families come to a period or decay In like manner an annuity for life is bought for nine yeares purchase not because a mans life is ordinarily taken to last but nine years but because the mony with the use will last almost twice nine years in paying the annuity so that if the Purchaser of the annuity dye within eighteen years the Grantor may be a gainer or at the least a saver by the bargain but if he live above eighteen yeares the Grantor must be at a loss This Casualtie of a lease for life wherein the Buyer hopes by his own life to be a gainer and the Seller hopes by the death of the Buyer to be a gainer hath made some men if we will believe Thomas Aquinas to think that a lease for life is the worst kind or double Vsury beause there is an Usurious intention on both sides as well in the Grantor as in the Grantee to gain If many men who are fit for Callings live idlely on Vsury they sin but no otherwise than those that let their lands they may and ought to serve God and their Country in some Calling if they do not it is no fault of Vsury but an abuse of it Neither let any man fear that Vsury will bring idleness in the world for if all men be idle there can be no Vsury It is the usury-imployment of men by their trading that makes the use of mony to be at so high a value and many must be idle if they borrow not a stock to set them on work 10. Of the Vncharitableness of Vsury In the last Chapter of Dr. Fenton his second book I did expect some extraordinary argument against Vsury because it treats of the breach of Charity by Vsury and the opposition between them I did long to see it proved but now I am come to it I find it the shortest Chapter in his book both in quantity and proof the little that he saith is in effect that Vsurers are commonly uncharitable pag. 106. Answ I. did expect to have it proved that all Usury is in it self uncharitable and he tels us that all Vsurers are so It is the fault of the men and not of the thing Thrift which of it self is a vertue being abused is the hinderance of Charity and yet Thrift is no breach of Charity A thrifty man and an Vsurer may be merciful to the poor because they are many times better able than others If Vsury of it self were a breach of Charity then not to lend to Vsury were an act of Charity which is but a meer Privation and no Act at all The reason why Vsurers be commonly found merciless is for that in many men Covetousness makes them Vsurers and not Vsury brings them to be Covetous Many Vsurers are found well disposed to Charity and give twice as much to Charitable uses as those that have twice their estate in Lands and are no Vsurers Since then all Vsurers are not uncharitable and those that be are found and not made such by Vsury it is but small Charity to say that Vsury of it self is the breach of Charity FINIS Books Printed for William Crook at the Green Dragon without Temple-Bar 1678. 1. 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and Chemnitius are the only noted men abroad and here at home Dr. Downam Bishop of London-derry in Ireland Dr. Fenton and learned Dr Andrews late Bishop of Winchester I have made choice of Dr. Fenton's Treatise to examine because it is the latest and I find little of any moment but is in him I desire his book may be first throughly read for otherwise what I write will not so easily be understood To give some brief accompt to the Reader of the substance of the scattered arguments in this Tractate he must know That my scope and intention is to shew that Usury is no where in Scripture forbidden to Christians but that it is as lawful as any other contract or Bargain unless the laws of the Land do prohibit or moderate it as a point of state or policy And that no State or common-wealth can or ever did stand without it or that which in contracts is equivalent to it since the valuation of the use of money is the foundation and rule which govern the valuation of all other sorts of Bargains I further maintain that Usury was never forbidden to the Jewes only by reason that by a more special appointment of God they dwelt in a land in the midst of many strangers Moses made a politick Judiciall law that the Jews should take Usury of those strangers and not of their poor brothers not much unlike as if the King should ordain in London That Citizens should take Usury of men of Midlesex and not of poor tradesmen of the City More particularly I undertake to manifest that the Definitions of Usury wherein Dr. Down and Dr Fenton mainly differ between themselves are neither warrantable by the rules of art nor justifiable by any proof or ground in Scripture or by any testimony of antiquity either in Councels or Fathers And that the laws given by God about Usury are such as by the Coherence of the Texts and the conference of other places do shew that those laws did only intend a prohibition of taking Usury of such as borrowed in case of extreme necessity and were so poor that they were in Charity to be relieved And yet those laws which did in such case only prohibit Usury to the Jewes were not moral or perpetual but Judiciall and temporary and no way bind us but we are left to the laws and customs of the Kingdom to guide us in our Contracts so long as they be not contrary to the rules of Charity I shew that all the properties of Letting do agree to money And that Usury in it self is neither unnatural ungodly unjust or uncharitable Lastly I do shew that Dr Downam Dr Fenton and all others that do most condemn Usury are forced to confess at last that Usury may be lawful they all allow the taking of Interest Mortgages Annuities and Leases for yeares all which by their own expositions and confessions are of the same nature with Usury and do only differ in the manner of the security or contract after they have eagerly disputed that all Contracts for gain by lending are Usurious at the end they quietly conclude that the Contracts are not Usury but only the secret intention of the heart makes it to be Usury or not Usury Thus in few words they overthrow at last the foundation of their own doctrine and play fast and loose by a multitude of their irresolute distinctions so that either their conclusion must be that Usury is lawful or else they can conclude nothing at all If I wrong either Dr. Fenton or the truth I desire friendly to be shewed my error I do not follow him here Line by Line for so I might tire my self and vex others with unnecessary tautologies I have only endeavoured to extract the quintessence of his reasons and to apply my self to the examination of them His Reasons not his Rhetorick I except against whether Justly or Unjustly let others judge to whose Censure I submit these Papers I would fain know of the Ministers of the Gospel who do often reckon up in the pulpit Vsury as one of the Crying sins what warrant they have in the Gospel for such boldness we find several sins numbred up by our Saviour and the Apostles but Usury never so much as named for a sin in the whole New Testament St. Paul in the fift to the Galatians doth with one breath reckon up together seventeen sins which he reproves and yet Usury is none of them But many preachers cannot Reckon up seven deadly sins except they make Usury one of them Robert Filmer THE CONTENTS 1. TOuching the Definition of Usury 2. Of Testimonies of Scripture 3. Of the names of Usury 4. Of the Properties of Letting 5. Concerning humane Testimonies of Fathers Councils Divines Heathens and Laws 6. Arguments against Usury 7. Of the unnaturalness of Usury 8. Of the ungodliness of Usury 9. Of the injustice of Usury 10. Of the uncharitableness of Usury A TREATISE OF USURY Touching the Definition of Usury I Let pass Dr. Fenton's Chapter of names of Vsury because he Confesseth that by them he hath proved little or nothing at all Page 12. The main point is the Definition which he saith must not be omitted or slightly passed over because it is a great and necessary question to resolve the understanding what that Vsury is whereof we dispute pag. 13. And therefore he doth intitle his first book wholly about the Definition of Vsury although when he comes unto the point he doth nothing less than define it As may thus appear Actual Vsury saith he pag 15. is of divers diversly described a variety tedious to relate First in stead of all unlawful Usury he speaks of a description of part only to wit of actual usury whereas he should first define and then divide but inverting the Rule of method he suffers mental usury which he saith is a sin to escape out of his description Neither doth he so much as describe actual usury only he tells us of diversity of descriptions of others but never lets us know which he approves Yet at last he contracts the pith in three words but resolves not how we should place them so leaves us to a thus or thus or thus First he puts Lucre in the place of the Genus and Covenant in the room of a difference Secondly he makes Covenant the Genus and Lending the difference and lastly he puts Lending for a Genus and Lucre for a difference Thus by turning the Genus into the difference and the difference into the Genus he leaves us uncertain of his description yet concludes that within the compass of three words we may find Vsury but who knows not that three words diversly placed breed many times different and some times contrary senses Yet this is all the definition you are like to find in him And thus in few lines he passeth over slightly that necessary question which would resolve our understanding what Vsury is But let us draw a little closer and
of words and narrowness of our English wanteth a proper term in Latine it is called Mutuum or Mutuatio which is saith he the free passing over both of use and property for a time at the time ended to receive the like gain thus he If it be passed over but for a time then at the time ended the same again must be restored why then doth he name only the like again if only the like be restored then the thing it self is passed over for ever Dr. Wilson the Civilian in his Book of Vsury puts the Case how hiring of mony may be lawful if a man borrow a 100 l. only to make shew of either at some Bank or otherwise to perswade the world that he hath a 100 l. of his own and if he never spend it but presently restoreth the self same 100 pound which he borrowed in this Case the Lender may lawfully take and Contract for hire or use of his mony because it is not spent in the use This Case is borrowed from the Papists and allowes a man to take Vsury for helping to Cosen the world although himself be no way damnified by the want of his mony But the grand impediment of Letting money is that the Borrower say they pag. 17. stands to the hazard of it which they think to be against the law of Exod. 22. 14. Answer Concerning hazards we find that in the Law Exod. 22. 12. about beasts delivered to a neighbour only to keep that if a beast be stollen he shall make restitution to the owner thereof which Case shews the owner doth not stand to the hazard but the keeper only who yet hath not so much as the use or property but only the possession of the beast so Jacob tells Laban Gen. 31. 39. that if any of his sheep were stoln by day or by night that he made them good therefore their rule faileth which saith every thing perisheth to the right owner pag. 17. It may be answered that whatsoever the Law was for things deposited yet for things Let the Law is Cleer that the borrower shall not make it good or stand to the hazard because it came for the hire Exod. 22. 14. This Text is either not understood or wrested to a false sense as may best appear if we cite the whole Text which Dr. Fenton hath curtail'd to fit his own turn the words are If a man borrow ought of his neighbour and it be hurt or dye the owner thereof not being with it he shall surely make it good but if the owner thereof be with it he shall not make it good If it be a hired thing it came for the hire Answ 1. It may be thought the Text intends beasts only and not other goods or mony because the four precedent verses to which the Text hath reference are restrained to oxe asse or sheep or any beasts and the same words of dying and hurting are used in this verse which are used in the tenth verse where beasts only are meant which words are not so proper to express all sorts of hazards of other goods withall there is greater reason that the hazards of beasts should not light upon the borrower because they by the course of nature are daily subject to decay and perish and many secret diseases lurk in them which the borrowers cannot discern whereas other goods and especially mony are not of so perishable a disposition but their suddain destruction is most times by the act or folly of man and not from the God of Nature But if it be granted that the Text understands all goods then indeed it comes home to the point of Vsury but it makes for it and not against it for the law is for things let that if they be hurt the owner thereof not being by he the Borrower shall surely make it good Now in Usury the owners do not and for the most part cannot stand by and see how their mony miscarries Indeed when a thing is hired for some particular end wherewith the Letter is made acquainted then he may stand by and see how it perisheth and of such a lending the Text is best understood It is plain that the Letter though he had the property did not alwayes stand unto the hazard but only when he stood by that it might appear saith Dr. Fenton p. 17. not to be the Borrowers default The Rabbines exposition of this text may give some light to the understanding of it and it is thus The words are if it be hurt or dye that is hurt in the use or dye in the work for which it was hired If a man say they hire a tool for some particular use if it be hurt in doing the work it must not be made good so if I hire a horse to plow with and the horse whilest he is in plowing dye then I am free But if I borrow goods or beasts and they be lost or stoln or hurt or taken away by violence or dye I am bound to pay all if such violence do not befall it in the time of the work If I borrow a horse to plow with and he dye either before or after the plowing I must make him good To apply this Text to money the most that can be gathered is that if money be hurt in the using of it without the Borrowers default it must be at the Lenders hazard But since money is not ordinarily hired for any one particular use expressed but in general to be employed at the Borrowers discretion how can the Lender of money be comprehended within that law which did onely relieve the Borrower in case the thing hired did perish in that special use for which it was borrowed The ground of the equity of this Law is if the thing hired be not able in its own nature to do the thing for which it was hired without perishing the Hirer is not to be at the hazard of it money all men know to be able of its own nature to do the thing for which it was hired if by any casual or external accident money perisheth the Law provides no remedy in such Cases It is one of the singular benefits and the priviledge of mony in traffique that it is not of a perishable nature The ends why policy found out the use mony were many the Chief are that it might be Durable Portable and Partible But to grant them that he that stands to the hazard should have all the gains Is there not hazard to be found in the Letter as well as in the Borrower of money many that have contracted for Vsury by bonds and other security have lost both Principal and Use and have been thereby undone surely such people find hazard in it It is a rule in the Civil law that omnis mutuatio plerumque damnosa eoque meretur compensationem It is fit therefore in equity that since the Lender stands in hazard there should be a gain due to him also But this gain they allow