6. Cases about losing and finding Q. 1. Must we seek out the loser to restore what we find Q. 2. May I take a reward as my due for restoring what I found Q. 3. May I wish to find any thing in my way or be glad that I find it Q. 4. May I not keep it if no owner be found Q. 5. If others be present when I find it may I not conceal or keep it to my self Q 6. Who must stand to the loss of goods trusted to another p. 130 Tit. 7. Directions to Merchants Factors Travellers Chaplains that live among Heathens Infidels or Papists p. 131 Q. 1. Is it lawful to put ones self or servants specially young unsetled Apprentices into the temptations of an Infidel or Popish Countrey meerly to get Riches as Merchants do p. 131 Q. 2. May a Merchant or Embassadour leave his Wife to live abroad p. 132 Q. 3. Is it lawful for young Gentlemen to travail into other Kingdoms as part of their education The danger of Common Traveling p. 133 Directions for all these Travellers in their abode abroad p. 135 CHAP. XX. Motives and Directions against Oppression The sorts of it The greatness of the sin of Oppression The Cure p. 137 Tit. 2. Cases about Oppression especially of Tenants p. 140 Q. 1. Is it lawful to buy land of a liberal Landlord when the buyer must needs set it dearer than the Sâ—lâ—er did Q. 2. May one take as much for his Land as it is worth Q. 3. May he raise his Rents Q. 4. How much below the full worth must a Landlord set his Land Q. 5. May not a Landlord that is in debt or hath a payment to pay raise his Rents to pay it Q. 6. If I cannot relieve the honest poor without raising the Rent of Tenants that are worthy of less charity may I do it Q. 7. May I penally raise a Tenants Rent or turn him out because he is a bad man Q. 8. May one take house or Land while another is in possession of it Q. 9. May a rich man put out his Tenants to lay the Lands to his own dâ—mesnes Q. 10. May one Tenant have divers Tenements Q. 11. May one have divers Trades Q. 12. Or keep shops in several Market Towns CHAP. XXI Cases and Directions about Prodigality and sinful waste What it is p. 143. Wayes of sinful waste Q. 1. Are all men bound to fare alike Or what is excess Q. 2. What cost on visits and entertainments is lawful Whether the greatest good is still to be preferred Q. 3. What is excess in buildings Q. 4. May we not in building dyet c. be at some charge for our Delight as well as for Necessity Q. 5. When are Recreations too costly Q. 6. When is Apparel too costly Q. 7. When is Retinue Furniture and other pomp too costly Q. 8. When is House-keeping too costly Q. 9. When are Childrens Portions too great Q. 10. How far is frugality in small matters a duty Q. 11. Must all labour in a Calling Q. 12. May one desire to increase and grow rich Q. 13. Can one be prodigal in giving to the Church Q. 14. May one give too much to the poor Q. 15. May the Rich lay out on conveniences pomp or pleasure when multitudes are in deep necessities Directions against Prodigality p. 143 c. CHAP. XXII Cases and Directions against injurious Law suits witnessing and judgement p. 148 Tit. 1. Cases of Conscience about Law suits and proceedings Q. 1. When is it Lawful to go to Law Q. 2. May I Sue a poor man for a Debt or Trespass Q. 3. May I Sue a Surety whose interest was not concerned in the debt Q. 4. May I Sue for the Use of Money Q. 5. May Law Suits be used to vex and humble an insolent bad man Q. 6. May a rich man use his friends and purse to bear down a poor man that hath a bad cause Q. 7. May one use such forms in Law Suits Declarations Answers c. as are false according to the proper sense of the words Q. 8. May a guilty person plead Not guilty Q. 9. Is a man bound to accuse himself and offer himself to justice Q. 10. May a witness voluntarily speak that truth which he knoweth will be ill used Q. 11. May a witness conceal part of the truth Q. 12. Must a Iudge or Iury proceed secundum allegata probata when they know the witness to be false or the Cause bad but cannot evince it T it 2. Directions against these sins p. 150. The evil of unjust Suits The evil of false witness The evil of unjust judgements The Cure p. 150 CHAP. XXIII Cases of Conscience and Directions against backbiting Slandering and Evil speaking p. 152 Tit. 1. Q. 1. May we not speak evil of that which is evil Q. 2. May not the contrary be sinful silence and befriending mens sins Q. 3. What if Religious credible persons report it Q. 4. If I may not speak it may I not believe them Q. 5. May we not speak ill of open persecutors or enemies of Godliness Q. 6. What if it be one whose reputation countenanceth his ill Cause and his defamation would disable him Q. 7. If I may not make a true Narrative of matters of fact how may we write true Histories for posterity Q. 8. What if it be one that hath been ofâ— admonished Q. 9. Or one that I cannot speak to face to face Q. 10. In what Cases may we open anothers faults Q. 11. What if I hear men praise the wicked or their sins T it 2. Directions against back-biting slandering and evil speaking p. 154 Tit. 3. The great evil of these sins p. 155 CHAP. XXIV Cases of and Directions against Censoriousness and sinful judging p. 157 Tit. 1. Cases Q. 1. Am I not bound to judge truly of every one as he is Q. 2. How far may we judge ill of one by outward appearance as face gesture c. Q. 3. How far may we censure on the report of others Q. 4. Doth not the fifth Command bind us to judge better of Parents and Princes than their lives declare them to be Q. 5. Whom must we judge sincere and holy Christians Q. 6. Is it not a sin to err and take a man for better than he is Q. 7. Whom must I take for a visible Church member Q. 8. Whom must I judge a true Worshipper of God Q. 9. Which must I take for a true Church Q. 10. Whom must we judge true Prophets and true Pastors of the Church p. 157 Tit. 2. Directions for the Cure of sinful Censoriousness p. 159 Tit. 3. The evil of the sin of Censoriousness p. 160 Tit. 4. Directions for those that are rashly censured by others p. 162 CHAP. XXV Cases and Directions about Trusts and Secrets p. 163 Tit. 3. The Cases Q. 1. How must we not put our Trust in man Q. 2. Whom to choose for a Trust Q. 3. When may I commit a
more of the reproach that falleth upon themselves Their case is to be pitied but the case of their inferiours more For it is their own wilful choice which hath imprisoned their understandings with-such informers and it is their unexcusable negligence which keepeth them from seeking truer information A good Landlord will be familiar with the meanest of his Tenants and will encourage them freely to open their complaints and will labour to inform himself who is in poverty and distress and how it cometh to pass that when he hath heard all he may understand whether it be his own oppression or his Tenants fault that is the cause when proud self-seeking men disdain such inferiour converse and if they have servants that do but tell them their Tenants have a good bargain and are murmuring unthrifty idle persons they believe them without any more enquiry and in negligent ignorance oppress the poor § 18. Direct 5. Mortifie your own lusts and sinful curiosity which maketh you think that you need Direct 5. so much as tempteth you to get it by oppressing others Know well how little is truly necessary And how little nature well-taught is contented with And what a priviledge it is to need but little Pride and curiosity are an insatiable gulf Their daily trouble seemeth to them a necessary accommodation Such abundance must be laid out on superfluous recreations buildings ornaments furniture equipage attendants entertainments visitations braveries and a world of need-nots called by the names of handsomness cleanliness neatness conveniences delights usefulness honours civilities comeliness c. So much doth carnal concupiscence pride and curiosity thus devour that hundreds of the poor must be oppressed to maintain it And many a man that hath many score or hundred Tenants who with all their families daily toil to get him provision for his fleshly lusts doth find at the years end that all will hardly serve the turn but this greedy devourer could find room for more when one of his poor Tenants could live and maintain all his family comfortably if he had but as much as his Landlord bestoweth upon one suit of Clothes or one proud entertainment or one Horse or on a pack of Hounds I am not perswading the highest to level their garb and expences equal with the lowest But mortifie pride curiosity and gluttony and you will find less need to oppress the poor or to feed your concupiscence with the sweat and groans of the afflicted § 19. Direct 6. Be not the sole Iudge of your own actions in a controverted case but if any complain Direct 6. of you hear the judgement of others that are wise and impartial in the case For it is easie to mis-judge where self-interest is concerned § 20. Direct 7. Love your poor brethren as your selves and delight in their welfare as if it Direct 7. were your own And then you will never oppress them willingly and if you do it ignorantly you will quickly feel it and give over upon their just complaint As you will quickly feel when you hurt your selves and need no great exhortation to forbear Tit. 2. Cases of Conscience about Oppression especially of Tenants Quest. 1. IS it lawful for a mean man who must needs make the best of it to purchase tenanted Quest. 1. Land of a liberal Landlord who setteth his Tenants a much better pennyworth than the buyer can afford Answ. Distinguish 1. Between a seller who understandeth all this and one that doth not 2. Between a Tenant that hath by custome a half-title to his easier Rent and one that hath not 3. Between a Tenant that consenteth and one that consenteth not 4. Between buying it when a liberal man might else have bought it and buying it when a worse else would have bought it 5. Between a case of scandal and of no scandal And so I answer 1. If the Landlord that selleth it expect that the buyer do use the Tenants as well as he hath done and sell it accordingly it is unrighteous to do otherwise ordinarily 2. In many Countreys it is the custome not to turn out a Tenant nor to raise his rent so that many generations have held the same Land at the same rent which though it give no legal title is yet a half-title in common estimation In such a case it will be scandalous and infamous and injurious and therefore unlawful to purchase it with a purpose to raise the rent and do accordingly 3. In case that a better Landlord would buy it who would use the Tenant better than you can do it is not ordinarily lawful for you to buy it I either express or imply ordinarily in most of my solutions because that there are some exceptions lye against almost all such answers in extraordinary cases which the greatest Volume can scarce enumerate But if 1. It be the sellers own doing to withdraw his liberality so far from his Tenants as to sell his Land on hard rates on supposition that the buyer will improve it 2. And if it be a Tenant that cannot either by custome or any other plea put in a claim in point of equity to his easie-rented Land 3. And if as bad a Landlord would buy it if you do not 4. If it be not a real scandal I say if all these four concurr 5. Or alone if the Tenant consent freely to your purchase on those terms then it is no injury But the common course is for a covetous man that hath money never to consider what a loser the Tenant is by his purchase but to buy and improve the Land at his own pleasure which is no better than Oppression Quest. 2. May not a Landlord take as much for his Land as it is worth Quest. 2. Answ. 1. Sometimes it is Land that no man can claim an equitable title to hold upon any easier rent and sometimes it is otherwise as aforesaid by custome and long possession or other reasons 2. Sometimes the Tenant is one that you are obliged to shew Mercy to and sometimes he is one that no more than commutative Justice is due to And so I answer 1. If it be an old Tenant who by custome or any other ground can claim an equitable title to his old pennyworth you may not enhaunse the Rent to the full worth 2. If it be one that you are obliged to shew Mercy as well as Justice to you may not take the full worth 3. The common case in England is that the Landlords are of the Nobility or Gentry and the Tenants are poor men who have nothing but what they get by their hard labour out of the Land which they hold And in this case some abatement of the full worth is but such a necessary Mercy as may be called Justice Note still that by the full worth I mean so much as you could set it for to a stranger who expecteth nothing but strict Justice as men buy and sell things in a Market But 1. If you
thy meditations And though these thoughts be not the sweetest 8. 〈…〉 and wants yet thy own folly hath made them necessary If thou be dangerously sick or but painfully sore thou canst scarce forget it If poverty afflict thee with pinching wants thy Thoughts are taken up with cares and trouble day and night If another wrong thee thou canst easily think on it And hast thou so often wronged thy God and Saviour and so unkindly vilified his mercy and so unthankfully set light by saving Grace and so presumptuously and securely ventured on his wrath and yet dost thou find a scarcity of matter for thy meditations Hast thou all the sins of thy youth and ignorance to think on and all the sins of thy rashness and sensuality and of thy negligence and sloth and of thy worldliness and selfishness ambition and pride thy passions and thy omissions and all thy sinful thoughts and words and yet art thou scanted of matter for thy thoughts Dost thou carry about thee such a body of death so much selfishness pride worldliness and carnality so much ignorance unbelief averseness to God and backwardness to all that is spiritual and holy so much passion and readiness to sin and yet dost thou not find enough to think on Look over the sins of all thy life see them Thus Evil may be made the object and occasion of good It is good to meditate on evil to hate it and avoid it Keep acquaintanâ—â— with Conscience and read over its Books and it will furnish your thoughts with humbling matter in all their aggravations as they have been committed against knowledge or means and helps against mercies and judgements and thy own vows or promises in prosperity and under affliction it self in secret and with others in thy general and particular calling and in all thy relations in every place and time and condition that thou hast lived in thy sins against God directly and thy injuries or neglects of man sins against holy duties and sins in holy duties in prayer hearing reading Sacraments meditation conference reproofs and receiving of reproofs from others thy negligent preparations for death and judgement the strangeness of thy soul to God and Heaven Is not here work enough for thy Meditations certainly if thou think so it is because thy heart never felt the bitterness of sin nor was ever yet acquainted with true Repentance but the time is yet to come that Light must shew thee what sin is and what thou art and what thou hast done and how full thy heart is of the Serpents brood and that thy sin must find thee out Dost thou not know that thy sins are as the Sands of the Shore or as the hairs upon thy head for number and that every sin hath deadly poyson in it and malignant enmity to God and holiness and yet are they not enough to keep thy Thoughts from being idle Judge by their language whether it be so with penitents Psal. 51. 2 3. Wash me throughly from my wickedness and cleanse me from my sin for I acknowledge my transgressions and my sin is ever before me Psal. 40. 12. For innumerable evils have compassed me about mine iniquities have taken hold upon me so that I am not able to look up they are more than the hairs of my head therefore my heart faileth me Psal. 119. 57. I thought on my ways and turned my feet unto thy testimonies True Repentance is thus described Ezek. 36. 31. Then shall ye remember your own evil ways and your doings that were not good and shall loath your selves in your own sight for your own iniquities and for your abominations Yea Gods forgiving and forgetting your sins must not make you forget them Ezek. 16. 60 61 62 63. I will establish to thee an everlasting Covenant Then thou shalt remember thy ways and be ashamed And I will establish my Covenant with thee That thou maist remember and be confounded and never open thy mouth any more because of thy shame when I am pacified towards thee for all that thou hast done saith the Lord God of Hosts § 9. Direct 9. Be not a stranger to the methods and subtleties and diligence of Satan in his Temptations Direct 9. to undo thy soul and thou wilt find matter enough to keep thy thoughts from idleness He is 9. Satans Temptations thinking how to deceive thee and destroy thee and doth it not concern thee to think how to defeat him and escape and save thy self If the hare run not as fast as the dog he is like to dye for it O that thy eyes were but opened to see the snares that are laid for thee in thy nature in thy temperature and passions in thy interests thy relations thy friends and acquaintance and ordinary company in thy businesses and possessions thy house and goods and lands and cattel and tenants and servants and all that thou tradest with or hast to do with in thine apparel and recreations in thy meat and drink and sleep and ease in prosperity and adversity in mens good thoughts or bad thoughts of thee in their praise and in their dispraise in their benefits and their wrongs their favour and in their falling out in their pleasing or displeasing thee in thy thinking and in thy speaking and in every thing that thou hast to do with Didst thou but see all these temptations and also see to what they tend and whither they would bring thee thou wouldst find matter to cure the idleness or impertinencies of thy thoughts § 10. Direct 10. The world and every creature in it which thou daily seest and which revealeth to Direct 10. thee the great Creator might be enough to keep thy Thoughts from idleness If Sun and Moon and Stars if Heaven and Earth and all therein be not enough to employ thy thoughts let thy idleness have some excuse I know thou wilt say that it is upon some of these things that thou dost employ them Yea but dost thou not first destroy and mortifie and make nonsense of that on which thou meditatest Dost thou not first separate it from God who is the life and glory and end and meaning of every creature Thou killest it and turnest out the soul and thinkest only on the Corps or on the Creature made another thing as food for thy sensual desires As the Kite thinketh on the Birds and Chickens to devour them to satisfie her greedy appetite Thus you can think of all Gods works so far as they accommodate your flesh But the World is Gods book which he set man at first to read and every Creature is a Letter or Syllable or Word or Sentence more or less declaring the name and will of God There you may behold his wonderful Almightiness his unsearchable Wisdom his unmeasurable Goodness mercy and compassions and his singular regard of the sons of men Though the ungodly proud and carnal wits do but play with and study the shape and comeliness and order
few men can but get money enough to purchase all the Land in a County they think that they may do with their own as they list and set such hard bargains of it to their Tenants that they are all but as their servants yea and live a more troublesome life than servants do when they have laboured hard all the year they can scarce scrape up enough to pay their Landlords rent Their necessities are so urgent that they have not so much as leisure to pray Morning or Evening in their families or to read the Scriptures or any good Book nor scarce any room in their thoughts for any holy things Their minds are so distracted with necessities and cares that even on the Lords Day or at a time of prayer they can hardly keep their minds intent upon the sacred work which they have in hand If the freest minds have much adoe to keep their thoughts in seriousness and order in meditation or in the worshipping of God how hard must it needs be to a poor oppressed man whose body is tired with wearisome labours and his mind distracted with continual cares how to pay his rent and how to have food and rayment for his family How unfit is such a troubled discontented person to live in thankfulness to God and in his joyful praises Abundance of the Voluptuous great ones of the world do use their Tenants and servants but as their Beasts as if they had been made only to labour and toil for them and it were their chief felicity to fulfil their will and live upon their favour § 9. Direct 1. The principal means to overcome this sin is to understand the Greatness of it For Direct 1. the flesh perswadeth carnal men to judge of it according to their self ish interest and not according to the interest of others nor according to the true principles of Charity and Equity and so they justifie themselves in their oppression § 10. 1. Consider That Oppression is a sin not only contrary to Christian Charity and Self-denyal but even to Humanity it self We are all made of one earth and have souls of the same kind There is as near a kindred betwixt all mankind as a specifical identity As between one Shâ—ep one Dovâ— one Angel and another As between several drops of the same water and several sparks of the same fire which have a natural tendency to Union with each other And as it is an inhumane thing for one brother to oppress another or one member of the same body to set up a proper interest of its own and make all the rest how painfully soever to serve that private interest So is it for those men who are children of the same Creator Much more for them who account themselves members of the same Redeemer and brethren in Christ by grace and regeneration with those whom they oppress Mal. 2. 10. Have we not all one Father Hath not one God created us Why do we deal treacherously every man against his brother By profaning the Covenant of our Fathers If we must not lye to one another because we are members one of another Ephes. 4. 25. And if all the members must have the same care of one another 1 Cor. 12. 25. Surely then they must not oppress one another § 11. 2. An Oppressor is an Anti-christ and an Anti-god He is contrary to God who delighteth to do good and whose bounty maintaineth all the world Who is kind to his enemies and causeth his Psal. 145. Matth. 5. Lam. 3. Sun to shine and his rain to fall on the just and on the unjust and even when he afflicteth doth it as unwillingly delighting not to grieve the Sons of men He is contrary to Jesus Christ who gave himself a ransome for his enemies and made himself a curse to redeem them from the curse and condescended in his incarnation to the nature of man and in his passion to the Cross and suffering which they deserved and being rich and Lord of all yet made himself poor that we by his poverty might be made rich He endured the Cross and despised the shame and made himself of as no reputation accounting it his honour and joy to be the Saviour of mens souls even of the poor and despised of the world And these Oppressors live as if they were made to afflict the just and to rob them of Gods mercies and to make crosses for other men to bear and to tread on their brethren as stepping stones of their own advancement The Holy Ghost is the Comforter of the just and faithful And these men live as if it were their Calling to deprive men of their comfort § 12. 3. Yea an Oppressor is not only the Agent of the Devil but his Image It is the Devil that is the destroyer and the devourer who maketh it his business to undo men and bring them into misery and distress He is the grand Oppressor of the world Yet in this he is far short of the malignity of men-devils 1. That he doth it not by force and violence but by deceit and hurteth no man till he hath procured his own consent to sin whereas our Oppressors do it by their brutish force and power 2. And the Devil destroyeth men who are not his brethren nor of the same kind But these oppressors never stick at the violating of such relations § 13. 4. Oppression is a sin that greatly serveth the Devil to the damning of mens souls as well as to the afflicting of their bodies And it is not a few but millions that are undone by it For as I shewed before it taketh up mens Minds and Time so wholly to get them a poor living in the world that they have neither mind nor time for better things They are so troubled about many things that the one thing needful is laid aside All the labours of many a worthy able Pastor are frustrated by oppressors To say nothing of the far greatest part of the world where the tyranny and oppression of Heathen Infidel and Mahometane Princes keepeth out the Gospel and the means of life nor yet of any other Persecutors If we exhort a Servant to read the Scriptures and call upon God and think of his everlasting state he telleth us that he hath no time to do it but when his weary body must have rest If we desire the Masters of families to instruct and catechise their children and servants and pray with them and read the Scriptures and other good Books to them they tell us the same that they have no time but when they should sleep and that on the Lords Day their tired bodies and careful minds are unfit to attend and ply such work So that necessity quietteth their consciences in their ignorance and neglect of heavenly things and maketh them think it the work only of Gentlemen and rich men who have leisure but are further alienated from it by prosperity than these are by their poverty And
deal with a Tenant as rich or richer than your self or with one that needeth not your mercy or is no fit object of it 2. And if it be Land that no man can by custome claim equitably to hold on lower terms and so it is no injury to another nor just scandal then you may lawfully raise it to the full worth Sometimes a poor man setteth a House or Land to a rich man where the scruple hath no place Quest. 3. May a Landlord raise his Rents though he take not the full worth Quest. 3. Answ. He may do it when there is just reason for it and none against it There is just reason for it when 1. The Land was much underset before 2. Or when the Land is proportionably improved 3. Or when the plenty of money maketh a greater summ to be in effect no more than a lesser heretofore 4. Or when an increase of persons or other accident maketh Land dearer than it was But then it must be supposed 1. That no Contract 2. Nor Custome 3. Nor Service and Merit do give the Tenant any equitable right to his better penny-worth And also that Mercy prohibite not the change Quest. 4. How much must a Landlord set his Land below the full worth that he may be no oppressor Quest. 4. or unmerciful to his Tenants Answ. No one proportion can be determined of because a great alteration may be made in respect to the Tenants ability his merit to the time and place and other accidents Some Tenants are so rich as is said that you are not bound to any abatement Some are so bad that you are bound to no more than strict Justice and common humanity to them Some years like the last when a longer drowth than any man alive had known burnt up the Grass disableth a Tenant to pay his Rent Some Countreys are so scarce of money that a little abatement is more than in another place But ordinarily the common sort of Tenants in England should have so much abated of the fullest worth that they may comfortably live on it and follow their labours with cheerfulness of mind and liberty to serve God in their families and to mind the matters of their salvation and not to be necessitated to such toil and care and pinching want as shall make them liker Slaves than Free-men and make their lives uncomfortable to them and make them unfit to serve God in their families and seasonably mind eternal things Quest. 5. What if the Landlord be in debt or have some present want of money may be not then raise Quest. 5. the Rent of those Lands which were under-let before Answ. If his pride pretend want where there is none as to give extraordinary portions with his daughters to erect sumptuous buildings c. this is no good excuse for oppression But if he really fall into want then all that his Tenants hold as meer gifts from his liberality he may withdraw as being no longer able to give But that which they had by custome an equitable title to or by contract also a legal title to he may not withdraw And yet all this is his sin if he brought that poverty culpably on himself it is his sin in the cause though supposing that cause the raising of his Rent be lawfulâ— But it is not every debt in a rich man who hath other wayes of paying it which is a true necessity in this Case And if a present debt made it necessary only at that time it is better by Fine or otherwise make a present supply than thereupon to lay a perpetual burden on the Tenants when the cause is ceased Quest. 6. What if there be abundance of honest people in for greater want than my Tenants are Quest. 6. yea perhaps Preachers of the Gospel and I have no other way to relieve them unless I raise my Rents Am I not bound rather to give to the best and poorest than to others Answ. Yes if it were a case that concerned meer giving But when you must take away from one to give to another there is more to be considered in it Therefore at least in these two cases you may not raise your Tenants Rents to relieve the best or poorest whosoever 1. In case that he have some equitable title to your Land as upon the easier Rent 2. Or in case that the scandal of seeming injustice or cruelty is like to do more hurt to the interest of Religion and mens souls than your relieving the poor with the addition would do good which a prudent man by collation of probable consequents may satisfactorily discern But if it were not only to preserve the comforts but to save the lives of others in their present famine nature teacheth you to take that which is truly your own both from your Tenants and your Servants and your own mouths to relieve men in such extream distress and Nature will teach all men to judge it your duty and no scandalous oppression But when you cannot relieve the ordinary wants of the poor without such a scandalous raising of your Rents as will do more harm than your alms would do good God doth not than call you to give such Alms but you are to be supposed to be unable Quest. 7. May I raise a Tenants Rent or turn him out of his House because he is a bad man by a Quest. 7. kind of penalty Answ. A bad man hath a title to his Own as well as a good man And therefore if he have either legal or equitable title you may not Nor yet if the scandal of it is like to do more hurt than the good can countervail which you intend Otherwise you may either raise his Rent or turn him out if he be a wicked profligate incorrigible person after due admonition Yea and you ought to do it lest you be a cherisher of wickedness If the Parents under Moses Law were bound to accuse their own Son to the Judges in such a case and say This our Son is stubborn and rebellious he will not obey our voice he is a glutton and a drunkard and all the men of the City must stone him till he dye to put away evil from among them Deut. 21. 18 19 20 21. Then surely a wicked Tenant is not so far to be spared as to be cherished by bounty in his sin It is the Magistrates work to punish him by Governing Justice But it is your work as a prudent Benefactor to withhold your gifts of bounty from him And I think it is one of the great sins of this age that this is not done it being one of the notablest means imaginable to reform the Land and make it happy if Landlords would thus punish or turn out their wicked incorrigible Tenants It would do much more than the Magistrate can do The vulgar are most effectually ruled by their interest as we rule our Dogs and Horses more by the Government of their bellies than
by force They will most obey those on whom they apprehend their good or hurt to have most dependance If Landlords would regard their Tenants souls so much as to correct them thus for their wickedness they would be the greatest benefactors and reformers of the Land But alas who shall first reform the Landlords And when may it be hoped that many or most Great men will be such Quest. 8. May one take a House over anothers head as they speak or take the Land which he is a Quest. 8. Tenant to before he be turned out of possession Answ. Not out of a greedy desire to be rich nor coveting that which is anothers Nor yet while he is any way injured by it nor yet when the act is like to be so scandalous as to hurt mens souls more than it will profit your body If you come with the offer of a greater Rent than he can give or than the Landlord hath just cause to require of him to get it out of his hands by over-bidding him this is meer covetous oppression But in other cases it is lawful to take the House and Land which another Tenant hath possession of As 1. In case that he willingly leave it and consent 2. Or if he unwillingly but justly be put out and another Tenant must be provided against the time that he is to be dispossessed 3. Yea if he be unjustly put out if he that succeed him have no hand in it nor by his taking the House or Land do promote the injury nor scandalously countenance injustice For when a Tenement is void though by injury it doth not follow that no man may ever live in it more But if the title be his that is turned out then you may not take it of another because you will possess another mans habitation But if it should go for a standing rule that no man may in any case take a House over another mans head as the Countrey people would have it then every mans House and Land must be long untenanted to please the will of every contentious or unjust possessor And any one that hath no title or will play the knave may injure the true Owner at his pleasure Quest. 9. May a rich man put out his Tenants to lay their Tenements to his own Demesnes and so lay Quest. 9. House to House and Land to Land Answ. In two cases he may not 1. In case he injure the Tenant that is put out by taking that from him which he hath right to without his satisfaction and consent 2. And in case it really tend to the injury of the Common-wealth by depopulation and diminishing the strength of it Otherwise it is lawful and done in moderation by a pious man may be very convenient 1. By keeping the Land from beggery through the multitudes of poor families that overset it 2. By keeping the more Servants among whom he may keep up a better order and more pious government in his own House making it as a Church than can be expected in poor families And his Servants will for soul and body have a much better life than if they married and had families and small Tenements of their own But in a Countrey that rather wanteth people it is otherwise Quest. 10. May one man be a Tenant to divers Tenements Quest. 10. Answ. Yes if it tend not 1. To the wrong of any other 2. Nor to depopulation or to hinder the livelihood of others while one man ingrosseth more than is necessary or meet For then it is unlawful Quest. 11. May one man have many Trades or Callings Quest. 11. Answ. Not when he doth in a covetous desire to grow rich disable his poor neighbours to live by him on the same Callings seeking to engross all the gain to himself nor yet when they are Callings which are inconsistent or when he cannot manage one aright without the sinful neglect of the other But otherwise it is as lawful to have two Trades as one Quest. 12. Is it lawful for one man to keep Shops in several Market Towns Quest. 12. Answ. The same answer will serve as to the foregoing question CHAP. XXI Cases about and Directions against Prodigality and sinful Wastefulness § 1. BEcause mens carnal interest and sensuality is predominant with the greatest part of the world and therefore governeth them in their judgement about Duty and Sin it thence cometh to pass that Wastefulness and Prodigality are easily believed to be faults so far as they bring men to shame or beggery or apparently cross their own pleasure or commodity But in other cases they are seldome acknowledged to be any sins at all Yea all that are gratified by them account them virtues and there is scarce any sin which is so commonly commended Which must needs tend to the increase of it and to harden men in their impenitency in it And verily if covetousness and selfishness or poverty did not restrain it in more persons than true conscience doth it were like to go for the most laudable quality and to be judged most meritorious of present praise and future happiness Therefore in directing you against this sin I must first tell you What it is and then tell you wherein the malignity of it doth consist The first will be best done in the definition of it and enumeration of the instances and examination of each one of them § 2. Direct 1. Truly understand what necessary frugality or parsimony and sinful wastefulness Direct 1. are Necessary frugality or sparing is An act of fidelity obedience and gratitude by which we use all What necessary Frugality is our estates so faithfully for the chief Owner so obediently to our chief Ruler and so gratefully to our chief Benefactor as that we waste it not any other way As we hold our estates under God as Owner Ruler and Benefactor so must we devote them to him and use them for him in each relation And Christian parsimony cannot be defined by a meer negation of active wastefulness because idleness it self and not using it aright is real wastefulness § 3. Wastefulness or prodigality is that sin of unfaithfulness disobedience and ingratitude by which Wastefulness what it is either by action or omission we mis-spend or waste some part of our estates to the injury of God our Absolute Lord our Ruler and Benefactor that is Besides and against his interest his command and his pleasure and glory and our ultimate end These are true Definitions of the duty of frugality and the sin of wastefulness § 4. Inst. 1. One way of sinful wastefulness is In pampering the belly in excess curiosity or costliness Inst. 1. of meat or drink Of which I have spoken Chap. 8. Tom. 1. Quest. 1. Are all men bound to fare alike Or when is it wastefulness and excess Quest. 1. Answ. This question is answered in the foresaid Chapter of Gluttony Par. 4. Tit. 1. 1. Distinguish between mens
that you sinned with must by all importunity be follicited to repentance and the sin must be confessed and pardon craved for tempting them to sin 2. Where it can be done without a greater evil than the benefit will amount to the Fornicators ought to joyn in marriage Exod. 22. 16. 3. Where that cannot be the man is to put the Woman into as good a case for outward livelyhood as she would have been in if she had not been corrupted by him by allowing her a proportionable dowry Exod. 22. 17. and the Parents injury to be recompensed Deut. 22. 28 29. 3. The Childs maintenance also is to be provided for by the fornicator That is 1. If the man by fraud or sollicitation induced the Woman to the sin he is obliged to all as aforesaid 2. If they sinned by mutual forwardness and consent then they must joyntly bear the burden yet so that the Man must bear the greater part because he is supposed to be the stronger and wiser to have resisted the temptation 3. If the Woman importuned the man she must bear the more but yet he is responsible to Parents and others for their damages and in part to the Woman her self because he was the stronger vessel and should have been more constant And volenti non fit injuria is a rule that hath some exceptions Quest. 12. In what case is a man excused from restitution and satisfaction Quest. 12. Answ. 1. He that is utterly disabled cannot restore or satisfie 2. He that is equally damnified by the person to whom he should restore is excused in point of real equity and Conscience so be it that the Reasons of external order and policy oblige him not For though it may be his sin of which he is to repent that he hath equally injured the other yet it requireth eonfession rather than restitution or satisfaction unless he may also expect satisfaction from the other Therefore if you owe a man an hundred pound and he owe you as much and will not pay you you are not bound to pay him unless for external order sake and the Law of the Land 3. If the debt or injury be forgiven the person is discharged 4. If Nature or common-custome do warrant a man to believe that no restitution or satisfaction is expected or that the injury is forgiven though it be not mentioned it will excuse him from restitution or satisfaction As if Children or friends have taken some trifle which they may presume the kindness of a Parent or friend will pass over though it be not justifiable Quest. 13. What if the Restitution will cost the restorer far more than the thing is worth Quest. 13. Answ. He is obliged to make Satisfaction instead of Restitution Quest. 14. What if the confessing of the fault may enrage him that I must restore to so that he will Quest. 14. turn it to my infamy or ruine Answ. You may then conceal the person and send him satisfaction by another hand or you may also conceal the wrong it self and cause satisfaction to be made him as by gift or other way of payment Tit. 2. Directions about Restitution and Satisfaction Direct 1. FOresee the trouble of restitution and prevent it Take heed of Covetousness which would Direct 1. draw you into such a snare What a perplexed case are some men in who have injured others so far as that all they have will scarce make them due satisfaction Especially publick oppressours who injure whole Nations Countreys or communities and unjust Judges who have done more wrong perhaps in one day or week than all their estates are worth and unjust Lawyers who plead against a righteous cause and false witnesses who contribute to the wrong and unjust Juries or any such like Also oppressing Landlords and Souldiers that take mens goods by violence and deceitful tradesmen who live by injuries In how sad a case are all these men Direct 2. Do nothing which is doubtful if you can avoid it lest it should put you upon the trouble of Direct 2. restitution As in case of any doubtful way of Usury or other gain consider that if it should hereafter appear to you to be unlawful and so you be obliged to restitution though you thought it lawful at the taking of it what a snare then would you be in when all that use must be repayed And so in other cases Direct 3. When really you are bound to restitution or satisfaction stick not at the Cost or Suffering be Direct 3. it never so great but be sure to deal faithfully with God and Conscience Else you will keep a thorn in your hearts which will smart and fâ—ster till it be out And the ease of your Consciences will bear the charge of your costlyest restitution Direct 4. If you be not able in your life time to make restitution leave it in your willâ— as a debt upon your Direct 4. Estates but never take it for your own Direct 5. If you are otherwise unable to satisfie offer your labour as a servant to him to whom you Direct 5. are indebted if at least by your service you can make him a compensation Direct 6. If you are that way unable also beg of your friends to help you that Charity may Direct 6. enable you to pay the debt Direct 7. But if you have no means at all of satisfying confess the injury and crave forgiveness Direct 7. and cast your self on the mercy of him whom you have injured CHAP. XXXIII Cases and Directions about our obtaining Pardon from God Tit. 1. Cases of Conscience about obtaining pardon of sin from God Quest. 1. IS there pardon to be had for all sin without exception or not Quest. 1. Answ. 1. There is no pardon procured nor offered for the final non-performance of the conditions of pardon that is for final impenitency unbelief and ungodliness 2. There is no pardon for any sin without the conditions of pardon that is without true faith and repentance which is our conversion from sin to God 3. And if there be any sin which certainly excludeth true Repentance to the last it excludeth pardon also which is commonly taken to be the case of Blasphemy against the Holy Ghost of which I have written at large in my Treatise against Infidelity But 1. All sin except the final non-performance of the conditions of pardon is already conditionally pardoned in the Gospel that is If the sinner will repent and believe No sin is excepted from pardon to penitent believers 2. And all sin is actually pardoned to a true penitent believer Quest. 2. What if a man do frequently commit the same heynous sin may he be pardoned Quest. 2. Answ. Whilest he frequently committeth it being a mortal sin he doth not truly repent of it And while he is impenitent he is unpardoned But if he be truly penitent his heart being habitually and actually turned from the sin it will be forgiven