A Christian Directory

Tit. 3. Special Cases about Justice in Buying and Selling.

§. 1. Qu. 1. AM I bound to endeavor that he whom I deal with, may be a gainer by the bargain as well as I?

Answ. Yes, It you be equally in want; or in the like condition: But if he be very poor, and you be rich, Charity must be so mixed with Justice, that you must endeavor that it be more to his commodity than yours (if he be indeed one that you owe Charity to.) And if you be poor, and he be rich, you may be willing to be the only gainer yourself, so be it you covet not another's, nor desire that he be wronged: For when he hath power to deal charitably, you may be willing of his charity or kindness.

§. 2. Quest. 2. May I desire, or take more than my labor or goods are worth, if I can get it?

Answ. 1. Not by deceit, persuading another that they are worth more than they are. 2. Not by extortion working upon men's ignorance, error or necessity (of which more anon). 3. Not of any one that is poorer than yourself, or of any one that intendeth but an equal bargain. 4. But if you deal with the rich, who in generosity or liberality stick not at a small matter, and are willing another should be a gainer by them, and understand what they do, it is lawful to take as much as they will give you.

§. 3. Quest. 3. May I ask in the Market more than my goods are truly worth?

Answ. In the case last mentioned you may; when you are selling to the Rich who are willing to show their generosity, and to make you gainers: But then the honest way is to say, It is worth but so much; but if you will give so much more because I need it, I will take it thankfully. Some think also where the common custom is to ask more than the worth, and people will not buy unless you come down from your first demand, that then you may lawfully ask more, because else there is no trading with such people. My judgment in this case is this, 1. That ordinarily it is better to ask no more at all than a just gain: And that the inconveniences of doing otherwise are greater than any on the other side: For he that heareth you ask unjustly, may well think that you would take unjustly if you could get it, and consequently that you are unjust. 2. But this just gain lieth not always just in an indivisible quantity, or determinate price. A man that hath a family to maintain by his trade, may lawfully take a proportionable moderate gain: Though if he take less he may get something too: To be always just at a word, is not convenient: For he that may lawfully get two or three shillings or more in the pound of the rich, may see cause to let a poorer person have it for less: But never ask above what its reasonable to take. 3. And if you once peremptorily say, I will take no less, then it is not fit to go from your word. 4. And if you do meet with such fools or proud Gallants, who will not deal with you unless you ask dear, it is just that when they have given you more than it is worth, you tell them so, and offer them the overplus again. And for them that expect that you abate much of your asking, it is an inconvenience to be born, which will be ever to your advantage when you are once better known.

§. 4. Quest. 4. How shall the worth of a commodity be judged of?

Answ. 1. When the Law setteth a rate upon anything (as on bread and drink with us) it must be observed. 2. If you go to the Market, the Market-price is much to be observed. 3. If it be in an equal contract, with one that is not in want, you may estimate your goods as they cost you, or are worth to you, though it be above the common price; seeing the buyer is free to take or leave them. 4. But if that which you have to sell, be extraordinary desirable, or worth to someone person, more than to you or another man, you must not make too great an advantage of his convenience or desire; but be glad that you can pleasure him, upon equal, fair and honest terms. 5. If there be a secret worth in your commodity which the Market will take no notice of (as it is usual in a Horse), it is lawful for you to take according to that true worth, if you can get it. But it is a false Rule of them, that think their commodity is worth as much as any one will give.

§. 5. Quest. 5. Is it lawful to make a thing seem better than it is, by trimming, adorning or setting the best side outward or in sight; or to conceal the faults of what I am to sell.

Answ. It is lawful to dress, polish, adorn or set out your commodity, to make it seem as it is indeed, but not to make it seem better than it is; except in some very few unusual cases: As if you deal with some phantastical fool, who will not buy it, nor give you the true worth except it be so set out, and made in some respects to seem better than it is. It is lawful so far to serve their curiosity or humor, as to get the worth of your commodity. But if you do it to get more than the worth by deceiving, it is a sin. And such glossing hath so notable an appearance of deceit, that for that scandal it should be avoided.

2. And as for concealing the fault the case is the same: You ought not to deceive your neighbor, but to do as you would be done by: And therefore must not conceal any fault which he desireth, or is concerned to know: Except it be when you deal with one who maketh a far greater matter of that fault than there is cause, and would wrong you in the price if it were known: Yea, and that exception will not hold neither, except in a case when you must needs sell, and they must buy it: Because 1. You may not have another man's money against his will, though it be no more than the thing is worth. 2. Because it will be scandalous when the fault is known by him that buyeth it.

§. 6. Quest. 6. What if the fault was concealed from me when I bought it, or if I was deceived or over-reached by him that sold it me, and gave more than the worth, may I not repair my loss by doing as I was done by?

Answ. No: no more than you may cut another's purse, because yours was cut: You must do as you would be done by, and not as you are done by. What you may do with the same man that deceived you, is a harder question: But doubtless you may not wrong an honest man, because you were wronged by a knave.

§. 7. Object. But it is taken for granted in the Market, that every man will get as much as he can have, and that Caveat emptor is the only security; and therefore every man trusteth to his own wit, and not to the sellers honesty, and so resolveth to run the hazard.

Answ. It is not so among Christians, nor Infidels who profess either truth or common honesty. If you come among a company of Cut-purses, where the match is made, Look thou to thy purse and I will look to mine, and he that can get most let him take it? then indeed you have no reason to trust another: But there are no Tradesmen or Buyers who will profess that they look not to be trusted, or will say, I will lie and deceive you if I can. Among Thieves and Pirates such total distrust may be allowed: But among sober persons in Civil Societies and Converse, we must in reason and charity expect some truth and honesty, and not presume them to be all liars and deceivers, that we may seem to have allowance to be such ourselves. Indeed we trust them, not absolutely as Saints, but with a mixture of distrust, as fallible and faulty men: And so as to trust our own circumspection above their words when we know not the persons to be very just. But we have no cause to make a Market a place of mere deceit, where everyone saith, Trust not me, and I will not trust thee; but let us all take one another for cheaters and liars, and get what we can? Such censures favor not of Charity, or of Just intentions.

§. 8. Quest. 7. What if I foresee a plenty and cheapness in a time of dearth, which the buyer foreseeth not, (as if I know that there are Ships coming in with store of that commodity, which will make it cheap) am I bound to tell the buyer of it, and hinder my own gain?

Answ. There may be some instances in trading with enemies, or with Rich men, that regard not such matters, or with men that are supposed to know it as well as you, in which you are not bound to tell them. But in your ordinary equal trading, when you have reason to think that the buyer knoweth it not, and would not give so dear if he knew it, you are bound to tell him: Because you must love your neighbor as yourself, and do as you would be done by, and not take advantage of his ignorance.

§. 9. Quest. 8. If I foresee a dearth, may I not keep my commodity till then?

Answ. Yes; unless it be to the hurt of the Common-wealth, as if your keeping it in, be the cause of the dearth; and your bringing it forth would help to prevent it.

§. 10. Quest. 9. May one use many words in buying and selling?

Answ. You must use no more than are true, and just, and useful: but there are more words needful with some persons who are talkative and unsatisfied, than with others.

§. 11. Quest. 10. May I buy as cheap as I can get it, or give less than the thing is worth?

Answ. If it be worth more to you than the Market price (through your necessity) you are not bound to give above the market price: If it be worth less to you than the market price, you are not bound to give more than it is worth to you, as suited to your use: But you must not desire nor seek to get another's goods or labor for less than it is worth in both these respects (in common estimate, and to you).

§. 12. Quest. 11. May I take advantage of another's Necessity to buy for less than the worth, or sell for more: As e. g. a poor man must needs have money suddenly for his goods though he sell them but for half the worth: and I have no need of them: Am I bound to give him the worth when I have no need? and when it is a great kindness to him to give him anything in that straight? So also when I have no desire to sell my Horse, and another's necessity maketh him willing to give more than he is worth, may I not take it?

Answ. To the first case: You must distinguish between an act of Justice and of Charity: and between your need of the thing, and the worth of it to you. Though you have no need of the poor man's goods, yet if you buy them, both Justice and Charity require that you give him as much as they are worth to you, though not so much as they are worth in the market: yea, and that you buy them of him in his necessity: For if you give him but what they are worth to you, you are no loser by it: And you should do another good, when it is not to your own hurt or loss. By (what they are worth to you) I mean, so much as that you • e no loser. As if it be meat or drink, though you have no present need, perhaps you will shortly have need, and if you buy not that, you must buy as much of somewhat else. In strict Justice you may be a saver, but not a gainer, by buying of the poor in their necessity. 2. But if you buy a durable commodity, for less than it is worth, you should take it but as a pledge, and allow the seller liberty to redeem it, if he can, that he may get more after of another. 3. And to the poor in such necessity, Charity must be exercised as well as Justice. Therefore if you are able to lend them money to save them the loss of underselling, you should do it: (I account that man only able who hath money which no greater service of God requireth). And if you are not able yourself, you should endeavor to get some others to relieve him, if you can without a greater inconvenience.

And for the second case, it is answered before: You may not take more than it is worth, ever the more for another's necessity; nor in any other case than you might have done it in, if there had been no such necessity of his.

§. 13. Quest. 12. May I not make advantage of another's ignorance or error in bargaining?

Answ. Not to get more than your commodity is worth, nor to get his goods for less than the worth: no nor to get the true worth against his will, or with scandal: But if it be only to get a true worth of your commodity when he is willing, but would be offended if his ignorance in some point were cured, you may so far make use of his ignorance to a lawful end, as is said before in the case of concealing faults.

§. 14. Quest. 13. May I strive to get before another, to get a good bargain which he desireth?

Answ. Yes, if you do it not out of a greedy mind, nor to the injury of one that is poorer than yourself: You should rather further the supply of your neighbors greater needs: Otherwise speed and industry in your Calling is no fault, nor yet the crossing of a covetous man's desires: You are not bound to let every man have what he would have?

§. 15. Quest. 14. May I buy a thing out of another's hand, or hire a servant, which another is about, or is treating with? Or may I call a Chapman from another to buy of me?

Answ. There are some cases in which you may not do it, and some in which you may. You may not do it out of greedy covetousness; nor to the injury of the poor: nor when the other hath gone so far in the bargain that it cannot be honestly broken: For then you injure the third person, and tempt the other to a sin: nor may you do it so as to disturb that due and Civil order, which should be among moderate men in trading. And it is a great matter how the thing is accounted of by the custom of the Country or Market where you bargain: For where it is of ill report, and accounted as unjust, the scandal should make you avoid such a course. But yet in some cases it is lawful, and in some a needful duty. It is lawful when none of the foresaid reasons (or any such other) are against it: It is a duty when Charity to the poor or oppressed doth require it. As e. g. a poor man must needs sell his Land, his Horse, his Corn or Goods: A Covetous oppressor offereth him less than it is worth. The poor man must take his offer if he can get no more: The oppressor saith that it is injustice for any one to take his bargain out of his hand, or offer money till he have done: In this case it may be a duty, to offer the poor man the worth of his commodity, and save him from the oppressor. A covetous man offereth a Servant or Labourer less than their service or labor is worth; and will accuse you, if you interrupt his bargain and would offer his Servant more: In this case it may be your duty to help the servant to a better Master. A Chapman is ready to be cheated by an unconscionable Tradesman, to give much more for a commodity than its worth: Charity may oblige you in such a case to offer it him cheaper. In a word, if you do it for your own gain, in a greedy manner, it is a sin: But if you do it when it is not scandalous or injurious, or do it in charity for another's good, it is lawful, and sometime a duty.

§. 16. Quest. 15. May I dispraise another's commodity, to draw the buyer to my own?

Answ. This case is sufficiently answered in the former: 1. You may not use any false dispraise: 2. Nor a true one out of Covetousness, nor in a scandalous manner. 3. But you may help to save another from a Cheater, by opening the deceit in charity to him.

§. 17. Quest. 16. What should I do in doubtful cases, where I am uncertain whether the thing be just or not?

Answ. Causeless perplexing melancholy scruples, which would stop a man in the course of his duty, are not to be indulged: But in rational doubts, first use your utmost diligence, (as much as the nature of the cause requireth) to be resolved: and if yet you doubt, be sure to go the safer way, and to avoid sin rather than loss; and to keep your consciences in peace.

§. 18. Quest. 17. If the buyer lose the commodity between the bargain and the payment (as if he buy your Horse, and he die before payment or presently after) what should the seller do to his relief?

Answ. If it were by the sellers fault, or by any fault in the Horse which he concealed, he isto make the buyer full satisfaction. If it were casually only, rigorous Justice will allow him nothing: And therefore if it be either to a man that is Rich enough to bear it without any great sense of the loss, or in a case where in common custom the buyer always standeth to the loss, mere justice will make him no amends. But if it be where custom maketh some abatement judged a duty, or where the person is so poor as to be pinched by the loss, that common humanity, which all good men use in bargaining, which tempereth Justice with Charity, will teach men to bear their part of the loss; because they must do as they would be done by.

§. 19. Quest. 18. If the thing bought and sold prove afterward of much more worth than was by either party understood (as in buying of Amber-chryse, and Jewels, it oft falleth out) is the buyer bound to give the seller more than was bargained for?

Answ. Yes, if it was the sellers mere ignorance and insufficiency in that business, which caused him so to undersell it: (As if an ignorant Country-man sell a Jewel or Amber-chryse, who knoweth not what it is, a moderate satisfaction should be made him). But if it was the sellers trade, in which he is to be supposed sufficient, and if it be taken for granted before hand, that both buyer and seller will stand to the bargain what ever it prove, and that the seller would have abated nothing if it had proved less worth than the price, then the buyer may enjoy his gain: Much more if he run any notable hazard for it, as Merchants use to do.

§. 20. Quest. 19. What if the title of the thing sold prove bad, which was before unknown?

Answ. If the seller either knew it was bad, or through his notable negligence was ignorant of it, or did not fully acquaint the buyer with so much of the uncertainty and danger as he knew; or if it was any way his fault that the buyer was deceived, and not the buyers fault, he is bound to make him proportionable satisfaction. As also in case that by Law or bargain he be bound to warrant the title to the buyer. But not in case that it be their explicit or implicit agreement that the buyer stand to the hazard, and the seller hath done his duty to make him know whats doubtful.

§. 21. Quest. 20. What if a change of Powers or Laws do overthrow the title, almost as soon as it is sold (as it oft falls out about Offices and Lands;) who must bear the loss?

Answ. The case is near the same with that in Quest. 17. It is supposed that the seller should have lost it himself if he had kept it but a little longer; And that neither of them foresaw the change: And therefore that the seller hath all his money, rather for his good hap, than for his Lands or Office, (which the buyer hath not.) Therefore except it be to a rich man that feeleth not the loss, or one that expressly undertook to stand to all hazards, foreseeing a possibility of them; Charity and humanity, will teach the seller to divide the loss.

§. 22. The same is the case of London now consumed by fire: where thousands of suits are like to rise between the Landlords and the Tenants. Where the providence of God (permitting the burning zeal of some Papists,) hath deprived men of the houses which they had hired or taken leases of, humanity and charity requireth the Rich to bear most of the loss, and not to exact their Rents, or Re-building from the poor, what ever the Law saith, which could not be supposed to foresee such accidents. Love your neighbors as yourselves: Do as you would be done by; and Oppress not your poor brethren; and then by these three Rules you will yourselves decide a multitude of such doubts and difficulties, which the uncharitable only cannot understand.

Tit. 4. Cases of Conscience about Lending and Borrowing.

§. 1. Quest. 1. MAy a poor man borrow money, who knoweth that he is unable▪ to repay it, and hath no rational proof that he is very likely to be able hereafter?

Answ. No: unless it be when he telleth the lender truly of his case, and he is willing to run the hazard: Else it is mere thievery covered with the cheat of borrowing: For the borrower desireth that of another, which he would not lend him, if he expected it not again: And to take a man's money or goods against his will, is robbery.

Object. But I am in great necessity.

Answ. Begging in necessity is lawful: but stealing or cheating is not, though you call it borrowing.

Object. But it is a shame to beg.

Answ. The sin of thievish borrowing is worse than shame.

Object. But none will give me, if I beg.

Answ. If they will give but to save your life at the present, you must take it, though they give you not what you would have: The poorest beggars life is better than the thiefs.

Object. But I hope God may enable me to pay hereafter.

Answ. If you have no rational way to manifest the soundness of that hope to another, it is but to pretend faith and hope for thievery and deceit.

Object. God hath promised, that those that fear him shall want no good thing? and therefore I hope I may be able to repay it.

Answ. If you want not, Why do you borrow? If you have enough to keep you alive by begging, God maketh good all his promises to you: Yea, or if you die by famine. For he only promiseth you that which is best; which for ought you know may be beggary or death. God breaketh not promise with his servants who die in common famine, no more than with them that die in Plagues or Wars. Make not God the Patron of sin. Yea, and your faith a pretence for your distrust. If you trust God, use no sinful means: If you trust him not, this pleading of his promise is hypocrisy.

§. 2. Quest. 2. May a Tradesman drive a Trade with borrowed money, when his success and so his repayment is utterly an uncertain thing?

Answ. There are some Trades where the gain is so exceeding probable, next to certain, as may warrant the borrowing of money to manage them, when there is no rational probability of failing in the payment. And there are some Tradesmen, who have estates of their own, sufficient to repay all the money which they borrow. But otherwise when the money is rationally hazardous, the borrower is bound in conscience to acquaint the lender fully with the hazard, that he may not have it against his will. Otherwise he liveth in constant deceit or thievery! And if he do happen to repay it, it excuseth not his sin.

§. 3. Quest. 3. If a borrower be utterly unable to pay, and so break while he hath something, may be not retain somewhat for his food or raiment.

Answ. No: unless it be in order to set up again in hope to repay his debts: For all that he hath being other men's, he may not take so much as bread to his mouth, out of that which is theirs, without their consent.

§. 4. Quest. 4 But if a man have bound himself to his Wives friends upon marriage to settle so much upon her or her children, and this obligation was antecedent to his debts, may he not secure that to his Wife and Children, without any injury to his Creditors?

Answ. The Law of the Land must much decide this controversy: If the propriety be actually before transferred to Wife or Children, it is theirs, and cannot be taken from them: But if it were done after by a deed of gift to defraud the Creditors, than that deed of gift is invalid, till debts be paid. If it be but an Obligation and no collation of propriety, the Law must determine who is to be first paid: and whether the Wife be supposed to run the hazard of gaining or losing with the Husband: And though the Laws of several Countries herein differ, and some give the Wife more propriety than others do, yet must they in each place be conscientiously observed, as being the Rule of such propriety. But we must see that there be no fraudulent intent in the transaction.

§. 5. Quest. 5. May not a broken Tradesman retain somewhat to set up again, if his creditors be willing to compound for a certain part of the debt?

Answ. If he truly acquaint them with his whole estate, and they voluntarily allow him part to himself, either in charity, or in hope hereafter to be satisfied, this is no unlawful course: But if he hide part from them, and make them believe that the rest is all, this is but a thievish procurement of their composition or consent.

§. 6. Quest. 6. May a borrower lawfully break his day, of promised payment, in case of necessity?

Answ. True necessity hath no Law: that is, a man is not bound to do things naturally impossible: But if he might have foreseen that necessity, or the doubtfulness of his payment at the day, it was his sin to promise it, unless he put in some limitation [If I be able,] and acquainted the lender with the uncertainty. However it be, when the time is come, he ought to go to his Creditor, and tell him of his necessity, and desire further time, and endeavor to pay it as soon as he is able: and if he be not able, to make him what satisfaction he can, by his labor, or any other lawful way.

§. 7. Quest. 7. May I borrow of one to pay another, to keep my day with the first?

Answ. Yes, if you deal not fraudulently with the second, but are able to pay him, or acquaint him truly with your case.

§. 8. Quest. 8. Suppose that I have no probability of paying the last creditor, may I borrow of one to pay another, and so live upon borrowing; or must I rather continue in one man's debt?

Answ. If you truly acquaint your Creditors with your state, you may do as is most to your convenience. If the first Creditor be able and willing rather to trust you longer, than that you should borrow of another to pay him, you may continue his debtor, till you can pay him without borrowing: But if he be either poor or unwilling to bear with you, and another that is able be willing to venture, you may better borrow of another to pay him. But if they be all equally unwilling to stand to any hazard by you, then you must rather continue in the first man's debt, because if you wrong another you will commit another sin: Nay, you cannot borrow in such a case, because it is supposed that the other will not lend, when he knoweth your case. And you must not at all conceal it from him.

Object. But it may be my ruin to open my full state to another.

Answ. You must not live upon cheating and thievery to prevent your ruin? And what can it be less to get another man's money against his will. And it is against his will, if you hide your case, which if he knew he would not lend it to you.

Object. But what if I tell him plainly, that I will pay him certainly by borrowing of another, though I cannot pay him of mine own, and though I be not like to pay the last.

Answ. If you truly thus open your case to everyone that you borrow of, you may take it, if they will lend it: For then you have their consent: And it is supposed, that everyone is willing to run the hazard of being the last Creditor.

§. 9 Quest. 9. May I lend upon Pledges, Pawns or Morgages for my security?

Answ. Yes, so you take not that from a poor man for a pledge, which is necessary to his livelihood and maintenance: As the bed which he should lie on, the clothes which he should wear, or the tools which he should work with; and be not cruel on pretence of mercy.

§. 10. Quest. 10. May I take the forfeiture and keep a pledge or Morgage upon Covenants?

Answ. If it be among Merchants and rich men, an act of Merchandize, and not of mere security for money lent, then it is another case: As if they make a bargain thus, [Take this Jewel or this Land for your money; and it shall be yours if I pay you not by such a day: I am willing to stand to the hazard of uncertainty: If I pay you not, suppose it is for my own commodity, and not through disability]: In this case it is lawful to take the forfeiture, or detain the thing. But if it be properly but a pledge to secure the money, then the final intent is but that your money may be repaid: And you may not take the advantage of breaking a day, to take that from another which is none of your own. Justice will allow you only to take so much as your money came to, and to give the overplus (if there be any) to the debtor. And mercy will require you rather to forgive the debt, than to keep a pledge which he cannot spare, but to his ruin and misery (as his food, his raiment, his tools, his house, &c. ) Unless you be in as great necessity as he.

§. 11. Quest. 11. May I take the Bond or promise of a third person as security for my money?

Answ. Yes: in case that other be able and willing to be responsible: For you have his own consent: But great caution should be used; that you take no man that is insufficient, from whom mercy forbiddeth you to take it in case the principal debtor fail; unless you take his suretyship but in terrorem, resolving not to take it of him: And also that you faithfully tell the sureties that you must require it of them in case of non-payment, and therefore try whether indeed they are truly willing to pay it: For if they be such as truly presume that you will not take it of them, or will take it ill to be sued for it, you should not take their suretyship, unless you purpose not to seek it (except in necessity).

§. 12. Quest. 12. Is it lawful to lend upon usury, interest or increase?

Answ. This Controversy hath so many full Treatises written on it, that I cannot expect that so few words as I must lay out upon it, should satisfy the studious Reader. All the disputes about the name of Usury I pass by: It being [ The receiving of any additional gain as due for money lent ] which is commonly meant by the word, and which we mean in the question. For the questions, Whether we may bargain for it, or tie the debtor to pay it? Whether we may take it only after his gain as partaking in it; or before? Whether we must partake also in the loss if the debtor be a loser? With other such like, are but subsequent to the main question, Whether any gain (called Use ) may be taken by the lender as his due for the money lent? My judgment is as followeth.

1. There is some such gain or Usury lawful and commendable. 2. There is some such gain or usury unlawful and a heinous sin. I shall first give my reasons of the first proposition.

§. 13. I. If all Usury be forbidden it is either by the Law of Nature, or by some positive Law of supernatural revelation: If the latter, it is either by some Law of Moses, or by some Law of Christ: If the former, it is either as against the Rule of piety to God, or against Justice or Charity to men: That which is neither a violation of the Natural Laws of Piety, Justice or Charity; nor against the supernaturally revealed Laws of Moses or of Christ, is not unlawful. But there is some Usury which is against none of all these: Ergo there is some Usury which is not unlawful.

§. 14. I will first lay you down the instances of such Usury; and then prove it. There is a parcel of Land to be sold for a thousand pound, which is worth forty pound per annum, and hath Wood on it worth a thousand pound: (Some such things we have known): John N. is willing to purchase it: But he hath a poor neighbor, T. S. that hath no money, but a great desire of the bargain. I. N. loving his neighbor as himself, and desiring his wealth, lendeth him the thousand pound upon Usury for one year. T. S. buyeth the Land, and selleth the Wood for the same money, and repayeth it in a year, and so hath all the Land for almost nothing, as if I. N. had purchased the Land and freely given it him, after a year or two; The gift had been the same.

Object. Here you suppose the seller wronged by selling his Land almost for nothing.

Answ. 1. That's nothing at all to the present case, but a different case by itself: 2. I can put many cases in which such a sale may be made without any wrong to the seller: As when it is done by some Prince, or State, or Noble and liberal person, purposely designing the enriching of the subjects: or after a War, as lately in Ireland. So that the question is, whether I. N. may not give T. S. a thousand or eight hundred pounds worth of Land, taking a years Rent first out of the Land, or a years use for the money, which cometh to the same sum.

§. 15. Another: A Rich Merchant trading into the East Indies, having five thousand pound to lay out upon his commodities in Traffick, when he hath laid out four thousand five hundred pound, lendeth in charity the other five hundred pound to one of his servants to lay out upon a commodity, which when it cometh home will be worth two thousand pound, and offereth him to secure the carriage with his own; requiring only the Use of his money at 6. per cent. Here the taking of thirty pound Use, is but the free giving him one thousand four hundred and seventy pound, and is all one with deducting so much of the gift.

§. 16. Another Instance: Certain Orphans having nothing left them but so much money as will by the allowed Use of it, find them bread and poor clothing: The guardian cannot lay it out in Lands for them: And if he maintain them upon the stock, it will be quickly spent, and he must answer for it: A rich man that is their neighbor tradeth in Iron-works, (Furnaces and Forges) or Lead-works or other such commodities, in which he constantly getteth the double of the stock which he employeth, or at least twenty pound or forty pound in the hundred: The Guardian dare not lend the money to any poor man, lest he break and never be able to pay it: Therefore he lendeth it this rich man. And if he have it without Usury, the poor Orphans give the rich man freely twenty pound or forty pound a year supposing their stock to be an hundred: If he take Usury, the rich man doth but give the poor Orphans, some part of his constant gain.

§. 17. Another instance: In a City or Corporation where there is a rich Trade of Clothing or making Silks, there is a stock of money given by Legacy for the poor, and entrusted into the hands of the richest of the City, to trade with and give the poor the Use of it: And there is another stock left to set up young beginners, who have not a stock to set up themselves: on condition that they give the third part of their gain to the poor, and at seven years end resign the stock: The question is, Whether the poor should be without this Use of their money, and let the rich go away with it? or whether they may take it?

§. 18. Now I prove that such Usury is not forbidden by God. 1. It is not forbidden us by the Law of Moses: 1. Because Moses Law never did forbid it: For, 1. It is expressly forbidden as an act of unmercifulness; and therefore forbidden only to the poor and to brethren, Exod. 22. 25. Levite. 25. 36, 37. Yea, when the poor are not named, it is the poor that are meant: Because in that Country they did not keep up stocks for Merchandize or Trading, but lent usually to the needy only: At least the circumstances of the several Texts show, that it is only Lending to the needy, and not lending to drive on any enriching Trade, which is meant where Usury is forbidden. 2. And it is expressly allowed to be used to strangers, Deut. 23. 19, 20. to whom nothing unjust or uncharitable might be done; only such a measure of Charity was not required towards them, as unto brethren. And there were more Merchants of strangers that traded with them in foreign commodities, than of Jews that fetched them home: So that the prohibition of Usury is in the Law itself restrained only to their lending to the poor: But in the Prophets who do but reprove the sin, it is expressed without that limitation, partly because it supposeth the meaning of the Law to be known, which the Prophets did but apply: and partly because there was little or no lending used among the Jews, but to the needy as an act of charity.

§. 19. 2. And if it had been forbidden in Moses Law only, it would not extend to Christians now: Because the Law of Moses as such, is not in force: The matter of it is much of the Law of Nature indeed; but as Mosaical, it was proper to the Jews and Proselytes: or at least extended not to the Christian Gentiles: as is plain in 2 Cor. 3. 7. Gal. 3. 19, 24. & 5. 3. Eph. 2. 15. 1 Tim. 1. 7. Heb. 7. 12, 16, 19. Moses Law as such never bound any other Nations, but the proselytes that joined themselves to the Jews (nor was all the world obliged so to be proselyted as to take up their Laws): Much less do they bind us that are the servants of Christ, so long after the dissolution of their Common-wealth. So much of them as are part of the Law of Nature, or of any positive Law of Christ, or of the Civil Law of any State, are binding as they are such Natural, Christian or Civil Laws. But not one of them as Mosaical: Though the Mosaical Law is of great use to help us to understand the Law of Nature in many particular instances, in which it is somewhat difficult to us.

§. 20. 2. There is no Positive Law of Christ forbidding all Usury: As for Luke 6. 32, 35. it is plainly nothing to the case: For he saith not, [ Lend, looking for no gain or increase, ] but [ looking for nothing again. ] And the Context showeth that the meaning must be one of these two: Either q. d. [Lend not only to them that will lend to you again when you are in want; but even to the poor, that you can never hope to borrow of:] Or else [Lend not only to them that are able to pay you, and where your stock is secured, but to the needy where your money is hazarded; and though they will pay you if • hey are able, yet you have little or no hope that ever they should be able to repay: L • nd so, as to be willing to make a gift of it in case the borrower never repay it.] And there is no other Text that can be pretended against it, in the New Testament.

§. 21. 3. And that the Law of Nature doth not forbid all Usury, will appear by examining the several parts of it. The Law of Nature forbiddeth but three sorts of sins; 1. Those that are against Piety to God: 2. Those that are against our own welfare. 3. Those that are against our Neighbors good: And that is, 1. Against Justice: 2. Against Charity. There is none that falleth not under • ome of these heads.

1. And that Usury is not naturally evil as against Piety to God, 2. Or as against our selves, and our own welfare, I need not prove, because no reason nor reasonable person doth lay any such accusation against it. Though they that think it absolutely unlawful, say that it is consequently against God, as every violation of his Law is. But thats nothing to the case.

3. Therefore there is no doubt but the whole controversy is resolved into this last question, Whether all Usury be against Justice or Charity to our neighbor. Justice obligeth me to give him his own: Charity obligeth me to give him more than his own, in certain cases; as one that love him as myself. That which is not against Justice, may be against Charity: But that which is against Charity, is not always against Justice strictly taken. And that which is an act of true Charity, is never against Justice: Because he that giveth his neighbor more than his own, doth give him his own and more. There is a Usury which is against Justice and Charity. There is a Usury which is against Charity, but not against mere Justice: And there is an Usury which is against neither Justice nor Charity. If I prove it Charitable, it is superfluous to say more.

§. 22. All the instances before given are notoriously charitable. That which is for the preservation of the lives and comforts of the poor, and of Orphans, or for the enriching of my neighbor is an act of Charity: But such is some U • ury, past all doubt; as is before declared. Where the contrary is an act of cruelty, the Usury is not against Charity, but for it. For the Rich to deny to the poor and Orphans a part of that gain, which they make by the improvement of their own money, is oppression and cruelty: If it be cruel to let a Beggar die or starve, when we should feed and clothe him of our own; much more to let the poor and Orphans starve and perish rather than give them the increase of their own, or part of it at least. As for them that say, It may be as well improved otherwise, they are inexperienced men: It is a known falsehood as to the most: though some few may meet with such opportunities. At least it is nothing to them that cannot have other ways of improving it: who are very many.

§. 23. Moreover, when it is not an act of Charity, yet it may be not against Charity in these cases: 1. When the lender is poor and the borrower rich: Yea, it may be a sin to lend it freely: Prov. 22. 16. He that oppresseth the poor to increase his riches, and he that giveth to the rich, shall surely come to want: It is a giving to the rich to lend freely that money which they improve to the increase of their riches. 2. When the lender is not obliged to that act of Charity, though the borrower be poorer than himself. Which falleth out in an hundred cases: which may be comprised under this one general; When the lender is obliged to expend that same money in some other greater, better work: As at the same time while a man that is worth but twenty pound a year, is in debt to a man that hath a thousand pound a year, there may be a hundred or thousand poor people worth nothing ready to perish, whom the rich is rather bound to succor, than him that hath but twenty pound a year. And there may be works of piety (as to set up a School, or promote the preaching of the Gospel) which may be as great as either. And the richest that is, cannot do all the good that is to be done, nor relieve all the persons that are in want: Therefore when he must leave much undone, if he would give all his substance, it is ( caeteris paribus ) a sin, to give that to a man that can make shift without it, and pass by an hundred in much deeper necessity and distress: So that he who either exerciseth Charity in his Usury, or doth nothing against Charity and Justice, certainly sinneth not by that Usury. For all the Scriptures which speak against Usury, speak against it as a cruel or uncharitable thing.

§. 24. Object. But it is sometimes necessary for a Law to forbid that which otherwise would be good, when it cannot be done, without encouraging others to a greater evil; such as ordinary Usury is: And then that Law must be observed.

Answ. This is true in thesi, that such cases there are: But it is unproved and untrue in this case: For, 1. There is no such Law: 2. There is no such reason or necessity of such a Law. For God can as well make Laws against unrighteous or uncharitable increase or Usury, without forbidding that which is charitable and just, as he can make Laws against unrighteous or uncharitable buying and selling without condemning that which is good and just: Or as he can forbid gluttony, drukenness, idleness, pride, without forbidding eating, drinking, apparel or riches. He can easily tell men of whom and in what case to take Use, and when not.

He that would see all other Objections answered, and the case fully handled, hath many Treatises on both sides extant to inform him.

§. 25. II. That there is a sort of Usury which is evil I know of no man that doubteth, and therefore need not stand to prove.

Quest. When is Usury sinful?

Answ. As is before said, When its against either Justice or Charity: 1. When its like cheating bargaining, which under pretence of consent and a form of Justice doth deceive, or oppress, and get from another that which is not truly ours but his. 2. When you lend for increase • here charity obligeth you to lend freely: Even as it is a sin to lend expecting your own again, when Charity obligeth you to give it. 3. When you uncharitably exact that which your brother is disabled utterly to pay, and use cruelty to procure it, (be it the Use or the principal). 4. When you allow him not such a proportion of the gain as his labor, hazard or poverty doth require; but because the money is yours, will live at ease upon his labors. 5. When in case of his losses you rigorously exact your due, without that abatement, or forgiving debts (whether Use or principal, ) which humanity and charity require. In a word, when you are selfish and do not as, according to true judgment, you may desire to be done by, if you were in his case.

§. 26. Quest. But when am I bound to exercise this charity, in not-taking use?

Answ. As I said before, 1. When ever you have no more urgent, and necessary, and excellent work, to lay out that money on, which you are so to receive. 2. Yea, though another work may be in itself better, (as to relieve many poorer better men with that money) yet when you cannot take it, without the utter undoing of the debtor, and bringing him into as bad a case, as any single person whom you would relieve, it is the safer side to leave the other unrelieved, (unless it be a person on whom the public good much dependeth) rather than to extort your own from such a one to give another. Because that which you cannot get, without a scandalous appearance of cruelty, is quoad jus in re not yours to give, till you can better get possession of it: And therefore God will not expect that you should give it to another.

§. 27. In all this I imply that as you must prefer the lives of others in giving Alms, before your own conveniencies and comforts, and must not say, I cannot spare it, when your necessity may spare it, though not your pleasure: So also in taking Use, of those that you are bound to show charity to, the same rule and proportions must be observed in your charity.

§. 28. Note also, that in all this it appeareth, that the case is but gradually different, between taking the Use and taking the principal. For when the reason for remitting is the same, you are as well bound to remit the principal as the Use.

§. 29. But this difference there is, that many a man of low estate may afford to lend freely to a poorer man for a little time, who cannot afford to give it. And prudence may direct us to choose one man to lend freely to for a time, because of his sudden necessity, when yet another is fitter to give it to.

§. 30. Quest. 13. Is lending a duty? If so, must I lend to all that ask me? or to whom?

Answ. Lending is a duty, when we have it, and our brothers necessity requireth it, and true prudence telleth us, that we have no better way to lay it out, which is inconsistent with that. And therefore rich men ordinarily should both lend and give as prudence shall direct. But there is an imprudent and so a sinful lending: As, 1. When you will lend that which is another's, and you have no power to lend. 2. When you lend that which you must needs require again, while you might easily foresee that the borrower is not like to pay. Lend nothing but what you have either great probability will be repaid, or else which you are willing to give in case the debtor cannot or will not pay; or at least when suing for it, will not have scandalous and worse effects than not lending. For it is very ordinary when you come to demand it and sue for it, to stir up the hatred of the debtor against you, and to make him your enemy, and to break his charity by your imprudent charity: In such a case, if you are obliged to relieve him, give him so much as you can spare, rather than lend him that which you cannot spare, but must sue for. In such cases, if Charity go not without Prudence, nor prudence without charity, you may well enough see when to lend, and how much.

§. 31. Quest. 14. Is it lawful to take upon Usury in necessity, when the Creditor doth unjustly or unmercifully require it?

Answ. Not, in case that the consequents (by encouraging sin or otherwise) be like to do more hurt, than the money will do you good. Else, it is lawful, when it is for your benefit: As it is lawful to take part of your wages for your work, or part of the worth of your commodity, when you cannot have the whole: And as it is lawful to purchase your rights of an enemy, or your life of a Thief as is aforesaid. A man may buy his own benefit of an unrighteous man.

§. 32. Quest. 15. Doth not contracting for a certain sum of gain, make Usury to be in that case unlawful, which might lawfully be taken of one thats free.

Answ. Yes, in case that contracting determine an uncertain case without sufficient cause: As if you agree, that whether the borrower gain or lose, and be poor or rich, I will have so much gain: that is, Whether it prove merciful or unmerciful, I will have it. But then in that case, if it so prove unmerciful, it may not be taken without contracting, if freely offered. No contract may tie the debtor to that which is against Justice or Charity: And no contract may absolutely require that which may prove uncharitable, unless there be a tacit condition, or exception of such a case implied. Otherwise I see no Scripture or reason, why a contract altereth the case, and may not be used to secure that increase which is neither unrighteous nor unmerciful: It may be the bond of equity, but not of iniquity. As in case of a certain gain by the borrower, a certain use may be contracted for: And in case of an uncertain gain to the borrower, a conditional contract may be made. Yea, in case of Merchandize, where men's poverty forbiddeth not such bargains, I see not but it is lawful to sell a greater uncertain gain, for a smaller certain gain; and so to make the contracts absolute: (As Ames • as. Consc. on this question showeth.) As all oppression and unmercifulness must be avoided, and all men must do as they would (judiciously) be done by; So it is a bad thing to corrupt Religion, and fill the world with causeless scruples, by making that a sin which is no sin. Divines that live in great Cities and among Merchandize, are usually fitter Judges in this case, than those that live more ob • curely (without experience) in the Country.

Tit. 5. Cases of Conscience about Lusory Contracts.

§. 1. Quest. 1. IS it lawful to lay Wagers upon the credit or confidence of one another's opinions or assertions in discourse? As e. g. I will lay you so much that I am in the right?

Answ. Yes, if these three things concur: 1. That the true end of the Wager is to be a penalty to him that shall be guilty of a rash and false assertion, and not to gratify the Covetousness of the other. 2. That it be no greater a sum than can be demanded and paid, without breach of Charity, or too much hurt to the looser (as above the proportion of his error): 3. That it be no other but what both parties are truly willing to stand to the loss of, if either of them lose: And that before hand they truly seem so willing to each other.

§. 2. Quest. 2. Is it lawful to lay Wagers upon Horse-races, Dogs, Hawks, Bear-baitings, or such Games as depend on the activity of Beast or Man?

Answ. Yes, upon the two last expressed conditions; and 3. That it be not an exercise which is itself unlawful, by cruelty to Beasts, or hazard to the lives of men (as in Fencing, Running, Wrestling, &c. it may fall out if it be not cautelously done:) or by the expense of an undue proportion of time in them, which is the common malignity of such recreations.

§. 3. Quest. 3. May I lawfully give money to see such sports, as Bear-baitings, Stage-plays, Masks, Shows, Puppet-plays, Activities of Man or Beast? &c.

Answ. There are many Shows that are desirable and laudable, (as of strange Creatures, Monsters, rare Engines, Activities, &c. ) the sight of which it is lawful to purchase, at a proportionable price: As a prospect thorough one of Galilaeus Tubes or such another, is worth much money to a studious person. But when the exercise is unlawful (as all Stage-plays are that ever I saw, or had just information of; yea, odiously evil; however it is very possible that a Comoedy or Tragoedy might with abundance of cautions be lawfully acted), it is then (usually) unlawful to be a spectator either for money or on free cost. I say [usually] because its possible that someone that is necessitated to be there, or that goeth to find out their evil to suppress them, or that is once only induced to know the truth of them may do it innocently: But so do not they, who are present voluntarily and approvingly. 3. And if the recreation be lawful in itself, yet when vain persons go thither to feed a carnal fancy and vicious humor, which delighteth more in vanity, than they delight in piety, and when it wasteth their time and corrupteth their minds, and alienateth them from good, or hindereth duty, it is to them unlawful.

§. 4. Quest. 4. Is it lawful to play at Cards or Dice for money, or at any Lottery?

Answ. The greatest doubt is, Whether the Games be lawful, many learned Divines being for the Negative, and many for the Affirmative; And those that are for the Affirmative lay down so many necessaries or conditions to prove them lawful, as I scarce ever yet saw meet together: But if they be proved at all lawful, the case of Wagers is resolved as the next.

§. 5. Quest. 5. May I play at Bowls, Run, Shoot, &c. or use such personal activities for money?

Answ. Yes, 1. If you make not the Game itself bad by any accident: 2. If your Wager be laid for sport, and not for Covetousness (striving who shall get another's money, and give them nothing for it). 3. And if no more be laid than is suitable to the sport, and the loser doth well and willingly pay.

§. 6. Quest. 6. If the loser who said he was willing, prove angry and unwilling when it cometh to the paying, may I take it, or get it by Law against his will?

Answ. No, no not in ordinary cases; because you may not turn a sport to covetousness, or breach of Charity: But in case that it be a sport that hath cost you anything, you may in Justice take your Charges, when Prudence forbids it not.

Tit. 6. Cases of Conscience about Losing and Finding.

§. 1. Quest. 1. IF I find money or anything l • st, am I bound to seek out the owner, if he seek not after me? And how far am I bound to seek him?

Answ. You are bound to use such reasonable means, as the nature of the case requireth, that the true owner may have his own again. He that dare keep another man's money, because he findeth it, its like would steal, if he could do it as secretly. Finding giveth you no propriety, if the owner can be found: Do as you would be done by, and you may satisfy your conscience. If nearer enquiry will not serve, you are bound to get it cried in the Market, or proclaimed in the Church, or mentioned in the Currant • 's that carry weekly news; or any probable way, which putteth you not upon unreasonable cost or labor.

§. 2. Q •• st. 2. May I take anything for the finding of it, as my due?

Answ. You may demand so much as shall pay for any labor or cost which you have been at about it, or finding out the owner. But no more as your due: Though a moderate gratuity may be accepted, if he freely give it.

§. 3. Quest. 3. May I desire to find money or anything else in my way? or may I be glad when I have found it?

Answ. You should first be unwilling that your neighbor should lose it; and be sorry that he hath lost it: But supposing that it be lost, you may moderately desire that you may find it rather than another: Not with a covetous desire of the gain; but that you may faithfully gratify the owner in restoring it; Or if he cannot be found may dispose of it as you ought. And you should be more sorry that its lost, than glad that you find it, except for the owner.

§. 4. Quest. 4. If no Owner can be found, may I not take it and use it as mine own?

Answ. The Laws of the Land do usually regulate claims of propriety in such matters: where the Law giveth it to the Lord of the Manor, it is his, and you must give it him. Where it giveth it to no other, it is his that findeth it; and occupancy will give him propriety. But so as it behooveth him to judge, if he be poor, that God's providence ordered it for his own supply; but if he be rich, that God sent it him but as to his Steward, to give it to the poor.

§. 5. Quest. 5. If many be present when I find it, may I not wholly retain it to myself? or may I not conceal it from them if I can?

Answ. If the Law over-rule the case, it must be obeyed: But if it do not, you may if you can conceal it, and thereby become the only finder, and take it as your own, if the Owner be not found: But if you cannot conceal it at the time of finding, they that see it with you, are partly the finders as well as you; though perhaps the largest share be due to the occupant.

§. 6. Quest. 6. If I trust my neighbor or servant with money or goods, or if another trust me, who must stand to the loss if they be lost?

Answ. Here also the Law of the Land as regulating proprieties must be very much regarded; and especially the true meaning of the parties must be understood: If it was antecedently the expressed or implied meaning that one party in such or such a case should bear the loss, it must in strict justice be according to the true meaning of the parties. Therefore if a Carrier that undertaketh to secure it, loseth it; he loseth it to himself. Or if one that it is lent to on that condition (explicit or implicit) lose it, it is to himself. But if a friend to whom you are beholden for the carriage lose it, who undertook no more than to bestow his labor, the loss must be yours; yea, though it was his negligence or drunkenness that was the fault: For you took him and trusted him as he is. But if a servant or one obliged to do it by hire, do without any other agreement, only undertake to serve you in it, and loseth it, the Law or custom of the Country is instead of a Contract: For if the Law or Custom lay the loss on him, it is supposed that he consented to it in consenting to be your servant: If it lay it on you, it is supposed that you took your servant on such terms of hazard. But if it be left undecided by Law and Custom, you may make your servant pay only so much as is a proportionable penalty for his fault, but no more, as any satisfaction for your loss: except you agreed with him to repay such losses as were by his default. And when it is considered what strict Justice doth require, it must also be considered what Charity and mercy doth require, that the poor be not oppressed.

Tit. 7. Directions to Merchants, Factors, Chaplains, Travelers that live among Infidels.

Quest. 1. IS it lawful to put ones self, or servants, especially young unstablished apprentices, into the temptations of an Infidel Country (or a Popish) for the getting of Riches, as Merchants do?

Answ. This cannot be truly answered without distinguishing, 1. Of the Countries they go from. 2. Of the places they go to. 3. Of the quality of the persons that go. 4. Of the causes of their going.

I. Some Countrys that they go from may be as bad as those that they go to, or in a state of War, when it is better be absent, or in a time of persecution, or at least of greater temptation than they are like to have abroad. And some are contrarily as a Paradise in comparison of those they go to, for holiness and helps to Heaven, and for peace and opportunities of serviceableness to God and the public good.

II. Some Countries which they may go to may have as good helps for their souls as at home, if not by those of the Religion of the Nation, yet by Christians that live among them; or by the company which goeth with them: or at least there may be no great temptations to change their Religion, or debauch them, either through the civility and moderation of those they live among, or through their sottish ignorance and viciousness, which will rather turn men's hearts against them. But some Countries have so strong temptations to corrupt men's understandings through the subtlety of seducers, and some have such allurements to debauch men, and some such cruelties to tempt them to deny the truth, that it is hard among them to retain ones innocence.

III. Some that go abroad are understanding settled Christians, able to make good use of other men's errors, and sins, and ill examples or suggestions; and perhaps to do much good on others: But some are young, and raw, and inexperienced, whose heads are unfurnished of those Evidences and Reasons by which they should hold fast their own profession, against the cunning reasonings of an adversary; and their Hearts unfurnished of that Love to truth, and that serious resolution which is necessary to their safety; and therefore are like to be corrupted.

IV. Some are sent by their Princes as Agents or Ambassadors on employments necessary to the public good: And some are sent by Societies on business necessary to the ends of the society: And some go in case of extreme poverty and necessity, having no other way of maintenance at home: And some go in obedience to their Parents and Masters that command it them: And some go to avoid the miseries of a War, or the danger of a sharp persecution at home; or the greater temptations of a debauched or seducing age; or some great temptations in their families. But some go for fancy, and some for mere covetousness without any need.

By these distinctions the case may be answered by men that are judicious and impartial. As,

• I. Affirm. 1. It is lawful for Ambassadors to go among Infidels that are sent by Princes or States: Because the public good must be secured.
• 2. It is lawful for the Agents of Lawful Societies or Trading Companies to go, ( caeteris paribus, the persons being capable:) Because Trade must be promoted which tendeth to the common good of all Countries.
• 3. It is not only lawful, but one of the best works in the world, for fit persons to go on a design to convert the poor Infidels and Heathens where they go. Therefore the Preachers of the Gospel should not be backward, to take any opportunity, as Chaplains to Ambassadors, or to Factories, &c. to put themselves in such a way.
• 4. It is lawful for a Son or Servant (whose bonds extend to such a service) to go in obedience to a Superiors command; And God's special protection may be trusted in a way of obedience.
• 5. It is lawful for one in debt to go that hath probable hopes that way and no other to pay his debts. Because he is a defrauder if he detain other men's money, while a lawful way of repaying it may be taken.
• 6. It is lawful for a duly qualified person to go in case of extreme poverty, to be able to live in the world: And that poverty may be called extreme to one that was Nobly born and educated which would be no poverty to one that was bred in beggary.
• 7. It is lawful for a well qualified person, who desireth Riches to serve God, and to do good with, to go in a way of trading, though he be in no poverty or necessity himself. Because God's blessing on a lawful Trade may be desired and endeavored, and he that should do all the good he can, may use what lawful means he can to be enabled to do it. And other men's wants should be to us as our own, and therefore we may endeavor to be able to relieve them.
• 8. In a time of such Civil War, when a man knoweth not which side to take, it may be better for some men to live abroad; yea, among Infidels.
• 9. There is little to dissuade a man whose Trade leadeth him into a Country that is better than his own, or so sottish as to have small temptation, and that hath the company of faithful Christians, with whom he may openly worship God, and privately converse to his spiritual edification.
• 10. In urgent cases one may go for a time, where he can have no use of public Church-Worship; so be it he have private means and opportunities of holy living.
• 11. It is lawful on less occasions to leave ones own Country in a time of debauchery, when temptations at home are greater than those abroad, or in a time of such persecution as may lawfully be avoided, than at another time.
• 12. A settled Christian may go more safely, and therefore lawfully on smaller urgencies, than a young, raw, lustful, fanciful, unsettled Novice may.

• II. Neg. 1. It is not lawful for any one to seek Riches or Trade abroad or at home, principally for the Love of Riches, to raise himself and family to fullness, prosperity or dignity; though all this may be desired when it is a Means to God's service, and honor, and the public good, and is desired principally as such a Means.
• 2. It is not lawful to go abroad, especially into Infidel or Popish Countries, without such a justifiable business, whose Commodity will suffice to weigh down all the losses and dangers of the remove.
• 3. The dangers and losses of the soul are to be valued much above those of the body and estate, and cannot be weighed down by any mere corporal commodity.
• 4. It is more dangerous usually to go among Turks and Heathens (whose Religion hath no tempting power to seduce men) than among Socinians, or Papists, whose errors and sins are cunningly and learnedly promoted and defended.
• 5. It is not lawful for Merchants or others for Trade and love of wealth or money, to send poor raw unsettled youths into such Countries where their souls are like to be notably endangered, either by being deprived of such teaching and Church helps which they need, or by being exposed to the dangerous temptations of the place: Because their souls are of more worth than money.
• 6. It is not lawful therefore for Master or servant to venture his own soul in such a case as this last mentioned; that is, so far as he is free, and without necessity doth it only for commodity sake.
• 7. We may not go where we cannot publicly worship God, without necessity, or some inducement from a greater good.
• 8. The more of these hindrances concur, the greater is the sin: It is therefore a mere willful casting away of their own souls, when unfurnished unsettled youths (or others like them) shall for mere humor, fancy, or covetousness leave such a Land as this, where they have both public and private helps for their salvation, and to go among Papists, Infidels or Heathens, where talk or ill example is like to endanger them, and no great good can be expected to countervail such a hazard, nor is there any true necessity to drive them, and where they cannot publicly worship God, no nor openly own the truth, and where they have not so much as any private company to converse with, that is fit to further their preservation and salvation, and all this of their own accord, &c.

Quest. 2. May a Merchant or Embassador leave his Wife, to live abroad?

Answ. 1. We must distinguish between what is necessitated and what is Voluntary. 2. Between what is done by the Wives consent, and what is done without. 3. Between a Wife that can bear such absence, and one that cannot. 4. Between a short stay, and a long or continued stay.

1. The command of the King, or public necessities, may make it lawful, except in a case so rare as is not to be supposed (which therefore I shall not stand to describe). For though it be a very tender business to determine a difference between the public authority or interest, and family relaons and interest, when they are contradictory, and irreconcilable, yet here it seemeth to me, that the Prince and public interest may dispose of a man contrary to the will and interest of his Wife: Yea, though it were probable that it would occasion the loss, 1. Of her Chastity, 2. Or her Understanding, 3. Or her life: and though the Conjugal bond do make man and Wife to be as one flesh. For, 1. The King and public interest may oblige a man to hazard his own life, and therefore his Wives. In case of War, he may be sent to Sea or beyond Sea, and so both leave his Wife (as Uriah did) and venture himself. Who ever thought that no Married man might go to foreign Wars without his Wives consent? 2. Because as the whole is more noble than the Part, so he that marrieth obligeth himself to his Wife, but on supposition that he is a member of the Common-wealth, to which he is still more obliged than to her.

2. A man may for the benefit of his family leave his Wife for travel or Merchandize, for a time, when they mutually consent upon good reason that it is like to be for their good.

3. He may not leave her either without or with her own consent, when a greater hurt is like to come by it, than the gain will countervail. I shall say no more of this, because the rest may be gathered from what is said in the cases about duties to Wives, where many other such are handled.

Quest. 3. Is it lawful for young Gentlemen to travel in other Kingdoms, as part of their education?

Answ. The many distinctions which were laid down for answer of the first question must be here supposed, and the answer will be mostly the same as to that, and therefore need not be repeated.

1. It is lawful for them to travel that are necessarily driven out of their own Country, by persecution, poverty, or any other necessitating cause.

2. It is lawful to them that are commanded by their Parents (unless in some excepted cases, which I will not stay to name).

3. It is the more lawful when they travel into Countries as good or better than their own, where they are like to get more good than they could have done at home.

4. It is more lawful to one that is prudent and firmly settled both in Religion, and in Sobriety, and Temperance, against all temptations which he is like to meet with, than to one that is unfurnished for a due resistance of the temptations of the place to which he goeth.

5. It is more lawful to one that goeth in sober, wise and godly company, or is sent with a wise and faithful Tutor and Overseer, than to leave young unsettled persons to themselves.

6. In a word, It is lawful when there is a rational probability, that they will not only get more good than hurt (for that will not make it lawful,) but also more Good than they could probably have other ways attained.

II. But the too ordinary course of young Gentlemens travels out of England now practiced, I take to be but a most dangerous hazarding, if not a plain betraying them to utter undoing, and to make them afterwards the plagues of their Country, and the instruments of the common calamity. For, 1. They are ordinarily sent into Countries far worse and more dangerous than their own; where the temptations are stronger than they are fit to deal with: Into some Countries where they are tempted to sensuality, and into some where they are tempted to Popery or Infidelity. In some Countries they learn to drink Wine instead of Beer; and arising from the smaller sort to the stronger, if they turn not drunkards, they contract that appetite to Wine and strong drink, which shall prove (as Clemens Alexandrinus calleth gluttony and tippling,) a Throat-madness, and a Belly-devil, and keep them in the sin of gulosity all their days. And in some Countries they shall learn the art of Gluttony, to pamper their guts in curious, costly, uncouth fashions, and to dress themselves in novel fantastical garbs, and to make a business of adorning themselves, and setting themselves forth with proud and procacious fancies and affections, to be looked upon as comely persons, to the eyes of others. In some Countries they shall learn to waste their precious hours in Stage-plays, and vain spectacles, and ceremonious attendances and visits, and to equalize their life with death, and to live to less use and benefit to the world, than the Horse that carrieth them. In most Countries they shall learn either to prate against Godliness, as the humor of a few melancholy fools, and be wiser than to believe God, or obey him, or be saved; or at least to grow indifferent and cold in holy affections and practices: For when they shall see Papists and Protestants, Lutherans and Calvinists of contrary minds, and hear them reproaching and condemning one another, this cooleth their zeal to all Religion, as seeming but a matter of uncertainty and contention: And when also they see, how the wise and holy are made a scorn in one Country, as Bigots and Huguenots, and how the Protestants are drunkards and worldlings in another Country, and how few in the world have any true sense and savor of sound and practical Religion, and of a truly holy and heavenly life, (as those few they are seldom so happy as to converse with) this first accustometh themselves to a neglect of holiness, and then draweth their minds to a more low indifferent opinion of it, and to think it unnecessary to salvation. For they will not believe that so few shall be saved as they find to be holy in the world: And then they grow to think it but a fancy and a troubler of the world.

And it addeth to their temptation, that they are obliged by the carnal ends which drew them out to be in the worst and most dangerous company and places; that is, at Princes Courts, and among the splendid gallantry of the world: For it is the fashions of the Great ones which they must see, and of which when they come home they must be able to discourse: So that they must travel to the Pesthouses of pomp and lust, of idleness, glu •• ony, drunkenness and pride, of Atheism, irreligiousness and impiety, that they may be able to glory, what acquaintance they have got of the grandeur and gallantry of the Suburbs of Hell, that they may represent the way to damnation delectable and honorable to others, as well as to themselves.

But the greatest danger is of corrupting their Intellectuals, by converse with deceivers where they come; either Infidels or juggling Jesuits and Friars: For when these are purposely trained up to deceive, how easy is it for them to silence raw unfurnished Novices (yea, even where all their five senses must be captivated, in the doctrine of Transubstantiation). And when they are silenced they must yield: or at least they have deluding stories enough of the Antiquity, Universality, Infallibility, Unity of their Church, with a multitude of lies of Luther, Calvin, Zwingli, and other Reformers, to turn their hearts, and make them yield. But yet that they may be capable of doing them the more service, they are instructed for a time to dissemble their perversion, and to serve the Roman Pride and Faction in a Protestant garb and name.

Especially when they come to Rome, and see its glory, and the monuments of antiquity, and are alluned with their splendor and civilities, and made believe that all the reports of their Inquisitions and cruelties are false, this furthereth the fascination of inexperienced youths.

2. And usually all this while, the most of them lay by all serious studies, and all constant employment, and make Idleness, and Converse with the Idle or with Tempters to be their daily work. And what a mind is like to come to, which is but one half year or twelvemonth accustomed to idleness, and vain spectacles, and to a pleasing converse with idle and luxurious persons, it is easy for a man of any acquaintance with the world or with human nature to conjecture.

3. And they go forth in notable peril of their health or lives. Some fall into Feavors, and die by change of air and drinks: Some fall into quarrels in Taverns, or about their Whores, and are murdered. Some few prove so steadfast against all the temptations of the Papists, that it is thought conducible to the holy cause, that they should be killed in pretence of some quarrel, or be poisoned: Some by drinking Wine, do contract such sickness, as makes their lives uncomfortable to the last. And the brains of many are so heated by it, that they fall mad.

4. And all this danger is principally founded in the quality of the persons sent to travel: which are ordinarily empty Lads, between eighteen and twenty four years of age, which is the time of the Devils chief advantage; when naturally they are pro • e to those Vices which prove the ruin of the most, though you take the greatest care of them that you can. 1. Their lust is then in the highest and most untamed rage. 2. Their appetites to pleasing meats and drinks are then strongest. 3. Their frolic inclinations to sports and recreations are then greatest. 4. And ignorant and procacious Pride beginneth then to stir. 5. All things that are most Vile and Vain, are then apt to seem excellent to them, by reason of the novelty of the matter as to them, who never saw such things before, and by reason of the false esteem of those carnal persons, to whose pomp, and consequently to whose judgment, they would be conformed. 6. And they are at that age exceedingly inclined to think all their own apprehensions to be right, and to be very confident of their own conceptions, and wise in their own eyes: Because their juvenile intellect being then in the most affecting activity, it seemeth still clear and sure to them, because it so much affects themselves. 7. But above all, they are yet unfurnished of almost all that solid wisdom, and settled holiness, and large experience, which is most necessary to their improvement of their travels, and to their resistance of all these temptations. Alas, how few of them are able to deal with a Jesuit, or hold fast their Religion against deceivers? If the very Vices, the Ambition, the Carnal Policies and Pomps, the filthiness and worldliness of the Roman Clergy did not become a preservative to men's minds, against the Temptations which would draw them to their way, and if the Atheism, Infidelity, Whoredoms and profaneness of Papists did not become an Antidote, how few were like to return uninfected. And because the Jesuits know that they can never take this stumbling block out of the way, therefore too many of them have thought best, to debauch those first whom they would proselyte, and to reconcile them first to Plays, and drunkenness, and whoredoms, that so the dislike of these may not hinder their reconciliation with the Kingdom of Rome▪ yea, that a seeming necessity of a Priests pardon, may make it seem necessary to become their subjects.

And as unfurnished are these young travellers usually to resist the temptations to this sensuality, lust and pomp, as those of Popery: So that they are perfidiously sent into a Pesthouse, when they are in the greatest disposition to be infected. And if they come not home drunkards, gluttons, gamesters, idle, prodigal, proud, infidels, irreligious, or Papists, its little thanks to those perfidious Parents, who thus perform their promise for them in Baptism, by sending them to Satan's Schools and University to be educated.

Whereas if they were but kept to their due studies, and under a holy government at home, till they were furnished with sound religious knowledge, and till they were rooted in holiness, and in a Love to a pious sober life, and till they had got a settled hatred of intemperance and all sin, and till they had a Map of the places, persons and affairs of the world well imprinted on their minds by study and due information, then necessary travel would be more safe: and then they would be in a capacity to learn wisdom from other men's folly, and virtue from other men's vice, and piety from other men's impiety: which Novices are rather ap • to imitate.

5. And in the mean time the loss of all the helps which they should have at home, doth greatly tend to their destruction. For they oft travel into Countries, where they shall have no public worship of God which is lawful, or which they understand: or if they have, it is usually cold preaching, and dull praying, when they have need of the best, and all too little. And they have seldom such pious society to edify and quicken them by private converse, as they have or might have here at home: And seldom come into such well ordered religious families. And if human nature be prone to infection by temptations, and so averse to holiness, that all means is too little, and even in the best families, folly and sensuality and a distaste of Godliness often thrives (as unsown Weeds overspread the Garden, where with great cost and labor only better things were sowed,) What then but sin and misery can be expected from those that by their own Parents are banished from their native Country, (not so well as into a Wilderness, but) into the pestilent infected Countries of the world?

I would ask those Parents that plead for this crime and cruelty as a kindness: Are you no wiser or better yourselves, than the company into which you send your children? Can you teach them and educate them no better, nor give them better examples than they are like to have abroad? Can you set them on no better work, for the improvement of their time? If not, Why do you not repent of this your shame and misery, and reform yourselves? If you can, Why will you then betray your children? Or if you cannot, Are there no Schools, no Learned and Pious men, no Religious families and company at home, in your own Land, where you might place them to better advantage, than thus to expose them to the Tempter? Undoubtedly there are; and such as may be had at Cheaper rates.

6. And it is not the smallest part of the guilt and danger, that they are sent abroad without due oversight and conduct. They that do but get them some sober or honest servant to attend them, or some sober companion, think they have done well: when as they had need of some Divine or Tutor of great Learning, Piety, Prudence and Experience, whom they will reverence and obey, that may take the oversight of them, and be ready to answer any Sophister that would seduce them. But the charge of this is thought too great, for the safety of their own children, whom they themselves expose to a necessity of it.

I know that carnal minds will distaste all this, and have Objections enough against it, and reasons of their own, to make it seem a duty to betray and undo their children's souls, and to break their promise made for them in Baptism;

And thus quos perdere vult Jupiter hos dementat: Yea, the poor children, and the Common-wealth must suffer by such Parents so • tish folly: And well saith Solomon, Prov. 28. 11. The Rich man is wise in his own conceit. And because it is not Reason indeed but Pride, and the Rich disease and Carnality which is here to be consuted, I shall not honor them with a distinct particular answer; But only tell them, If all companies be alike, send them to Bedlam or to a Whore-house. If all means be alike, let them be Janizaries, and bred up where Christ is scorned: If you think they need but little helps, and little watching, it seems you never gave them more: And its pity you should have children, before you know what a man is, and how much nature is corrupted, and how much is needful to its recovery: And its pity that you dedicated them to God in Baptism, before you believed Christ, and knew what you did? And engaged them to renounce the World, the Flesh and the Devil, under a Crucified Christ, while you purposed like hypocrites to train them in the School and Service of the World, the Flesh and the Devil, and in the contempt of the Cross of Christ, or of a holy mortified life. And if all ages be alike, and Novices be equal to experienced persons, let the Scholars rule their Master, and let Boys be Parliament men and Judges, and let them be your Guides at home? And if acquaintance with Courtship and the customs of the world, and the reputation of such acquaintance, be worth the hazarding of their souls, renounce God, and give up your names to Mammon, and be not such paltry hypocrites, as to profess that you believe the Scriptures, and stand to your baptismal Vows, and place your hopes in a Crucified Christ, and your happiness in God's favor and the life to come. And if the preaching of the Gospel, and all such religious helps be unnecessary to your unsettled children, dissemble not by going to Church, as if you took them to be necessary to yourselves. In a word, I say as Elias to the Israelites, Why halt ye between two opinions? If God be God, follow him, If the world be God, and Pride and Sensuality and the worlds applause be your felicity, follow it, and let it be your children's portion. Do you not see more wise, and learned, and holy, and serviceable persons among us, proportionably in Church and State, that were never sent for an education among the Papists and profane, than of such as were.

But I will proceed to the Directions which are necessary to those that must or will needs go abroad, either as Merchants, Factors, or as Travelers.

Direct. 1. Be sure that you go not without a clear warrant from God; which must be (all things laid together) a great probability, in the judgment of impartial, experienced, wise men, that you may get or do more good than you were like to have done at home. For if you go sinfully without a Call or Warrant, you put yourself out of God's protection, as much as in you is, that is, you forfeit it: And what ever plague befalls you, it will arm your accusing Consciences to make it double.

Direct. 2. Send with your children that travel some such pious prudent Tutor or Overs •• r as is afore described: And get them, or your Apprentices into as good company as possibly you can.

Direct. 3. Send them as the last part of all their education, when they are settled in knowledge, sound doctrine and godliness, and have first got such acquaintance with the state of the world, as Reading, Maps and Conversation and Discourse can help them to: And not while they are young, and raw, and uncapable of self-defense, or of due improving what they see. And those that are thus prepared, will have no great lust or fancy to wander, and lose their time, without necessity: For they will know, that there is nothing better (considerably) to be seen abroad, than is at home: That in all Countries, Houses are Houses, and Cities are Cities, and Trees are Trees, and Beasts are Beasts, and Men are Men, and Fools are Fools, and Wise men are Wise, and Learned men are Learned, and Sin is Sin, and Virtue is Virtue. And these things are but the same abroad as at home: And that a Grave is everywhere a Grave, and you are travelling towards it, which way ever you go. And happy is he that spendeth his little time so, as may do God best service, and best prepare him for the state of immortality.

Direct. 4. If experience of their youthful lust and pride, and vicious folly, or unsettled dangerous state, doth tell you plainly, that your Child or Apprentice, is unfit for travel, venture them not upon it, either for the carnal ornaments of education, or for your worldly gain. For souls that cost the blood of Christ, are more precious, than to be sold at so low a rate: And especially by those Parents and Masters that are doubly obliged to love them, and to guide them in the way to Heaven, and must be answerable for them.

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Direct. 5. Choose those Countries for your Children to travel in which are soundest in doctrine, and of best example, and where they may get more good than hurt: and venture them not needlessly into the places and company of greatest danger; especially among the Jesuits and Friars, or subtle Heretics, or enemies of Christ.

Direct. 6. Study before you go, what particular Temptations you are like to meet with, and study well for particular Preservatives against them all: As you will not go into a place infected with the Plague, without an Antidote. It is no small task, to get a mind prepared for travel.

Direct. 7. Carry with you such Books as are fittest for your use, both for Preservation and Edification: As to preserve you from Popery, Drelincourts, and Mr. Pools small Manual: For which use my Key for Catholics, and Safe Religion, and Sheet against Popery may not be useless. And Dr. Challoners Credo Ecclesiam Catholicam is short and very strong. To preserve you against Infidelity, Vander Meulin in Latin, and Grotius, and in English my Reasons of the Christian Religion, may not be unfit. For your practice, the Bible and the Practice of Piety, and Mr. Scudders Daily Walk, and Mr. Reyners Directions, and Dr. Ames Cases of Conscience.

Direct. 8. Get acquaintance with the most able Reformed Divines, in the places where you travel, and make use of their frequent converse, for your edification and defense. For it is the wisest and best men in all Countries where you come, that must be profitable to you, if any.

Direct. 9. Set yourselves in a course of regular study if you are Travelers, as if you were at home, and on a course of regular employment if you are Tradesmen, and make not mere wandering and gazing upon novelties, your Trade and Business: But redeem your time as laboriously as you would do in the most settled life. For time is precious, where ever you be: And it must be diligence everywhere that must cause your proficiency; for Place and Company will not do it, without your labor. It is not an University that will make a sluggish person wise, nor a foreign Land that will furnish a sensual sot with wisdom: Coelum non animum mutant qui trans more currunt. There is more ado necessary to make you wise, or bring you to Heaven, than to go long journeys, or see many people.

Direct. 10. Avoid temptations: If you acquaint yourselves with the humors and sinful opinions and fashions of the time and places where you are, let it be but as the Lacodamonians called out their children to see a drunkard, to hate the sin: Therefore see them, but taste them not, as you would do by poison or loathsome things. Once or twice seeing a folly and sin is enough. If you do it frequently, custom will abate your detestation, and do much to reconcile you to it.

Direct. 9. Set yourselves to do all the good you can to the miserable people in the places where you come. Furnish yourselves with the foresaid Books and Arguments, not only to preserve yourselves, but also to convince poor Infidels and Papists. And pity their souls, as those that believe, that there is indeed a life to come, where Happiness and Misery, will show the difference between the godly and the wicked. Especially, Merchants and Factors, who live constantly among the poor ignorant Christians, Armenians, Greeks, Papists, who will hear them; and among Heathens (in Indostan and elsewhere) and Mohammedans (especially the Persians, who allow a liberty of discourse.) But above all, the Chaplains of the several Embassies and Factories. O what an opportunity have they to sow the seeds of Christianity, among the Heathen Nations? and to make known Christ to the Infidel people where they come? And how heavy a guilt will lie on them that shall neglect it! And how will the great industry of the Jesuits rise up in judgment against them and condemn them?

Direct. 10. The more you are deprived of the benefit of God's public Worship, the more industrious must you be, in Reading Scripture and good Books, and in secret Prayer, and Meditation, and in the improvement of any one godly friend that doth accompany you, to make up your loss, and to be instead of public means. It will be a great comfort among Infidels, or Papists, or ignorant Greeks, or profane people, to read sound and holy and spiritual Books, and to confer with someone godly friend, and to meditate on the sweet and glorious subjects, which from Earth and Heaven are set before us; and to solace ourselves in the praises of God, and to pour out our suites before him.

Direct. 11. And that your work may be well done, be sure that you have right ends; and that it be not to please a ranging fancy, nor a proud vain mind, nor a Covetous desire of being Rich or high, that you go abroad: but that you do it purposely and principally to serve God abroad, and to be able to serve him the better when you come home, with your wit, and experience, and estates. If sincerely you go for this end, and not for the Love of money, you may expect the greater comfort.

Direct. 12. Stay abroad no longer than your lawful ends and work require: And when you come home, let it be seen that you have seen sin, that you might hate it; and that by the observation of the errors and evils of the world, you love sound doctrine, spiritual worship, and holy, sober, and righteous living, better than you did before; and that you are the better resolved and furnished for a godly, exemplary fruitful life.

One thing more I will warn some Parents of; who send their Sons to travel to keep them from untimely marrying, lest they have part of their estates too soon: That there are other means better than this, which prudence may find out: If they would keep them low, from fullness, and idleness, and bad company (which a wise self-denying diligent man may do, but another cannot) and engage them in as much study and business (conjunct) as they can well perform, and when they must needs marry, let it be done with prudent careful choice; and learn themselves to live somewhat lower, that they may spare that which their Son must have, this course would be better than that hazardous one in question.

CHAP. XX. Motives and Directions against Oppression.

§. 1. OPpression is the injuring of inferiors, who are unable to resist, or to right themselves: when men use Power to bear down right. Yet all is not Oppression which is so called by the poor, or by inferiors that suffer: For they are apt to be partial in their own cause as well as others. There may be injustice in the expectations of the poor, as well as in the actions of the rich. Some think they are oppressed, if they be justly punished for their crimes: And some say, they are oppressed, if they have not their wills, and unjust desires, and may not be suffered to injure their superiors: And many of the poor do call all that Oppression, which they suffer from any that are above them, as if it were enough to prove it an injury, because a Rich man doth it: But yet Oppression is a very common and a heinous sin.

§. 2. There are as many ways of oppressing others, as there are advantages to men of power against them. But the principal are these following.

§. 3. 1. The most common and heinous sort is the malignant injuries and cruelties of the ungodly against men that will not be as indifferent in the matters of God and salvation as themselves; and that will not be of their opinions in Religion, and be as bold with sin, and as careless of their souls as they. These are hated, reproached, slandered, abused, and some way or other pesecuted commonly where ever they live throughout the world. But of this sort of Oppression I have spoken before.

§. 4. 2. A second sort is the Oppression of the Subjects by their Rulers; either by unrighteous Laws, or cruel executions, or unjust impositions, or exactions, laying on the people greater Taxes, tributes or servitude, than the common good requireth, and than they are able well to bear. Thus did Pharaoh oppress the Israelites, till their groans brought down God's vengeance on him. But I purposely forbear to meddle with the sins of Magistrates.

§. 5. 3. Soldiers also are too commonly guilty of the most inhumane barbarous oppressions; plundering the poor Country-men, and domineering over them, and robbing them of the fruit of their hard labors, and of the bread which they should maintain their families with, and taking all that they can lay hold on as their own. But (unless it be a few that are a wonder in the world) this sort of men are so barbarous and inhumane, that they will neither read nor regard any counsel that I shall give them. (No man describeth them better than Erasmus ).

§. 6. 4. The Oppression of Servants by their Masters I have said enough to before. And among us, where servants are free to change for better Masters, it is not the most common sort of Oppression; But rather servants are usually negligent and unfaithful, because they know that they are free: (Except in the case of Apprentices.)

§. 7. 5. It is too common a sort of Oppression for the Rich in all places to domineer too insolently over the poor, and force them to follow their wills, and to serve their interest, be it right or wrong: So that it is rare to meet with a poor man that dare displease the rich, though it be in a cause where God and Conscience do require it. If a rich man wrong them, they dare not seek their remedy at Law, because he will tire them out by the advantage of his friends and wealth; and either carry it against them, be his cause never so unjust, or lengthen the suit till he hath undone them, and forced them to submit to his oppressing will.

§. 8. 6. Especially unmerciful Landlords are the common and sore oppressors of the Country-men: If a 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 labored 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 Lord's 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 ado 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 labors, and his mind distracted with continual cares, how to pay his rent, and how to have food and raiment 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 labor and toil for them, and it were their chief felicity to fulfil their will, and live upon their favor.

§. 9. Direct. 1. The principal means to overcome this sin, is to understand the Greatness of it. For the flesh persuadeth carnal men, to judge of it according to their selfish interest, and not according to the interest of others, nor according to the true principles of Charity and Equity; and so they justify themselves in their oppression.

§. 10. 1. Consider, That Oppression is a sin not only contrary to Christian Charity and Self-denial, but even to Humanity itself. 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 Sh • ep, one Dov • , 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 lie 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 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 ransom 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 honor and joy to be the Savior of men's 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 God's 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 men's 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 shown before, it taketh up men's 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 labors 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 Lord's 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 thus oppression destroyeth Religion, and the people's souls, as well as their estates.

§. 14. 5. Oppression further endangereth both the souls of men, and the public peace, and the safety of Princes, by tempting the poor multitude into discontents, sedition and insurrections: Every man is naturally a lover of himself, above others: And the poor as well as the rich and Rulers, have an interest of their own which ruleth them: And they will hardly honor, or love, or think well of them by whom they suffer! It is as natural almost for a man under oppression, to be discontented and complain, as for a man in a Feavor to complain of sickness, heat and thirst. No Kingdom on earth is so holy and happy as to have all or most of the subjects such confirmed eminent Saints, as will be contented to be undone, and will love and honor those that undo them. Therefore men must be taken as they are: If oppression maketh wise men mad, Eccles. 7. 7. much more the multitude, who are far from wisdom. Misery maketh men desperate, when they think that they cannot be much worse than they are. How many Kingdoms have been thus fired, (as wooden wheels will be when one part rubbeth too hard and long upon the other). Yea, if the Prince be never so good and blameless, the cruelty of the Nobles and the rich men of the Land, may have the same effects. And in these combustions, the peace of the Kingdom, the lives and souls of the seditious are made a sacrifice to the lusts of the Oppressors.

§. 15. Direct. 2. Consider with fear how Oppression turneth the groans and cries of the poor, to the God of revenge against the Oppressors. And woe to that man that hath the tears and prayers of oppressed innocents, sounding the alarm to vindictive Justice, to awake for their relief. And shall not God avenge his own elect, which cry day and night to him, though he bear long with them? I tell you, that he will avenge them speedily, Luke 18. 7, 8. The Lord will be a refuge to the oppressed, Psal. 9. 9. To judge the fatherless and the oppressed, that the man of the earth may no more oppress, Psal. 10. 18. The Lord executeth righteousness and judgment for all that are oppressed, Psal. 103. 6. & 146. 7. Yea, God is doubly engaged to be revenged upon oppressors, and hath threatened a special execution of his judgment against them above most other sinners: Partly as it is an act of mercy and relief to the oppressed; So that the matter of threatening and vengeance to the oppressor, is the matter of God's promise and favor to the sufferers: And partly as it is an act of his Vindictive Justice against such as so heinously break his Laws. The oppressor hath indeed his time of Power, and in that time the oppressed seem to be forsaken and neglected of God; as if he did not hear their cries: But when his patience hath endured the tyranny of the proud, and his wisdom hath tried the patience of the sufferers, to the determined time; how speedily and terribly then both vengeance overtake the oppressors, and make them warnings to those that follow them. In the hour of the wicked and of the power of darkness Christ himself was oppressed and afflicted, Isa. 53. 7. and in his humiliation his judgment taken was away, Acts 8. But how quickly did the destroying revenge overtake those bloody Zealots, and how grievous is the ruin which they lie under to this day, which they thought by that same murder to have scaped? Solomon saith, Eccles. 4. 1. he considered all the oppressions that are under the Sun, and behold the tears of such as were oppressed, and they had no comforter; and on the side of the oppressors there was power, but they had no comforter. Which made him praise the d • ad and the unborn: But yet he that goeth with David into the Sanctuary, and seeth the end of the oppressors, shall perceive them set in slippery places, and tumbling down to destruction in a moment, Psal. 37. & 73. The Israelites in Egypt seemed long to groan and cry in vain; But when the determinate time of their deliverance came, God saith, I have surely seen the affliction of my people, and have heard their cry by reason of their task-masters; for I know their sorrows: and I am come down to deliver them—Behold the cry of the children of Israel is come up unto me, and I have also seen the oppression wherewith the Egyptians oppress them. Exod. 3. 7, 8, 9. Deut. 26. 6, 7. The Egyptians evil entreated us, and afflicted us, and laid upon us hard bondage, and when we cried to the Lord God of our Fathers, the Lord heard our voice, and looked on our affliction, and our labor, and our oppression. See Psal. 107. 39, 40, 41, 42. So Psal. 12. 5, 6. For the oppression of the poor, for the sighing of the needy, now will I arise, saith the Lord; I will set him in safety from him that puffeth at him (or would ensnare him) Thou shalt keep them, O Lord, thou shalt preserve them from this generation forever. Trust not therefore in oppression, Psal. 62. 10. for God is the avenger and his plagues shall revenge the injuries of the oppressed.

§. 16. Direct. 3. Remember what an odious name Oppressors commonly leave behind them upon earth. No sort of men are mentioned by posterity with greater hatred and contempt. For the interest of mankind directeth them hereunto, and may prognosticate it, as well as the Justice of God. However the power of proud oppressors, may make men afraid of speaking to their faces what they think, yet those that are out of their reach, will pour out the bitterness of their souls against them. And when once death hath tied their cruel hands, or any judgment of God hath cast them down, and knocked out their teeth, how freely will the distressed vent their grief; and same will not be afraid to deliver their ugly picture to posterity, according to their desert. Methinks therefore that even Pride itself should be a great help to banish oppression from the world? What an honorable name hath a Trajan, a Titus, an Antonine, an Alexander Severus? And what an odious name hath a Nero, a Caligula, a Commodus, a D' Alva, &c.? Most proud men affect to be extolled, and to have a glorious name survive them when they are dead: and yet they take the course to make their memory abominable; So much doth sin contradict and disappoint the sinners hopes!

§. 17. Direct. 4. Be not strangers to the condition or complaints of any that are your inferiors. It is the misery of many Princes and Nobles, that they are guarded about with such as keep all the lamentations of their Subjects, and Tenants from their cars; or represent them only as the murmurings of unquiet discontented men: So that Superiors shall know no more of their inferiors case, than their attendants please; nor no more of the reproach that falleth upon themselves. Their case is to be pitied; but the case of their inferiors more: (For it is their own willful choice which hath imprisoned their understandings, with-such informers; and it is their inexcusable 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 labor 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 inferior 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 anymore enquiry; and in negligent ignorance oppress the poor.

§. 18. Direct. 5. Mortify your own lusts and sinful curiosity, which maketh you think that you need 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 privilege 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, honors, 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 persuading the highest to level their garb and expenses equal with the lowest: But mortify 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 Judge of your own actions in a controverted case; but if any complain of you, hear the judgment of others that are wise and impartial in the case. For it is easy to misjudge where self-interest is concerned.

§. 20. Direct. 7. Love your poor brethren as yourselves, and delight in their welfare, as if it 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 yourselves, 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 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 custom 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 Countries it is the custom 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 lie 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 custom or any other plea, put in a claim in point of equity to his easy-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 concur: 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?

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 custom and long possession, or other reasons. 2. Sometimes the Tenant is one that you are obliged to show 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 custom 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 show 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 labor 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 deal with a Tenant as rich or richer than yourself, 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 custom 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?

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 sum 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 Custom, 3. Nor Service and Merit, do give the Tenant any equitable right to his better penny-worth. And also that Mercy prohibit not the change.

Quest. 4. How much must a Landlord set his Land below the full worth, that he may be no oppressor 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 drouth than any man alive had known, burnt up the Grass) disableth a Tenant to pay his Rent: Some Countries 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 labors 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 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 mere gifts from his liberality, he may withdraw, (as being no longer able to give). But that which they had by custom 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 lawful • ). But it is not every debt in a rich man, who hath other ways 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, (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 mere 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 men's 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 extreme 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 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 die, 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 dependence. 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 another's head (as they speak), or take the Land which he is a Tenant to, before he be turned out of possession?

Answ. Not out of a greedy desire to be rich, nor coveting that which is another's: Nor yet while he is any way injured by it: nor yet when the act is like to be so scandalous, as to hurt men's 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 mere 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 man's habitation. But if it should go for a standing rule, that no man may in any case take a House over another man's head, (as the Country people would have it;) then every man's 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 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 beggary 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 Country that rather wanteth people, it is otherwise.

Quest. 10. May one man be a Tenant to divers Tenements?

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 engrosseth more than is necessary or meet: For then it is unlawful.

Quest. 11. May one man have many Trades or Callings?

Answ. Not, when he doth, in a covetous desire to grow rich, disable his poor neighbors 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?

Answ. The same answer will serve as to the foregoing question.

CHAP. XXI. Cases about, and Directions against Prodigality and sinful Wastefulness.

§. 1. BEcause men's carnal interest and sensuality, is predominant with the greatest part of the world, and therefore governeth them in their judgment 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 beggary, or apparently cross their own pleasure or commodity: But in other cases, they are seldom 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 are.

Necessary frugality or sparing is, An act of fidelity, obedience and gratitude, by which we use all 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 mere negation of active wastefulness, because idleness itself, and not using it aright, is real wastefulness.

§. 3. Wastefulness or prodigality is that sin of unfaithfulness, disobedience and ingratitude, by which 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 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?

Answ. This question is answered in the foresaid Chapter of Gluttony, Par. 4. Tit. 1. 1. Distinguish between men's several tempers, and strength, and appetites: 2. And between the restraint of Want, and the restraint of God's Law. And so it is thus resolved:

• 1. Such difference in quantity or quality as men's health, or strength, and real benefit requireth, may be made, by them that have no want.
• 2. When want depriveth the poor of that which would be really for their health, and strength, and benefit, it is not their duty who have no such want to conform themselves to other men's afflictions: Except when other reasons do require it.
• 3. But all men are bound to avoid real excess in matter, or manner, and curiosity, and to lay out nothing needlessly on their bellies; yea, nothing which they are called to lay out a better way. Understand this answer and it will suffice you.

§. 5. Inst. 2. Another way of Prodigality is by needless costly Visits and Entertainments.

Quest. 2. What cost upon Visits and Entertainments is unlawful and prodigal?

Answ. 1. Not only all that which hath an ill original, as Pride or flattery of the rich; and all that hath an ill End, as being merely to keep up a carnal unprofitable interest and correspondency: but also all that which is excessive in degree. I know you will say, But thats the difficulty to know when it is excessive: It is not altogether impertinent to say, when it is above the proportion of your own estate; or the ordinary use of those of your own rank, or when it plainly tendeth to cherish gluttony or excess in others: But these answers are no exact solution. I add therefore, that it is excess when anything is that way expended, which you are called to expend another way.

Object. But this leaveth it still as difficult as before.

Answ. When in rational probability a greater good may be done by another way of expense, consideratis considerandis; and a greater good is by this way neglected, then you had a call to spend it otherwise, and this expense is sinful.

Object. It is a doubt whether of two goods it be a man's duty always to choose the greater.

Answ. Speaking of that Good which is within his choice, it is no more doubt than whether Good be the object of the will. If Good be eligible as good, then the greatest good is most eligible.

Object. But this is still a difficulty insuperable: How can a man in every action and expense discern, which way it is that the greatest good is like to be attained? This putteth a man's conscience upon endless perplexities; and we shall never be sure that we do not sin: For when I have given to a poor man, or done some good, for ought I know there was a poorer that should have had it, or a greater good that should have been done.

Answ. 1. The contrary opinion legitimateth almost all villainy, and destroyeth most good works as to ourselves or any others. If a man may lawfully prefer a known lesser good before a greater, and be justified because that the lesser is a real good, than he may be feeding his Horse, when he should be saving the life of his child or neighbor, or quenching a fire in the City, or defending the person of his King: He may deny to serve his King and Country, and say, I was ploughing or sowing the while. He may prefer sacrifice before mercy: He may neglect his soul, and serve his body. He may plow on the Lord's Day, and neglect all God's Worship. A lesser duty is no duty but a sin, when a greater is to be done. Therefore it is certain that when two goods come together to our choice, the greater is to be chosen, or else we sin. 2. As you expect that your Steward should proportion his expenses according to the necessity of your business, and not give more for a thing than it is worth, nor lay out your money upon smaller commodities, while he leaveth your greater business unprovided for: And as you expect that your Servant who hath many things in the day to do, should have so much skill as to know which to prefer, and not to leave undone the chiefest, whilst he spendeth his time upon the least: So doth God require that his servants labor to be so skillful in his service, as to be able to compare their businesses together, and to know which at every season to prefer: If Christianity required no wisdom and skill, it were below men's common Trades and Callings. 3. And yet when you have done your best here, and truly endeavor to serve God faithfully, with the best skill and diligence you have, you need not make it a matter of scrupulosity, perplexity and vexation: For God accepteth you, and pardoneth your infirmities, and rewardeth your fidelity: And what if it do follow, that you know not but there may be some sinful omission of a better way? Is that so strange or intolerable a conclusion? As long as it is only a pardoned failing, which should not hinder the comfort of your obedience? Is it strange to you that we are all imperfect? And imperfect in every good we do? Even by a culpable sinful imperfection? You never Loved God in your lives without a sinful imperfection in your Love? And yet nothing in you is more acceptable to him than your love. Shall we think a case of Conscience ill resolved, unless we may conclude, that we are sure we have no sinful imperfection in our duty? If your Servant have not perfect skill, in knowing what to prefer in buying and selling, or in his work, I think you will neither allow him therefore to neglect the greater and better, knowingly, or by careless negligence, nor yet would you have him sit down and whine, and say, I know not which to choose: But you would have him learn to be as skillful as he can, and then willingly and cheerfully do his business with the best skill, and care, and diligence he can: And this you will best accept.

So that this holdeth as the truest and exactest solution, of this and many another such case. He that spendeth that upon an entertainment of some great ones, which should relieve some poor distressed families, that are ready to perish, doth spend it sinfully: If you cannot see this in God's cause, suppose it were the Kings, and you will see it: If you have but twenty pound to spend, and your Tax or Subsidy cometh to so much: If you entertain some Noble friend with that money, will the King be satisfied with that as an excuse? Or will you not be told that the King should have first been served? Remember him then who will one day ask, Have you fed, or clothed, or visited me? Mat. 25. You are not absolute Owners of anything, but the stewards of God! and must expend it as he appointeth you: And if you let the poor lie languishing in necessities, whilst you are at great charges to entertain the rich without necessity or a greater good, you must answer it as an unfaithful Servant.

And yet on the other side, it may fall out that a person of quality, by a seasonable, prudent, handsome, respectful entertainment of his equals or superiors, may do more good than by bestowing that charge upon the poor: He may save more than he expendeth, by avoiding the displeasure of men in power: He may keep up his interest, by which if he be faithful, he may do God and his Country more service, than if he had given so much to the poor. And when really it is a needful means to a greater good, it is a duty: and then to omit it, and give that cost to the poor, would be a sin.

§. 6. Object. But if this rule hold, a man must never do but one kind of good; when he hath found out the greatest, he must do nothing else.

Answ. He must always do the greatest good: but the same thing is not at all times the greatest good. Out of season and measure a good may be turned to an evil: Praying in its season is better than plowing; and plowing in its season is better than praying, and will do more good: For God will more accept and bless it.

§. 7. Object. Therefore it seemeth the prudentest way, to divide my expenses according to the proportion of others of my quality; some to the poor, and some to necessary charges, and some to actions of due civility?

Answ. That there must be a just distribution is no question: because God hath appointed you several duties for your expenses: But the question is of the proportions, of each respectively. Where God hath made many duties constantly necessary (as to maintain your own bodies, your children, to pay tribute to the King, to help the poor, to maintain the charges of the Church) there all must be wisely proportioned. But entertainments, recreations, and other such after to be mentioned, which are not constant duties, may be sometimes good and sometimes sinful: And the measure of such expenses must be varied only by the rule already laid down, viz. According to the proportion of the effect, or good which is like to follow: Though the custom of others of the same rank may sometimes intimate what proportion will be suitable to that lawful end: And sometimes the inordinate custom of others, will rather tell one what is to be avoided. Therefore true prudence (without a carnal bias) comparing the good effects together, which rationally are like to follow, is the only resolver of this doubt. Which having so largely shown, I shall refer you to it, in the solution of many of the following questions.

§. 8. Inst. 3. Another way of sinful wasting is upon unnecessary sumptuous buildings.

Quest. 3. When is it prodigality to erect sumptuous Edifices?

Answ. Not when they are for the public good, either in point of use, or ornament and honor, so be it, no greater good be thereby omitted: Therefore it is not Churches, Hospitals, Burses, or Common Halls that I am speaking of: Nor when they are proportioned to the quality of the person, for the honor of Magistracy, or for a man's necessary use. But when it is for the ostentation of a man's riches, or rather of his Pride, and for the gratifying of a carnal irrational fancy: And when a man bestoweth more upon buildings, than is proportionable to his estate, and to his better expenses; and (to speak more exactly) when he bestoweth that upon his buildings, which some greater service calleth for at that time; it is then his prodigality and sin.

§. 9. Quest. 4. Here once for all, let us inquire, Whether it be not lawful, as in diet, so in buildings, recreation and other such things, to be at some charge for our Delight, as well as for our Necessities?

Answ. The question is thus commonly stated, but not well: For it seemeth to imply, that no Delights are necessary, and so putteth things in opposition, which are oft co-incident. Therefore I distinguish, 1. Of necessity: Some things are necessary to our being, and some to our felicity, and and some but to our smaller benefit! 2. Of Delight: Some delight is sinful, as gratifying a sinful humor or disposition: Some is unnecessary or wholly useless; and some is necessary, either to our greater or our lesser good. And so the true solution is: 1. The sinful delight of a Proud, a Covetous, a lustful, a voluptuous mind, is neither to be purchased or used. 2. A Delight wholly needless, that is, unprofitable, is sinful if it be purchased, but at the price of a farthing, or of a bit of bread, or of a minutes time: Because that is cast away which purchaseth it. 3. A Delight which tendeth to the health of the body, and the alacrity of the mind, to fit it for our Calling and the service of God (being not placed in any forbidden thing) may be both indulged and purchased, so it be not above its worth. 4. So far as delight in house, or sports, or any creature, tendeth to corrupt our minds, and draw us to the love of this present world, and alienate our hearts from Heaven, so far must they be resisted and mortified, or sanctified and turned a better way. 5. In the Utensils of our duty to God, usually a moderate natural delight, is a great help to the duty, and may become a spiritual delight: As a delight in my Books, in the Preachers utterance, in the melody of Psalms, in my study, and its conveniences, in my walk for meditation, &c. And a delight in our food and recreations, maketh them much fitter to cherish health, and to attain their ends; so it be not corrupt, immoderate, or abused to evil ends.

§. 10. Inst. 4. Another way of 〈…〉 rodigality, is in needless costly Recreations.

Quest. 5. Is all cost laid out upon recreations unlawful?

Answ. No: but caeteris paribus, we should choose the cheapest, and be at no needless cost on them: nor lay out anything on them, which consideratis considerandis might be better bestowed. But of this before.

§. 11. Inst. 5. Another way of Prodigality is in over-costly apparel.

Quest. 6. What may be accounted Prodigality in the costliness of apparel?

Answ. Not that which is only for a due distinction of superiors from inferiors, or which is needful to keep up the Vulg • rs reverence to Magistrates. But 1. All that which is merely serviceable to pride, or vain curiosity, or amorous lust, or an affectation to be thought to be more comely and beautiful than others. 2. All that which hath more cost bestowed upon it, than the benefit or end is worth: 3. Or which hath that cost which should be rather laid out another way, upon better uses. The cheapest apparel must be chosen which is warm and comely, and sitted to the right ends. And we must come nearer those that are below our rank, than those above it.

§. 12. Inst. 6. Also Prodigality is much shown in the cost which is laid out for needless pomp and o • temptation of greatness or curiosity, in keeping a numerous retinue, and in their gallantry, and in keeping many Horses, and costly furniture and attendance.

Quest. 7. When is a costly retinue, and other pompous furniture to be accounted Prodigality?

Answ. Not when they are needful to the honor of Magistracy, and so to the Government of the Common-wealth: Nor when it is made but a due means to some lawful end, which answereth the cost. But when it is either the fruits and maintenance of Pride, or exceedeth the proportion of men's estates, or (especially) when it expendeth that which better and more necessary uses call for. It is a most odious and enormous crime, to waste so many hundred or thousand pounds a year, in the vanities of pomp and fruitless curiosities and need-nots, while the public uses of the State and Church are injured through want, and while thousands of poor families are racked with cares, and pinched with necessities round about us.

§. 13. Inst. 7. Another way of Prodigality is that which is called by many, keeping a good house; that is, in unnecessary abundance, and waste of meat and drink, and other provisions.

Quest. 8. When may great house-keeping be accounted prodigality?

Answ. Not when it is but a convenient work of charity, to feed the poor, and relieve the distressed, or entertain strangers, or to give such necessary entertainment to equals or superiors as is before described: But when the truest relief of the poor shall be omitted (and it may be poor Tenants wracked and oppressed) to keep up the fame and grandeur of their abundance, and to seem magnificent, and praised by men for great house-keepers: The whole and large estates of many of the rich and great ones of the world goeth this way, and so much is devoured by it, as starveth almost all good works.

§. 14. Inst. 8. Another way of Prodigality is Cards and Dice, and other gaming; in which whilst men desire to get that which is another's, they lose and waste their own.

§. 15. Inst. 9. Another act of Prodigality is giving over-great portions wi • h children: It being a sinful waste of our Masters stock, to lay it out otherwise than he would have us, and to serve our pride and self-interest in our children, instead of him.

Quest. 9. When may our children's portions be accounted prodigality, or too great?

Answ. Not when you provide for their comfortable living according to your estates, and give them that due proportion which consisteth with the discharge of other duties: But when all that men can get is thought little enough for their children; and the business of their lives is to live in fullness themselves as long as they can, and then to leave that to their posterity which they cannot keep themselves! When this gulf of self-pampering and providing the like for children, devoureth almost all that you can gather, and the poor and other needful uses, are put off with some inconsiderable pittance: And when there is not a due proportion kept between your provision for your children, and the other duties which God requireth of you: Psal. 49. 7, 8, 9, 11, 13. Their inward thought is, that their houses shall be perpetuated, and their dwelling places to generations: they call their Lands after their own names—This their way is their folly; yet their posterity approve their sayings, Psal. 73. 12. Behold, these are the Ungodly, who prosper in the world, they increase in riches: Psal. 17. 14. They have their portion in this life:—They are full of children (or, their children are full,) and they leave the rest of their substance to their babes. A Parent that hath an heir, or other children, so wise, religious and liberal, as that they are like to be more charitable and serviceable to good uses, than any other whom he can trust with his estate; should not only leave such children sufficient for themselves, but enable them as much as he can to do good: For they will be more faithful Trustees to him than strangers. But a Parent that hath but common and untrusty children, should do all the good he can himself, and what he would have done when he is dead, he must commit to them that are more trusty; and allow his children but their proper maintenance. And Parents that have debauched, wicked, ungodly children (such as God commanded them to cause to be put to death, Deut. 21.) should allow them no more than their daily bread, if anything at all (which is their own to dispose of).

§. 16. Inst. 10. Also to be careless in many small expenses or losses, because they are but little things, and to let any such thing be cast away, is sinful prodigality.

Quest. 10. How far is it a duty to be frugal in small matters, and the contrary a sin.

Answ. We must not over-value anything, great or small: nor be sparing out of covetousness: nor yet in an imprudent way, which seemeth to signify baseness and worldliness when it is not so: Nor must we be too tinking in bargaining with others, when every p •• ny which we get by it, is lost to one that needeth it more. But we must see that nothing of any •••• , be lost through satiety, negligence or contempt: For the smallest is part of God's gifts and talents, given us, not to cast away, but to use as he would have us: And there is nothing that is good so small, but someone hath need of it, or some good use or other may be made of it. Even Christ when he had fed thousands by a miracle, yet commanded his Disciples to gather up the broken bread or fragments, that nothing be lost▪ John 6. 12. which plainly showeth that it is a duty which the richest man that is, is not exempted from, to be frugal, and a sin in the greatest Prince to be wasteful of anything that is good: But this must not be in sordid covetousness, but in obedience to God, and to do good to others. He is commendable who giveth liberally to the poor, out of his abundance: But he is much more commendable, who is a good husband for the poor, as worldlings are for themselves; and frugally getteth and saveth as much as he can, and denieth all superfluities to himself and all about him, that he may have the more to give to pious and charitable uses.

§. 17. Inst. 11. Idleness also and negligence in our Callings, is sinful wastefulness and prodigality: When either the pride of Gentility maketh people think themselves too good to labor, or to look after the matters of their families, or slothfulness maketh them think it, a life too toilsome for their flesh to bear. Prov. 18, 9. He that is slothful in his work, is brother to him that is a great waster: These drones consume that which others labor for, but are no gatherers themselves.

§. 18. Quest. 11. Is everyone bound to labor in a Calling?

Answ. This is answered before in its due place Tom. 1. Everyone that is able, rich or poor, must live in some profitable course of pains or labor.

§. 19. Quest. 12. Is it a duty to desire and endeavor to get, and prosper, and grow rich by our labors; when Solomon saith, Labor not to be rich? Prov. 23. 4.

Answ. It is a sin to desire Riches as worldlings and sensualists do, for the provision and maintenance of fleshly lusts, and pride: But it is no sin, but a duty, to labor not only for labor sake, formally resting in the act done, but for that honest increase and provision, which is the end of our labor; And therefore to choose a gainful calling rather than another, that we may be able to do good, and relieve the poor. Eph. 4. 28. Let him labor, working with his hands the thing that is good, that he may have to give to him that needeth.

§. 20. Quest. 13. Can one be prodigal in giving to the Church?

Answ. Yes, if it be in a blind zeal to maintain a useless pomp or superstition: Or if he give that which should be used or given otherwise: But this is a sin that few in these days are in much danger of.

§. 21. Quest. 14. Can one be prodigal in giving to the poor?

Answ. Yes; when it is blindly done, to cherish idleness in wandering beggars; or with a conceit of meriting in point of Commutative Justice, from God: Or when that is given to the poor, which should be given to other uses (as in public tribute, maintenance of children, furtherance of the Gospel, &c. ) But this is a sin that few have need to be restrained from.

§. 22. Quest. 15. May a rich man expend anything upon (otherwise) lawful pomp, or conveniences or pleasures, at such a time, when there are multitudes of poor families in extremity of want? As now, when the flames which consumed London, have left many thousands in distress?

Answ. Doubtless every man should spare as much for the relief of others as he can: And therefore should not only forbear all needless expenses, but those also that are needful but to such conveniences and accommodations as may be spared without a greater hurt, than is the want of such as that charges would relieve. To save the lives of people in want, we must spare anything from ourselves, which our own lives can spare. And to relieve them in their deep poverty, we must abate much more than our superfluities. To expend anything on pride and lust, is a double sin at such a time, when Lazarus is at our doors in want. If that Luke 16. were well studied (wherein it was that the Rich man's sin and danger lay, in being clothed in Purple and Silk, and faring sumptuously every day, while Lazarus wanted) it would make some sensualists wiser than they are.

But yet it must be confessed, that some few persons may be of so much worth and use to the Common-wealth (as Kings and Magistrates,) and some of so little; that the maintaining of the honor and succors of the former, may be more necessary than the saving of the lives of the later. But take heed lest Pride or Cruelty teach you, to misunderstand this, or abuse it for yourselves.

§. 23. There are divers other ways of Prodigality or sinful waste, which I pass by, because they are such as few are concerned in: And my purpose is not to say all that may be said, but all that is needful. (As in needless Music, Physic, Books (which Seneca handsomely reproveth,) Gifts to Servants which need not, in mere ostentation of pride to be well spoken of, and many the like: And in unlawful Wars, which is the greatest sinful waster in all the world.) And as for expenses in debauchery and gross wickedness, as Whoredom, Revenge; in sinful Law Suits, &c. I here pretermit them.

§. 24. Direct. 2. Understand well the Aggravations of this sin of Prodigality: viz.

1. It is a wasting of that which is none of our own, and a robbing God of the use or service due to him in the improvement of his gifts. They are his, and not ours, and according to his pleasure only must be used. 2. It is a robbing the poor of that which the common Lord of the world, hath appointed for them in his Law: And they will have their Action in Heaven against the prodigal. 3. It is an inhumane vice, to waste that upon pleasures, pride and needless things, which so many distressed persons stand in need of. 4. It is an injury to the Common-wealth, which is weakened by the wasteful. And the covetous themselves (that are not oppressors) are much better members of public societies than the prodigal. 5. It seedeth a life of other vice and wickedness. It is a spending God's gifts to feed those lusts which he abhorreth. 6. It usually engageth many others in Trades and labors which are unprofitable, that they may serve the lusts of these sensual prodigals. 7. And in the conclusion it prepareth a sad account, for these wretches when they must answer at the Bar of God, how they have used all his gifts and talents. Remember all these aggravations.

§. 25. Direct. 3. Carefully mortify that greedy fancy, and fleshly lusts, which is the wasting sin, and the devouring gulf. Quench the fire, and you may spare all this fuel. Cure the Feavor or Dropsy, and you may spare both your drink and life. A greedy throat, and a diseased fancy, are never satisfied, till they have wasted the peace of your consciences, with your estates, and brought you to the end of brutish sinners: Wisdom, and duty, and real benefit, are contented with a little: But lust is insatiable: The voluptuous brute saith, I must have my cups, my lusts, my pleasure: And the effeminate vicious fancy of those empty souls, that mind no great and solid things, is still ranging after some vanity or other; and like children, crying for everything that they see another have: And the most needless, yea, burdensome things seem necessary to such: They say, I must needs have this, and I must needs have that, there is no being without it; when nothing needeth it, but a diseased mind, which much more needeth a Cure by grace and true mortification. Subdue pride, and sensuality, and fancy, and you may escape prodigality.

§. 26. Direct. 4. Remember the nearness of your account, and ask your consciences what way of expenses will please you best in the review. Whether at death and judgment it will be to your comfort, to find on your account, [So much laid out on needless bravery, to set out this carcass which is now turning into dust: Item, So much upon proud entertainments of great ones: Item, So much on Cards, and Dice, and Stage-plays; and so much on Hounds and needless pleasures, &c. ] Or rather [So much to promote the preaching of the Gospel: so much to set poor children to Prentice, or to School; so much to relieve distressed families, &c. ] Let Matth. 25. be well read, and your account well thought on.

§. 27. Direct. 5. Keep an account of your expenses, and peruse them before a Fast or a Sacrament: and ask conscience, how it judgeth of them: Yea, ask some holy prudent friend, Whether such proportions are allowable before God, and will be comfortable to you in the day of your extremity. If you are but willing to be cured, such means as these will not be in vain.

CHAP. XXII. Cases and Directions, against injurious Law-Suits, Witnessing and Judgment.

Tit. 1. Cases of Conscience about Law-Suits, and Proceedings.

Quest. 1. IN what cases is it lawful to go to Law with others?

Answ. 1. In case of necessary defense, when the Plaintiff doth compel you to it. 2. When you are entrusted for Orphans or others whom you cannot otherwise right. 3. When your Children, or the Church, or poor, whom you should do good to, are like to suffer, i • you recover not your talent that God hath trusted you with, for such uses, from the hands of unjust men: And they refuse all just arbitrations and other equal means which might avoid such suits. 4. When your own necessity constraineth you to seek your own, which you cannot get by easier means. 5. When your forbearance will do more hurt, by encouraging Knaves in their injustice, than it will do good. 6. When ever your cause is just, and neither Mercy, peace, nor the avoiding of scandal do forbid it: That is, when it is like to do more good than harm, it is then a lawful course.

But it is unlawful to go to Law, 1. When you neglect just arbitrations, patience, and other needful means to avoid it. 2. When your Cause is unjust. 3. When you oppress the poor by it. 4. When it is done in Cove • ousness, revenge or pride. 5. When the scandal or hurt to your Brother, is like to be a greater harm, than the righting of yourself is like to do good: Then must you not go willingly to Law.

Quest. 2. May I sue a poor man for a debt, or trespass?

Answ. 1. If he be so poor as that he cannot pay it, nor procure you satisfaction, the Suit is vain, and tendeth but to cruelty. 2. If he have no means to pay, but that which will deprive him of food, and raiment, and the necessaries of his life or comfort, you may not sue him, unless it be for the supply of as great necessities of your own; or in a trust for Orphans, where you have no power to remit the debt: yea, and for them, no cruelty must be used. 3. If your forbearance be like to make him able • by his diligence or other means, you should forbear if possible. 4. But if he be competently able, and refuse to pay through knavery and injustice, and you have better ways to use that money, if scandal forbid not, you may seek by Law to recover your own from him.

Quest. 3. May I sue a Surety whose interest was not concerned in the case?

Answ. If his poverty make it not an act of cruelty, nor scandal prohibit it, you may: Because he was willing, and declared his consent, that you should have the debt of him, if the principal pay not. To become Surety, is to consent to this: And it is no injury to receive a man's money by his own consent and Covenant. He knew that you had not lent it but on those terms; and you had reason to suppose, that he who would undertake to pay another man's debt, had sufficient reason for it, either in relation, or counter-security. But as you must use mercy to the principal debtor, in his poverty, so must you also to the surety.

Quest. 4. May I sue for the use of money as well as for the principal?

Answ. This dependeth on the Case of Usury before resolved. In those cases in which it may not be taken, it may not be sued for: Nor yet when the scandal of it will do more harm, than the money will do good. But in other cases, it may be sued for on the terms as the Rent of Lands may.

Quest. 5. May Law-Suites be used to disable or humble an insolent wicked man?