating the Excess of Usury do not invalidate the Divine Law absolutely forbidding it These things I have only briefly quoted out of him to explain the Sense of the Civil Law and so I will dismiss him because it is an easie thing for any Conscientious Man to have recourse to the Book it self But there is a Treatise of Bishop Jewel an Exposition of the Epistles to the Thessalonians which possibly may be but in few hands I will therefore tell more largely what he says to this Point I presume he is generally acknowledged to be a Learned and Pious Protestant That he wrote Much and Well in the Defence of the Protestant Religion against Papists his Book which has the Honour to be kept in Churches with the Bible and the Homilies does declare and that he was Exil'd for the Profession of it our Histories do assure us This Good and Learned Man in his Sermons upon 1 Thess 4. at Salisbury takes an occasion from the sixth verse to discourse about Usury and says in plain terms That it is such a kind of Eargaining as no Good or Godly Man ever us'd a Monster in Nature the Overthrow of Kingdoms the Plague of the World and the Misery of the People And having shew'd what a bad Original it is of and what woful Effects attend it takes an occasion from the fore-quoted passage of Cato to shew in many respects That the Usurer is worse than the Thief And having largely quoted many Learned and Holy Fathers such as Ambrose Augustine Chrysâ—stome Hierome speaking very positively and sharply against Usury he adds That there was never any Religion nor Sect nor State nor Degree nor Profession of Men but they have disliked it They are the very words in the Book Philosophers Greeks Latines Lawyers Divines Catholicks Hereticks all Tengues and Nations have ever thought an Usurer as dangerous as a Thief And our Forefathers saith he so much abhor'd this Trade that they thought an Usurer unworthy to live in the company of Christian men they Excommunicated him they suffer'd him not to be a Witness in matters of Law they suffer'd him not to make a Testament and to bestow his Goods by Will nor after his Death to be buried in the Burying-place of Christians Towards the end of his Sermon he calls God for a Record upon his Soul That he has not deceived them but had spoken unto them the Truth and says If I be deceived in this matter O God Thou hast deceived me Thy Word is plain Thou say'st Thou shalt take no Usury and he that taketh Increase shall not live And at last applying himself to his Auditors he adds these words I hear that there are certain in this City which wallow wretchedly in this filthiness without Repentance I give them Warning in the Hearing of you all and in the Presence of God that they forsake that cruel and detestable Sin if otherwise they continue therein I will open their Shame and denounce Excommunication against them and publish their Names in this place before you All that you may know them and aâ—hor them as the Plagues and Monsters of the World If this vehement Testimony should be less regarded as being the Testimony of an Old-fashioned Divine as possibly some Novices will speak I will add a very late and learned one a Professor of Divinity a profest Casuist whose learned Determinations in other Cases are taken for Oracles even by those very men who refuse to hearken to him in this I mean Dr. Sanderson late Bishop of Lincoln who in his fourth Sermon Ad Populum having told us That most of the Learned have concluded Usury simply unlawful delivers his own judgment presently after in these words The Texts of Scripture are so express and the Grounds of Reason so strong against all Usury that when I weigh these on the one side and on the other side how nothing at all that is which I ever yet saw or heard alledg'd to the contrary I cannot find in my self Charity enough to absolve any kind of Usury with what Cautions or Circumstances soever qualify'd from being a Sin And again towards the