Selected quad for the lemma: friend_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
friend_n	appear_v	good_a	great_a	807	5	2.3104	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A31198	The case of usury further debated, in a letter to the author of usury stated.	T. P.	1684 (1684)	Wing C1192; ESTC R213538	29,746	40

and so do others as well as he tho you like not the Distinction Certainly a Man can take little Incouragement to practise Usury from any thing that Calvin hath written yea if I had never read any other Person on this Subject I should resolve rather to have nothing to do with it They who fled or were banish'd in times of Persecution carrying Stocks of Money with them and wanting Skill to imploy it in strange places did put it into the hands of others to trade with it who gave them some Allowance for the Use of their Money This was a Case somewhat extraordinary and 't was partly with a respect to those Men that some eminent Divines wrote so favourably of Usury qualified with such and such Limitations as they have laid down And so did Calvin tho he says it were to be wished that all Vsury yea the very name of it were banish'd out of the World and that he desir'd nothing more than never to have any further occasion offer'd him to meddle with that Subject which I shall give you in his own Words Optandum quidem esset omnes Vsuras ipsumque adeò nomen è Mundo jampridem exulâsse ut nihil magis exoptem quàm ut mihi necessitas non sit Argumentum istud deinceps attingere And in his Harmony upon the Pentateuch Certè minimè videtur licitum Filiis Dei quod propha●i quoque Homines detestati si●nt Simus ubique semper exosum infame fuisse faerneratorum nomen And again Faenus quidem exercere cùm inter pudendos turpes quaes4us duxerint prophani Scriptores multò minus tolerabile est inter Filios Dei And after he had spoken in defence of some kind of Usury qualified according to his Rules and Restrictions he adds these Words Noto quidem meo patrocinio usuras fovere atque utinam nomen ipsum abolitum esset è Mundo And in another place after he had discoursed on this Subject he concludes thus Sed tenendum semper est vix fieri posse ut qui faenus accipit non gravet Fratrem suum ideò optandum est nomen ipsum tam Faenoris quàm Vsurae sepultum esse deletum ex hominum memoriâ Dr. Hammond you have frequently quoted and particularly his Practical Catechism and yet he there says that the business of Vsury is not so clearly stated in the New Testament or in the Old as that he can set strict and certain Laws to a Man's Actions from thence He does indeed rather encline to think it lawful with this Caution among others That he who lends be as far as morally he can be sure that he who pays him this Vse be able to do it without eating out or hurting himself but that he makes greater Gain of it himself and if either by mis-adventure or by his own neglects it be otherwise 't is the safest course to forbear the Interest and that in matters of this nature it is his Duty to take the safest Now says he if a Man think himself obliged so to do 't will make him the more circumspect in examining the Condition of the Person of whom he adventures to take Vse c. And afterwards In all this says he you must not think that I am so positive as in other things I have been c. And I find in the Life of Dr. Hammond put forth by the Right Reverend Bishop of Oxford this observed concerning him The taking of Vse tho he judg'd it lawful yet never approv'd by Practice but lent still gratis both to Friends and Strangers Since then that Dr. Hammond offers such a Caution and not he only but Calvin too who says further that the Borrower's Gain must be so much more at the least as the Interest he pays together with other Qualifications laid down by them and divers others and particularly that of Zanchy and and Bucer who held That the Lender ought to share in the loss of the Principal if it did happen to miscarry in the Borrowers hands viz. that this must be their private purpose and intent tho it be not exprest and that fore-mention'd one of Ames not to require all that a Man may by Law but to keep within that which the Law permits let it be consider'd whether a Man had not as good never meddle with it at all as adventure upon that which the Principal of those who have written in defence of it prescribe not only these above-mention'd but divers other Limitations and Cautions about wherewith they apprehend it needful to qualify and tempes it to make it passable And it may not be amiss to consider further whether such as plead these Mens Authorities do observe the Cautions which are prescribed by them To all this I shall add these words of Bishop Hall in his Practical Cases of Conscience All Vsury which is an absolute Contract for the meer Loan of Money is unlawful both by Law natural and positive both divine and humane And Grotius himself whom you have quoted oftnest of any other Author in the beginning of his Discourse about it makes this Profession Hâc de re acturus illud primùm praefabor probare me eorum Pietatem qui totum hoc luerandi genus sublatum vellent è rebus humanis quando multa inde mala nasci manifestissimum est I have thought it the more adviseable to be thus large in my Reply to this fourth Argument of yours because there are divers I believe incouraged by the Authorities of such eminent Persons not only to allow themselves freely in what they have written so nicely and tenderly of but also to go beyond in several respects what these and divers others who might be instanc'd in have been careful to prescribe in their respective Discourses on this Subject Your fifth Argument for Usury is the Necessity of it to the carrying on of Trade But this tho so strongly urged does not so plainly appear Tradesmen if they did see it good might take other measures and yet find their Trade go on prosperously enough notwithstanding It does happen so indeed but I can see little reason for it that they who write for the Lawfulness of Usury are counted the greater Friends to the trading part of the Nation And this is one great Hinge you lay your Discourse upon as if Usury were the very Pillar and Basis of Trade without which it would fall to the ground Did not the Romans flourish hundreds of Years before Usury was practis'd among them as one observes and the Jews did flourish in Wealth none more without any Toleration of Usury Tradesmen have been so far concerned this way that they do not generally desire to hear any thing spoken against it they have receiv'd considerable Increase by this way of dealing and this darling Notion of the Necessity of it to Trade is that they are willing to take some Satisfaction from tho there are some Tradesmen on the other hand had better

never have known what Usury meant But there is no great need of disputing this one way or other Whether Vsury be a furtherance to Trade or no. If God's Word condemn it 't is no Man's Interest to practise it and a weak Argument to say that Trade is advantag'd thereby if God's Word do not condemn it then let it be freely practis'd to all intents and purposes for which it can be render'd serviceable And that must be the issue of this Dispute and not whether Trading be better'd by it or no. Only I wish it without any prejudice and impartially consider'd whether they who are not satisfied in the lawfulness of Usury may not be whatever can evidently appear to the contrary as great Friends to Trade as the chiefest of those who have written for the lawfulness of it I shall conclude my Answer to this Argument with the words of that great and known Casuist Bishop Sanderson in his Sermon on 1 Cor. 7.24 It were not possible Vsurers should be so bitterly inveighed against by sober Heathen Writers so severely censured by the Civil and Canon Laws so uniformly condemned by godly Fathers and Councils so universally hated by all Men of all sorts and in all Ages and Countries as Histories and Experience manifest they ever have been and are if their Practice and Calling had been any way profitable and not indeed every way hurtful and incommodious both to private Men and publick Societies Your sixth Argument is That it is but doing as you would be done by And yet you grant Pag. 98. That he who lends to another if he were to borrow himself would not be willing by an absolute and free-will to pay Interest for say you If any would so far be-friend the Borrower as to lend him gratis this is of the two more eligible for which you produce Quis nisi mentis inops c. But this in my Apprehension does not well agree with that Argument you are now treating of and I should think whatever may be said of others yet at least such as are of your Opinion in this matter will do well to lend freely what they lend because they would like it well to have others lend freely to them But the meaning of that great Law Whatever we would that others should do unto us we are to do the same unto them must be understood in such cases wherein we are rightly inform'd and so the doubt remains still in a great measure unsatisfied otherwise I can instance wherein a Man will do very ill in doing to another what yet he may be too well contented another should do to him Besides Partiality may make me think that very reasonable when I am on the lending hand which would not seem so to me if I were to borrow and it seems you by your good will would have others lend you freely in case they could perswade themselves to be so kind Your seventh Argument is That there are divers cases wherein 't is hard to make it appear that Usury is more biting than other ways of dealing that are approv'd of by those who condemn Usury You give divers Instances to this purpose which are very proper and pertinent but there is one of the Instances you have produced that I do not see any Cogency in which is of a Man that borrows upon Use a Sum of Money to purchase an Estate of Land on which there is Timber enough to inable this Purchaser to pay back the whole Sum again for here the Price paid for the Land is not a valuable Consideration and this kind of arguing would serve to justify the receiving more for the Loan of Money and yet the Borrower not be bitten than I believe the most biting and oppressive Usurer in the World did ever receive 'T is fit every Man that purchases Land should pay a Price in some good measure answerable to the real value of the Land and of the Timber too that is upon it and if so he that borrows Money upon Use to purchase Land may in a short time see cause to repent his Bargain But there are Cases I confess in which 't is difficult to find out how Usury should be more biting then some other ways of dealing that are allowed of on all hands with reference to which Cases I shall offer these two things to your Consideration First Whether the like cases might not have been pleaded by a Jew that should have practis'd Usury with his Brethren And yet the chief of those Authors you produce in favour of it now do hold that it was unlawful to the Jews Secondly Whether the Wit of Man may not find out divers subtil Arguments and propound Cases very specious and plausible in defence of that which yet notwithstanding is not justifiable in it self Yea in Mathematical Sciences tho in them there be the plainest Demonstration are Arguments produced pro and con which are to our Apprehensions undeniable on both sides But if God's Law forbid it which is that I regard more than all Arguments from other Topicks to what purpose is it for us to urge that there are Cases may be thought on wherein we are not able to see the Iniquity of it Neither can you easily see wherein 't is inconsistent with Equity as I have intimated before to take Use of a poor Man for Loan of Money any more than to take Rent for his House and yet you do not seem to like that your self to take Use of a poor Man We can see but a little way and are not to make our Apprehensions a measure for Divine Laws We shall be guilty of assuming too much to our own weak and shallow Apprehensions if we would endeavour to bring all things to their Standard Man's Wit is set on work says a learned and judicious Writer to spin out fine and subtil Cases of Vsury wherein no wrong shall appear 'T is an easy matter to cast a Stone into a Pool which seven wise Men will hardly get out and one such Case will beget many Cases like unto it self for the Wit of Man will work like a Mole to get into the Earth To which I shall subjoyn the Opinion of a worthy Person I lately discoursed with on this Subject That God hath given this Law against Usury on purpose to try Mens Obedience he allows them other ways of dealing as advantagious as Usury but this way he says they shall not make use of and does it to try their Obedience and to see whether they will be govern'd by him therein or no. What you urge in behalf of Widows and Orphans which I know is generally pleaded does not that I can see signify very much to the deciding of this Controversy Doubtless God had a tender regard to them beyond what the most compassionate Men in the World can have put them altogether and we find does take a particular care of them but yet he has no where excepted them as to this matter And to