THE INTEREST OF Creditors AND Debtors OR The Duty that is Incumbent on both By the Laws Moral Civil and Divine With their Respective Interest Stated Published for their Mutual Benefit by an Impartial Observer of the often Severity of the Former and Defection of the Latter LONDON Printed and are to be sold by William Rawlins over against the Royal Exchange in Cornhil 1673. TO THE READER Reader Mr Sympathy with poor Prisoners hath incited me to offer the following Discourse in their behalf that it might provoke the Charity of Men or at least the Clemency and forbearance of their Creditors towards them in this or that I hope it may meet with some success although it be a flinty Age. And if the reason thereof prevail with any to administer their superfluities and improve their Respective Capacities for the alleviation of Prisoners Burthens not despairing of thy self for one then my design herein will not be frustrated who am Thine P. P. The INTEREST OF Creditors AND Debtors THat it is a Duty incumbent upon Humanity to Promote the Good of its Individuals and reciprocally every individual one the others good or they violate the Harmony of their being seems to be the intent of that Maxim Nemo sibi nascitur that no man is born to himself And because such Impressions remain in Nature notwithstanding the inundation of Ignorance by the Apostacy a greater improvement is expected from us under those many advantages since offered for our Restoration The first Branch of self-hood the root of all Strife Debate Contentions Injuries Homicides c. appeared in the Fratricide of Cain who perpetrated that Act upon his Brother upon the single Emulation of his Offering being respected but hath since Spawned a multitude of Iniquities in the World As men hath given liberty to their Extravagant Appetites and might be traced to be the Mother of most if not all Enormities committed whereof the cruelty and violence of Creditors exercised towards their Debtors by Arrests Imprisonments and other Depredations made upon their Persons and Estates is none of the smallest Bratts And that the deformity thereof may appear is the designed appropriate Subject of this Discourse Now therefore all such as are or may be concerned let them consider that a rigorous proceeding of Creditors against their Debtors is not encouraged or countenanced by any Laws Moral Civil or Divine no rule of Manners dictates of Humanity or divine Precept doth favour but rather frown upon so degenerate an Act. A Bay of the uncontaminated Nature was illustrated by Abram who might have challenged Lot in right of Ancestry A priority of Election as may particularly be seen in the Story Gen. 13. and was before the Moral Law was Exhibited so great a Patriarch and Potentate being indisputably a pattern of Patience self-denial and Brotherhood for the imitation of all his Survivors The good that Joseph returned his Brethren for their Evil with many the like Presidents in Holy Writ that might be instanced sufficiently commend to men the Exercise of Patience Goodness and Charity one towards another If we respect the Decalogue which was added for the Restitution of the Original Nature the severity of a Creditor to his Debtor is far from being justified thereby And without doubt is implicitly forbid in the Sixt Commandment Thou shalt do no Murder which comprehends a great deal more then barely violence to a mans life there being many wayes to render that insupportable or very miserable Among which the Creditor pursuing his Debtor to Prison may well be reputed one where he is made useless to his Generation in all his Capacities he cannot there serve himself less his Family and least of all his King and Countrey to whom the greater Obligation lyes I appeal to all sober men whether such a condition be not Equivolent to death it self to any man that yet retains judgement to ascribe it its proper merit The Scriptures in divers places give testimony and rebuke to the secret practises of men one against another and most of all being shrowded under a Cloak of Justice And here it may be a digression easily pardonable to inspect those Imployments and Professions of men that in some measure do participate of the Nature and are subservient to the ends of such a murdering Spirit It will not be improper to begin with those that are the Agents and Factors for Creditors in the Rigor and Violence they use towards their Debtors and the first sort of them are some persons appending to the Law who take pleasure to act to the undoing a man because they are hired to it and it is very comely and honourable they think to be the ministers of Malice and Revenge because they are paid for it a sort of mercinary people like Packhorses to any design for Money as the late Rebellious Age too wofully exemplified The blood of the Degenerate nature is highly vitiated in them who help the Devil at a dead lift doing that for him which he can't do for himself being Restrained from doing men that Evil he wills he incites a Civil War in their Species whereby to hurt one another not unlike that Proverb Homo homini Daemon the Exaction Infidelity and Corruption of some of them the ignorance and negligence of others towards their Clyents are manifest Characters of a Murdering quality and unworthy management of a Profession in it self sufficiently necessary and justifiable These doubtless if the life-blood were Money and they could come as easily to the Purse as now they do would make no scruple to cut the strings to gratifie their unsatiable desire when poor men are thus subjected and prostrate to the Revenge of their Blood-thirsty Creditors being cast into Prison and made Tributary to the Drones of the Earth Viz. their respective Keepers Waiters Turn-keys Porters cum multis aliis quos nunc prescribere lougum est their bones are there to be pick'd while fit for little else but to make Dice of a Phrase too frequently used and tantamount effected by some implacable Spirits upon their Debtors Now not to stray too remotely from the intended Subject if we consider the respective condition and capacity of Creditors with that of their Debtors their violent and rigorous Prosecution of them to Prison pursuing that also to the extremity of restraint envying their least Liberty affording more favour and benefit to their Dogs then to such men whose misfortune hath been to incurr their debt such procedure is altogether inconsistent with Reason and prejudicial to their own Interest The condition of the one is abounding the other necessitous and wanting thus it stands with the Major part of Creditors and Debtors the disproportion of their subsistance being sufficiently evident the one flourishing the other indigent the Creditor making use of his plenty to enfeeble and render his Debtor more insolvent this they do though perhaps will or may be ashamed to own it to that end What reason then hath Plenty to
prosecute Poverty when we consider that one and the same hand dispenseth both Prov. 22.3 as is attested by the Prayer of Agur. Some are inevitably made insolvent by Providence Proverbs 30.8 either by adjacent or remote means whose Calamity is aggravated to be then in Debt and this condition which requires the more compassion is made the opportunity of cruel Creditors to add to their misery without doubt such persons would be as ready to affront their Creator if within their reach upon many cross occurrences of their interest who so readily lay load upon his Creatures their brethren Prov. 14.31 for the Trifles of this world wherein at the same time themselves abound The reason of all Actions is manifest by their end by which it will appear that the murdering proceedings of Creditors against their Debtors are to gratify some domineering Lust or other to which all other Licentious desires of men are mostly subservient and tributary some are precipitated thereunto by Pride and insolence some by Passion and Revenge others by Pollicy who would shew themselves wiser than theirs fellowes aiming to be first served and most if not all of them are set on work by that General of the Infernal Field Covetousness men being thus acted by one Devil or another whose proper names are more obscure the Reason that guides them to such inhumane practises is not that which was first given but hath been since infected and is become Earthly sensual and Devillish They flatter themselves stifling the rebukes of Conscience and hardning their hearts with the pretence of Justice that a man may innocently seek his own by such ways and means as the Law provides him to remove which stone there was a Maxim long since provided viz. Omne nimium vertitur in vitium Justice may be exacted with intolerable circumstances which is so often forbidden in the Levitical Law under the denomination of Oppression 19. Levit. 18 33 34. ver and seemeth to be chiefly if not only meant that for which a man may have some pretence or colour of Justice to act against his Brother Whatsoever is rigorously required of disabled correspondence is of near kin to Oppression and greatly deviating from that Royal Law implanted in Nature and so frequently reinforced both in the Old and New Testament of loving our Neighbor as our self and doing as we would be done unto men that are willing to indulge themselves in the practise of cruelty have the impudence to assert that they do nothing but what they should willingly submit unto and justify in their Creditors willingly ravishing their own souls of all mercy sweetness and humanity that should adorn them and cheating themselves with a lye at the same time being in a condition greatly above the sufferer they choose to be ignorant that he that doth not espouse the condition of the passive can never charitably or justly measure out unto him Such indeed who have made their minds the mansion of all Bestial qualities may repute it seasonable to set upon a man already under affliction David complains of such in the 10.17 35. Psalms There needs no pains to describe the uncomeliness thereof the actions of Boys in the Street one towards another sufficiently explode it prohibiting in their Coversation the striking of one that is down It s impossible to derive suitable goodness without a compassionate soul There are another sort of men that have a little more tincture of Lenity but yet are perswaded to smother it under pretence that Charity should begin at home they have a Family to maintain and Children to raise Portions for therefore they are obliged to be severe with their Debtors This Cloak hath a plausible Aspect but upon examination 't will be found as deformed as the former for were such excuse to be admitted as reasonable it would be a bar to all manner of Charity amongst men that a man should suspend all acts of Goodness and Bounty to preseny and worthy objects thereof because his children may have need of the same ten or twenty years afterward is too great a sparke of Infidely a presumption upon providence and a Monopolizing of all benefits to his own Loyns destructive to humane Society inverting the design of the Creation which by mutual help was to abound in the common Good That grand root Covetousness before spoken off doth also produce this branch according to what is hinted in the Wisdom of Solomon that the wandring of Concupiscence Wisd 4.12 doth undermine the simple minde Having thus far endeavoured the discovery of the unresonableness of the cruel Creditors here is opportunity also to induce the demonstration that such his proceedings are against the reason of his own intrest to demonstrate which we are to consider the Debtor under a double qualification either honest or dishonest in both which denominations the violent dealing of the Creditor with his Debtor is against the requiring of his own interest which is to be satiâ—fied if his Debtor be honest greater security cannot be given him then such principles as will certainly perform when ever Ability concurs and to use force against such an one whose power is absent may irritate and incense the Divine anger that is jealous to revenge the cause of the innocent and may render him Culpable of that Judgement denounced in the Psalmes His mischief shall return upon his own head and his violent dealing shall come down upon his own pate Psal 7.16 If the Debtor be dishonest conceales his strength can but will not pay although it can hardly be presumed that men should choose a Prison and therewith a superfluous expence that doth accompany it which in some reasonable time and their liberty might be saved and conduce at least towards satisfaction of the Creditors yet admitting that such there be as many others that do things as inconsistant with reason however it is the Creditors interest to forbare the pursuit a Prison generally debaucheth mens parts and impoverisheth their Purse which needs must disappoint the hopes any man may have of payment from such a Condition A poor and unworthy revenge to be continued unbefitting any that are Prudent or Pious wherein their ends are frustrated in their life and in their death must be worse disturbed it being doubtless a great obstruction of Rest and Peace to be the irrevocable cause of anothers misery The Scripture adviseth not to let the Sun go down upon our wrath which implicitly forbids our dying in the paths of revenge of the least uncharitableness There are a third sort and they will plead necessity for their excuse their own wants are so pressing that they must needs be severe with their Debtors These of all others are least pardonable that will aggravate their own misery to make another like them and past hopes to help them whereas there is no necessity to evil Actions and all that deviate from charity are such Solomon gives you a character of them
do good and lend hoping for nothing again and your reward shall be great and ye shall be the Children of the Highest for he is kind unto the unthankful and to the evil Be ye therefore merciful as your Father also is merciful Forgive and ye shall be forgiven Give and it shall be given unto you Good measure pressed down and shaken together and running over shall men give into your bosom For with the same measure that ye meet withal it shaell be measured to you again The like in Matthew the 5.44 45 verses and to the end The more inconsistant this Doctrine seems to mens Temporal Intrest it is with the greater difficulty received but is comprehended under self-denial wherewith the Christian life so much abounds There is a remarkable Emphasis put upon that Creditor mentioned by Our Saviour Christ Luke 7.41 42. that had two Debtors and when they had no pay he frankly forgave both That in the l8th. Matthew verse 21. unto the end runs paralel in kind reproaching him that had received forgiveness and afterward used violence to his fellow Servant for a much more inconsiderable matter and what became of him is obvious Verse 34. And his Lord was wroth and delivered him to the Tormentors c. The use of instruction our Saviour makes of it is in Verse 35. So likewise shall my Heavenly Father do also unto you if ye from your hearts forgive not everyone his Brother their Trespasses These Scriptures do plainly press and enjoyn us to the exercise of forbearance compassion and forgiveness towards Debtors without respect of Persons honest or dishonest able or disable asking it or not asking it Much more doubtless do they operate to those that would be Just but are disabled and become Petitioners for it and whose condition indeed may scarcely merit the Inscription of a trespass upon it St. Paul is very positive and particular in his reproof of litigiousness 1 Cor. 6.7 Now therefore there is utterly a fault among you because ye go to Law one with another why do ye not rather take wrong why do you not rather suffer your selves to be defrauded as if he were equally sensible of the Havock they would make of their worldly Interest in their going to Law as the violation of Divine Precepts would in their eternal It is enough notorious that Clyents do meerly maintain and enrich their various Agents at Law besides the several officers appending the Courts of Judicature all which excise a cause equivalently to the matter in controversy called by them the merit of the Cause so that the Clyents like a criminal Souldier may only be said to be run the Gantelope amongst them I mean the dishonest and unfaithful practisers and agents in the Law Without excep ion the Laws given to the Hebrews were Free and full enough for the distribution and support of Property but the Labyrinth since erected by men upon them savours more of Arrogance as if God the fountain of Wisdom were deficient in his Laws Government or bridle upon the evil nature and needed mens supplements a tincture of the lapsed Angels that would pretend to mend the ways and Councel of God then any zeal goodness or Piety to the Creation Let us leave off therefore our Cruelty Oppression Violence Covetousness and Revenge one towards another and follow the advice given us by Holy men and Jesus Christ himself The Preacher in Ecclesiastes the 11.1 and 2. verses Cast thy bread upon the waters for thou shalt find it after many days Give a Portion to seven and also to eight for thou knowest not what evil shall be upon the Earth making that an argument for improving the present time to do good in and to distribute namely the revolution of time and providence that doth remove extreams to one and the same Subject making him poor and needy that was wealthy and did abound and so è contra the greater reason Galat. 6.10 we should do good with it whilst it may be called Ours Let us avoid also that character which is given them who shew no favour Proverbs 2.10 The soul of the wicked desireth evil his neighbour findeth no favour in his eyes And Proverbs 22.22 and 23 verses Rob not the poor because they are poor neither oppress the afflicted in the Gate for the Lord will plead their cause and spoile the soul of those that spoiled them It is a usual thing for many to fall upon a man already in Prison which I believe is reprehended in the foregoing Text Neither oppress the afflicted in the Gate that is such upon whom the Law hath already passed the seat of Judicature being often in Scripture represented under the denomination of the Gate Prov. 21.13 Whoso stopeth his Ears at the cry of the Poor he also shall cry himself but shall not be heard Prov. 19.17 He that hath pitty upon the Poor lendeth unto the Lord and look what he layeth out it shall be pay'd him again Let us also escape the Judgement that is denounced against the merciless James 2.13 For he shall have Judgement without mercy that hath shewed no mercy c. Now that I may not seem partial in my discourse only to demonstrate the Creditor his duty I shall indeavour also to leave the Debtor inexcusable and shew him his duty which is incumbent upon him by the Moral and Divine Laws as that upon the Creditor Let not the Debtor think ever a whit the better of himself by what is forespoken to the Creditor for he is no less guilty of the breach of divine Laws and contempt of the like admonitions if he fail in one title of Justice that is within his power or contrivance to performe Therefore the 8th Commandment saith Thou shalt not steal and thereunder Collects all the divers ways and modes of injustice whereby a man may prejudise or lessen the estate of his neighbor or therewith benefit himself This exceedingly digresseth from that Royal rule Matthew 7.12 Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you do ye even so to them for this is the Law and the Prophets The Debtor ought to deal with his Creditor as himself would be dealt with if he were a Creditor and men are to behave themselves towards others no otherwise then supposing themselves to be the subject of their own Actions It this Rule were observed there would be but little cruelty tearing or devouring one another and as little injustice to provoke it Solomon in Proverbs 3.27 28. giveth suitable Advice Withhold not good from them to whom it is due when it is in the power of thine hand to do it Say not unto thy neighbor go and come again and to morrow I will give when thou hast it by thee This councel complicates the mutual duty of Creditor and Debtor and if men did not idolize the things of this world they would never exchange their birth-right to virtue and eternal Happiness for the pottage of this life Let the Debtor therefore consider the hazard that he runs to deceive or injure his Creditor it is at the least a great Ecclipse if not total extinction of his Portion in everlasting Glory if not timely repented of and restitution made if within his power the divine Law being as a devouring fire that ceaseth not untill the sin be consumed The Story of Zacheus Luke 19.8 is very exemplary herein viz. Zacheus stood forth and said unto the Lord behold Lord the half of my goods I give to the Poor and if I have done any wrong to any man I restore fourfold St. Paul Corinth 1.6.8 and 9. verses is very express in his reproof herein urging the ill consequence thereof viz. Nay you do wrong and defraud and that your Brethren Know you not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the Kingdom of God c. It is an Argument of the greatest force to diswade men from doing injustice when the inheritance of the Kingdom of God is forfeited thereby although it should produce never so great gain here yet our Saviour saith Matthew 16.26 For what is a man profitted if he shall gain the whole World and lose his own Soul Farthermore it savoureth greatly of Ingratitude which is hardly pardonable with men for a man to requite any trust with infidelity it invades humane Society and is attended with numerous aggravations whereby to render it odious and abominable Finally I shall conclude with impartial Advice both to Creditor and Debtor Let not the first flatter themselves that all is well when they have used their will upon their Debtors according to the scope that humane Laws give them and have pay'd themselves perhaps with the ruin of their Debtors or without it is much alike in Scriptural consideration they have attained it uncharitably unmercifully and violently and are responsible for it unto God Almighty and may perad venture go wilfully ignorant to Hell with such a Crime unrepented of There is no Creditor but in his prosecution is hurried therein by some devillish lust or other as Covetousness Extortion Pride or Envy and such shall not inherit the Kingdom of God 1 Cor. 6.10 Neither let the Debtor think himself secure if he can do injustice or defraud his Creditor undiscovered or abuse his patience or forbearance exercised towards him in sense of his duty required by God for without Repentance and satisfaction he shall not escape the Judgment of God Let us all therefore consider our wayes in either of the said capacities as Creditor or Debtor or both that we are accomptable to the Laws of Heaven for our good or ill behaviour therein one towards another as most certainly comprehended in his Commandements And we shall incline our selves more to follow the Apostles advice to study and follow peace with all men and perswade thereunto so we shall be entituled to that blessedness pronounced by Christ Mat. 5.9 Blessed are the Peace-makers for they shall be called the Children of God Neither shall our livelyhoods be any longer a prey to those that have sold themselves to this World and live by mens litigious Contests FINIS