consenting to share both in his gains and losses which with him is lawful yet would not the same inconveniences here imagined attend this Contract 2. By the allowance here made I perceive Mr. J. would oppress the seller who according to this account after all his pains time and hazards run should gain but six pound thirteen shillings and four pence for his hundred pound borrowed and laid out for one whole year Mr. J. Or potentially the Vsurer biteth the borrower I will instance in Land the borrower takes up 400 pound upon Interest and buyeth Land with it worth 20 pounds by the year and he payeth the Vsurer 24 pounds by the year in which case I ask the Vsurer whether the borrower must not needs be bitten c. Reply 1. I would know if on this score any one should come to Mr. J. to borrow this 400 pound would he lend it him freely or is any other bound to do so I remember Mr. Bolton says that no man ought to borrow but in case of need I doubt whether this mans need would pass with him But in truth if the Purchaser borrows the whole 400 pound few would judge him wise in medling with the Purchase or him much wiser that should intrust the money with him on his single security 2. Give me leave to make a supposition too suppose then this purchaser meets with a friend that lends him this 400 l for 10 l P. Annum here is usury and yet not biting to the borrower or suppose there is so much Timber growing on the land bought as that therewith he makes up the 400 l in some few years who is Injured then or where is the biting Obj. But here saith he the Vsurer will reply That so in other Contracts as buying selling setting a man may be bitten and wronged And I add that Bp. Hall makes over-reaching in these kinds the worst of Usury pract cas p. 11 12. Lamenting the Ignorance or mistaken Zeal of those that cry down usury but in the mean time make no bones of actions no less biting or oppressive they care not how high they sell any of their Commodities at how unreasonable rates they set their grounds how they circumvent the buyer in their bargains and think any price Just any gaine lawful that they can make in their markets not considering there is neither less nor less odious usury in selling and letting than there is in lending It is the Extortion in both that makes the sin without which the kind or terms of the transaction would not be guilty In the ordinary loan-usury the borrower hath yet time to boot for his money but here the buyer pays down an excessive Interest without any consideration but the sellers cruelty What doth Mr. J. answer to the foresaid Objection This Mr. J. So it may fall out viz. that a man may be bitten too in buying selling c. but herein lies the difference that these foresaid Contracts are in themselves lawful but usury in it self unlawful Reply But the Fathers that he pleads condemn Usury as unlawful do some of them also condemn Merchandising or Trading for gains sake Rivet in Decalog p. 290. As Hom. 38. on Mat. passing under Chrysostome's name The Lord casting out the Buyers and Sellers of the Temple signifies that a Merchant can never please God Again No Christian ought to be a Merchant or if he will be let him be cast out of the Church And Cassiodore On Psal 70. speaks the same language So that these Fathers that judged one judged both alike unlawful and Bishop Hall judged neither unlawful any further than there was Oppression in them Mr. J. But lending must be free Luke 6.35 It being reckoned amongst the liberal Contracts Reply If the Civilians make good that all lending must be free then let this Contract pass under another name and that plea is answered for it is not names or words but things that we are inquiring to Though enough hath been said before to answer what is urged from Luke 6.35 yet I shall not think it amiss to produce the sense of the Dutch Annotators on that Scripture And lend without hoping for at ny thing again or without hoping for any thing from it i. e. not only to them which ye hope will give it you again but also to them of whom ye have not this hope like as he here commands also to love not only our friends but also our enemies Obj. 2. The Law against Vsury is political concerning the Jews only and not us and therefore we cannot be condemned by it Mr. J. Answer This is a fallacy and the contrary can be sufficiently proved 1. The Prophets enumerate Vsury among the transgressions of the Moral Law Ezek. 18.8 Jer. 15.10 and so doth this Psal 15. Reply 1. Jer. 15.10 makes little to his purpose the most that can be made of it is what Diodate Comments thereon thus I have c. i. e. I have neither had strife nor contention with them upon any private interests nor pretences but all is by reason of my Office In loc Junius to the same effect I kept my self close to my own Calling I have had no other transactions with them I warily abstained from all occasion of strife which might any way happen among men Grotius understands the words of bare lending In Synops. saying Vsury was forbidden among the Jews therefore the words must be read Neither have I lent money to any one nor any to me * G. Sim. Calv. I have had to do with none upon any money-matter whence strifes are wont to arise say others 2. In reply to Psal 15. you may reflect upon Dixon's Comment thereon I shall besides produce what two learned Men say on the same Scripture Synops. * Gev. Sicut c. As the receiving of gifts is one thing in it self and the receiving of gifts upon an innocent man another so is the taking above the Principal from the Wealthy and from the Poor †Coc. To take use from the Poor is hurtful and burthensome because he receives that he may live but gainfnl for the Rich to pay use for he receives that he may gain 3. What is asserted usually of Ezek 18. viz. that it contains Morals only if the same be meant by way of exclusion to Judicials may admit of a use of addubitation to me there seems to be Judicials expressed or referred to v. 7. Oppression though a Moral evil yet the particulars thereof might be immediately against a Judicial Law and in the Margin of our Bibles we are pointed to Lev. 25.14 which concerns Judicials Restoring the Debtor his Pledge respects a Law of the like nature Exod. 22.26 And the executing of true judgment between Man and Man as to the Jews was according to the Political Laws given in special to that Nation Again v. 9. Statutes Judgments Surely we may not hence exclude Judicials seeing as Mercer Notes the latter
satisfied in the question how far the Laws of propriety are to give place to that of self-preservation may find it stated by Grotius de Jure Belli pacis l. 2. c. 2. § 6. Mr. C. But when both parties gain who is bitten The Commonwealth say I that is hurtful to the Commonwealth which is a burden to the most Append. p. 289. and those who have most need Reply 1. I doubt his proof is lame the more of Traders the cheaper mostly are Commodities If none should be Traders but such as are monied men then such Traders would be fewer and by consequence the Trade being in the management of the hands of few Commodities would be dearer and scarcer than they are both upon the account of the paucity of sellers and their indifferency in parting with the Commodity unless the buyer comes up to their demands This is apparent if applied to forreign wares for the bringing in whereof I do not know that they that have money are bound to Lend to the Merchants freely that they might sell the cheaper neither can I be perswaded that if they borrowed freely they would sell much the cheaper but the gains would remain in their own Coffers and the poor pay as dear as before and would not things bear the same price and come to the same Market provided the Lender entred fellowship and bare a share both in the losses and gains 2. All Commodities sold are either such as are necessary or such as are only convenient or superfluous the measure in the former commonly is scarcity the measure of worth in the latter is mostly fancy or the will of man So I learn from Grotius The most natural measure of every thing What it is worth is scarcity p. 232. As Aristotle rightly shews but this is not the only measure for the will of man which is the Lord over things desires many things more than are necessary Mr. C. Now Vsury being no act of mercy and kindness Append. p. 291. but rather the contrary it cannot but follow that the permission to lend upon Vse to the Stranger must not be meant of ordinary Strangers to whom they were to shew all kindness and compassion but the Strangers of those cursed Nations whom they were bound to bite and eat out Reply 1. This hath been answered before It is a sign men are hard put to it when they make use of such weak shifts and evasions for so I must call it there being so little footing for it in the Scriptures from whence alone they can take it And why should they distinguish where Scripture distinguisheth not nor gives any ground towards it but rather the contrary 2. As to the enquiry whether Lending upon use be a favour or no I say that free lending was a greater favour to the borrowers and this was requisite for the Jewish Commonwealth and Polity for otherwise they would have lost the benefit of some other political Laws such as were the forgiving of debts every seventh and the releasing of Morgages every Fiftieth year But for Commonwealths addicted to Traffick I doubt not to say that Lending on use is beneficial yea necessary that money being hereby imployed this way that would otherwise be diverted and that without wrong to any man to other uses or else be hoarded up Every mans concernments leading this way besides the ordinary ingratitude unfaithfulness and undue delay on the part of most Borrowers 3. Neither is that true that the Jews were to shew all kindness to ordinary Strangers kindness indeed they were to shew this Common humanity bound them to if there had been no express Law of God in Scripture requiring it And hereupon I advance and say that lending upon use was consistent with Common kindness being they might thus lend upon use to a Stranger to whom yet they were injoyned to shew kindness But I am yet to seek that they were to shew all kindness to Strangers whether you understand it of kinds or degrees It is apparent there were several kinds and degrees of kindness they were to shew toward their own Nation the which they were not bound to shew to others this is evident from several Laws given that Nation as before hinted and amongst the rest this of Usury Whereas he saith That Vsury is no act of kindness and mercy but rather the contrary This needs a little examining before it have a let pass Let it be still remembred there is a Medium between acts of Mercy or pure Charity and uncharitableness viz. Acts of Justice Thus buying and selling which are acts of Justice are not properly acts of Charity One sells me Corn saith Seneca I cannot live unless I buy it De benef l. 6. c. 14. but I owe not my life because I have bought Though de eventu such acts of Justice may prove charitable and ordinarily the buyer is advantaged thereby as well as the seller The like I say of lending upon Usury it may be an act of Justice though not of Charity though intentionally it may be a charitable act the lender designing his neighbours advantage besides his own eventually also it may prove an act of charity or kindness when the borrower comes off a gainer by the contract And so it is really a kindness where the lender takes but 2 or 3 s where by the Law he might take 6 s. 5. But whatever this lending upon Use be it is granted that lending freely is a greater kindness to the person receiving yet the consequence is lame that if lending upon Use were a favour they should thereupon be injoined to lend upon Use to a Jew for that free lending of the two was a greater favour giving is a greater favour than selling what then must all selling be exploded to make room for giving only this would prove as absurd in it self as it would be prejudicial to the interests of persons and Nations Mr. Ainswortb quoted by Mr. Capel saith That to Strangers who were brethren in the faith they might not lend upon Vsury Is this not rather against than for him would it not follow hence that to Strangers which were not of the Faith they might lend upon Usury and again it would admit of an inquiry whether they might take Use of the Canaanite or any of those accursed Nations when they were Proselited and become brethren in the Faith If not as I think they dare not say it upon the whole we shall find the case of all Strangers to be alike in this question of Usury Mr. C. Starts an Objection p. 294. Is it not fit I should have rent for my Money as well as for my Land The sum of his answer is When Money is lent to a poor man for bread here it is acknowledged to be unlawful to take gain but not so take Money for a piece of Arable Land which this poor man rents at an indifferent rate to provide bread for him and his or to pay
Money for an house he dwells in Reply 1. If I am bound to help my poor neighbour is it not all one whether I give him twenty shillings out of my Purse or abate him so much in the Rent of House or Field he hires of me 2. Suppose to a poor man one neighbour lends twenty shillings and a richer than he letts his House to the same person the former being bound to lend his Money freely to this poor man may the other take his full Rent of him I think both the one and the other In case of extremity are bound to shew charity to this poor man as the one lending freely so the other abating in his Rent or else the burden would lie unequally on these two Mens Shoulders 3. Let what follows serve for an answer to this and the like Objections that such arguings are usually guilty of a confusion of Charity and Justice They consider what Charity requires on the Lenders part and they observe and set against it what is just on the Setters part It is just on the Setters part say they to require the Rent for the House It is just also say I on the lenders part to take Use for his Money but yet in this case before us wherein the poor mans condition is considered Justice must give place to Charity on both hands the one for Charities sake must lend his Money freely the other for Charities sake must deal favourably with him setting his House at a cheaper rate and in some Cases the one must be content to forgo his Rent and the other to lose his Principal Caterùm sciendum est latiùs patere Charitatis quam Juris Regulas Grot. De Jure c. p. 542. For a Close to my Discourse I shall lay down a disswasive from uncharitableness in censuring Men for Dealings in Civil Contracts farther than they have just ground for so doing This disswasive I shall strengthen with a double ground 1. Because there is a certain Latitude in these Civil Contracts wherein Justice walks the highest or lowest degree of which latitude it were hard for any to charge with injustice This is observed from Grotius out of Aristotle It is most true saith Grotius what Aristotle hath written De Jure l. 2. c. 8. §. 1. that a certitude cannot be found in Morals equally as in Mathematical Sciences which therefore happens because Mathematical Sciences separate forms from all matter and because the forms themselves for the most are such that they have no Medium as there is not between right and crooked But in Morals the least circumstances change the matter and the forms whereby 't is acted have somewhat placed between them in that latitude that approach is made sometime nearer to one sometime to another extream for so between what ought to be done and what ought not to be done the middle is that which is lawful to be done but nearer sometime to one sometime to another extream whence an ambiguity happens as in the dawning of the day or in cold water waxing hot Thus then what is right or lawful in things of this nature consists not in an indivisible point so as that all that go near this side or that do not run themselves aground on injustice so long as they keep within the general bounds that Nature Scripture Reason and approved Customs have prescribed to things of that nature 2. As long as Interest is allowed by them as lawful it is not easy to condemn another of what they call Usury especially when it enters not the bond and the increase taken be moderate for who can judge of another Mans concerns so as peremptorily to say he hath suffered no prejudice by the loan or that he might not have in the mean time improved the same money to his own advantage Yea and some Anti-Usurers will allow of a Contract also for this increase supposing the Principal be not sufficiently secured or any damage be probably foreseen in such cases they say it is not Usury but an honest recompence for the hazard that is run or the damage probably foreseen or foregoing the opportunity of improving his Estate Therefore I say on these accounts if there were no other there should be a forbearance of rash censuring it becomes every man to look to his Conscience in such and the like Dealings and Contracts that nothing be done to the prejudice of Christian Charity Moderation Equity and Prudence but in all things to be careful to do to others as in the like circumstances they judge it reasonable others should do to them FINIS The Contents A ADventuring Page 10 Abraham Offering Isaac p. 179 B Borrowers reproved p. 218 Borrowing p. 178 227. Bribery p. 236. C Canaanite p. 178 231. Case in Nehemiah extraordinary p. 224. Certain gain Contracted for p. 186. Charity consistent with Justice p. 45. Charity begins at home p. 209. Clergy p. 54. Common-wealth whether bitten p. 151 153 201 244. Compact p. 11 133. Compact silent p. 137. Consent of partys p. 192 234. Councels p. 54 55 114. E Equity p. 196. Exaction p. 50. Expectation of gain p. 12 136. Extortion p. 50 65. F Fathers against Vsury p. 17 56 66 113. Force p. 149. G Gratitude p. 191. H Hazards p. 146 258. Heathen p. 18 119. Hirer p. 158 171 I Interest p. 6 23. Inter-Vsury p. 22 23. Injustice p. 51. Israelites borrowing p. 179 227. J Jews Conversion hindred p. 121. Judas his restitution p. 235. Judicials p. 242. L Law of Moses Judicial p. 67 172 230. Law of Nature p. 70. Laws of Men p. 74. 103. Lending to the Rich p. 87 147. Letting and setting p. 16 157 29 30 64. Liberal increase p. 25 138. Light of Nature p. 212. Loan of Money worth Money p. 166. Loan whether it must be always free p. 13 66 94 156 206. M Money how consumed in Vsing p. 14 156. Money not barren p. 117 171. N Necessity in the borrower p. 213. Nesheck p. 49 62. O Orphans and Widows p. 139 211. P Permission p. 175 232 233. Power to transfer a right p. 194 238. Promise p. 195. Property not altered in Loan p. 171. Propriety p. 195. Popish Writers p. 124. S Scheme of Mr. Jel Censure p. 161. Shiploan p. 24. Stipulation p. 31. Stranger p. 83 232. T Time given for Payment p. 202. Trading p. 152. U Vsury its Definitions p. 9. Vsury its Descriptions p. 16. Vsury not exprest in N. Testament p. 75. Vsury not against Equity Conscience c. p. 190. Z Zacheus's Restitution p. 243. Scriptures debated or referred to GEnesis 3.17 c. p. 156. GEnesis v. 22 p. 183. GEnesis 4.12 p. 156. GEnesis 3.9 p. 184. Ezodus 12.35 36. p. 184. Ezodus 21.21 p. 180. Ezodus 22.14 15. p. 158. Ezodus v. 22 c. p. 139. Ezodus v. 25. p. 35. 87. 230. Ezodus v. 26. p. 68. Ezodus 23.32 33. p. 185. Ezodus v. 8. p. 139. Leviticus 25.10 15. p. 71. Leviticus v. 14. p. 68. Leviticus v. 14 15. p. 205 226. Leviticus v. 18. p. 68. Leviticus v. 24 25. p. 227. Leviticus v. 35.36 p. 69. 81. 82. 214. 230. Leviticus v. 37. p. 34. 35. 64. 87. Leviticus v. 39 c. p. 227. Deuteronomy 4. begin p. 160. Deuteronomy 7. begin p. 94. 175. Deuteronomy 15.1 p. 67. 228. Deuteronomy v. 2 3. p. 83. 85. 72. Deuteronomy v. 6. p. 151. Deuteronomy v. 7 8. p. 43. 88. 174. 214. 23. 19. 20. Deuteronomy 23.19 20. p. 14. 21. 34. 80. 82. 83. 87. Deuteronomy v. 10. p. 35. Nehemiah 5. p. 20. 91. 223. Nehemiah 10.31 p. 228. Psalms 15.4 p. 175. 221. 223. Psalms v. 5. p. 4. 67. Psalms 37.21 p. 36. 220. Psalms v. 20. p. 36. Proverbs 3.27 p. 219. Proverbs 19.17 p. 39. Proverbs 22.16 p. 95. 207. Proverbs v. 22. p. 257. Proverbs 28.8 p. 51. 96. Jeremiah 15.10 p. 67. Ezekiel 18.8 p. 50. 67. Ezekiel v. 13. p. 52. Matthew 3.15 p. 176. Matthew 5.2 p. 174. Matthew 12.1 p. 245. Matthew 7.12 p. 98. 86. 198. Matthew 25.27 p. 32. 86. Luke 6.31 p. 166. Luke v. 32. p. 25. Luke v. 34. p. 40. Luke v. 35. p. 11. 13. 36. 66. 76. 171. 173. 174. 214. 247. Luke 14.12 13. p. 41. Luke 16.8 p. 41. 91. Acts 15.29 p. 69. Romans 12.8 p. 219. 1 Corinthians 6.9 10. p. 163. 1 Corinthians 7.35 p. 241. 2 Corinthians 8.13 p. 198. 2 Corinthians 12.4 p. 102. Ephesians 4.28 p. 83. 215. 219. Ephesians 5.2 p. 77. Colossions 2.22 p. 156. 2 Thessalonians 3.8 12. p. 219. 1 Timothy 5.8 p. 102. 210. FINIS