THE ARRAIGNMENT AND CONVICTION OF usury. THAT IS, The iniquity, and unlawfulness of usury, displayed in six Sermons, preached at Saint Edmunds Bury in Suffolk, upon Proverb. 28. 8. By MILES MOSS, Minister of the word, and Bachelor of Divinity. Seen and allowed by authority. The especial contents of this book, are declared in the page next before the treatise itself. Read all, or censure none. Ambros. lib. de Tobia. Cap. 10. Nihil interest inter Funus, & Foenus: Nihil inter mortem distat, & sortem: Personat funebrem ululatum, foenoris usura. AT LONDON Printed by the widow Orwin, for Thomas Man. 1595. TO THE MOST REVEREND FATHER IN GOD, JOHN ARCHBISHOP OF CANTVRburie, Primate of all England, and Metropolitan, and one of the LL. of her majesties most Honourable privy Counsel: Miles Moss wisheth the increase of all the graces of God, necessary to true godliness in this life, and to everlasting salvation in the life to come. THe inscription and dedication of books, to men of note and regard in their time, either for religion, or virtue, or learning, or authority: is well known to your Grace, (Right Honourable and most reverend father,) for continuance to be very ancient, and for use to be exceeding profitable. Ancient it is, as appeareth by the writings of the fathers. Damascene dedicateth one of his treatises to the a Tractat. de Logica. Bishop of Maiume, another to the b Introductio dignitatum elementaris. Bishop of Laodicea. Arnobius inscribeth his commentaries upon the Psalms, c Arnob. Prologue. Com. in Psal. Charissimis Patribus, Laurentio & Rustico Episcopis: To his dear father's Laurentius and Rusticus Bishops. d Lactant. ins●it. lib. 1. ca 1. Lactantius his Institutions, unto Constantine the Emperor. justinus Martyr, his treatise e just. Mart. de verit christ relig. tom. 2. of the truth of Christian Religion, to Marcus Pompeius. Saint Augustine, some of his books f Enchirid. tom. 3. ad Laurentium, some g De spirit. & litera tom. 3. ad Marcellinum, some h De mendacio. tom. 4. ad Consentium, some i Contra duas Epist. pelagianorum. tom. 7. ad Bonifacium: some particularly directed to one man, & some unto another. Yea S. Luke himself, though he wrote (as did also the other Evangelists) k 2. Tim. 3.16. by special inspiration: yet he entitleth the Acts of the Apostles, l Act. 1.1. unto one Theophilus, m Gualther. hom. 1. in Act. 1. some special familiar friend of his, or a man of special note for his faith & religion in the church, as most learned men have observed on that place. That he must needs be a man of great ignorance, and small reading, who will judge it to be the newfangledness or vainglory of this age, for men to consecrated their labours, and dedicated their studies, to the honour and service of their superiors. And as this custom is very ancient, so is it also exceeding profitable. For first, the sacred memory of worthy men, is by the continuance of the books that are dedicated unto them, preserved from forgetfulness, and challenged from the ruin of time. Which time, if it grow to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. Old and long continued, n Sophocles, Ajax. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉: (as he saith in Sophocles,) it will as well overwhelm with darkness, things which are now lightsome and glorious, as it will reveal and bring to light, things that yet lie hidden and unknown. The greatest men, for want of memorial have in continuance of time, been buried in oblivion. Secondly, this cannot but cheer up and encourage men of virtue and of godliness, to persever and to grow old in goodness, when they see that their persons are regarded of men that now live, and their names are like (by the books which are now dedicated unto them,) to be registered, and recorded to the generations to come. For, although virtue be a thing worthy to be affected, and laboured after of and for itself, because o August. de lib. arbit. lib. 2. Cap. 18. it is one of the greatest good things that fall into the nature of man: and there is not any substance which we possess, p Isocrates paraines. ad Demonicum. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, Either more honourable, or more durable than virtue: Yet such is the corruption and wretchedness of our nature, that we are hardly induced thereto, or upholden therein, without casting some eye, towards carnal respects, and seeking therein some outward benefit. — q Juvenal. lib. 4. Satyr. 10. Quis enim virtutem amplectitur ipsam, Praemia si tollas? The orator said well, r Cicero Rhetor. lib. 3. Neque solum laudis causa rectum sequi convenit, No man should (& wise men will not) follow right and goodness only for praise and commendation. Sed si laus consequitur, duplicatur recti appetendi voluntas. But yet, if commendation and honour do follow of well doing, the desire and appetite of goodness is doubled and increased. Thirdly, by the learning and authority of those to whom books are dedicated, the books themselves are protected from the causeless censures of the ignorant, and the biting teeth of the Carper. hesiod feigned that s Hesiod. in Theogonia. Momus was begotten, or brought forth of the night, for that, (as I suppose) he walketh in darkness, & stingeth in silence as a serpent in the grass. Now, as the brightness of the sun dispelleth the darkness of the night: so the honour, yea the very name of a mighty man restraineth the malice of the Carper. Maiestas vindex veritatis: Authority will support that truth, which otherwise by the malice of men would be trodden under feet. Hecuba told Ulysses, that his worthiness and estimation (〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉) was such, and so great, that he was able to persuade whatsoever he would: yea t Euripides traged. Hecuba. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, though he spoke the things that were evil and unjust. How much more than shall the patronage, of a great and honourable man, give countenance, and credit, and safe conduct to a treatise, the matter whereof is sound, and the publishing whereof is profitable. These and some other respects have caused me to resolve, to commend this my poor labour, and endeavour unto the defence and protection of some worthy parsonage: yea though I knew right well, that u 3. Ez●a. 4.14. The truth is great and prevaileth of itself, and God the author of truth is all sufficiently able to defend it. And among all others, to present it to your Grace and favour, for these reasons and causes following. First, the question of usury, being controverted in these days among many (and those very learned) divines: requireth and needeth an arbitrer of much reading, experience, and moderation. Oecolampadius said, x O●colampad. Epist. 16. lib. 1. De usuris judicare non est omnium: Every man is not a fit judge in this cause of usury. And y Aristot. Topic. lib. 2. if no man chooseth a young man for a judge, or a guide: Quia non constat eos esse prudentes, because there is not sufficient evidence of their wisdom: then should I have showed myself a very young man, if I had chosen any that is young, either in years, or learning, or experience, to be a determinor of this controversy, or a protector of this cause. Secondly, your Grace is reported to be one, who neither dareth, nor taketh upon usury, which is not in this age every such man's commendation. And therefore being free from the guiltiness of this sin, you may the more freely give sentence upon the ungodliness thereof. z Ambros. super Beati immaculati. & habetur 3. quaest. 7. judicet. judicet ille de alterius e●●ore (saith S. Ambrose) q●● non habet in seipso quod condemnet: judicet, qui non agit eadem quae in alio putaverit punienda. Let him judge of an other man's default, who hath not the same fault to condemn in himself: Let him judge of another, who committeth not the same things which he deemeth worthy the punishing in another. Thirdly, your place and calling hath given you a special stroke in the maintenance of the laws of the Church of England: by which laws, and which Church, usury is simply and generally prohibited. And therefore you the fittest man to patronize those, whose writings do condemn it. a Polyanth. tit. Lex. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Menander. The Magistrate is the strength of the law: And then shall the Canons of the Church concerning usury be reverenced and regarded, when by those that are Church governors they be urged and maintained. If it shall please your Grace to take a view of this treatise, you shall found these two things observed throughout the whole course of the same. The one, that in this question of usury, I have not declined (as touching the general conclusion) from the received judgement 〈◊〉 the ancient Divines: nor delivered any thing contrary to the Canons of our Church. Secondly, that I have not entered into any by controversies not pertinent to this purpose. For I deemed it the part of a scholar, to hold him to his task, (as the Proverb is,) and to pursue without unnecessary digressions, the purpose that he hath in hand. What labour I have taken, and what authors I have turned over in studying of this argument myself only know, and it were in vain to brag or to boast of them, especially to your Grace. What I have attained unto herein by my labour and reading, I leave unto your grave and reverend censure. If it please you to accept this mine endeavour, I have my full desire: If to protect it, the benefit which the Church reapeth thereby (if happily it prove any) shall be ascribed to your gracious favour. The almighty God continued and increase upon you the riches of his grace, to the glory of his name, to the benefit of his Church, and the public wealth of this realm, through jesus Christ our lord Bury S. Edmund's this first of januarie. 1595. Your Grace's most humble, always at commandment in the lord MILES MOSS. To the Christian Reader. IT is a sound position both of a August contra mendacium ad Consent. cap. 15 Hieron. contra jovin. lib 2. the elder, and the b Tho. Aquin. 12ae. quaest. 73. art. 2. Bulling. Decad. 3. ser. 10. latter Divines, against the Stoic Philosophers, and jovinian heretics; Peccata non esse paria: that all sins are not equal but that there are some greater, some smaller, some lighter, some heavier offences. For, as all sins are not of the same nature: so all men sin not in the same measure and degree. Among other degrees, and diversity of offences, some sin of ignorance and know it not: and that is natural weakness. Others know that they sin, and excuse it: and that is little better than presumption. Others cannot excuse their sin, but rage and storm against those that reprove it: and that differeth not much from malice. David sinned often, and knew it not, therefore he desireth to be c Psal. 19.12. cleansed from his secret faults. Adam saw his sin and excused it: d Gen. 3.12. The woman gave me, and I did eat. e 1. King. 13.4. jeroboam could not excuse his sin, and yet he stretched out his hand to offer violence, to the Prophet that reproved his Idolatry. Now all these degrees, and differences of sin, are in no one more pregnant or evident, then in this evil of Usury. For, some commit usury, not knowing it to be sin: either because they have not the word, or they use not the word for the enlightening of their hearts. Those that be ignorant for want of the word, are without question much to be pitied: and yet is their want that way, the just punishment of sin. Those that are ignorant for not using the word, are sharply to be reproved as those whose ignorance acrewing from their own negligence, is mere sin unto them. f August. ad Sextum Rom. presbyt. epist. 100L. In utrisque non est justa excusatio, sed justa condemnatio, saith Augustine: Neither of both can justly be excused: nay, either of both is justly to be condemned. Others commit usury, and stand to excuse it: alleging for themselves, either the authority of men, which is little, or the example of others, which is less. Or again, either endeavouring to prove the thing good which is fearful, or pretending that they cannot otherwise live, which is miserable To them that object other men's authority, I answer, as Lactantius did to the Gentiles, who grounded their religion upon the authority of their ancestors: g Lactant. de Origine erroris lib. 2. cap. 7. Id solum rectum est, quod ratio praescribit: Not that which men say, but that which reason warranteth, is right and to be approved. To them that allege examples, I answer with the ancient proverb, Vivitur praeceptis non exemplis: We must live by precepts, and not by examples. And with that of Moses in Exodus, h Exod. 23.2. Thou shalt not follow a multitude to do evil. To them which justify usury to be lawful, I stand not here to make answer: for to that end serveth the treatise following. Only, I apply unto them, that which Cyprian spoke of some teachers of his time, i Cyprian. de Simplicitate praelatorum. Ambulantes in tenebris, habere se lucem existimant: Walking in darkness, they suppose they have the light. Asserentes noctem pro die, interitum pro salute: They hold the night for day, and destruction for salvation. Vt dum verisimilia mentiuntur, veritatem subtilitate frustrentur: That while they feign and devise an opinion, somewhat like to be true, they may annihilate the truth itself by their subtleties. To them that pretend, they cannot otherwise live, I reply, that either they must accuse nature for an unjust stepmother, (which one of the Fathers k Lactant. de Opificio Dei. cap. 3. counted a point of great folly:) or they must accuse their parents for want of frugal education, which were undutifulness in a child: Or rather themselves of sloth and idleness, (which indeed is the usurers sin:) Or last, they must say as those that excuse themselves by destiny, l August. in Psal. 91. Fatum m●●m ●e duxit▪ It was my destiny, I was borne, or I was ordained to live by usury. Others, yet there are, who knowing the practice to be evil, and themselves not being able to excuse it, they turn their nose upon the very wind, like the weathercock, and like mad men rage at those that would bind them for their benefit: and are like the swine of which Christ speaketh in the Gospel, m Matth. 7.6. who when they have pearls thrown before them, turn again, and all to rend those that cast them. This third kind of Usurers, as they are the worst in nature, and in the highest degree of sin: so are they those of whom I have most cause to complain▪ There is no Usurer about us (that I know) so simple and ignorant, but he can relate what is said against usury in the word. And on the other side, there is none so well learned about us, (I dare avouch) that is able to justify and defend it by the word. And yet have they so raged and stormed at me since the preaching of these sermons: that I had almost waxed proud with conceit that I had spoken much against them. For▪ as it is the nature of the greater and stronger beasts, to despise the barking whelp and then only to turn again when they feel themselves bitten and touched indeed: so I began to conceive of these Usurers, that because now they stormed therefore they were stung: and because they fretted earnestly, therefore they were touched thoroughly. If that be true which is reported, (for I have not vouchsafed to fift and examine the cause) some have vowed the answer of my book before it cometh forth: some are said to have many a reason already devised against it in their brain▪ some have threatened that I shall never borrow: some have slandered me behind my back: some have spoken foul things to my face: yea, I have been bitten and backbitten, as one said of me publicly of late, M.K. in mine own pulpit. The best and most temperate men of that trade, though before they seemed desirous to hear the cause debated: yet since that time they have dealt with me, as Laban dealt with jacob, when he saw how God had blessed him: n Genes. 31.2. their countenance hath not been towards me, Sicut heri & nudiustertius. So dangerous a thing was it to charm a serpent, and to rouse the slumbering lion: and so truly was it said of Hierome, o Hierom. contra jovin. lib 2 Amara est veritas, & qui eam praedicant replentur amaritudine: The truth is bitter and unsavoury unto the corrupt tastes of men: and they that preach it, are filled with bitterness. Veritas odium parit. Yea, whereas I thank God, I may say without boasting, as did the Prophet, p jere. 15.10. I have neither lent nor taken upon usury: (for I have followed my calling, and not busied myself much with the affairs of the world, which Tremellius rightly noteth to be the sense of that place) yet have there not wanted some, that have charged me with both, and have under that name censured me as one most unfit to deal in this argument: because (as they say) I have lent and taken upon usury. Now, God be merciful unto me in mine other offences: but had he no more in other, than they in this sin to say against me: I might lift mine head full high, & carry mine heart full merri●▪ The joining of issue with them in this point, I defer, till 〈…〉 in a further declaration. All that I will say for the present is this. If I were guilty of taking usury, I protest I would not justify it: If I were guilty of giving usury, I would swear, and vow it was against my william. But, say I were guilty of the former, and had lent upon usury when my judgement was lesser, q Act. 17.30. The time of this ignorance God regarded not: And what I have been in times passed, maketh nothing to them. Say I were guilty of the latter, and had taken upon usury, when my necessity was greater: they know the case is overruled by the Philosopher, r Aristot. Ethic. lib. 5 cap. 11. Qui iniuriam patitur non peccat: He that suffereth the wrong, offendeth not. And the great schoolman hath determined in this point, s Thomas Aquin. 22ae. quaest. 78. art. 4. Vti peccato alterius ad bonum, licitum est: It is a lawful thing to use another man's sin, to good end and purpose. But the sum of that point is this: If I have done both, or either of both, that helpeth not their cause: If I have not done both, nor neither of both, the greater is their sin. Two things I require of the good Christian reader. The one: that thou stumble not at the title of this treatise. So many having written of this argument, it was not the easiest thing to find a name whereby to distinguish it from other men's labours. All that I have aimed at therein is, that nomen might be rei notamen, (as t August. de Genesi ad literam cap. 6. tom. 3. S. Augustine speaketh) that is, that the title of the book might deliver the substance and matter therein contained. Other quilitie or new devise I have affected none. The other is this: that thou hold it not strange to see, that after The Death of Usury, published the last year by one man, thou hast now the year following his Arraignment and Conviction by another. For first, many times it falleth out, that malefactors are executed before their examination, Arraignment and Conviction be published to the world. Secondly, The death of Usury came forth from Cambridge, where I hope no less but it is dead indeed. Scholars have not so great store of money that they can, nor so little store of learning that they will be practisers of Usury. — Ingenuas didicisse fideliter arts Emollit mores. But this Arraignment and Conviction of Usury, cometh forth from London: where though it hath in former time been pleaded against by D. Wilson, concluded against by M. Caesar, and now of later times reproved by M. Turnbull, and examined by M. Smith: yet is it not hitherto thoroughly convicted in the consciences of the people, much less put to death and executed as it should. Thirdly, we see that judges of life and death, do not all hold their Sessions or Assizes at one and the same time. But when some have executed felons in one shire: some begin their arraignment in another. And therefore what shall let me to follow their example, and after the Assizes ended, and usury executed at Cambridge, to proceed on to The Arraignment and Conviction thereof, in the city of London. This I speak not, as if I could speak nothing else in this case, but as sparing and pitying the Author of that treatise, who hath ploughed with my heifer, and whose books have been published under my name, to my great prejudice and discredit. But I remember what Solomon saith: u P●o. 29.11. A fool poureth out all his mind: but a wiseman keepeth it till afterward. All therefore that I will add is this, If this book benefit thee, thank God that gave the means. If it offend thee, yet know that I meant well, and aimed at thy good, and have written without gall unto any man's person. And so I bid thee farewell in Christ. This 6. of February 1594. Thy in the Lord, Miles Moss. The names of the special Authors used in this treatise: besides the books of the holy and Canonical Scriptures. A. AELianus. Alciatus. Alexander de Alice Alexand. ab Alexand. Alphonsus. Ambrose. Anthoninus. Appianus. Aquileius. T. Aquinas. Archidiaconus. Aretius. Aristophanes. Aristoteles. Arnobius. Augustinus. B. Babington. Baldus. Balsamon. Barnardus. Barthol. Caepol. Basilius. Bastinguius. Bertrandus. Beza. G. Biel. Bodinus. Boemus Aubanus. Brentius. joh. Bromyard. Bucerus. Bullingerus. C. Caelius Secundus. Caietanus. Calvinus. Canon's Apost. Canon's London. Centuriae. Chemnitius. Chrysostomus. Chytreus. Cicero. Clemens Alexandrinus. Codex. Concilium Agathense. Concilium Arelatense. Concilium Carthaginense. Concilium Elebertinum. Concilium Lateranense. Concilium Lugdunense. Concilium Nicenum. M. Cope. Cyprianus. D. Damascenus. Danaeus. Didacus' Covar. Digesta. E. Erasmus Roterod. H. E●banus. Euripides. F. P. Fagius. B. Fumus. G. Galatinus. Galenus. Glanuile. Goffredus. Gratianus. Gregorius Nazianzenus. Gregorius Nissenus. Gregorius Theologus. Gualtherus. H. Hemingius. Herbrandus. Hesiodus. Hieronimus. Homerus. Hostiensis. Hugo Cardinalis. L. Humfredus. I. B. jewel. josephus. Isocrates. Juvenalis. justinianus. justinus Martyr. K. Io. Knewstub. L. Lactantius. Io. Langius. Lavaterus. Leo. Lipsius. Ludolphus. Lutherus. Lycosthenes. Lyra. M. Marloratus. Martinus ab Azpilc. P. Martyr. Mattheus Parisiensis. Melacthon. Menander. Mercerus. Molanus. Molineus. Monumenta patrùm. Muscales. N. Natalis C●mes. Io. Northbroke. O. Oecolampadius. Origines. P. Pagninus. Panormitanus. Pellicanus. F. Petrarcha. Petrus de Anchorano. Philo. Plato. Plautus. Plinius. Plutarch. Polyanthea. Pomeranus. Postilla maior. R. Rainerus. Raimundus. Ruffinus. S. Sarcerius. Scotus. Selneccerus. R. Selomo. Sextus decretalium. Sophocles. Sozomenus. Statuta Regni Angliae. Ph. Stubs. Suetonius. Suidas. Summa Angel. de Clavas. Survey of pretended discipline. Synodus Hildesheimensis. T. C. Tacitus. Theophilactus. Tremellius. V Vatablus. Viguerius. Virgilius. Vrsinus. W. B. Westhemerus. Wigandus. D. Wilson. Wittebergenses theses. Wolfius. X. Xistus Betul●ius. Z. Zanchius. Zegedinus. Zuingerus. Zuinglius. TO THE READER. I Desire thee good reader not to ascribe this my recital of authors to pride or affectation of vain glory. I am occasioned thereunto by one, who taking the names of my mouth, and not understanding them, hath published them in print far otherwise than they were delivered by me, or they are in themselves. Farewell. In this treatise, are handled these four principal points. 1. Usury is described, what it is, and what are the kinds and branches thereof. Pag. 10. 2. It is proved to be manifestly forbidden by the word of God: and sundry reasons are alleged, why it is justly and worthily condemned. Pag. 75. 3. The objections are answered, which are usually made out of the Scriptures, for the defence of some kind of usury, and towards some kind of persons. Pag. 112. 4. diverse causes are showed why usury should not be practised of a christian (especially not of an English man) no not though it could be proved, that it is not simply forbidden in the Scriptures. Pag. 145. The Arraignment and Conviction of Usury. THE TEXT. Proverb. 28.8. He that increaseth his riches by usury and interest, gathereth them for him that will be merciful to the poor. The first Sermon: the special contents whereof are these: 1 The interpreting and unfolding of the text. 2 The necessity and occasion of handling this argument. 3 The name derivation▪ kind's and branches of Usury. 4 The definition of open and actual Usury. THere he two things very requisite to a Preacher of the word: the one that the Scripture which he handleth be sound interpreted: the other that the doctrine which he delivereth from it, be directly and necessarily collected. The neglect of the former is the occasion of errors, and to want the latter is to build without foundation. And therefore before I proceed to the handling of the matter and argument contained in this scripture, some things are of necessity to be observed concerning the sense and interpretation of the words. First this is not so fitly translated, by usury and interest: for neither is usury and interest all one (as afterwards shall appear) neither is interest condemned by the word of God. And besides that, this reading, by usury and interest, agreeth not either with the original, or with any of the interpreters. For the Hebrew hath Beneshech vetarbith: and the Greek hath 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉: Tremellius, Pagnine, and other of the Latins translate it Vsura & foenore. Now neither Tarbith in the Hebrew, nor 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Greek, nor Foenus in the Latin, can properly be interpreted, Interest in the English: But rather Superabundantia, or Incrementum, or Augmentum, that is, Superabundance, or Increase, as Vatablus hath well observed on this place. And yet is this defect favourably to be censured, yea easily to be pardoned in our English translators: partly in regard of the want of our English tongue, whose penury affordeth not always two several words to express one and the same thing: partly because the old translation readeth it, Vsura & foenore liberali. Now Foenus liberale, is often given (at the lest it may be given) in consideration of Interest: and partly also because the use and custom of speaking hath confounded the sense of these two words in our usual language. We say commonly, he taketh upon Interest, he payeth Interest, he dareth upon Interest: when our meaning and intendment is to say, he taketh upon usury, he payeth usury, he dareth for usury. And therefore the words being confounded in our common use of speech, no marvel though they be coupled and united together of the interpreters in this place. Secondly, as touching the meaning of this Scripture, we are to know that when Solomon saith here, the usurer gathereth his riches for him that will be merciful to the poor, this is not spoken according to the mind and intendment of the usurer, as if this were his desire or purpose in gathering of his wealth, that he might have whereof to be liberal and to give alms unto the needy. For first, the covetous man doth nothing well, but when he dieth, saith the ancient Proverb. Secondly, usury is a sin which shutteth up compassion, as after shall appear. And thirdly, where shall you find men less pitiful than are usurers to the poor? But this is spoken of Solomon in respect of the providence of God, which oftentimes maketh good use of riches evil gotten: and so disposeth of the issue of things, as that the wealth which the owner hordeth up by evil means (namely by usury) he draweth forth to good purpose, namely to the benefit of the poor. But now, how and by what means God converteth the usurers wealth to the relieving of the needy, that is the doubt and question which ariseth to be resolved in this place. One of the a Rab. Sel. ex Tanhuma, referent Mercero. in Pro. 28 8. Rabbins referreth it, ad magistratum & fiscum, to the confiscation of the usurers goods unto the Magistrate: for thereunto we see that the riches and wealth of great men are many times devolved. God often suffereth men which by evil means have gathered their riches, to fall into the danger of politic penal laws and so to forfeit their goods to the crown: whereof it cometh (or it may come) to pass, that of those goods so gathered and so forfeited by iniquity, the poor may be relieved, high ways may be repaired, public charges may be defrayed, the burden of the Church and of the common weal may be eased to the people. And so, He that increaseth his riches by usury and interest, gathereth them for him that will be merciful to the poor. b F. Vatablus annot. in Pro. 28.8. Others refer this unto the government and sentence of the Magistrate: as if Solomon would speak to this effect and purpose. An usurer shall by his riches evil gathered together, thus help and relieve the poor. The good and godly magistrate seeing him by so evil and ungodly means rake wealth together into his hands, will enact such laws, and take such order as shall defeat him of his wealth, and will more profitably, and more righteously employ it: namely (among other particulars) to the relieving of the poor. c L. Lauater comment. in Pro. 28.8. Others refer this speech unto the usurers heir, or to him to whom the usurer leaveth and bequeath his goods. He shall leave them to a liberal man that will be merciful unto the poor. Now though I condemn not this sense, yet I do not so much approve it, partly because an usurer will hardly be induced to bequeath his goods to him who he feareth will mercifully and liberally employ them: and partly because that though the father that putteth to usury may sometimes have a kind and a merciful son as appeareth by the d Ezech. 18.14 17. Prophet: yet to behold this is almost as rare a thing as it is to see a black Swan floating on the waters. For commonly such egg such chicken, such sire such child: the father an usurer, the son unmerciful. And therefore I rather follow those e Con. Pelican. comment. in Prou. 28.8. who not descending into any particular means (because they are infinite in the hand of God) do generally apply this sentence unto his holy providence. As if he had said: God hating the usurer and condemning his course, doth one way or other defeat him and his of their hope and expectation, and the goods which he gathereth by oppressing of the poor, those he conveyeth to another which of a merciful mind will be liberal to the poor. So that this sentence of Solomon is almost all one with that which else where he hath in this book of the Proverbs. f Prou 13.22. The riches of the sinner is laid up for the just. And with that which Zophar speaketh in the book of job: g job. 20.15. Hec hath devoured substance, and he shall vomit it: for God shall draw it out of his belly. And with that which Luther speaketh in his treatise of Usury: h M. Luther. lib. de taxanda usura tom. 7. Nec unquam opes usuris partae, sunt durabiles & perpetuae, Richeses gotten by usury are never permanent or durable. For one way or other, sooner or later, the Lord by his providence will defeat the usurer of them: and convey them into the hands of those, which of charity will employ them to the benefit of the poor. That whereas the usurer careth not who waxeth poor so he may grow rich, nay taketh the way to devour the poor, nay is the means to make the rich poor: he himself and his substance shall (far beyond his meaning and expectation) be made a means to ease, and help, and relieve the poor. As here Solomon saith: He that increaseth, etc. So that the drift of the holy Ghost in this Scripture is to dissuade from the practising of usury: and that he doth by an argument drawn from the miserable effect which shall betide such riches so gathered in the end. Namely, that whereas men gather riches with a purpose and desire that they may abide to themselves, and to their posterity: yea and whereas, commonly and ordinarily men by the wealth, that they lawfully procure, do maintain themselves, relieve others, and provide for their children in time to come: it shall by the hand of GOD fall out far otherwise with the usurer, his wealth shall be taken from him, yea it may be from all that are his, and cast as it were into the lap of one that will be merciful to the poor. This scripture therefore giveth (as we see) direct occasion to entreat of usury: than which there are not many arguments more necessary or profitable to be handled in these days. For first, lending upon usury is grown so common and usual among men, as that free lénding to the needy is utterly overthrown. i M. Bucer comment in Psal. 15. Eò res abijt (saith Bucer) ut impudens habeatur qui mutuum petat citra foenoris oblationem: The world is grown to that pass, that he is counted a shameless man which maketh request to borrow without offering of usury. Secondly, men are grown so cunning and expert to do evil, that because they know usury is forbidden by the laws both of God and men, k Gratian. decret. part 2. cause. 14. quaest. 3 Nolunt facere contra legem, sed faciunt fraudem legi (saith Gratian:) They will not break the law for fear of danger: but they will deceive the law without fear of God. And to defeat the law, to blear the eyes of the world, and to avoid danger l Master Smith Serm. 1. upon usury, fol. 12. they have devised more sorts of usury then there are tricks at cards, as one saith well writing of this argument. Thirdly, men are not only grown to this pass, that they colour and cloak this sin with a pretence of righteousness: but some have so far forgotten themselves, as that they run on openly to defend it. m Lavat. comment in Ezec. 2. Homil. 5. Nostro tempore (saith Lauater) non desunt homines à quibus ebriet as, scortatio, usurae, & alia scelerae impudentissimè defenduntur: Our age wanteth not men of whom drunkenness, whoredom, usury, & other heinous crimes are most impudently defended. Defended? nay: n Luther de tax usur. tom. 7 Praedicatur plaenis buccis summam esse virtutem, & opus praeclarum (saith Luther:) Usury is commended with full mouth to be an excellent virtue, a notable work: a most reasonable gain: a trade without which no common weal can stand or endure. So deeply have some men surfeited with feeding upon the poisoned gain of usury. Now when as men are grown to this height and excess of iniquity, that they will not lend but upon usury, they will cover and cloak it with pretence of just dealing, they will defend it, nay they will commend it to the world: high time it is that the Lords men of war take into their hands o Ephesi. 6.17. the sword of the spirit which is the word of God, if not to cut the throat of this evil (for that seemeth to some to be impossible) yet to hack it and maim it in the members, and to make it hung the head: lest it be a reproach unto us in the generations to come, that so gross and palpable a sin hath passed uncomptrolled. If any man demand a reason why after so many that have laboured in this argument, and among so many brethren in this country more able to deal in such a cause then myself: I the most unworthy and insufficient of a great number have presumed to set foot into this floor, and to wage battle with so many and so mighty adversaries: him I do desire with patience and charity to hear this Apology in mine own behalf. First, I have been challenged more than once for the doctrine which sometimes in preaching I have been supposed to deliver concerning usury. As that I have called it Theft and Robbery: which notwithstanding I have not done: but sometimes have showed that it is forbidden under this commandment p Exod. 20.15. Thou shalt not steal: sometimes I have alleged the judgement of q Io. jewel Ser. in 1. Thess. 4.6. B. jewel, who not only calleth it Theft, but maketh it worse than Theft by many degrees. And had I plainly called it Theft, I might have had the authority of Ambrose, of Augustine, of Hierome, of Bernhard, of divers godly and learned writers to have supported the truth of that accusation. Secondly, I have been challenged, that sometimes in preaching I have coupled and recited usury with the most grievous offences: as namely with Adultery, Drunkenness, Perjury, Oppression, Extortion, and such like. Now this I have done I confess: but I have not done it of private malice to any usurers person, nor without the precedent and example of many notable men both holy and profane. r Tulli. de office lib. 1. Tully reckoneth Usurers with Toll-takers and Customers, a kind of men in those days of most base account and filthy conversation, as may be gathered even out of the holy scriptures. s D Wilson fol. 147. Aristotle saith, that Usurers and Bawds may well go together: for they gain by filthy means all that they get. t August. de baptis contra Donatist. lib. 4 cap. 2. Saint Augustine coupleth them with Covetous men and thieves. u W. Musculus come. in joh. 4.12. Musculus joineth Usury with Deceit and Perjury: x Lauater in Ezech. 2. hom. 5 Lauater reciteth it with Drunkenness and Adultery. So common a thing hath it always been among learned men to fetter Usurers with the vilest offenders, as those that deserved most shameful disgrace. Thirdly, I have been challenged, that in preaching against Usury, I have alleged nor could allege nothing against it but the 15 Psalm. A challenge most false and untrue. For in catechizing I have stood upon Exod. 22. Levit. 25. Deut. 23. and some other places to that purpose. And if I could allege no more than the 15. Psalm, yet were that alone sufficient to stop the mouths of all the Usurers in the world: seeing that y 2. Tim. 3.16. The whole scripture is given by inspiration of God, and z 2. Pet. 2.20. no prophecy in the scripture is of any private motion. But now, what I am able to allege more against usury then the 15. Psalm, shall by God's grace appear in this treatise following. Last of all, besides that I have been thus sundry ways challenged (and so justly provoked) to deal more largely and thoroughly in the matter: this also is to be added as not the lest spur to prick me forward thereunto: namely, that I have been called forth and required to this business, not only of many of the common sort of men (which notwithstanding were not to be neglected) but also most of the Brethrens about me, and some even of the best gifts and account, have exhorted me to begin, and encouraged me to continued this argument and treatise of usury. Three things I would require of this Auditory, during the time of this treatise and the handling of this controversy. First, that you expect not from me much fervency of spirit or vehemency of speech. For I do willingly abstain from all appearance of heat or choler conceived against any particular man practising this trade of usury. And besides that, fervency and vehemency of speech do belong more naturally to admonition, reprehension, and exhortation: whereas I must now be wholly taken up in doctrine, and reasons, and allegations. Secondly, my petition is, that I may without offence make recital of Doctors, of Counsels, of Civilians, of Canonists, in a word, of writers of all sorts, of all times, of all religions. A thing which I am not wont (you know) much to affect in my usual ministery: yet must I now of necessity use some liberty in that vain, not only because the matter is disputable between the greatest men of learning on both opinions: but also because the question is greater concerning both the scriptures alleged, and the reasons used in this case, than I may presume to define or determine by mine own authority. You shall therefore rather hear what their judgements and arguments are whose opinion I favour: than what myself can say, or might say, or dare say, in so difficult a question. Thirdly, my desire is, that you which are now present, and have begun with patience to attend upon this business, will vouchsafe also your presence at other times when this argument shall be handled, and continued hearers even unto the end. For wise men know that all cannot be delivered at once: especially in so large a field, wherein so many have run their race at length with much variety of style and plenty of invention. And beside, that which is wanting in one sermon may be supplied in another: that which is spoken more darkly and slenderly at one time, may be unfolded more clearly and prosecuted more fully at another. Therefore until you have heard all, I desire that you suspend your judgement concerning all: yea and when in the end any slip shall appear, ascribe it not to wilfulness, but to ignorance, not to malice, but to oversight. For I say as he of old: Errare possum, Haereticus esse nolo. The first principal point, declaring what the word usury signifieth: how many ways it is taken: what it importeth in this argument: how many kinds and branches there are thereof. Lastly, usury is described, and the parts of the description are examined and unfolded. THe name of usury is among divers writers used in divers significations. Naturally and properly, and as one saith: a Martin. Ab Azpil●ueta enchirid. cap 17. num. 206. Prima sui significatione, In the original signification, It importeth the use or occupying, or employing of any thing. As Erasmus said well, b Erasmus Ecclesiast sive de rat council. lib. 2 tom. 5. Vsura nobis ab utendo dicitur: Usury is named among us of using, or usage. And Molanus saith, c Io. Molanus compend. Theol. practicae, tract. 2. cap. 26. council. 1. sect. 1. Vsura ab utendo idem est quod usus: Usury cometh of using and is the same that use is, or usage. And so it appeareth to signify properly, not only by the Etymology and derivation of the word, Vsura quasi usus rei, Usury as it were the use of a thing: but also by the taking of it in very approved writers. Plautus saith, d Plaut. comoed. Amphitr●o in Prol. Alcumenam uxorem caepit usurariam: He took Alcumena to use as his wife. And again, e Plaut. Amphit. act. 5. Scena. 2. Alcumenae usuram corporis caepi: I had the use of Alcmena's body. Every where we shall read in Tully, Quintilian, and other approved Latinists, f Zuing lives lib. 1. epist. 22. Vsura horae, the use of an hours space: g Cicero. orat. pro Caio Rabirio. L. Humfred. de vita jewel. pag. 135. Vsura lucis, the use of the light: Vsura temporis, the use of the time: Frui usura, to enjoy the use of a thing: and many such phrases to like purpose. This also may appear more plainly by the distinction which the Latins do make between usuarius and usurarius: h Callopin tit. usura. Vsuarius they call him which the Grecians name 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉: The man that taketh, receiveth, or enjoyeth the use of a thing. Vsurarius they call him which the Grecians name 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉: The man from whom the use or occupying of a thing is taken and received. So that in the native and proper signification of the word, usury is the use of any thing: and an usurer is any man from whom or by whom the use of any thing is had and enjoyed. Now this kind of usury and usurers no man that hath his right wits and senses, will once dare to challenge or condemn generally as unlawful. For the end and perfection of things is their use: the benefit and commodity of things consisteth in their use: yea and men do therefore live and devil together, to the end that by the mutual use of the things which they severally enjoy, each one might be more commodious and beneficial to another. And therefore this being so, that speech of Bullinger may well be received in this sense: i H. Bullinger. Decad. 3. ser. 1. Vsurae vocabulum inhonestum non est: Abusus reddidit inhonestum: The name of usury is not dishonest of itself, or in the own nature: the abuse of usury or usage is that which hath made it dishonest, and of so bad account among men. For usury is properly the use of a thing: which is of necessity common to all men in the world. No man can live without the use of many things, and consequently not without this kind of usury. But now the name of usury is translated by a Trope from his native signification, and is commonly taken metonymicè, causa pro effecto: the cause for the effect: usury for the gain or increase arising from the use of a thing. And of usury taken in that sense I find divers sorts mentioned among learned writers. 1 The first I may call Foenus naturale, natural usury. And that is a kind of usury k B. Aretius. prob. part. 1. loc. 50. Qua negotiantur homines cum ipsa terra matre: In which or by which (saith Aretius) men traffic with their common mother the earth: namely, in the trade of husbandry and tilling of the ground. The reason of this Metaphor is, because as the usurer by putting forth a sum of money or goods, into the hands of the borrower, doth increase and augment it, and receiveth again his own with advantage: so the husbandman casting forth his seed into the bowels of the earth, l Cicer. lib. de Senect. Terra nunquam sine usura reddit quod accepit, It never returneth that which it received without usury, or increase. Now this kind of natural usury, which is nothing else but the tilling and husbanding of the earth unto gain and increase, no wiseman did ever condemn: nay, no man can justly condemn by the word of God. For it is m Gen. 3.23. the ordinance of God himself: it is the ancientest trade, n Gen 4.2. first practised in the beginning of the world: it is the trade o Pelican. come. in Pro. 12.11. Patribus sanctis olim in usu, which the holy fathers of old time followed. Yea, howsoever the husbandman is now abased and contemned, yet husbandry in times passed was p Ibidem. Labour Romanis Nobilibus gloriosus: A trade in which the Noblemen and Senators of Rome employed themselves without discredit, yea with glory and renown. And therefore howsoever the Manichees (blasphemous heretics that they were) said, q August. in Psal 140. It was better to be an usurer than a husbandman by profession: because (forsooth) the usurer doth not pull up or tear in pieces the members of God which are the trees, the herbs, the apples, the fruits of the earth, as (say they) the husbandman doth: yet it is certain that as the reason is ungodly, so their assertion is false. For the husbandman as concerning his trade, liveth r August. de oper. monachorum cap. 13. Innocenter & honestè: An honest and harmless life. Yea husbandry is s August de Haeres cap 46. Omnium artium innocentissima: (saith S. Augustine) The most innocent or harmless of all the Arts, Trades, Sciences, Crafts, mysteries used and practised among men. This Natural usury therefore which consisteth in gaining and increasing by tilling, and compassing, and sowing of the earth, and lastly, in reaping of the fruits which are yielded from the fame: must pass by us not so much as once snebbed or controlled, much less must it be condemned from this sentence of Solomon, or any other part of the word of God. 2. There is an other kind of usury which may not unfitly be called Foenus Spirituale, Spiritual usury. And of that there are two sorts. The first is giving of alms, munificence and liberality towards the poor and needy: of which kind the ancient writers suppose that of Solomon to be spoken: t Pro. 19 17. Foeneratur Domino qui miseretur pauperis: He dareth (as it were) to usury to the Lord that is merciful to the poor. For so the old translation readeth it from the Greek: 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. And the reason thereof is this: u Io. Mercerus. come. in Pro. 19.17. Quemadmodum qui homini mutuum dat, expectat ut sibi mutuum reddatur: Sic certissimè expectet quod quis erogat in pauperem, sibi à Domino etiam cum amplissimo foenore reddendum. Even as he which dareth, looketh justly to receive his own again: so let him that is merciful to the poor most assuredly expect that the things which he layeth out shall be rendered again of God with a most liberal increase, as it were with a threefold usury. Now x Io. Chrysost. hom. 3. in Gen. 1. Vide usurae raram naturam & admirabilem (saith Chrysostome speaking of that place of Solomon, and of this kind of usury) Behold the rare and wonderful nature or operation of this usury: that where other usury is condemned of God, this he promiseth to recompense with abundant increase. This kind of usury is y D. Wilson. in Prologo. good and praise worthy: For God himself hath commanded it, z Mat. 5.42. Give to him that asketh: and again, a Deut. 15.10. Thou shalt give him, and let not thy heart grieve to give him. Whereof Saint Augustine said well, b August. in Psal. 36. Ser. 3. Deus noster qui te prohibet esse foeneratorem, jubet te esse foeneratorem: & dicitur tibi, foenera Deo. God (saith he) which forbiddeth thee in other cases to be an usurer, in this case, and in this sense commandeth thee to be an usurer: and it is said unto thee, Lend upon usury unto God. And as this usury is commendable in itself, and commanded of God: so is it also very profitable and commodious to him that useth it. For c Pro. 19.17. The Lord (saith the scripture) will recompense him, that which he hath given. And whereas d Chrysost. homil. 5. in Mat. 2. Illae acquirunt gehenuam, Istae usurae regnum: (saith Chrysostome) The common usuries purchase hell unto their masters, but this kind of usury obtaineth a kingdom, and glory, and everlasting salvation. This kind therefore of putting forth to usury and increase, namely to be liberal to the poor, that so God may recompense thee with advantage: is that whereto all men are to be exhorted, as to a most commendable, yea a most profitable thing: and therefore no where forbidden in the word of God. There is another branch of this Spiritual usury, and that is the profitable employing of the gifts which we have received from God to the advancing of his glory, and the benefit of men. Of this usury Origen speaketh preaching to the people: e Origen. homil. 3. in Psal. 36. Ecce & nunc vos omnes, quibus haec loquor, pecuniam accipitis foe●eratam, verba mea: haec pecunia Domini est. Behold (saith he) all ye to whom I speak these things, do take my words as money to usury: this is the Lords money, which you must use to increase. Of this usury also our Saviour Christ speaketh in the parable, f Mat. 25.27. Thou oughtest to have put forth my money to the exchangers, and then at my coming should I have received mine own with vantage (The Greek hath 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, the old translation, Cum usura, M. Beza, Cum foenore, that is in english, with usury.) Now the money there spoken of is taken g Dimisius Carthus come. in Psa. 14. Pro commisso talento, For the talon, or gift, or grace of God committed to a man. The putting, forth of this money signifieth h Theophilact. come. in Mat. 25. Operum exhibitionem, The yielding of works; as Theophilacte doth well expound it: that is, the labouring and endeavouring to glorify God, & to do good to men by the gifts which we have received. The advantage or usury there spoken of, is partly i Tho. Aquin. 22. ae. Quaest 78. Artic 1. Superexcrescentia bonorum spiritualium: The increase of the spiritual gifts themselves by the use: (for as Iron groweth the brighter by wearing, so do the gifts of God grow the greater by using.) And partly it is k Dionis. Carthus. come in Psa. 14. Fructus scientile datae, vel gratiae, vel beneficij: The fruit and commodity, which a man reapeth to himself, or yieldeth to another from the knowledge, the grace, the benefit, which God hath bestowed upon him. And this kind of usury, that is, the employing and putting forth of God's gifts within us to the best advantage of him and ourselves, must not be condemned, neither can it be condemned from the holy scriptures. For GOD himself requireth it, l Luk. 19 23. Wherhfore gavest thou not my money to the bank? and it is the end why he giveth his gifts to men: for he saith, m Luk 19.13. occupy till I come. And if any man will (like an unprofitable servant) hide his talon in a napkin, and bury it in the earth, n Mat. 2●. 28.30. not only his talon shall be taken from him and given unto an other: but also he shall be cast into utter darkness where shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth. 3. These two kinds of usury being thus shortly passed over, as not so pertinent to this present treatise; I come unto the third, which for difference and distinction sake we may call Foenus civil, aut politicum: Civil, or politic usury. Which is when gain and increase is raised from the use of worldly goods, which are things belonging to the civil and politic estates of men. And of this kind of usury, I found that there are two sorts: One is Actual or Outward, when by act & outward deed, increase is made by the use of a thing. An other is Mental or Inward, which consisteth only in the hope and purpose, and expectation of the man. So saith Caietanus, o Caietanus Cardinal. Summula tit. usura. Vsura distinguitur in mentalem tantum, & in usuram extrinsecam: Usury is distinguished into that which is only mental, or committed only in the mind, and to that which is outward, or which bewrayeth itself by some outward act. So saith also Viguerius, p Io. Viguerius Instit. Theol. cap. 5. §. 3. ver. 15. Vsura dividitur in mentalem & extrinsecam: Usury is divided into that which is Mental, and that which is Outward. So saith also q Io. Molanus comp. Theol. pract. tract. 2. cap. 26. council. 1 sect. 7. Molanus, and divers others too tedious to repeat. Of Outward actual usury there are also two kinds: The one Voluntary, the other by Compact. Voluntary usury I take to be that which men commonly call Foenus liberale, and is then performed, when the borrower having profited, and benefited himself by another man's goods, which he borrowed, doth voluntarily, unbound, or vnrequired, yield a thankful, or kind remembrance to the lender: not as a recompense of the other man's lending, but as a testimony of his own thankfulness. Now I am not ignorant that other men have judged otherwise of this point. Pelican putteth this difference between Vsura and Foenus: r Pelican. come in Pro 28 8. Vsura dicitur quod supra sortem datur ex pacto: Foenus quod libere datur supra sortem sine pacto▪ Usury is that which is given by covenant above the principal: and Foenorie is that which is given freely and without covenant more than the principal. But this distinction I approve not, unless he put to foenus the addition of liberal, to discern it, and specify it for a kind by itself: because it is evident that usura and foenus are taken promiscuè, both in one sense, and both in the worst part among all writers. Others have thus distinguished between usury, and liberal or voluntary Foenorie: s Hugo Cardinalis in Prou. 28.8. Vsura est quod datur supra sortem ex pacto praecedente, scilicet inter usurarium & debitorem: Foenus liberale est retributio mutuatae pecuniae in debitoris libera voluntate constituta: Usury is that which is given above the principal by covenant, made before between the usurer and the debtor: Voluntary Foenorie is the repayment of the money borrowed, consisting in the free will or choice of the debtor. And he addeth: Ita solet definiri: So is it usually defined. Now usually it may be, but truly, and soundly (in my suppose) it cannot be thus defined. For by this means Foenorie shall be only the repayment of such a debt, as which a man may choose (because he is not bound) whether he will discharge or no. In which sense I do not remember that ever I read the word used in any kind of writer. And besides that, neither can he be called Foenerator which dareth without covenant or assurance to receive his own again: neither can that be called mutuata pecunia, which a man so putteth forth, as he leaveth it free in the choice of the borrower, whether he will ever repay it or no. And therefore without question, Ita nequit desiniri. Voluntary or liberal Foenorie cannot so be defined. Unless per retributionem mutuatae pecuniae, we understand, not the repayment of the principal, but a recompense and consideration made for the lending. I do therefore so understand voluntary usury, as I have before described it: and being so taken and understood, I see not how it can be condemned by the word of God. For first, it is only a testimony of thankfulness, and not a recompense of a benefit. Secondly, it is the free will of the giver: now what is freer then gift? And again, Volenti non fit iniuria: If he will give it unasked or uncompelled, he hath no injury offered in the taking. Thirdly, he that dareth might lawfully before he lent receive a free gift of the borrower. t Tho. Aquin. 2● a. quaest. 78. art. 2. Nec peioris conditionis efficitur per hoc quod mutuavit, saith the School man: His lending hath not put him into a worse condition: but that he may as lawfully take a free gift after he hath lent, as he might before his lending. And therefore this voluntary usury I leave also uncondemned: and do rather condemn the old translation, which joineth together Vsura and Foenus liberale in this sentence of Solomon. But to proceed: As there is usury given of free will, so is there also usury due by Compact. And that is committed, when he that dareth Covenanteth with the borrower to receive again not only his own, and his principal, but also increase and advantage. Of which Compacting usury, some is more open and direct, and therefore I call it Vsura explicata, manifest or unfolded usury: some again is more close and secret, and therefore I call that, Vsura palliata, cloaked, or covert usury. According to which division Molanus speaketh thus: u Molanus comp. theol ●ract. tract. 2. cap. 26. conc. 2. sect. 13. Exterior usura aliquando clara est, aliquando verò titulo honesti palliatur: Outward or actual usury sometimes is clear, and manifest: but sometimes it is cloaked or covered with the title of honesty. And another more plainly, x Martinus ab Azpilcueta ●nchirid. cap. 17. num. 207. Contractus mutui est duplex, verus & palliatus. Ita duplex est usura: vera quae in vero mutuo, & velata seu palliata quae in palliato versatur. The contract of lending is of two sorts: the one direct or indeed: the other cloaked or pretended. And so is usury of two sorts also: the one true usury, or usury indeed which is occupied about true lending: the other covert or cloaked usury, which is occupied about lending cloaked or pretended. And these be the special kinds of outward or actual usury. Than followeth that which is Mentalis usura: The usury of the mind, The practiser whereof is called y Didacus' Couar▪ relect. part. 2. Mentalis usurarius: A mental usurer, or one that committeth usury only inwardly with himself and with his own mind. For z Viguer. instit. theol. cap. 5. §. 3 ver. 15. Mentalis consistit in spe lucri absque ulla conuentione: Mental usury consisteth in the hope of gain without any covenant, saith Viguerius. If a man therefore lend, demanding no gain of the borrower, nor covenanting with him for usury and increase: outwardly, in deed, and act he can be no usurer. But if his purpose, and desire, and expectation be, that the borrower should not bring his goods weeping home, but that he should tender him consideration for the use of his goods: such a man hath in his mind committed usury before God, and cometh within the compass of Salomons censure in this place. I am not ignorant that there are many other distinctions or divisions made of usury: as a Aret. prob. part. 1, loc. 50. Simplex and Coniuncta: terrestris and nautica: Centesima, Semissalis, Trientaria, etc. But these either are comprehended under those already specified, or else they are not in use and practise among us: and therefore I hold it not necessary at large to dilate them. But now these branches of usury being thus expressed, it remaineth that we proceed to the handling of so many of them as fall into controversy and question in these days. And those are by name, first Outward or Actual compacting usury, and the two branches thereof viz. Open and Cloaked usury: secondly, that which is only mental or committed in the mind. And therefore these only my purpose is to discuss in the treatise following. But by the way let me note thus much from that which hath been already delivered concerning the name, the divers acceptions, and the several kinds of usury. It is true, and it must be confessed that there are to be found in divers godly writers large tolerations (that I may not say approbations) of some kind of usury. Master Caluin saith, b Io. Caluin. epist. resp. de usuris. Nullo testimonio scripturae mihi satis constat usuras omnino damnatas esse: It doth not sufficiently appear to me by any testimony of scripture, that usury is wholly or generally condemned. Bucer saith, c Bucer come. in Mat. 5. Vsura sive foenus, hoc est, quicquid commodi ex data mutuò pecunia vel re alia ad creditorem a de bitone supra sortem redit, per se nulla lege prohibetur▪ Usury or foenorie, that is, all kind of commodity which ariseth by the lending of money, or any other thing, from the borrower to the lender over and above the principal: by itself or simply is forbidden by no law. d Bullinger. decade 3. Ser. 1. Bullinger seemeth to be of the same mind, and some others also, who for their great godliness and learning are much to be regarded. Now I would have no man to conceive that my purpose is to neglect or contemn so excellent men, and so well deserving of the Church of God. Not, I acknowledge that Bucer was e Theod. Beza de coena Dom. contra joach. Wertphal. ad cap. 22. ●●re pius, a very godly man, and Bullinger was f Beza respon ad Franciscum Balduinum. vir doctissimus, a very learned man: as Master Beza, a man very godly, and learned himself, hath entitled them in his writings. But especially, Master Caluin was a man (as Zanchius testifieth of him) who is justly to this day g Hieron. Zanchius miscelan. epist. ad Lantgravium pag. 36. honorifice memoriae, of honourable memory ut ibi a 〈◊〉 E●ropa, as all Europe witnesseth. Yea further, he was a man praestanti pietate, maxima erudition, singulari in rebus omnibus judicio, of great godliness, exceeding learning, and singular judgement in all things. God forbidden therefore that I should contemn them and their judgements. But this is that which I would have here to be observed, concerning these men and others of their opinion. Sigh the name of usury is taken so largely, and sith there are so many kinds and branches of usury, whereof diverse have already been by me acknowledged to be lawful: it is no great marvel though they have spoken so favourably of some kind of usury, or of usury in general, taking it (it may be) in the largest signification. And why do I say, it may be they took it in the largest signification? When as it is evident that some of them did so take it in deed. For Bullinger defineth usury after this sort, h Bullinger. decade 3. Serm. 1. Vsura est, cum alteri concedis usum tui Peculij, utpote agri, vel domus, vel pecuniae, vel alterius alicuius rei, unde in annum percipis fructum aliquem: Usury is, when thou yieldest to another the use of thy goods, as of thy ground, of thy house, of thy money, or of any other thing, whereof thou reapest a yearly commodity. Now if under the name of usury, we understand whatsoever commodity ariseth to a man from the leating of his cattle, of his house, of his land, or such like: than it is evident that (as these learned men and others affirm) all kind of usury, simply and generally is not forbidden in the word of God: neither do they (taking usury so largely) oppositely and directly oppugn the drift of this treatise. I conclude therefore this point with that saying of the School man, i Gabriel Biel. in quartum senten. dist. 15. quaest. 11. art. 1. c. Vsura quandoque capitur multum largè, pro omni acceptione ultra sortem in mutuo, & sic non omnis usura est illicita, Usury is taken sometimes very largely in signification viz. for any thing which is taken in lending above the principal, and so all usury is not unlawful. For voluntary thankfulness hath been justified already, and interest shall be justified hereafter in this discourse. Besides that, the name of usury includeth the very use of any thing, and it hath diverse kinds which before have been approved to be lawful. So much therefore in this place for those men's opinions. Now I return to the handling of the branches of usury, which are most common among us and shall be showed to be unlawful by the word of God. And first of that outward and actual usury, which is open and manifest, i Outward Open Actual. usury. and apparent to be such as it is indeed in the eyes and judgement of men. This is that kind which hath spread itself furthest, and hath grown most common in all places and corners of the world. And therefore of this kind most writers of all countries do entreat: giving (every man according to the abundance of his own sense) diverse definitions or descriptions thereof. All which but once to remember and relate, would almost make a volume of itself. Many therefore shall for brevities sake be only quoted in the margin: and those which are recited shall for the better understanding of the simple be divided into four several ranks. 1. The first sort of definitions of Usury. The first rank shall be of those which do thus define it or to this effect k Ludolphus de vita Christi. part 2. cap. 49. Vsura est quod ex mutuo ultra sortem accipitur: Usury is whatsoever for lending is taken above the principal. Or again, l Petrus de Anchorano consil. 49. Quicquid recipitur ultra sortem usura est: Whatsoever is taken above the principal is usury. To which effect it is also defined of Art prob. part. 1. loc. 50. tit. De usuris. Glanuil. lib. 7. cap. 16. & lib. 10. cap. 3. D. Wilson. fol. 34. These definitions exclude as we see the taking or receiving of any thing for lending, whatsoever, or upon what occasion soever: and therefore are indeed more large than can well be justified by the word of God. For first they exclude Foenus liberale, which hath afore been approved to be lawful. Secondly, they cut off the very giving and receiving of thanks and good will between the borrower and the lender. Whereas very nature teacheth a man to be thankful for a benefit, and to repay good will to him that hath deserved it. m Phil. Melancthon. Dial. lib. 1. The Persians' (we read) punished ingratitude with death, and n Suetonius Claud. Caes. cap. 25. Claudius Caesar reduced unthankful persons into bondage: and why then should unthankfulness be tolerated among Christians? Not, the School men o Tho. Aquin. 22 quast. 106 art. 1. have canonised gratitude for a special virtue: and so is it certainly to be holden and reputed. These definitions therefore I receive not, for the reasons before mentioned and alleged. 2. The second sort of definitions of Usury. There be others which describe usury after this manner, p Concil. Agathense decret. 2. Vsura est ubi amplius requiritur quam datur. Verbi gratia: Si dederis solidos decem & amplius quaesieris, vel dederis frumenti modium unum, & super aliquid exegeris: Usury is when any thing is required, or demanded, more than was given or lent forth. As for example; If thou lendest ten shillings and demandest more, or lendest a bushel of corn and demandest more, this act is usury. This definition steppeth a degree beyond the former sort. For where the other spoke only of giving and receiving more than the principal: this importeth a requiring, a demanding, and an exacting of more than the principal. And yet this definition cannot be sound, nor sufficient to express unlawful usury. For if all kind of demanding more than the principal be usury, than here is cut off all the taking of the forfeiture of any band or obligation, for any cause or consideration whatsoever: because in so doing, a man demandeth and receiveth more, yea as much again as the due debt and principal. Now it is true, that this taking of forfeitures, is a grinding of the faces of the poor too common in this uncharitable age, and it is a kind of gain which our fathers in former ages scarce knew, but seldom or never practised. Yet no man may simply and absolutely forbidden another, even by bands to take security of his own: neither may men peremptorily be condemned, when being damnified for want of their own, they seek to make themselves whole or to save themselves harmless by the penalty and forfeiture of bands. Provided always that such bands, obligations, penalties, and forfeitures, pass not between man and man q G. Biel. in quartum sent. dist. 15. quaest. 11. art. 1. c. In fraudem usurarum: To cloak usury withal, or to prevent the laws which prohibit usury. Quia, si in fraudem usurarum poenam adijcit, usurarius est. For if a man lend any thing, and take the borrowers band for the payment of it, with intent that at the day the penalty and forfeiture of the band, shall pay for the forbearing of the money: then certainly he is an usurer. Now it is to be presumed saith the same schoolman , that the lender imposeth a penalty upon the borrower, to cloak the act or to avoid the danger of usury, when as either r Ibidem. The lender wisheth rather, that the borrower would pass his day, and so he might take the forfeiture: then that he should pay him at his day, and so avoid the penalty. Or else, when the lender knoweth at the time of lending, that the borrower is not like to make restitution at his appointed day. Or thirdly, If the lender imposeth a greater penalty upon the non payment then, his damage can possibly be for the forbearing of his goods. These are three rules which if they were well seen into and observed, would cut off many usurarious bargains that pass between man and man, under pretence of bills and bands, forfeitures and obligations. It being a common practice in these days, that when men lend upon bands, with intent of usury: when the day is passed and the band is forfeited, though they have for want of their money at the appointed day sustained no certain, nay no likely damage, yet to pay themselves sometimes double and triple usury by the forfeiture of the band. And if they take not the extremity, and the whole, they will be of necessity accounted very honest and religious dealers. But of that by the way. As those which define usury after this second sort do thereby cut off all obligations and forfeitures: so do they also thereby exclude all due and lawful Interest. s P. Melancth. lib definite. appellat. Interest is (saith Melanchton) a debt which he oweth by the law of nature, that hath been to another an effectual cause of damage and loss, or hath indeed hindered his just and lawful gain. So that Interest is justly due t Panormitan. c conquest. de usuris cit. a Gab in 4 sent. dist▪ 15. quaest. 11. art. 1. f. Non solum ex damno contingente, sed etiam ex lucre cessant: Not only when a man hath lent, and for want of receiving again of his own in appointed time, he suffereth damage, but also when wanting his own to employ for his best advantage his gain and increase is hindered. As for example, I lent freely, looking to receive mine own again at a certain appointed day. The day came, I received it not. For want of it, I forfeited at that day a band to an other man, and the forfeiture is exacted of me in part, or to the utmost. I doubt not but reason and conscience will, that I may demand such recompense of him to whom I lent freely, as I am compelled for want of mine own, to make to another to whom my band and obligation by that means is forfeited. And thus is Interest demanded Ex damno contingente▪ In consideration of the damage I have sustained. Again, I am (for the purpose) an occupier, and have money lying by me, which may pleasure an other man for a time, and will serve mine own turn well enough, if at such a day it be repaid. I lend freely: I cannot receive it at my appointed time. For want of it, I cannot at such a fair make such provision for my house, or so furnish my shop with wares, as my necessity and occupation doth require, whereon my living and maintenance dependeth. I doubt not, but I may in equity & conscience demand, that he which borrowed my money, where with I might have furnished myself of these things, should make recompense answerable to the benefit & advantage, whereof for want of mine own I have been hindered. And this is Interest demanded Ex lucro oessante: In consideration of my gain which by want of mine own hath been abated. The reason of both these is drawn (saith Melanchton) u Melan. lib. definite. appellat. Ex naturali aequalitate: From natural justice. For this is a law of natural equity, x Ibidem. Nemo locupletetur cum alterius iniuria: Let no man enrich himself by hindering of an another▪ And the Apostle will not that even in giving of alms, (much less in lending and borrowing) we should so deal as y 2. Cor. 8.13. Other men should be eased by the grieving of ourselves. Now if I lend to pleasure an other, and for want of mine own at the appointed time, I am endamaged to my creditor, or hindered of my lawful gain: he is enriched by my harm, and eased by my grief, and therefore recompense due unto me by the very law of nature. Interest then is not unjust nor unlawful: and consequently the definition of usury last above named▪ because it excludeth all penal forfeitures, and all reasonable Interest, is not to be received. Note by the way for the better discovery of the usurers evil dealing, that howsoever he to gloze with the world, is wont to confounded the names of Interest and usury: and men are wont to say, that they take Interest, and lend upon Interest; when indeed they take usury and lend upon usury: yet that there are two manifest and essential differences between usury and Interest, which do so distinguish the one from the other, as that they cannot possibly be confounded. One difference is this: Usury is an overplus or gain taken more than was lent: Interest is never gain or overplus above the principal, but a recompense demanded, and due for the damage that is taken, or the gain that is hindered through lending. another difference is this: usury accrueth and groweth due by lending, from the day of borrowing, unto the appointed time of payment: Interest is never due but from the appointed day of payment forward, and for so long as I forbear my goods after the day, in which I did covenant to receive them again. So that, if once I have lent freely unto a certain day, I shall not demand Interest for any damage sustained, or gain hindered during that term of time, for which I have lent unto another. But if at the covenanted time I receive not mine own again, then what harm soever do betide me after that day for the forbearing thereof, reason will that it be recompensed of the borrower. And so much of Interest, and of the difference between it and usury. 3. The third sort of definitions of Usury. A third manner of defining usury is this. z Nich. Selneccerus instit. christ. rel. part. 2. pag. 615. Selneccerus saith, Vsura est lucrum suprà sortem exactum: Usury is a gain exacted above the principal. And so saith Brentius, a Brent. come. in Levit. 25. Vsuram de finiunt esse lucrum, quod ad mutuum accedit, seu ubi praeter sortem soluitur aliquid propter mutuationem: Men (saith he) do define usury to be a gain that is added to that which is lent▪ or when over and beside the principal, any thing is paid for lending. To which effect it is also defined of Luther. de taxand. usurato 7. Melanch. lib. de fin. apple. Tho. Aquin. 22●. quast. 78. in principio. Lavat. in Eze. 18. hom 76. Da. Chytraeus. in Exod. 22. Viguerius. instit. theol. cap. 5. §. 3. ver. 14. D. Wilson. fol. 85. Now these descriptions are somewhat more perfect than those that went before: for they do add the mention of Gain unto Exaction. And whereas the other affirmed that whatsoever is exacted more than the principal, that is usury: (so condemning both penalties and Interest, things which are lawful in common equity,) these definitions do import that usury is neither penalty nor Interest, taken for the forbearing of any thing longer than the appointed day: but that it is a gain, an overplus, and increase arising from the very act of lending. And yet these seem not to me to be perfect and absolute enough to the purpose. For put the case that I lend an hundred pounds to a merchant adventurer, with these conditions: viz. if he gain not by employing of it, I require no gain: if he lose in the employing of it (doing his good and honest endeavour, that there be not Culpalata, as the Ciulians speak) I will bear half the loss: if he gain nothing, but only save the principal, I will have that wholly repaid again: if he not only save the principal, but gain by the employing of it also, I will not only have the principal, but part of the gain also. In this case I demand gain of that which I lent, even because I lent it: and yet I take not this gain to be usury or unlawful. First, because I do herein adventure the principal. Secondly, because I am contented to partake the loss. Thirdly, there is neither certainty of gain, neither if I do gain, is there any measure or proportion of gain agreed upon. It may be some man will judge this to be Contractus societatis. The contract of society, or partnership▪ If it be, yet it differeth very little from lending. If it be lending, them doth it annihilate the definitions last above mentioned: as those which do not sufficiently describe that kind of usury which is unlawful and condemned by the word of God. Not much unlike or differing from this, is the right Contract of Society, or partnership in deed: An instance whereof may (for examples sake) be delivered in a Scholar: who hath ready money left him of his father, but hath no trade wherein to employ it, because he hath been continually trained up in learning▪ He having a friend that is a Merchant, committeth the occupying of his money unto him: with condition that they shall divide the gain equally between them, if it increase, and bear the loss equally between them if it decay. The sum of the covenant is thus much in effect. The Scholar shall after a sort lend the Merchant his money, and the Merchant shall after a sort lend the Scholar his labour: both shall be combined, and the loss or gain shall be equally divided. This was never judged to be usury: neither shall it ever be justly reproved from the Scriptures. 4. The fourth sort of definitions of Usury. There are yet others which do describe usury after an other manner, and in another form of words. The Divines of Wittenberg, have thus concluded of it, b Theses Wittenberg. de usura. thesi. 2. citat. ab Aret. Prob. part. 1. loc. 50. Sunt usurarij seu foeneratores, quicunque ex pecunia mutuò data vel minimum etiam obolum, vel haustum frigidae aquae, ex conuentione ultra sortem accipiunt. Those are usurers, who, for money lent forth, do by covenant receive even the least half penny, or a draft of cold water, over, or more than the principal. To this effect also is it defined of that reverend B. of Sarisburie, c Laurent. Humfred. epist. nuncupat. in vita juelli. pag. 4. Ecclesiae nostrae decus & ornamentum, who was in his time an honour & ornament to our church: as D. Hunfric truly reporteth. He entreating ex professo of this argument: hath left usury thus defined in his writings. d Io. jewel. Ser. in 1. Thess. 4.6. Usury is a kind of lending of money, or corn, or oil, or wine, or of any other thing, wherein upon covenant and bargain we receive again the whole principal which we delivered, and somewhat more for the use and occupying of the same. To which effect it is also defined of Zegeddinus loc. come p. 457. Hugo card. comment. in Pro. 28.8. joh. Molanus compend. Theol. practicae tract. 2. cap. 26. consil. 3. sect. 14. D. Wilson. fol. 84. M. Smith. ser. 1. upon Usury. fo. 3 M. Turnbul serm. 4. in Psalm. 15. M. Perkins. Armil. aur. in praec. 8. cap. 27. Raymundus Goffredus. Now these definitions do add unto the former the point or particular of compact. At the least wise they do more openly and clearly explain that, which the others have delivered concerning debt and exaction. For the borrower can own nothing but by covenant: the creditor can exact nothing but by covenant. And therefore sith in usury there is debt, and there may be exaction: there must of necessity be also in usury, not only lending and gain, but also covenanting and compacting for gain. But now because these three things may concur viz. 1. Lending 2. Lending for gain. 3. Covenanting for gain: and yet not make unlawful usury (as hath been before exemplified in the third rank or order of definitions:) therefore I add the fourth circumstance unto the former three, and that is, The not adventuring of the principal. And this fourth point I take up and adjoin to the former out of the Council of Laterane. e Concil. Lateran. sub Leone 10. sess. 10. Eapropria est usurdrum interpretatio, quando videlicet ex usurei quae non germinat, nullo labour, nullo sumptu, Nulléue Periculo luorum foetusque conquiri studetur. This is the proper interpretation of usury, (say the Fathers assembled in that Council) when men labour to get gain and increase from the use of a thing which groweth or increaseth not: and that with no labour, with no cost, with no danger, or adventuring. And therefore conferring all these definitions together, and gleaning out of them all, that which I hold most essential to this purpose: I do thus define that Open, Outward, and Actual usury whereof I now entreat, and which I take to be forbidden by the word of God. Usury is a lending for gain, by compact, not adventuring the principal. Or more plainly thus. Usury is, when a man not adventuring the goods which he dareth, covenanteth to receive again more than he dareth, even upon this consideration, because he lent them. Note by the way, that I here do define the action or sin of usury, and not the usury itself, as many have done in the former descriptions. For one said rightly, f Mar. ab Azpilcueta enchirid. cap. 17. num. 207. Aliud est peccatum usurae, & aliud usura: The sin of usury is one thing, and usury itself is an other thing. The sin of usury is to take or to desire usurarious gain: but usury itself is the gain which in the own nature may be valued for money, and is demanded principally for the duty either of direct or coloured lend. Now the sin or fault of usury, is the thing which is condemned in the word of God, and therefore that is it which I deemed here most fit to be described. And in this kind of usury thus described and laid forth, I do observe four things which must of necessity concur and meet together. 1. The first is Lending. 2. The second is lending for Gain. 3. The third is Compacting for gain. 4. The fourth is, The not adventuring of the principal. Of which four particulars, as of things whereupon dependeth the weight and substance of this controversy, my purpose is severally and largely to entreat in the sermon following. The end of the first Sermon Preached March 19 1592. The second Sermon: the special contents whereof are these. 1. Usury is committed in lending only. 2. Usury is in lending for gain. 3. Usury is compacting for gain. 4. In usury is no adventuring of the principal. And so consequently here is discussed. 1. What lending is, and how it differeth from other contracts. 2. What gain is, and what it is to lend for gain. 3. What it is to compact, and how many ways a man may covenant. 4. How the usurer adventureth, and not adventureth his principal. THe first of the four things, necessarily required to the definition of this usury, is that it be committed in lending. a Bullinger. decade 3. Serm. 1. Dicunt usuram in solo mutuo (quod debet esse gratuitum) committi: non in reliquis contractibus. Men say that usury is only committed in lending, (which should be free) and not in other contracts. Now indeed, learned men do say and affirm so. b Chemnit. loc. come tom. 2. tit. de paupertate cap. 6. Chemnitius saith: Fit in contractu mutui: Usury is committed in the contract of lending. Brentius saith: c Brent. come. in Levit. 25. Vsura fit tantum in mutuo: Usury is committed only in lending. D. Wilson saith: d D. Wilson fol 86. There cannot be any usury where lending is not. And therefore the scripture saith, speaking of usury: e Exod. 22.25. Si pecuniam mutuam dederis. If thou lend money: for so is it read in all old and new translations. And the Greek interpreter hath; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉: The same word which Christ useth, Luk. 6. and all men translate, f Luk 6.35. Mutuum date: Lend looking for nothing again. Now sith usury is only in lending, it is necessary that we consider what lend is: and consequently, that we have some recourse unto the lawyer's schools, to whom the handling of contracts doth specially appertain. And yet so, as that in speaking thereof, we shall not wholly transgress the bounds and limits of Divinity. For although, g Chemnit. loc. come. tom. 2. tit. de pauperta. cap. 6. The matter and form of contracts be to be derived from the lawyers and philosophers: yet the Divine addeth to them the efficient cause, which is the ordinance of God: and speaketh more highly of the final cause, then either the lawyer, or philosopher by his profession can apprehended. h Ibidem. For the rule of Divinity (saith Chemnitius) is this. Ita exercendos contractus, ut conspiciatur fides, & exerceatur dilectio: Contracts, and bargains must so be used among men, as they may show their faith, and exercise their love towards their brethren. A thing which I thought good the rather to observe, jest either Divines should think that matters of bargaining and contracting belong no way to their profession: or that in speaking of them at this present, I should be thought to assume that unto me, which be seemeth not my calling. But to return to the point: If we will know what lending is, and what manner of bargain a man maketh when he dareth to his neighbour: me thinks Hemingius hath well described the nature thereof unto us. i Hemming. come. in jac. 5. Mutuatio est contractus quo transfertur rei Dominium in alterum, nullo quidem pretio interposito, sed cum pacto, ut eadem res reddatur in specie. Lending is such a contract, or bargain, as transferreth the dominion or property of a thing, from one unto an other, for no consideration of any price or recompense, but only with covenant, that the same kind of thing be rendered and repaid again, Now I would have these words of Hemingius to be thoroughly weighed and considered. For every one of them hath his weight and moment: and they do not only distinguish lending from all other kind of bargaining: but also do manifestly show that an usurer can practise no other contract, but only lending: yea, and only that kind of lending which is called mutuation. First, in that when we lend, we covenant with the borrower, that the same thing, or the like thing, shall be repaid and restored again: therein and by this point is lending distinguished from giving. For k L. 1. & L. Donari. ff. de Donationibus & L. Donari. ff. de Reg. jur. Donatio proprie est, qua aliquis dat ●a ment, ut statim velit accipientis fieri, nec ullo casu ad se reverti. Giving is, when a man bestoweth a thing upon an other, with this mind and purpose, that he would presently have it become his that doth receive it, and never in any wise to be returned again unto himself. Fron whence then we may easily observe, that the usurer giveth not forth his money or his goods: in as much as he hath no purpose to make them become for ever, the goods of the receiver: but covenanteth, that in time they shall again return unto himself. And therefore, though sometimes we read this phrase or manner of speaking in the holy scripture. l Levit 25.37. Thou shalt not give him thy money to usury: and again, m Psal. 15.5. He that giveth not his money to usury, and such like: yet we must not be so simple, as to gather from thence, that the usurer practiseth the contract and covenant of giving: for as much as he indenteth for the return, and repaying again of such things as are delivered. Whereof it is that though the prophet Ezechiel do use also the same phrase of n Ezech. 18.13. giving forth to usury: yet he addeth thereunto, the taking of increase: which noteth, that it is such a kind of giving, that is practised in usury, as carrieth taking with it. As if a man would say in this case, and in this sense, as it is said in Authors of some kind of contracting. o Gratian. decret. Part. 2. Caus. 14. Quaest 3. Do ut des, vel do ut facias: I give thee, that thou mayest give me: or I give thee this, that thou mayest do me that. Thus than we see how lend and giving differ: and that the usurer doth not in putting forth of his money, exercise the contract of giving unto men. From giving then, let us proceed to letting: and let us consider whether the usurer doth let forth his goods or no. For that is also a phrase of speech which they have among themselves: namely, that they do let their money, or put it forth to lettage or loan, Now what is letting? p Melancthon. lib. defin. appellat. Et L. a ff. locati. L. i. §. Si quis servum. ff. deposit. Locatio est contractus, in quo res transfertur ad certum tempus, quoad usum, procerto pretio. non quoad dominium, etc. Letting (saith Melancthon) is a contract, in which a thing is transferred or made over from one man to another, as touching the use, but not as touching the property for a certain price, and for a certain time. As for example, I let thee my servant by the day, to labour in thy harvest: I let thee my horse by the week, to ride upon, my house by the year to devil in, my land to occupy, etc. not that my servant, or horse, or house, or land should become thine own in property, and should abide by thee for ever: but that thou shouldest have the use, and profit, and benefit of them for a certain season. So that herein lending and letting differ. Lending maketh a translation of the property: letting doth only make an alienation of the use. Whereof it cometh to pass, that in lending q L Pignus C. de Pignorat. act. Transfertur periculum in accipientem. The hazard, or adventuring of the thing which is lent, is conveyed from the lender, to the borrower or receiver. So as, if that which he borroweth do perish or decay: the borrower is bound to make it good again. And why? Because the property or dominion of a thing was in him: now the casualty of things belongeth to the owner. But it is otherwise in letting: r L Simo quis domum. §. Si Colonus. & L. Si merces. § Vis maior ff. locati. If a man let a thing, and by casualty it perish in the use: the hyrer shall not be bound to make it good, because the dominion and property resteth not in him. To which also may be added, the reason that the Lord himself touching that case giveth in the scriptures: s Exod. 22.15. If it be an hired thing, it came for his higher. The hyrer paid for the use, and therefore he shall not stand to the adventure of the thing. And consequently, as it hath been before declared, that the usurer giveth not: so is it evident from hence, that he letteth not his goods. For first, the usurer doth alienate the property of his goods, from himself to the borrower. Secondly, he doth impose the casualty of that which he dareth upon the neck of him that doth receive it. Neither of which two things, are usually, or justly practised in the contract of letting: the usurer therefore doth not let his goods. From letting, let us go on to buying and selling. t Melancthon. lib. defin. appellat. Emptio est contractus, quo res transfertur quoad dominium pro justo pretio: Nec retinet emptorius retrahendi pretij. Buying is a contract, by which a thing is transferred or alienated, from one man to another, as touching the dominion or property, for a certain price: and the buyer hath no right to recall▪ or withdraw the price, or consideration again▪ From which it may appear in few words: First, that buying and selling, do differ much from lending. For lending, is the translation of the dominion of a thing, Nullo interposito pretio: For no price or consideration: but selling is the alienating of a thing, Pro justo pretio: For a set price to be paid, and consideration to be made. Secondly, it may appear that the usurer practiseth not the contract of bargain and sale. For he doth not alienate his goods for a certain price, and for ever, as in buying and selling men always do: but he doth alienate the property and use of them only for a time, and for that temporal alienation and use, demandeth recompense and consideration. Therefore he buyeth and selleth not. From selling, let us pass on to exchanging: and let us inquire if the usurer exchangeth his goods. Exchanging is thus defined. u Summa. Angel. de Clavas. tit. permutatio. Permutatio est unius rei certae, pro alterare certa vicaria praestatio. Exchanging is the yielding of one certain thing, in the stead, or in the room of an other certain thing. As thus: A man exchangeth his coat for an other man's cloak, or ten coombes of Rye for eight coombes of Wheat: or one house for an other, or one piece of land for an other, etc. And this doth manifestly differ from lending. For in lending I look for mine own again: in exchanging, I look for some other thing in lieu of mine own. In lending, I look that Eadem res reddatur in specie. The same thing which I lent, should be rendered again in the own kind. As money for money, wares for wares, corn for corn, etc. In exchanging, it is not necessary that the recompense be of the same kind: for a man may exchange house for land, corn for cattle, gold for silver, etc. Now then, it is manifest that the usurer in putting forth of his goods, exchangeth them not. For he doth not covenant to take one certain thing, in the stead of an other certain thing: as money or wares in the stead of his money or wares: but he covenanteth to have his money again, & an other certain thing for the use of his money; his wares again, and an other certain thing for the use of his wares. The usurer therefore exchangeth not. From exchanging, I proceed to accommodating: a kind of contract, whereunto the scarcity of our english tongue yieldeth no proper nor peculiar name. The Latins have two kinds of lending, Mutuatio, and Accommodatio: we for distinctions sake, must call them (though somewhat barbarously) mutuating, and accommodating. And these two kinds of lending, do differ very apparently in two material points. For first, in that kind of lending, which they call Mutuatio, & which I have before defined: x L. 2. § Appellata. & §. Si creditum ff. Si certum petatur. §. 1. justit. Quibus mod. re cont. there is a transferring of the property and dominion of the thing which is lent, from the lender to the borrower. As for example: I lend a man money, or corn, or wares: I make them in lending to become his own, so as he may do with them what himself listeth: he may exchange them, he may cell them, he may give them away, yea (if he list) he may cast them away: for they are his proper own. And therefore it is called y D. L. 2. §. Appellata. Mutuum, quod de meo fit tuum: as a man would say, Mine thine, or mine, by this lending I make thine. But in that kind of lending, which is called Accommodatio, or accommodating: it is far otherwise. For there is only a transferring of the use (not of the property) to the borrower: and therefore he cannot every way use the thing borrowed as his own. As for example: I lend a man my horse: he shall not by virtue of my lending, do with him what he will, as with his own: he shall not kill him, he shall not give him away, he shall not cell him away, he shall not exchange him away. And why? the horse is none of his. And why that? I did not make him by this kind of lending owner of my horse, nor transfer the property or dominion unto him: but I yielded unto him only the use and benefit of my horse. And therefore he shall ride him, he shall labour him, he shall employ him in drawing, in carriage and such like: but he shall not do with my horse whatsoever himself listeth, because by this kind of lending I have transferred only the use and not the property of my goods. Secondly, mutuating and accommodating, do differ in this: z Zach. Vrsinus Doct Christ. part. 2. in precept. 8. & L. 3. ff. Si cert. Petatur. Datur aliquid in mutuatione, non ut reddatur idem, sed simile aut aequipoll●ns: A thing is mutuated, not with condition that the very same thing shall be repaid again, but the like, or the equivalent. As for example: I lend ten pounds, not with purpose or condition to receive the very same coin, and the same pieces again, but with condition to receive other ten pound: be it in gold, when that which I lent was silver, or be it in testers, when that which I lent was in shillings, it is not material: I have the like, or that which is equivalent to mine own, and that is all which I expected, or covenanted for in mutuating. But now, it is far otherwise in accommodating. For, a Vrsinus Ibid. Commodatio est, cùm quod ad usum, vel usus alicuius rei conceditur alicui ad certum tempus, ita ut sine pretio idem individuum reddatur integrum, & incorruptum: Accommodating is, when the use of a thing is granted to a man for a certain time, with condition that without price, or recompense, the self same particular which was lent, shall be repaid again sound, and not impaired. As for example, I lend a man my horse, not with condition that he shall sand me home again as much money as my horse is worth, or a cow for my horse, or any other horse for mine▪ but he shall deliver me again the same horse which I lent him. So that (as I said) these two kinds of lending which for distinctions sake we call mutuating, and accommodating, do differ in these two points. First, in the one there is an alienation both of the use and property: in the other, only of the use, and not of the property. Secondly, in the one it is sufficient to repay the like, or the equivalent to that which was borrowed: in the other it is required that the same particular, and none else, be restored again unto the lender. Now, by this which hath been spoken, it may appear, that the usurer doth not accommodate his goods, or practise that kind of lending which we call accommodation. For first, he giveth the borrower interest in the property of his goods: else the borrower might not do with them what himself listed. Secondly, he requireth not again the self-same particular which he lent, but the like or the worth only: none of both which are done in the contract of accommodation. The usurer therefore accommodateth not. There be diverse other kinds of contracts. As b Selnecerus Instit. Christ. rel. part. 2. pag. 614. Depositum, Pignus, Stipulatio, Fideiussio, Emphyteusis, Societas, Mandatum, with the rest. But because the committing of usury doth hardly fall into some of these, and rarely into others: therefore for brevities sake I have thought good to overpass them in this treatise. The reasons why I have made mention of those before rehearsed are these. Namely, that we might see, 1. what lending is. 2. How it differeth from other contracts. 3. That this Outward, Open, and Actual usury, of which yet we speak, is committed only in the bargain of lending. For the usurer giveth not, he letteth not, he selleth not, he exchangeth not, he accommodateth not, etc. Therefore he dareth only: and usury is only in the contract of lending: and so consequently, usury is a lending, which is the first point contained in the definition thereof. Now before I proceed to the handling of the second particular, it is very requisite that we observe two necessary consequences or inferences, arising from that which hath been already delivered, concerning this point of lending. The first is this. We have heard that lending or mutuation is such a contract, as together with the use doth transfer the dominion and property of the thing unto the borrower. From whence must necessarily follow, that Obiectum mutui, The things subject to this kind of lending, must be only such as whose use and property cannot be severed: so as a man cannot yield another the use of them, but he must also yield the property: and he cannot yield the property, but he must also yield the use. Of which nature and condition are only such things as consist & pass from man to man by * L. 2. §. 1. ff. Si cert. petat. 1. number. 2. weight. 3. and measure: & therefore in things of those kinds only, (and in none other) can usury be committed. c G. Biel. in 4. Sent. Dist. 15. Quaest 1● art. 1. b. Nota quod non potest committi usura, nisi in his rebus tantum, circa quas contingit fieri mutuum: scilicet quae consistunt in numero, pondere, & mensura. Note (saith one) that usury cannot be committed, but only in such things which are subject to that kind of lending which we mutuation: that is to say, in such things as consist in number, weight, and measure. In number, as money: In weight, as lead: In measure, as corn, & such like commodities: these are the things that can only be lent, and taken upon usury. For usury is only in that kind of lending: and such things only as consist in number, weight, and measure, are subject to that kind of lending: and therefore only in such things can usury be committed. The second inference arising from the premises is this. Usury is in lending, and therefore may be committed in any thing which is subject to lending: that is in any thing which consisteth in number, weight, and measure. And this is the rather to be observed, because it is a received opinion among the vulgar sort, that usury is committed only in the putting forth and taking up of money. Whereas Hemingius said truly, d Heming. come. in jac. 5. & Conc. Agathens. In omni rerum mutuatione usura dicitur. Usury is said to be committed, (and may be committed) in the mutuating or lending of any thing. And this the very words of the text do make plain in the scriptures: e Deut. 23.19. Thou shalt not (saith Moses in Deut.) give to usury to thy brother, as usury of money, usury of meat, usury of any thing that is put to usury. And again in Leviticus: f Levit. 25.27. Thou shalt not give him thy money to usury, nor lend him thy victuals to increase. So that, there is not only usury of money, but also usury of meat and victuals, yea of many other things which are put forth, and may be put forth to usury, as hath been before expressed. S. Hierome saith thus, g Hierom. come. in Ezech. 18. Putant quidam, usuram tantum esse in pecunia. Some are of this mind, that usury is only committed in money. Quod praevidens Scriptura, omni rei aufert superabundantiam: ut plus non recipias quàm dedisti: Which the scripture foreseeing, or preventing, taketh away increase in every thing: that in nothing mayest thou receive more than thou hast delivered. And an other saith: h Balsam. annot. in epist. Gregor. Nisseni ad Latotum Mitelenes Episcopum can. 6 Foenus est, quod Graecè 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 dicitur. Usury is that which the Grecians call overplus or increase. Vt quando quis dat vinum, vel frumentum, vel oleum, vel aliquid aliud, ut in eodem genere plus quàm dederit, accipiat: As for example (saith he) when a man delivereth forth wine, or corn, or oil, or any thing else, that he may receive in the same kind more than he delivered. Therefore saith M. Caluine i Lavat. come. in lib. joshua▪ in epist. ad Episc. Winton. that most learned and excellent man, (as Lauater rightly calleth him:) k Caluin serm. 134. in Deut. 23. It is but a mockery, if I shall say, as for me I have not taken any profit by usury for my money: but I have taken for my corn, or for my wine, and that was given unto me for recompense. For if thou lend any thing and takest increase for it, thou committest usury: in as much as usury may be committed in all such things as pass from one man to an other in this kind of lending. So that (to conclude this first point at length) by that which hath been spoken concerning lend, it may evidently appear: First, that in usury there must be lending of necessity, because it is committed in no other kind of contract. Secondly, that usury is only committed in such things as consist in number, weight, and measure: for they only are subject to that kind of lending. Thirdly, that usury may be committed not only in the lending of money, but also in the lending of many other things: & that for the reasons which have been before rehearsed. THe second thing to be observed in this kind of usury, is, that there be lending for gain. For if a man lend ten pounds, only to receive ten pounds again, and no more: or if he lend ten coombes of corn, only to receive the same measure again, and no more: this lending cannot any way be called usury, because he taketh no gain, nor increase, for that which he hath delivered. Neither may any man dare to condemn such kind of lending for unlawful: nay it is that which God often commandeth, and requireth in the scriptures. Christ saith in the Gospel, l Luc. 6 35. Lend, looking for nothing again. And in an other place: m Math. 5.42. From him that would borrow turn not away: and many such speeches to like purpose. And as God hath commanded it, so godly men have always practised it: n Psal. 112.5. A good man is merciful and dareth, saith the Psalmist. And S. Ambrose saith of Tobias, o Ambros. lib. de Tobia. ca 2. Quòd commodavit pecuniam, & non foeneravit, justi seruavit officium. In that he lent freely and not upon usury, he performed the duty of a just and righteous man. And justinus Martyr pleading for the Christians, and justifying their godly conversation, saith. p justin. Martyr. orat. Anthenagorae pro Christianis. That they did so far perform duties of humanity, as they loved not only their friends, but even their enemies also. Et mutuò damus ijs à quibus nos nihil recepturos esse speramus: and we lend (saith he) to them of whom we hope not to receive any thing again. And certainly that free lending in these days is so scant, and that all lending is almost turned into usury, is no small argument that true Christians, righteous & merciful men, begin to grow rare & geason in the world. But to return to the purpose. It is certain that usury is such a lending as carrieth with it gain and increase: for therefore are usury and increase so often united and combined in the q Levit. 25 37. Ezech. 18.8.13. scriptures. We must therefore inquire what gain and gaining meaneth: that so we may yet further see into the nature of usury. The schoolman saith, r G. Biel in quartum. Sent. Dist. 15. Quaest 11 art. 1. a. Est lucrum, incrementum pecuniae, vel pecunia mensurabile: gain is the increase of money, or of that which can be measured and valued by money. For unless there be an increase by the use of a thing, over and beside the return of the principal itself, yea besides the expenses which the putting forth of the principal carrieth with it: it is no gain. s Summa Angelica tit. lucrum & glow. in l. mutuis. ff. pro socio. Lucrum non dicitur nisi deductis expensis: A man is not said to gain, until he have deducted his expenses, and then some overplus remain and abide unto him. So that, if after a man have lent, and all charges be defrayed which his lend carried with it, than he receive, or covenant to receive, any money or moneys worth more than his own, this is gain or increase. Here then arise two things to be considered of us. First, sith usury is only lending for gain, and gain is only that increase which is money or moneys worth: therefore it followeth, that if a man lend not to gain, either money or any thing that may be valued by money, he cannot be said to lend for usury. As for example: a man may lend to gain the favour of God, who requireth lending, and hath promised to reward it: now the favour of God, & his reward, are things which cannot be valued with money. A man may lend to give good example: now the benefit of good example, cannot be valued with money. A man may lend to purchase the love and liking of another: now love is a thing that cannot be valued with money. And therefore though he that dareth to any of these ends gaineth exceedingly, if he obtain that which he aimeth at: yet therein he committeth no usury, because he gaineth neither money nor any thing that can be prized for money. Again, I may lend so to requited the kindness which I have received from another man. This is not usury: for it is not lending for gain: because I do not thereby increase mine own, but as it were exchange a benefit, or rather make a requital and repayment of a benefit. Yea, I go further: a man may lend to save his own, and yet not commit usury: because he dareth not for gain or increase. As for example: one oweth me already ten pounds, and yet he cometh to me to borrow five pounds more. I consider that the debt is desperate, and therefore make him this answer, that if he will put me in good security to pay at such a time the ten pounds, which already he oweth me, and together with that, the five pounds which now he requireth, I am content to satisfy his demand, t Gabriel. Biel. in quartum senten. dist. 15. quaest. 11. art. 1. a. Non committo usuram: Herein I commit no usury. And why? Quia illa decem quae recipio, non veniunt nomine lucri, quia aliàs mea sunt & mihi debita. Because the ten pounds which I receive, with the five pounds that last I lent, come not in as gain or increase: for they were mine and due to me before. Again, put the case I hear that to morrow one is purposed to come to borrow money of me, who I know is hardly able to pay again: and whom therefore I am loathe to trust. To defeat him I lend away my money this day unto another: that when he cometh I may answer in truth that I have no money by me to lend him. I may perhaps herein not be so charitable as I should: but it is evident that I commit no usury. For I did not lend away my money to gain more than mine own, but only to save that which was mine own, and to keep it out of danger. Now if I lend not to gain, I cannot come within the compass of usury. A second thing arising to be observed from that which hath been spoken concerning gain and increase is this. Usury is lending for gain, and gain is either money or moneys worth: and therefore, he that dareth, to gain by lending, any thing that is money or moneys worth, that man committeth usury. Therefore are they much deceived which think that they commit not usury, unless for their money lending, they receive sheer money again. u Ambros lib. de Tobia. cap. 14. Et esca usura est, & vestis usura est, & quodcunque sorti accedit usura est: If thou take victuals (saith Ambrose) that is usury: if thou take apparel, that is usury: and whatsoever is above the principal, that is usury. Quod velis ei nomen imponas, usura est: call it what thou wilt, or name it what thou wilt, it is usury. Saint Hierome also is of the same opinion. x Hierom. come. in Ezech. 18. Alij pro pecunia foenerata solent munuscula accipere diversi generis: there be some (saith he) who for the money that they have lent, are wont to receive gifts, or rewards of another kind. Et non intelligunt usuram appellari, & superabundantiam, quicquid illud est, si ab eo quod dederint, plus accipiant: and they understand not that all whatsoever it be, is called usury and increase, if they receive any thing more than that which they delivered. And therefore in these cases which follow, and in the like to these, is usury manifestly committed. I borrow forty pounds for a year, I promise' to the lender, that for the use of his money I will bestow a gown cloth upon his wife, or a nag upon himself, or a piece of plate upon one of his children: he that dareth in these or the like considerations committeth usury. Again, I know a man that is in special favour with the L. Keeper, the L. Chief justice, the L. Chief Baron, or some such like great parsonage in authority: I will lend him a piece of money, and for the use of it he shall do no more but procure me an office in the Chancery, in the kings bench, in the Exchequer, or some other place: that man that so dareth, and to such purpose, committeth usury Again, a Lord of a manner hath diverse poor Tenants that want money, and come to him to borrow. He demandeth what occupations they are of: the one answereth he is a day labourer. I will (saith he) lend you thus much money, and for the use of it, you shall help me so many days in harvest. Another answereth, he is a husbandman, I will (saith he) lend you thus much money, and for the use of it, you shall till me thus many acres of land. This man (together with the rest before specified) committeth usury: for he dareth for gain, and although he requireth no money for increase, yet he requireth that which is moneys worth, and the worth whereof may be valued and prized for money. So that as touching this second point of lending for gain, there are these three things to be considered. First, lending for gain is lending for increase of money or moneys worth. Secondly, lending for any thing which is not money or moneys worth, is not lending for gain, and therefore no usury. Thirdly, the lending for the gain of anything which is money or moneys worth, is within the compass of Outward, open, and actual usury. THe third point observed in the definition of usury, is covenanting & compacting. For this kind of usury doth not only lend for gain, but also maketh composition and agreement for gain. The scripture saith, y Exod. 22.25. Ne imponetis ei usuram: Thou shalt not impose usury upon him: for so both Pagnine and Tremellius translate it: and the Greek hath 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉: and z Vatab. annot. in Exod. 22.25. Vatablus observeth that it is verbatim from the Hebrew, Non ponetis super eum: Thou shalt not put usury upon him. Now usury cannot be imposed or put upon a man without covenant or compact. Besides that, divers do * Alberic. in L. jubemus. C de sacrosanc. Ecclijs. define usury to be an increase or gain arising by lending, Debitum or Exactum. Now gain can neither be due to the lender, nor exacted of the lender, unless there have some covenant or compact passed for it before. And therefore learned men speaking of these matters, do call them a Beza annot. in Luc. 6.35. Foeneratoriae pactiones, or b Selneccer. instit. Christ. rel. part. 2. p. 616. Contractus usurarij: Vsurarious covenants or contracts. There is then in this kind of usury, covenanting or contracting for gain. Now what it is to covenant, I shall not need to stand long to declare. One said truly, c Wolf. Musc. loc. come. tit. de foed. & testam. Dei. Quid foedus sit & pactum, notius est quàm ut sit annotandum: What a covenant, or bargain, or compact meaneth, is so well known that it need not be described. The Grecians call covenants, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 d Selneccer. instit. Christ. rel. part. 2. p. 610. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, for the commutation, exchange, or reciprocal passion, and sympathy or agreement, which is between them that covenant together. And therefore the lawyers do thus define a covenant: e In leg. 1 ff. de pactis. Pactum est quod inter aliquos convenit: A bargain is that whereof divers do agreed: Or thus: f Po●yanth. tit. pactum. Pactum est duorum pluriumue in idem placitum, seu consensus. A covenant is the agreement or consent of two or more, about the same thing. And therefore whereas there is an agreement and consent between the lender demanding, and the borrower promising increase: there is this covenanting, or compacting for gain. Now this consent, and so consequently this covenanting may pass between man and man, by divers means and ways. For first, there is Pactum tacitum: A secret kind of covenanting, whereas an agreement and consent is by necessary or probable consequence intended, or collected, although it be by no means expressed and manifested unto others. For a man may covenant, and consent by silence. As for example: * Summa Angelica. tit. matrimonium. The parents of two children do in their presence and hearing, entreat and conclude of a marriage, to be contracted and solemnized between those their children. The children standing by, hear the conference and conclusion of their parents: but do neither demand any thing, nor answer any thing, nor object any thing, nor reply any thing, nor affirm any thing, nor deny any thing that is spoken. In this case is intended the consent of the children to the conclusion of the parents. And why? reason presupposeth, that if either party had been discontented with the match, they would by one means or other have signified their dislike. In such cases as this, by like suppositions, it is grown into a proverb, Qui tacet consentire videtur: He that holdeth his peace, and replieth not, seemeth to consent. And this may not be thought strange of any, that a man should covenant by silence. For a man may answer by silence: g Plutarc. lib. de immodica verecundia. Silentium sapientibus responsum est. Silence is an answer to a wise man. A man may accuse by silence. Menander said, h Polyanth. tit. Silentium. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉: By silence thou accusest more sharply. A man may defend himself by silence: as did i Math. 27.12 Our Saviour Christ when so many men laid so many things falsely to his charge. Now if a man may answer by silence, if he may accuse by silence, if he may defend himself by silence: then may it easily appear that a man may yield his consent, and enter a contract by silence. And therefore put the case that I come to a man to borrow an hundred pounds: ye shall have it (saith he) but ye shall give me ten pounds for the years use of my money. I stand still and answer nothing to the contrary, but take my hundred pounds and go my way. Here is intended pactum tacitum, a secret consenting or covenanting for usury. Again, put the case I come to a man to borrow money, and without any demand made on his part, myself do offer of mine own accord to give him usury. He goeth away, and saith nothing, but fetcheth the money, and telleth it, and delivereth it. Here is also pactum tacitum, a covert or secret covenanting for gain, because by their silence, a mutual consent and agreement is intended howsoever no way expressed, or declared. And I warrant you the usurer will not forget to urge it, if the borrower be negligent in performing of his offer. And this I thought good to note, lest men should be overtaken with a covenant in this kind of usury, before they be ware, and should departed from the usurer, further tied and entangled, then ever they suspected. But to proceed. As there is a secret and intended kind of agreement, so is there also Pactum expressum, A covenant revealed or expressed: and that is also of two sorts: Nudum, & vestitum: A bore, and an invested covenant. A bore covenant, is a man's sole promise, by which he witnesseth or protesteth his consent to that whereupon they are agreed. As for the purpose. I will lend you so much money (saith the usurer) but I tell you withal, you shall give me interest for the forbearing thereof. Contented saith the borrower, that I will by God's grace, and thank you too. In this case they have consented and covenanted by bore word and promise, the one to take, the other to pay usury. And this is Nudum pactum, A bore or naked covenant. A covenant is invested three manner of ways, viz. 1. Re. 2. Verbis. 3. Literis. By things: By words: By writings. By things, as by a pawn. And therefore he which dareth, and taketh any Real pawn for the payment of usury, he covenanteth and compacteth for usury. By words, as Stipulatio, and Fideiussio. And therefore he which dareth, and taketh before witness the borrowers solemn promise, for the payment of increase: or dareth and taketh an other man's word for the borrowers payment of the increase: that man covenanteth and compacteth for usury. By writing: as by bill, or book, or obligation. And therefore, he that dareth and taketh of the borrower a bill of his hand, or his hand to his book, or his band, or obligation for the payment of usury, that man doth covenant and contract for gain. I do not take upon me curiously to enter into all kinds of contracts mentioned by Civilians: these only have I noted, as most usual and most incident to this case of usury: that both the borrower and lender may know, how that many ways they may in borrowing and lending give consent and make compact of gaining. The conclusion of this point is this: whosoever when he dareth, doth take the consent of the borrower for payment of increase, and doth take this consent of his, by pawn, by stipulation, by sureties, by his own promise, by his bill, by his hand, by his obligation, yea by his secret and intended consent: that man covenanteth for gain, and is within the compass of Outward, Open, and Actual usury intended in this definition. THere is yet a fourth point to be observed in this kind of usury: and that is, that the usurer never hazardeth, nor adventureth the goods which he dareth forth. That which is lent forth they commonly call the principal: in latin they call it Sors: which is as much to say, as hazard, or chance, or lot. k Hieron. epist. ad Marcell●m. tom. 3. Sortis dilatio usuram parturit, saith Hierome: The forbearing of the principal bringeth forth usury. And Erasmus in his annotations upon that place of Hierome saith thus: l Erasm schol. Ibi. Sors est principalis pecunia quae parit usuram: The lot is the principal money or goods that begetteth usury. Now the usurer never adventureth or hazardeth the loss of his principal: for he will have all sufficient security for the repayment and restoring of it back again to himself. m Luther de taxand. usura. tom. 7. Nec tamen usurarius iste (saith Luther) Quicquam periouli vel in corpore, vel in bonis, aut mercibus, in se recipit, aut patitur. And yet will not the usurer take upon him any adventure, or hazard, either in his body, or goods. And therefore the name that usurers give to their principal, to call it Sors, which signifieth lot or chance: doth not otherwise agree to any thing which the usurer dareth, than 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 (as we say) that is, when men by speaking one thing, will understand the clean contrary. As a mountain is in latin called M●ns, à non movendo: Because it moveth not. Or as a wood is called Lucus, à non lucendo: Because it giveth no light: even so, and not otherwise, may the usurers money be called Sors, à non sortiendo: Because he hazardeth it not. Peter Martyr saith, n P. Martyr loc. come. clas. 1. loc. 7▪ Sec. 3. Ex. 1. Sam. 10.19. Nihil aliud est sortiri, quam aliquid agere, ex cuius eventu rem incognitam possimus deprehendere. To cast lots (in which, things are put upon chance) is nothing else, but to do some act, by the event whereof we may find out some thing which is hidden or unknown. According to which description, the usurer is far enough from lot or adventuring. For he dareth not, as desirous to know how the borrower shall speed, but as being assured afore hand what himself shall gain: and he dareth not, as depending upon the event of the borrowers labour, but upon the safety and assurance of his own security. Therefore, even as there is in these days little use of lots themselves among men: so is there no right use at all of the name of lot among usurers. Unless perhaps some man will say that the usurers goods may be called lot, as S. Augustine said that Absalon was called his father's peace. o Augustin. come. in Psal. 3. Ideo Absalom patris pax dicitur, quia pater habuit pacem quam ille non habuit. Therefore is Absalon interpreted his father's peace, because his father had that peace, which himself had not. In the like manner may that which the usurer dareth, be called Sors, let, or hazard, or adventure, because the borrower hath that hazard which the usurer hath not. For it may be (and it often falleth out) that the borrower doth lose, but it is most certain that the usurer shall gain. S. Ambrose doth notably descant upon this name of lot and chance, which usurers give to their principal. p Ambros lib. de. Tobia cap. 4 Sortem dicitis quod debetur. Ye call (saith he) that which is owing unto you, lot or chance. And not amiss. Etenim, velut urna ferali misera sors voluitur, perituri debitoris luenda supplicio: For the lot is cast into the deadly pot or barrel, which when it is drawn out, must prove the borrowers bane. Et fortassis ideo sors, quia in eventu sunt patrimonia quae sub hac arte voluuntur: Or perhaps (saith he) therefore ye call it lot, or hazard, because the patrimonies or lands which are pawned or mortgaged under this art of usury, are in hazard never to be redeemed, and a great chance is it if ever they be recovered. But as for the goods which the usurer dareth, it is far against his will, if they be any way adventered. And yet M. Bucer (a man whom they are wont to allege in their defence) saith plainly that we must not lend to our brethren that need q Bucer. come. in mat. 5. Certa restitutionis sp●, With a certain hope of restitution, much less than with all security and assurance, not only of the principal, but also of the increase. But I am not ignorant what the usurer will reply in this behalf. Why sir (will he say) whensoever, or howsoever, or to whomsoever I lend, it is evident that I hazard and adventure my goods. For, say that I take the borrowers band or bill, or pawn, or sureties, or promise' for mine own security: yet it may come to pass, that he and his sureties may prove banckroute, his and their goods may by some offence be confiscated and forfeited to the crown, he or they may flee the country, or keep the house, that they are not to be gotten: nay evidences may be stolen, lost, brent, caught out of my hand by cozenage, etc. a thousand ways are there, by which notwithstanding mine assurance, I may be defeated of mine own. And therefore it is evident that I adventure my goods. Now to this objection of theirs, I answer two manner of ways. First I say, that in this sort and this respect, every man adventureth his goods, even he that hath sufficient pawn in hand, yea even he that keepeth his money fast locked in his coffers: for they may be burnt, or stolen, or by cozenage conveyed away. All the goods of this life are of this nature r Mat. 6.19. The rust and moth may corrupt them, thieves may break through and steal them away. And yet I trow no man will say that he doth adventure his money, who taketh for it sufficient pawn in hand, or who keepeth it by himself under lock and key in his own closet. I put an example to make the cause plain. We have in England two sorts of Merchants, Merchant Adventurers, and Merchant retailers. The retailer cannot but hazard much, for he must trust often, sometimes for round sums, sometimes for a great while, sometimes upon the borrowers bore word, or hand to his book, (which assurance no usurer will take) and yet no man calleth him a Merchant Adventurer, neither is he assumed into their hall and company. How much less than can an usurer be called an adventurer of his goods, when he will neither trust, nor lend for long time, nor but upon all sufficient security? Secondly, to the plea of the usurer touching the adventuring of his goods, I answer in this sort. There is adventuring in a double respect, 1. First, Quoad eventum. 2. Secondly, Quoad media. A man may adventure as touching the issue: and as touching th● means. As touching the issue, it is confessed that the usurer adventureth: and no gramercy, for he cannot possibly do otherwise. Because no man can see the end of a thing when he beginneth it, and because the overruling providence of God will work when it pleaseth, sometimes beyond means, sometimes without means, sometimes contrary to means: therefore is it, that no man can say assuredly what the issue of any thing will prove. But as touching the means, the usurer worketh so sure, as he cannot in any reason be said to adventure. As for example: it is said in the Acts of the Apostles, s Act. 12 4, 5, 6. that Herod apprehended Peter, and cast him into prison, and delivered him to four quaternions▪ of Soldiers, to be kept, and bound him with two iron chains, and set watch before the door of the prison, and about Peter's lodging, that he should not escape. The extraordinary providence of God did (indeed) deliver him: but will any wise man say that Herod when he had used all these means of safety did adventure Peter's coming out? Even so, when the usurer hath bound the borrower t Plutarch. lib. de non foenerando. with bands and pawns as it were with fetters (for so plutarch speaketh:) and when he hath tied him as fast, and made him as sure, as his own head can devise, or laws will permit: it may be that one way or other, God by his secret providence may defeat him: but will any man say, that the usurer adventureth, or meaneth to adventure, or thinketh that he doth adventure the principal? Not assuredly. For because he will not adventure, he will never lend to usury to a man that is not very sufficient for to pay. u Ibidem. Nemo foeneratur pauperi: None will lend to usury to a poor man. Nay, he will not lend two years together to a rich man, but with new sureties, for fear (I trow) that he, or they should be undone in few years by usury: and so not being able to pay, the usurer should lose his advantage. It is evident therefore that he adventureth not the principal. The conclusion of this whole sermon is thus much. We have examined the four points concurring to usury. And from thence it appeareth, that whosoever he be, that so dareth any thing, as the property is transferred to the borrower together with the use: and doth covenant with him that borroweth either by word, or surety, or bill, or band, or pawn, or secret consent, or by any other kind of bargain: to receive more than his own again, that is any thing which is either money or moneys worth: and doth not adventure the estate and return of that which he dareth: he is that Outward, Open, and Actual usurer, who is before defined, and whose practice we shall afterwards show to be condemned, not only in this sentence of Solomon, but also in many other places of Scripture. The end of the second Sermon, preached April 23. 1593. The third Sermon: the special contents whereof are these. 1. Covert and cloaked usury is described, what it is, and how it seizeth upon lawful contracts. 2. Mental usury is described, which consisteth in the sole hope and expectation of gain. 3. The Scriptures are alleged which do condemn usury. 4. Two reasons are rendered why it is condemned in the Scriptures, viz. because that 1. It overthroweth lending. 2. It overthroweth charity. 2 Covert Cloaked usury. Hitherto we have handled only that kind of usury which (as Erasmus phraseth it) a Erasmus serm. in Psal. 14. tom. 5. aperta facie est quod dicitur: showeth itself with open face, or in the own likeness. Now because that b joh. 3.20. Every man that doth evil hateth the light, and c Francisc. Petrarcha de remedio utriusque fortunae. lib. 1. dial. 56. usury is a note, miseri, deiecti, & inertis animi, Of a miserable, base, and abject mind: therefore some to cover their sin, and to uphold their credit, have devised fair cloaks to shroud their ragged garments, and have begotten a more cunning, and subtle kind of traffic in the world. One said not untruly: d Rainer. Pan. theol. part 2. tit. de usury. cap 7. Inter alias, sunt tredecim casus quos in fraudem usurarum malitia cupiditatis quotidiè invenit: there are among others thirteen cases or devices, which the wickedness of covetous men hath time after time, devised to elude, or to cover the practice of usury. Now, it was well that he said, there were thirteen cases, inter alios among others: lest he should have bounded so large a field, with two strait an hedge. For there are thirteen hundred, yea thirteen thousand devices, which men of evil conscience have invented to avoid the show and danger of usury. Nay, who can reckon them by thousands, when as Erasmus saith e Erasmus ser. in Psal. 14. tom. 5. sunt innumerae: they are innumerable, as the stars in the sky, or the sand by the sea shore, which cannot be reckoned or measured for multitude? And they must needs be innumerable, because (as Bullinger saith) f Bullinger. Decad. 3. Serm. 1. In dies exoriuntur novae: They arise daily spick and span new, one in another's neck. And although the laws do by express words, forbidden all crafts and chevisances, and devices made to such purpose: yet as Cornelius Tacitus reporteth of this evil in Rome, so may it be said of our usurers in England: g Cornel. Tacitus Annalium. lib. 6. Toties repressae, miras per artes rursum oriebantur: Usurers and their deceits, being often repressed by the laws and statutes of this realm, are notwithstanding by wonderful devices, and subtleties risen up again. All which cloaks and subtleties, if I would go about to discover, I should attempt to tread an endless maze, and enter a labyrinth, out of which Theseus himself were not able to reduce me. For as their shifts are infinite on the one side, so are they exceeding subtle and crafty on the other. h Antoninus Archiep●sc Florent. tom 2. tit 1 cap. 6. §. 11. In usurario est palliatio, & excusatio sui vitij multùm fraudulentissima: In the usurer there is a cloaking and excusing of his default to too fraudulent, and deceitful. Like are common usurers unto the monster Hydra: for they have many heads, that is, infinite devices: and withal every head is the head of a serpent: which serpent i Gen. 3.1. was more subtle (saith the scripture) than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And therefore whereas it cannot be rightly said of usury, that it is an Art, or Trade, or Occupation, or Science: to the end that it may have a name whereby to be known in law, I suppose that we may with M. Smith fitly call it a k M. Smith. serm. 1. upon usury. fol. 12. mystery. Such a mystery, and such an intricate practice it is, that as john saith in the Revelation, l Apoc. 2.17. Christ will give a name to him that overcometh, which no man knoweth, saving he that receiveth it: so may it be said by allusion of the usurer (though he be not worthy to be compaxed to so good a thing,) that he handleth arts, and practiseth devices, which no man can discern, but he that useth them: m Aret. Prob. part. 1. loc. 50. de usuris. Non put o quenquam scire artes usurarum, nisi solos eos qui in illius praxi indies versantur: I do not think (saith Aretius,) that any man knoweth throughlie the arts of usury, but only those which are daily conversant in the practice of the same. And therefore as it is impossible for a man to picture that same Empusa, of whom it is said in Aristophanes. n Aristophanes in Ranis. Natalis Comes muthol. lib. 8. cap. 8. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. She seemeth every thing, Now an ox, now an ass, etc. Now one thing now another: even so do I suppose it to be impossible in any perfection to describe this variable and changeable, (I mean this cloaked and covert kind of usury.) For sometimes it seemeth to be buying, sometimes selling, sometimes letting, sometimes pawning, sometimes one thing, sometimes another: always being usury, and yet never plainly appearing to be usury. Now be it I must endeavour to describe it: for I have promised so much, and this argument doth exact it at my hand. Yet this must I protest in this bold attempt, that I neither have purpose to be long, nor hope to accomplish any great exploit about it. For who could ever draw a full and lively picture of Proteus that changeable sea God? Or what building can a man there erect and raise up where the sand is so quick, as he can lay no foundation? Yet will I assay it: Quid enim tentare nocebit? That I may as it were at a back window, let in some small glimmering light, which may give occasion to others that are clearer of sight, and better at leisure to discern more thoroughly into this intricate mystery. And that which I do, I will do with this mind, not as taking delight in beholding the face, or drawing the picture of so misshapen a monster: no more than the Poets affected the qualities of those Furies which they raised from hell unto the stage. But with that mind where withal the holy Ghost hath recorded unto us o Gen. 4.8. the unnaturalness of Cain, p Gen. 4.23. the cruelty of Lamech, q 1. Sam. 25.10.11. the covetousness of Nabal, r 1. Sam. 16.14.23. the fury of Saul, and such like wicked vices of ungodly men: even that their sins being displayed before our faces, they might be the more loathsome to behold, and so the more easily avoided. The ground of this point, I derive from that which I find in Rainerius, Bromyard, & others of the schoolmen, who show by divers instances, how usury cloaketh itself under the pretence of buying and selling, of letting, of exchanging, etc. which are contracts approved by God, and by the practice of all good men. Therefore I do thus define, this same Palliatam usuram, This cloaked kind of usury. Covert usury, is lending for gain, under the colour of some lawful contract. And indeed if we will thoroughly examine the thing, whereas there are divers lawful kinds of bargaining, (as hath been before declared) we shall find that usury is often committed under pretence and colour of them all. For first, in buying and selling men play the usurers many ways. As for example: s Rainer. Pantheol. part. 2. tit. de usura. cap. 7. A man buyeth corn yet in the field, (it may be in the blade) for five shillings a coombe: and it is likely that in harvest, it will be worth twelve, or thirteen shillings a coombe: t Ibidem. Tunc usuram facit, Than that man committeth usury. Of which very kind almost are a great number of maulsters, and others among us, which do buy barley afore hand for four shillings a coombe, and at the time of their delivery, it is worth six shillings, or a noble: and so for forbearing their money, and laying it out aforehand, they gain six shillings in twelve, ten shillings in the pound: far above the rate that the law admitteth in usury. And no doubt unless this exception some what help them, u Ibidem. Probabiliter dubitatur utrum fructus illi plus vel minus valere debeant: It is doubtful, and uncertain, whether at the time of the delivery the corn willbe more or less worth: unless I say this point will help them, that at the time of their buying, they are uncertain whether the price of corn will rise or fall, before the time of delivery: it seemeth a thing apparent to me that such men come within the compass of cloaked usury. Again, I cell wares, I give three months day of payment, and for that I am to forbear my money so long, I cell above mine ordinary price, and above a reasonable gain: herein (no question) I commit usury. For I cell the time, and make gain of lending. A note very necessary to be observed of shop keepers, and occupiers: that they learn, not to disgrace their honest trades of merchandise, by putting upon them the dishonest cloak of usury. Again, x Io. Bromyard. Summa. Praedicant. tit. de usura. a man cometh to me to borrow money: I answer I will lend him no money to usury. But if he will buy a horse, or a gelding for ten pound, (which is scarce worth ten shillings) I will lend him so much money, till such a time. So the price which he payeth for the horse, more than he is worth, shall fully recompense the loan, and usury of the money. Such an usurer myself once knew in the world (if happily his own son doth report the truth of his father) who was supposed to have many hundreds out to usury at once. All his old hosen, and doublets, and coats, when they were past his own wearing, proved unto him the richest part of his wardrobe. For a man could not borrow a hundred pound, but he must buy of him an old frise coat, or a cast doublet, or some such like princely rob: and the price of it was not commonly less than twenty marks, or ten pounds, answerable to the loan of the money which he lent forth. Again, I cell a commodity for the price which the market now goeth at, with this condition, that if it be more worth at the Easter, or Whitsuntide following, I will have more for it: but if it prove less worth, I will not have my former price abated. y Rainer. Pan. Theol ●art. 2. tit. vsu●a. c. 7. Talem (inquit Hostiensis) judico usurarium: cùm ipsum in pactis claudicare videam. Such an one (saith Hostiensis) I judge to be an usurer, because I see him to haut, and not to deal directly in bargaining. Again, I come to a man, and desire him to lend me an hundred pound upon usury. He answereth, he hath not so much ready money by him, but to do me a pleasure he will lend me a hundred pounds worth of plate to cell, and so to make money: the plate perhaps being hardly worth the money. I am no sooner gone out of the door, but the usurer provideth a broker to meet me, and to buy his plate of me again. Now for ready money perhaps I cell the plate for four score pound. The broker carrieth back the plate to the owner, and from him bringeth four score pound in ready money to the borrower. The borrower must pay the lender an hundred pound for his plate at the day appointed, and ten pound for the usury in the mean season. So in fine, the poor man payeth loan after thirty pound in the hundred, and yet must think himself befriended of the merchant. Thus and a thousand ways more is usury committed under pretence and colour of buying and selling. Usury is likewise cloaked, & cometh many times disguised in the form and habit of letting. As thus: z Bromyard Summa praedicant. tit. usura. I buy a Bullock, or a Cow, of him that hath none to sell. And knowing that he hath none, I say to him, coming to borrow money: I do here deliver you so much money for such a beast. But now I will let you that beast for such a time, at this or that price. In this case (saith Bromyard) Vt Deum decipiant pecuniam animal vocant: That they may deceive God, they term their money by the name of a living creature: and they take loan for lending of money, under pretence of letting a beast. Again, a Ibidem. one cometh to me to borrow money: I answer I will lend him no money, but cattle if he please. He replieth that he hath no need of cattle, but he must use ready money. Why then (say I) take thus much money of me, buy with it thus many milch-kine. At the years end, ye shall give me thus much money for the hire of every Cow, and ye shall therewith restore to me the kine themselves, in that form in which I deliver them unto you: that is (to deal plainly) in so much ready money. Here seemeth to be hiring of kine in the borrower, and letting of kine in the lender, and yet at the years end all proveth but thus much loan for the forbearing of so much money: and so it is usury under pretence of letting. Again, one cometh to me to borrow a hundred pound for seven years. I answer that he shall have it with this condition: he shall hire of me a house and certain land, at such a yearly rent, and he shall take a lease of them for the space of seven years. The house and land perhaps are hardly worth ten pound a year, yet I covenant to receive twenty pound a year rend. So it cometh to pass, that the rent of the lease, payeth the loan of the money, even ten pound for the hundred, and usury is committed under pretence of letting. Or thus again. A man cometh to me to borrow twenty pound. I answer, I cannot forbear so much to lend him: but I have twenty pound in old gold, or fair gold, which I am loath to forego, or to have it changed: and to do him a pleasure I will lend him that, to lay to pawn to another, and to borrow so much money upon. But withal for my kindness, he shall give me twenty shillings for having my money to lay to pawn to another. This is neither of the two kinds of lending: it is neither mutuating, nor accommodating. Mutuating it is not, for he doth not transfer the dominion and property of his money to the borrower. Accommodating it is not, because his money goeth not free: therefore of necessity it is letting, or usury, taken under pretence of letting. As it is with letting, so it is also with lending: for usury is many times committed under pretence of free lending. As for example: b Lauater comment. in Ezech. 18. homil. 76. An occupier or shopkéeper will take all kind of gold that is brought unto him for payment: as clipped Angels, light french Crowns, souldred Sovereigns, and such like. Provided always that he will not take them for payment, unless he have recompense according to the want: for one six pence, for another a groat, for an an other twelve pence allowance, or more or less. Now this light gold, or souldred gold, or clipped gold, will he keep by him, and will lend it out freely to any man that desireth to borrow. All the recompense that he requireth, is no more than that which he dareth out, viz. ten pound for ten pound, twenty pound for twenty pound, that is, (as it seemeth) only his own again. But when the day of payment cometh, where he lent Angels that wanted six grains, and french crowns scarce worth five shillings: he will be paid again with good, lawful, and currant english money. So in every piece of gold which he lent, will he gain twelve pence, or six pence, or a groat, & yet seemeth to lend freely, & without any consideration. Again, I come to an usurer to borrow ten pound for a year. He answereth, he cannot so long forbear his money: but to do me a pleasure he will lend me so much for a month. And he will lend it for so long Gratis, Freely: (he meaneth indeed Gratis the Noun, not Gratis the adverb: Gratis, that is, gratis hominibus, To men which he hopeth in their consideration and recompense will prove thankful.) All that he will require, is a band for the repayment of his own again. But he knoweth well enough, that it is an hundred to one that he which cometh to borrow ten pound for a year, shall not be like nor able to pay it again within a month. Well yet this he offereth freely, & the borrower being penned is glad to accept of any thing. He taketh the money, he entereth a band, the month is soon expired. He cannot provide the money so speedily, for want of return, and therefore the band is forfeited. Than will the usurer pay himself his loan with the forfeiture of the band, it may be thrice as much as the loan is worth: and yet make the poor borrower believe that he doth much befriend him, in not taking the whole forfeiture: considering that he broke day with him, who lent his money out of his purse freely, and without any consideration. Thus the poor man payeth thoroughly for his borrowing, and the usurer is thoroughly satisfied for his lending. From lending let us pass on to exchanging: & we shall see that many times under show of exchange, men commit usury. As for the purpose c Erasmus conci. in Psal. 14. tom. 5. I lend the value of a thousand florentines in silver, and I covenant to receive for them a thousand florentines in gold: Qui (ut fere fit) pluris aestimantur (saith Erasmus) which are more worth than they go for in silver. Anon manifestè committit usuram? His opinion is, that such a man doth manifestly commit usury. Again, put the case that Angels go currant for an eleven shillings in France, which are worth but ten shillings in England. I will lend a man a hundred Angels in England, upon condition that he shall repay an hundred angels to my factor in France. In the one example there is but an exchange of coin in an other kind, in the other only a commutation of place: yet in both, the lender taketh manifest increase for the forbearing of his money, and so committeth usury. The last which I will add shallbe laying to pawn, because the other contracts which remain unspecified, are not so commonly nor easily abused to this evil. Now under pretence of laying to pawn, usury is commonly and too commonly committed. As in this example. I lend twenty pound for a year, & for assurance of mine own, I take a pawn worth forty marks: with a bill of sale, that if he fail payment at the day appointed, his goods shall be mine. I know that at his time he is nothing like to pay it, and at his day he doth not pay it: for his default I seize upon his pawn, and take it to mine own use. So I gain twenty nobles for the lending of twenty pound, which is apparent to be extreme and notorious usury. No man must expect that I deliver all the mysteries of this secret knowledge. Had I an hundred tongues, or a marble memory, or an infatigable industry, I could no more utter, or record, or find out, the innumerable devices which usurers have to oppress the poor: then he in the Poet d Virgil Aenead. 6. could utter the punishments of hell wherewith the wicked were tormented of the Furies. hesiod describing in the person of Periclimenus the nature of a covetous crafty man, who used all steightes to enrich himself, and to beguile the poor (for so e Natal. Comes. muthol. lib. 8. cap. 8. Natalis Comes doth expound him,) he saith, that sometimes he was like a fowl, sometimes like a be, sometimes like an aunt, sometimes like a serpent: yea he addeth — 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. So many shapes he had, as no man can express. So may we say of usurers: sometimes they appear in one shape, sometimes in another, sometimes they take one course, sometimes another: yea they have many a quillitie, and many a subtlety, which no writer that hath not been bound twice seven years prentice to the trade, is able to disclose. To end this point therefore, and to proceed to that which remaineth: Homer thus describeth Dolon the Trojan, namely that he was f Homer. Iliad. 10. Vir locuples auri atque aeris, sed prorsus inepta So Helius Eobanus translateth it from the Greek. Deformis fancy, verum pernicibus aptus Et volucer pedibus, cursuque invictus anhelo. A man very rich and swift of foot, but very deformed and evil favoured. The service which he did was in the night. His armour was an helmet of a goats skin upon his head, and a breastplate of wolves skin upon his body. His weapons were a bow at his back, and a dart in his hand, and so he marcheth on to descry the Grecian army. Now surely such men are these same Dolosi Dolones, these subtle and crafty usurers: rich in their purses, deformed in their conditions: swift to lend for advantage, more swift to take for any thing: so nimble, as no man can go beyond them. They never practise but covertly, as it were in the dark. And no marvel, for their whole trade is the work of darkness. Amorous are they as goats in their words, but bloody and cruel as wolves in their hearts: and with their devices do they shoot, and dart through the poor and needy people. Happy were the common weal, if they were served like Dolon: namely, if some wise Ulysses would make search after them, and some valiant Diomedes would smite them to the earth, and strip them of their goods. So should the Grecian army abide unbetrayed: that is, (as I now expound it) so should the commonalty live unrobbed, and unspoiled of their wealth: yea so should the poor rejoice, and those that are needy should be glad. THus far have I spoken of that kind of usury, 3 Mental usury. which is committed in fact, and betrayeth itself to the world by some outward action. Now it remaineth, that we entreat of that kind, which lurketh secretly in the heart, as it were a serpent in the bosom. We know that the laws of God do, as in other respects, so namely in this particular, differ and descent from the laws of earthly princes. men's laws can only restrain the outward deeds, committed by the members of the body: but the laws of God restrain the evil thoughts, and conceits, and intentions of the heart. Therefore the Psalmist said: g Psal. 19.7. The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul: (or as Tremelius readeth it) Restituens animam, Restoring, or making up again, the decayed breaches of the soul. Now it could not restore the soul, if it could not work upon it: and it could not work upon it to restoration, unless as a skilful Chirurgeon, it could search, and launch all the festered, and corrupted corners of the same. The law of God condemneth him for a murderer, not only which in deed runneth his neighbour through, but him also which hath the same purpose and intendment. And therefore was Saul a murderer, h 1. Sam. 18.11 in casting his javelining at David, with a purpose to nail him to the wall: though David by God's providence avoided the blow, and escaped safe out of his presence. Again, the law of God condemneth him for an Adulterer, not only who actually hath had unlawful copulation with a woman, but also him that doth intent and purpose it, yea who doth i Math. 5.28. but lust after a woman in his heart. Whereof Solomon censureth him k Pro. 7.7, 8, 9 for a child, & a fool, that in the twilight walketh in the streets, and haunteth the harlot's house, though as then he can have but a purpose and intendment, to commit uncleanness. So is it also with the law of theft. He is not only a robber that taketh away another man's goods with his hands, but he also that intendeth that injury to his neighbour. Yea, if we will believe S. Augustine, there is so much power and virtue, in the intention and purpose wherewith a man goeth about the doing of a thing, that if it be good the action is good, if it be evil, the action is evil also. For thus he writeth speaking to the Manichees l August. de moribus Manichaeorum lib. 2. cap. 13. ●om. 1. Quod quaero à vobis quo fine faciatis? I demand of you (saith he) to what end ye abstain from eating of flesh, and drinking of wine? Finis enim quo referuntur ea quae facimus, Idest, propter quem faciamus quicquid facimus, si non solum inculpabilis sed etiam laudabilis fuerit, tunc demum etiam facta nostra laud aliqua digna sunt. For the end whereunto those things are referred which we do, that is, for which or in consideration whereof we do whatsoever we do, if that be not only not to be blamed, but also be good and commendable, then are the things which we do worthy of some praise and commendation. Sin ille iure meritòque culpatur quem spectamus & intuemur, cùm in aliquo versamur officio, id quoque officium nemo improbandum vituperandumque dubitaverit. But if the end which we respect and aim at, when we perform any duty, be rightly and worthily to be blamed, them no man may doubt but that duty or work is also to be condemned. I am not now to dispute, how sound all this is delivered of S. Augustine: this I am sure may sound be gathered from him, and affirmed with him, that there is so much vigour & power in our intentions, as that where those be evil, there the actions themselves cān●t be approved, not not though the things which are done be good, lawful, and necessary in their own nature. Now, this is that which I would have to be observed concerning usury: namely that not only to covenant, and to compact for increase, but also to lend with Intent, and purpose, and hope, to receive increase, that is evil & condemned by the word of God. This kind m Io. Molan. comp. theol. pract. tract. 2. cap. 26. consil. 2. sec. 8. learned writers are wont to call, Mentalis usura, usury of the mind: or usury committed in the intention of the mind. One saith to this purpose, n Barthol Fumus Auriae Armil. tit. usura, sec. 37. Committitur usura mentalis sine pacto, quando quis mutuat cum spe habendi aliquid pecunia appreciabile supra sortem. Mental usury is committed without covenant, when a man dareth with hope of receiving some what that is moneys worth, above or beside the principal. And Gratian saith o Gratian decret. part. 2, cause. 14. Quaest 3. Non solum quodcumque lucrum, sed etiam ipsa spes facit hominem usurarium, sicut spes facit hominem Simoniacum: not only every gain in lending, but also the very hope of gain, ●● turn or repayment of his own principal again. For he that so doth, dareth not money or wares, but giveth money or wares unto his neighbour. Now of free giving Christ had spoken in the verses z Luc 6.30.31.32.33, going before: a Aret. Prob. part. 1. loc. 50. tit. de usura. Sed quod mox addit, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, hoc est mutuum date, non de eadem specie iam loquitur, sed expressè de mutuo: but that which he presently addeth, Lend looking for nothing again, he speaketh not of the same kind of contracting, namely of giving, but expressly of lending to another. And the meaning of our Saviour Christ is in those words (Lend, looking for nothing again) that men should not be like the Scribes and pharisees, who would only benefit those which were able, or willing to benefit them again, & from whom they looked for as great or greater commodity: but that they should lend also to the poor and needy, yea and that b Bucer. come. in Psal. 15. Citra omném spem gratiae, aut paris beneficentiae: without any hope of favour or of the like recompense again. And therefore one said not amiss c Rainer. Pantheol. part 2. tit. de usura. cap. 1. potest mutuans sperare tria: he that dareth may hope or expect three things of the borrower. 1. Mutui aequalitatem. 2. ream actionem. 3. personalem subventionem in articulo necessitatis. The lender may expect, first that the borrower do repay the equal measure, or value of that which he lent him: secondly, he may expect that he may have his action in law against the borrower, if his own be not repaid: thirdly he may expect, that the party whom he now relieveth by lending will yield him again personal relief in the time of his necessity. Unto which three, I may also add the fourth particular, and that is, the lender may lawfully expect the love and good will of the borrower. For that hath he justly deserved by his kindness: and besides love is not a thing which can be valued for money: and therefore he that expecteth love cannot be said to expect gain from lending. Provided always, that the lender do not so expect the love of the borrower, as that in the seeking thereof, he hath too far a reach, and casteth his eyes upon some gain, or commodity whereunto by the good will of him that borroweth, he hopeth to be preferred. As for the purpose. d G. Biel. in quartum sent. dist. 15. quaest. 11. a. Si quis Papae, aut Principi mutuaret, ad captandam benevolentiam: ut postea possit consequi beneficium, vel castrum, aut huiusmodi. If a man will lend to the Pope, or to the Prince, to purchase their favour, that being in favour with them, he might afterwards obtain a benefice of the Pope, or a Castle, or Lordship of the Prince. This man's expectation of love and favour to such an end and purpose, maketh him to become a Mental usurer. e Ibidem. Tunc enim esset spes lucri: & per consequens usura. For there (saith the schoolman ) is the hope of gain seizing on his mind, and consequently, there is usury committed. But otherwise, if a man without an overreaching head, do only expect in lending, the procuring of the favour, and friendship of the borrower: this hope can make him no usurer, for the reason before expressed. And so much for the first principal point of this treatise, namely for the defining or describing of those three kinds of usury, which are most usually practised among men in these days: together with the unfolding of the parts and branches of the same. Wherein I have been the longer: partly, because I held it exceeding necessary, to determine what that usury is against which we are about to conclude: and partly, because I found that few writers have largely, and thoroughly laboured in this point. The second principal point: declaring that usury is unlawful, and that it is for many causes, and reasons worthily condemned by the word of God. THus than I have in some measure showed what usury is: now it followeth, that I prove it to be unlawful, and to be plainly and justly forbidden in the holy scriptures. In the handling of which point, I must of necessity conjoin those three kinds of usury together, whereof I have severally discoursed before: jest otherwise the treatise should grow infinite, and too tedious to the hearers. And indeed, well may they in this point be united and coupled together: because if the one of them be unlawful, it will follow that the other must needs be condemned. As for example: If to commit usury in act, and to take usury in deed, be an unlawful thing, then is the intent, and purpose of taking usury, evil and unlawful also. For it is a sound, and certain principle in divinity: f P. Martyr. loc. come. clas. 2. loc. 10. sect. 1. Si finis illicita, & prava fuerit, ipsa quoque intentio erit mala. If the end of the action, which a man aimeth at in doing thereof be evil, and unlawful, then must the intendment, and purposing of that action, be evil and ungodly also. So, if Actual usury be unlawful, then mental usury is condemned. Again, if open, and plain dealing usury be unlawful, them much more that which is cloaked and deceitful. For S. Augustine said well, g August. in Psal. 63. Simulat a aequitas non est aequitas, sed duplex iniquitas, quià & iniquitas est, & simulatio: Feigned or dissembled equity, is no equity, but a double iniquity, because it hath in it both iniquity and dissimulation. So if open usury be unlawful, then cloaked usury is much more condemned. Therefore reprove one, and reprove all three, condemn one, and condemn all three kinds from the word of God. Now it is manifest that the word of God condemneth usury. Moses saith: h Exod. 22.25. If thou lend money to my people, that is, to the poor with thee, thou shalt not be as an usurer unto him: ye shall not oppress him with usury. And again: i Levit. 25.35. If thy brother be impoverished, and fallen in decay with thee, thou shalt relieve him, and as a stranger and sojourner so shall he live with thee. Thou shalt take no usury of him nor vantage, 36. but thou shalt fear thy God, that thy brother may live with thee. And again: k Deut. 23.19. Thou shalt not give to usury to thy brother: as usury of money, usury of meat, usury of any thing that is put to usury. Unto a stranger thou mayest lend upon usury, 20. but thou shalt not lend upon usury unto thy brother, that the Lord thy God may bless thee in all that thou settest thy hand to, in the land whither thou goest to possess it. Yea, and the Psalmist questioning with God, as desirous to know, l Psal. 15.5. Who shall devil in his tabernacle, and who shall rest in his holy mountain? Among other properties belonging to a man that should go to heaven, he nameth this for one, He that giveth not his money to usury. And the Prophet Ezekiel, describing the wicked son of a godly father, who should dye for the abomination that he had done himself, and should not live for the righteousness of his father: he noteth this for one branch of wickedness, that should among others bring him to destruction m Ezech. 18.13. if he hath given forth upon usury, or hath taken increase. And in another place, the same Prophet displaying and reproving the transgressions of jerusalem, he saith, n Ezek 22.12. In thee have they taken gifts to shed blood, thou hast taken usury, and the increase, and thou hast defrauded thy neighbours by extortion, and hast forgotten me saith the Lord God. I might allege further to this purpose that which David hath, Psalm. 55. Where complaining of the malice and cruelty of his enemies, he saith, o Psal 55.11. Non defecit de plateis eius usura & dolus: Usury and deceit departeth not from their streets. For so the old Latin translation readeth it, and the Greek interpreter hath 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, Usury and deceit. And so p Basil. in. Psal. 14. Basile, q Ambros. de Tobia cap. 4. Ambrose, r August. in Psal. 54. & Augustine among the fathers, and among the new writers s Io. jewel. in 1. Thes. 4 6. B. jewel, and t Aret. loc. come. part. 1. loc. 50. de usura. Aretius, do quote it to this purpose. I might allege also that which is written, Psal. 72. where Solomon describing the prosperity and blessedness of his government, (being therein a figure of Christ) among other benefits which by it should be conveyed to the people, he noteth this for one, u Psal. 72.14. Ex usuris & iniquitate redimet animas eorum: He shall deliver their souls from usury and iniquity. For so the old latin translation readeth it, and the Greek hath 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉: And so latter divines, both of our x L. A. own, and also of y Aret. Prob. part. 1. loc. 50. tit. de usuris. other countries, have used and received it. But because the Hebrew word which the holy ghost useth in those places seemeth to be somewhat more large, then that it can be restrained necessarily to the name of usury, and that which the old translation readeth usura, usury, and ex usura, out of usury: that Pagnine and Tremelius translate fraus, deceit, and à dolo, from deceit: therefore I will not urge those places too far for the confirmation of this argument. Neither in deed need I, considering that other places which are alleged, and may be alleged in this behalf, are as D. Wilson said, z D. Wilson, fol 21. Manifest scriptures: and as B. jewel said, a B. jewel. epist. before Wilsons usury. evident witnesses to this purpose. Unto the Scriptures, I think it not much amiss, next to adjoin the Oracle or prophesy of Sibylla. Not as matching her authority with the canonical word of God, though the heathen call her b Lactantius lib. 1. de salsa relig cap 6. Sibyllam, quasi 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 (after the Aeolian language) à consilijs deorum enuntiandis: because she revealed (as they thought) the will of the gods. For I do rather reckon the Sibyls in the number of those, which Saint Augustine calleth c Augustin. lib. exposit. epist. ad Rom. tom. 4. Prophetae non ipsius: Prophets that were none of Gods; or, none of God's Prophets. Yet I suppose that her testimony is much to be regarded, because it is holden even of Christians, that she spoke: d justinus Martyr orat ad gentiles. tom. 1. Afflatu quodam mirisico, By a marvelous kind of inspiration: yea, e Ibidem. mirifico praepotentis numinis afflatu, By the marvelous inspiration of some mighty God: for so justinus Martyr doubted not to affirm. Now, she prophesying of Christ's coming to judgement, and how at his coming, all kind of malefactors should be gathered before him: among others which were to be convented, and to be condemned of him, she reckoneth the usurers for one sort of evil people. Her words be these f Monument. patrum Sibyllin. orac lib. 2. — 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉— Than shall come before him (among murderers, adulterers, drunkards, and such like) the usurers, which heap up increase upon increase: they also in sibylla's judgement shall be appointed to destruction. And surely it is no marvel, though the word of God, and others speaking by an extraordinary spirit, have forbidden and condemned usury. For, not to stand upon that which is of some other alleged to this purpose, namely that the usurer g D. Wilson. fol. 33. selleth the time and the air, and so is not only contrary to God, who giveth those things freely unto all, but also injurious unto men, in taking money for those things which are none of his own: neither yet to stand upon that speech of S. Basile, h Basil in Psal. Sine terra plantans, fine femine metens: The usurer is such a kind of husbandman who planteth having no ground, & reapeth having no seed: I say, not to stand upon these, nor some other arguments which are used of divers writers to this purpose: this is one special reason why God hath forbidden usury in the word. 1 The first reason against usury: it overthroweth lending. Namely, that whereas lending is a great and a necessary duty of charity, and such a duty, as without which no society of men, can either long or well endure: usury is such a thing, as overturneth both: 1. The nature. 2. The equity. 3. The use of lending. 1. First, it overturneth the nature of lending: for usury dareth for gain, and lending in nature is free. i Gratian decret. part. 2. cause. 14. quaest. 3. Duo sunt contractus qui de natura sui gratuiti sunt, mutuum & commodatum: There be two kinds of contracts (saith Gratian) which in their own nature are free: mutuating for the one, and accommodating for the other: being both several kinds of lending, as hath been before expressed. And we have heard that lending is defined to be, k Heming. come in. jac. 5 Translatio dominij nullo interposito pretio: The transferring of the dominion, or propriety of a thing to an other, without price or consideration. And who ever doubted that had common sense, but that the laws concerning lending so often repeated in the scriptures, do employ Officium gratuitum, An office freely, and of mere kindness, and without recompense to be performed to our brethren? Therefore Brentius said truly, l Brentius come. in Levit. 15. In mutuo exigit lex naturae, ut praeter sortem nihil accipias: In lending, the law of nature requireth that thou receive nothing again more than the principal. And Chemn●tius saith, m Chemnit. loc. come. tit. de paupertate ca 6. tom. 2. Quandò mutuans paciscitur aliquid ultra sortem, hoc fit contra naturam contractus mutui. When he that dareth, covenanteth to receive again more than the principal, this is done or this he doth contrary to the nature of lending. Whereof it is that Vrsinus n Vrsinus Compend. doct. Christ. part. 3. in precept. 8. justly reckoneth usury among the corruptions which creep into lawful contracts. And Selneccerus saith, o Selneccerus instit. Christ. rel. part. 2. pag. 615. Mut ●●●●onem esse officium: & liberalem contractum: That lending is a duty which of right we own to men, and a contract liberal and free in the own nature: Et depravari usuris: And that it is depraved, or corrupted by usury. As indeed it must▪ of necessity be corrupted by usury, considering that lending is free in nature, and the usurer dareth for gain. Therefore even as he which first devised p Gen. 36.24. the breeding of Mules, conjoined those kinds which nature had severed, and q Levit. 19.19. God had forbidden to be mingled: and by that mixture of his, brought forth but a beast, which though it be of some use unto men, yet it is but a corruption and monster in nature: even so, he that first coupled gain unto lending, hath united those things which reason & common sense have severed a sunder, and hath brought forth by his device but r Aristot. Polit. lib. 7. An 〈◊〉 beast, yea s Io. jewel. in 1. Thess 4.6. A monster in nature, t Suidas in Aristoph. de nubibus. yea a swelling monster: howsoever in this unkindly and unnatural age of the world, it be by supposition reputed profitable unto men. For lending is free in nature, and therefore usury overturneth the nature of lending. 2. Secondly, as usury overturneth the nature, so doth it also the equity of lending. What equity is to be observed between the lender, and the borrower may best appear by the law of God: for u Psal. 19.9. The judgements of the Lord are truth, yea, they are righteous altogether. Now God's law concerning lend was this: x Exod. 22 14. If a man borrow aught of his neighbour, and it be hurt, or else die, the owner thereof not being by, he shall surely make it good. Now against the equity of this law, the usurer offendeth diverse and sundry ways▪ For if the words be well marked, we shall see that in lending God provided only that the lender should be no loser: for the borrower was but to make good that which he had received. But the usurer will be sure not only to save his own, but also will covenant and contract, at the lest wise he will purpose within himself to be a gainer. Again, the law of God did repose the hazard, and adventure of the thing which was lent, upon the head of the lender: See more of these points in G. Babington. quaest. and answers upon the commandments. pag. 363. and in Io. Knewstub. Lect. 8. in Exod. 20. so as if his goods perished in the borrowers hand, he the owner thereof being by, seeing it, and taking knowledge thereof, the borrower was not bound to make it good. But the usurer will never adventure the principal, sink he, or swim he that borroweth, loose he never so much, and be his casualty never so apparent: yet the usurer will be sure at the lest to receive his own, if not with great advantage. Again, the law of God did bind the borrower to no more but only to make good the things which perished, or decayed, or waxed the worse by the usage. For he saith, If it be hurt or die, he shall surely make it good. But the usurer will gain by the lending of that which either decayeth not at all in the use, as money and coin, or if it do decay, may be restored full as good, as corn, wine, oil, and such like merchandise. Again, the law of God required the friendship and good will of the lendor no better, nor with no more than the receiving of his own again. Now the usurer will profess that he dareth for good will, and that if you were not his special friend, he would not forbear his goods: and yet will he be requited with a great deal more than his own again. So dear and precious a thing is an usurers friendship. So that if there be any equity in the law which God made for lending, thou certainly there is no equity but much iniquity and unrighteousness in usury. 3. Thirdly as usury doth overthrow the nature and equity, so doth it also cut down, and abandon the use and practise of lending. Evident and lamentable experience teacheth, that whereas in the days of our forefathers, when usury was counted a deadly sin, a poor man, or a young occupier might easily borrow of a rich man xl. s. or twenty nobles freely, and pay it again at convenient leisure: now since men made no conscience of this evil, a man cannot borrow five shillings, not not xii. pence for a week, but he must pay an egg for usury. Therefore B. jewel said truly, y Io. jewel in. 1. Thes. 4.6. That usury is a thing which hardeneth the heart. And another as truly, z Hugo Cardinalis in Psal. 15. Foenus interficit misericordiam: usury cutteth the throat of mercy and compassion. S. james complaineth of the covetous men of his time that a jam. 5.2.3. their riches corrupted, and their gold and silver cankered▪ From whence a learned man yet living among us conjectureth not unprobably, that the people of that time hated and detested usury. For had they not hated usury, though of unmercifulness they would give nothing, not nor lend freely to the poor: yet b L. A. Si foeneratorias artes adhibere voluissent, facilè aurum atque aessuum ab aerugine vindicassent: If they would have lent forth to usury, they might easily have preserved their gold and silver from rust and corruption. And this wisdom (if it be wisdom) the men of our time have sounded to the depth. For though they will neither give of alms, nor lend of love: yet by putting forth their whole stock to usury, they well enough provide that their money rusteth not in their coffers. So usury is succeeded into the place of lending. Let this then be the conclusion of the first argument. Sigh lending is a duty so often commanded of God, and so profitable (yea necessary) unto men, and usury is a practice which overturneth the nature, the equity, and the use of lending: not marvel though God hath so often forbidden and condemned it in holy Scriptures. 2 The second reason against usury: it overthroweth charity. To procéedest out this unto another argument. Usury is justly condemned in the word, as that which is directly opposite, and as it were a sworn professed enemy to Christian charity. Love and charity hath a wonderful praise set upon it by the holy Ghost, S. Paul saith, c Rom. 1●. 10. Love is the fulfilling of the law. And again, d 1. Tim. 1.5. The end of the commandment is love. And again, e Galat. 5.14. All the law is fulfilled in one word▪ which is this, thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. That as f Cicer. de Ora. he said of Pronū●●●●on in an Orator, so we may say of love in a Christian: the first, the second, the third point of the law, the beginning, the midst, the ending of all duties to men, is love towards our neighbour. Now the squire and rule of this love, our Saviour Christ delivereth to be this▪ g Math. 7.12. Whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, even so do ye to them▪ for this is the, law and the Prophets. Which rule and squire of love, as the usurer seldom respecteth, so doth he never observe. For tell me thou that demandest increase of another, if thou hast occasion to borrow thyself, wouldst thou rather give interest, then receive freely and for nought? experience denieth it: reason is against it. h D. Wilson. fol. 175. Who would not rather travail without a burden upon his back, then with a burden? or who would not have the sweet and avoid the sour? even so, who had not rather have goods given then sold, lent them let unto him? wouldst thou so? then if thou in thy need wouldst borrow freely, & yet wilt not lend to another man but upon increase: thou dost not to him, as thou wouldst be done unto thyself, & therefore observest not the law of charity. That if (as Vrsinus saith) the questions arising about usury may be determined by this speech, or general rule, i Zach. Vrsinus ●omp. doc. Christ. part. 3. in precept. 8. Quod tibi non vis fieri alteri ne feceris: do not to another that which thou wouldst not have done unto thyself: then may it easily be concluded what is to be thought and judged concerning this case of usury: namely, that it will not, nor cannot stand with the general rule of charity. And therefore B. jewel said, k Humfred. in vita jewel. pag. 232. Charitas Christiana non foeneratur: Christian charity putteth not forth to usury. And M. Beza saith that which is more, l T. Beza ann●t. in Matth. 19.8. Foenerari prohibet Christiana charitas: Christian charity forbiddeth men to take usury. But the Cardinal said that which is most of all, m Hugo Cardinalis in Psal. 15. usura directè opponitur charitati: usury is directly opposite unto charity. Yea, and Hemingius saith plainly and directly to this point, n Heming. Cō. in jam. 5. stabilita usura ever titur charitatis norma, quam Deus aeternam esse vult: establish or allow usury, and the rule of love is quite overthrown: which rule God would have to abide and remain for ever. Conclude we then in this manner. Love is the very sum and substance of the law: but the usurer overturneth the general rule of love, (for he doth not to another, as himself would be done unto:) ergo he and his practices, are worthily condemned in the word of God. But me thinks I hear some usurer or other, whispering with himself, and replying in this manner against that which hath been spoken. Why sir? I do as I would be done unto. For if I were in want myself, I would be glad to take up money for ten in the hundred, or to give a greater price to have wares with half years day of payment: yea and take him for my friend too which so would deal by me. To which objection of theirs, I answer diverse and sundry ways. First, I say with Chemnitius, o Chemnit. loc. come. tom. 2. tit. de paupertate cap. 6. Simulatus praetextus est: This pretence which the usurer maketh, that he would be glad in his need to borrow upon increase, is feigned, and false, and counterfeit. Nemo enim est qui non mallet gratuito mutuo sublevari in egestate: For there is no man (saith he) which had not rather be relieved in his necessity by free lending, then by taking upon usury. And where shall you all most find an usurer, who if his own money be abroad, will very readily borrow money or wares upon usury, to relieve his present necessity? Secondly, I say that as touching that speech of our Saviour Christ, p Math. 7 12. Whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, even so do to them: q Gualther. homil. 61. in. Luc. 6. Ante omnia inquirendum erit, ad quam hominis voluntatem lex ista extendi debeat. It is first of all (or principally) to be considered, unto what kind of will in a man, that law or speech of Christ, is to be extended. For in all things, and in all respects, it is evident that this rule holdeth not: Do as thou wouldst be done unto. If it did, then would it follow, that the magistrate must of love spare the convicted malefact or, because if he were in the malefactors case, he would be glad to be spared and pardoned himself. And then the covetous man should be bound by the law of love, to give all his goods unto another, because his gripple mind is such, as he would willingly another man should give all that he hath unto him. And a number of such absurdities would follow, if the rule were general, and without exception, Do as thou wouldst be done unto. This rule therefore of love prescribed unto men, r Ibidem: & Brentius hom. 59 in Luc. 6. Debet ad eam voluntatem restringi quae non pugnat cum aequitate, & legibus naturae: Must be restrained to such a will, as is not repugnant to equity, and the law of nature. Look what a man willeth to be done to himself s Mich. Cope. come. in Pro. 28.8. of a mind well governed by love, and look what a man willeth to himself, t Erasm. Sarcerius schol. in Luc. 6. scilicet à natura, by the motion and instinct of nature: that let him yield in the like case to another: for that is the law and the Prophets. Now alas, when a man is driven into a strait by an unnatural necessity, how can his will well follow the light of nature? And when his will is so tossed up and down, as that he is compelled to will that, which if he were his own man he would not, yea and misliketh utterly that which of necessity he willeth: how can his will be said to be moderated with equity and reason? And when his straightness & exigent compelleth him to reach out his hand to unlawful means, and so to forget both God, himself, and his neighbour: how can that mind be said to be well governed by love? Therefore from such a will so straightened, so degenerating from kind, and so far from love, to prescribe a rule, unto free kindness and love ● hath neither ground from the word of God, neither is it agreeable to common wisdom and reason among men. Thirdly, I answer to this objection of the usurer: say that thou wouldst be glad in thy necessity to borrow upon usury of another: yet this will of thine is not simple nor free, but thou wishest and willest so to do, only to avoid a further danger. As the Mariner tossed with an extreme tempest upon the sea, to avoid utter shipwreck casteth his goods and fraught not unwillingly over the board: which not withstanding, he would not willingly have done, but to escape the loss of his life that was more dear unto him. Now these and the like are called mixtae actiones, mingled actions: done partly voluntarily, and willingly, partly involuntarily and unwillingly. A man would not do such a thing simply if he were at his free choice, yet he will do such a thing to avoid a greater evil. So that to will, & not to will, do after a sort concur in one and the same action. But now the meaning of Christ's rule is: whatsoever we would willingly and cheerfully, that others should do to us, following the light of nature, and ordering our minds by love: that the law of charity bindeth us to yield, and to perform to others. And therefore that pretence of doing as we would bèe done unto, is but an apron of fig leaves too slenderly sowed together, and not able throughlie to shroud from sight the usurers uncharitable shame. He doth not as he would be done unto, and therefore fulfilleth not (nay he overturneth) the law of charity: and consequently he and his practices are worthily condemned in the holy Scriptures. The end of the third Sermon preached Maij. 7. 1593. The fourth Sermon: the special contents whereof are these. Two other reasons are alleged against usury: viz. that 1. It overturneth equality, and euenho●de in bargaining: because that, 1. It demandeth consideration for that which is none of the usurers own. 2. It demandeth two recompenses, for one entire thing. By reason of which inequality, it cometh to pass that usury is so commonly the overthrow, both of 1. Private families. 2. Public estates and common weals. 2. It is a fin which the usurers practice, against the light of their own▪ consciences, and so against the law of nature, 3 The third reason against usury, it overturneth equality. which ruleth in the same. THere is yet a further evil incident into usury, and that is, that it overturneth evenhoode, and equality in dealing, between man and man, and therefore in that respect also is it justly forbidden in the word of God. Now that it overturneth equity and evenhoode, the Schoolmen ha●● showed by these reasons. 1. First, a Scotus in 4. distin. 18. quaest. 2. G. B●●l. in quartum sent. dist. 15. quaest. 11. art. 1. d. the usurer demanding increase for that which he lent: seeketh gain of that, which for the time is another man's, and none of his own. For by lending, he did transfer the dominion and property of his own goods, into another man's hands: so as, not he which did lend, but he which did borrow, is for the covenanted time of lending, Lord and owner thereof. If therefore the lender demand increase for the time which he lent, he seeketh gain of that which for the time was none of his own. Now, to require gain of that which is another man's, is a very unjust and unequal demand. And therefore said one not of the meanest Civillians: b Barthol. Caepol. tract. cautelarum caut. 125. una est ratio principalis quare in mutuo usura est pròhibita, quia ille qui recipit mutuùm, si aliquid solueret ultra, solueret de re sua, vel propter rem suam: This is one principal reason, why usury is forbidden in lending, because if he that borroweth, should pay anything more than that which he received: he should pay it of his own goods, or for his own goods: for as much as in deed, the lender hath made them the borrowers for the appointed season. And this is also the reason which Melancthon useth to this purpose. c Melancthon lib. definite. appellat. Pugnant usurae cum aequalitate, usury (saith he) fighteth with equality. And why? His reason followeth, Nemo debet lucrari ex alieno: Accipiens usuras lucratur de alieno: quia mutuatio transtulit dominium. Non est igitur justum lucrum. Equality saith: Not man aught to make gain of another man's goods. But he that taketh usury, maketh gain of that which is another man's: because the lending hath transferred the dominion of the goods from the lender to the borrower. Therefore it is no just nor equal gain. Why? but sir (will the usurer object,) grant that by lending I do make my goods for the time to become another man's: yet why may I not justly demand gain and increase of the borrower, even in this consideration only? Namely, because I am contented for the time, to put out of mine own hand into his, the dominion and property of my goods? I answer: that if thou sellest any thing to another man, thou mayest so do in deed. The nature of that contract permitteth thee to take consideration, for the making over and alienation of thy goods unto another: but thou in putting forth to usury, dost exercise only the contract of lending. Now lending is translatio dominij nullo interposito pretio: a transferring of the dominion of a thing, from one man to another, without any price, or consideration, as hath been before declared. If then thou takest consideration, thou lendest not: but because thou professest to lend, therefore for translation of the property thou must crave no consideration. Lactantius describing diverse particular duties to be exercised of a christian man, among others he nameth this for one. d Lactant. de vero cultu. lib. 6 cap. 18. Pecuniae, si quam crediderit, non accipiat usuram: If he lend any money, let him take no usury for it. And why? Mark his reasons: Vt & beneficium sit incolume quod succurrit necessitati, & abstineat se prorsus alieno● Partly, that it may be a mere or entire good turn, which relieveth necessity: and partly, that he which dareth may wholly abstain, from taking of that which is another man's. And he addeth further, In hoc enim genere officij, debet suo esse contentus, quem oporteat aliàs ne proprio quidem parcere, ut bonum faciat: plus autem accipere quam dederit, iniustum est: For in this kind of duty (he meaneth, in lending) he that dareth must be content with his own, who at other times must not spare his own goods, but willingly part with them to do good. Now to receive more than he lent, is an unjust, or unequal thing. Out of which speech of Lactantius, these points may fitly, and profitably be observed. First, he that dareth to relieve necessity must yield Beneficium incolume, a free good turn: Ergo, he must take no consideration. Secondly, his lending must be free, lest he seize upon another man's goods. Thirdly, because he that taketh increase by lending, seizeth upon that which is none of his own, therefore he doth that which is unequal and unjust. So that, from him it may be gathered, that to make thy goods another man's by lending, and then to demand gain of that which thyself hast made none of thine, is a very unjust and unreasonable thing. A second reason, by which the school●men do them the inequality, and want of evenhoode committed in usury, is this. They say (and it is true,) that usury is committed only in that kind of lending, which is called mutuum or mutuation▪ And mutuation is only of such things, as consist in number, weight, and measure. Now it is evident that in such things as pass from man to man by number, or ●aight, or measure, the use of them cannot be severed from the propriety, nor the propriety from the use: but they must of necessity pass together without division, or separation. As for example, (that the simplest may understand me) I cannot lend a man money, or corn, or oil, or such like things, but I must make them fully his, to do with them what he will: if I do not, he can make no use of them, nor receive benefit by them. So as he can not have the use of them, unless he have the propriety: and what shall he do with the propriety for a time, unless he may have the use of them also? Well then: if I lend money, and so with the money the use of it, as one entire thing (because the use cannot be severed from the propriety) and I demand again not only money, which of necessity bringeth use with it, but also more money for the use of my money: I demand two things for one, & several things, for them which cannot be severed. And this is the reason of Thomas Aquinas against usury, which he maketh plain by this example. e Tho. Aquin. 22ae. quaest. 78. art. 1, If a man would cell wine severally, and by itself, and would withal, cell the use of that wine severally, & by itself: he should cell the same thing twice, or should cell that which is not: and so he should manifestly offend in injustice. Et simili ratione iniustitiam committit, qui mutuat vinum, aut triticum, petens sibi duas recompensationes: unam quidem restitutionem aequalis re●, aliam vero pretium usus, quod usura dicitur. By the like reason, he committeth injustice or inequality, which dareth wine, or wheat, to another, and demandeth two recompenses for the same: one for the thing itself, another for consideration of the use. Which second consideration, or recompense taken for the use of such a thing, is that which is called usury. Now it is true, that the usurers do object in their own defence (as Chemnitius also hath observed,) that f Chemnit. loc. con. Tom. 2 tit. de paupertate. Cap. 6. they do not fell twice over the goods, or principal itself, but they cell Realem utilitatem, a real commodity, Quae creditori abest, & debitori adest: which the creditor wanteth for the time that he dareth, and the debtor enjoyeth for the time that he borroweth. Well: grant that to be so, (for indeed who will borrow any thing, but in respect of there all commodity which it is supposed to carry with it?) Yet by that reason, a man may take two prices for many things that are sold. As for the purpose. I cell a man Bullion gold. Now gold besides the metal itself which is precious, yea and besides the benefit which ariseth from it being coined, in buying and selling etc. it hath also this real commodity, that it is profitable many ways to Physic, and to health, as a very sovereign & cordial thing. Shall I therefore take one price for the gold itself, and another for the use, or benefit, or real commodity of gold? what were this, but to cell one thing twice, and to take two prices for one commodity, and so to commit a monstrous inequality? Therefore, to return to the purpose, Aristotle who saw much into matters of common society, said that g Aristot. Polit. lib. 1. By usury was taken away, medium & norma aut regula omnium virtutum: the measure and squire and rule of all virtues: namely Arithmetical proportion, whereby equal things are equally recompensed, which rule the usurer observeth not, because he demandeth two considerations for one and the same thing. Hereof it is that B. jewel said, h L. Humfr●d. in vita juelli. pag. 224. usura mutatio iniqua est: usury is a kind of unequal exchanging, or bargaining. And Hemingius saith, i Hemingius come. in jac. 5. Manif●stè inaequalitatem parit: to take gain for lending, breedeth a manifest inequality. And the states assembled in our English Parliament concluded, that k Anno. 3. Henrici. 7. cap. 5. & Anno. 11. Henrici. 7. cap. 8. It is contrary to the law of natural justice. Ac res ostendit (saith Melancthon) l Melancthon. lib. definite. appellat. proptèr hanc inaequalitatem exhauriri magnam partem hominum, eamque ob causam saepe seditiones in Imperijs ortas esse: experience itself teacheth, that by reason of this inequality which is committed in making gain of lending, a number of men are consumed, and for that cause many seditions, rebellions, and tumults, do often arise in kingdoms and common weals. Now I would have men thoroughly to observe this speech of Melancthon, as that which I mean to make the foundation of many things now to be delivered. And well may I lay his judgement for a foundation, because m P. Fagius epist▪ ante Chald. Par●●phrast. tom. 1. his writings testify, that he was in his time maximum & singular decus literarum: a great and singular ornament of learning, as P. Fagius hath truly reported of him. That speech of his delivereth two points of great weight, and worthy of our deep consideration. Namely that whereas by the equality which is in other contracts, as in buying, in selling, in letting, in exchanging and such like, men do usually grow wealth, in their private families, yea and the public estate of the common weal is supported and maintained: it cometh to pass by the inequality which is in this corrupt contract of usury, that 1. private families are commonly impoverished, and 2. common weals are usually disturbed. And first to speak of the want and straightness which usury begetteth in private families: we have an evident example thereof in the holy scriptures. n Nehem. 5.2.3.4.5. The people complain in the days of Nehemiah, that by reason of the burdens (or usury, for so Pagnine translateth it vers. 7.) which the richer sort did impose upon them, their children were brought into bondage, their lands and vineyards were gauged to other men, And there was no power in their hands, that is, (as Tremellius well expoundeth it,) o Tremel. annot. in Nehem. 5.5. They had no substance or ability to redeem them home again. So dry were they drawn, and so low were they brought by borrowing upon usury. The prophet Amos complaineth bitterly of the oppressors of his time, p Amos 8.4 6. how they did swallow up the poor, and make the needy of the land to fail: how they sought to buy the poor for silver, and the needy for shoes: to be their servants, for so q Vatablus annot. in Amos 8.6. Vatablus doth apply it. Which extremities, as they are common to all covetous men: so (saith Gualther) r Gualther hom. 27 in Amos 8. Obseruabis ista usurarijs & foeneratoribus potissimum obijci: Observe that these things are principally objected, and laid to the charge of usurers, & those that lend for increase. Which is as if he should say, that they play of all others the principal act of this tragedy, and that they are the men especially, which swallow up the poor, and bring the needy into bondage. Ambrose also complaineth of the iniquity of his time in this behalf: s Ambros. lib. de Tobia. ca 8. Vidi ego miserabile spectaculum, I have seen (saith he) a miserable sight, or spectacle in my time. Liberos pro paterno debito in auctionem; deduci, & teneri calamitatis haeredes, qui non essent participes successionis. I have seen children set forth to sale to pay the father's debt which accrued by usury, (for of that he speaketh in that place,) and so they became heirs of their father's calamity, who were not succeeders to their inheritance. What should I say more? the Emperor Severus t Aret. loc. come. part. 1. loc. 50. de usuris. allowed the taking of four in the hundred, Cùm nonnullos foenoris causa agro paterno exutos intellexisset: Because he saw that many by usury wasted away all their father's lands. And if foreign examples wanted abroad, yet how pitiful, and how manifold are our instances at home, of noble men's sons by usury decaying their houses, of Merchant men by usury wasting their stocks, of husbandmen by usury compelled to cell their crops aforehand half for nought? that nothing is more true than is that saying of Melancthon, namely that a number of men are consumed and drawn dry by usury. Which consumption of so many, could not so usually, and commonly be effected by this trade: if there were not a marvelous inequality, even in the contract and manner of bargaining used in the same. Hereof it is that Bernhard called usury u Bernhard sylvest de cura rei familiaris. Venenum patrimonij, The poison of a man's patrimony, or inheritance: that Cato said, x Cicero office 2. Ambros. de Tobia cap. 14. Foenerari est hominem occidere, To lend to usury was to kill a man: that Leo said y Leo magnus Ser. 6. de ●ciuniò decimi mensis cap. 3. Foenus pecuniae▪ funus est animae: that is as one interpreteth it, z Io. Northbrooke. the poor man's garden. The death of life: because that usury is as it were a poison to the life, & a moth to the goods of men. Hereof it is also that Chrysostome compared usury to a Chrysost. in Mat. 5. the stinging of the serpent Aspis, which casteth a man into a certain kind of pleasant and delightful sleep: but in the sleep he dieth away without recovery. That the great lawyer b Baldus cons. 449. compared it to the worm Teredo, whereof c Plin. nat. hist. lib. 11. cap. 2. & lib. 16. cap. 41. Pliny maketh mention in his natural history: which is as soft as silk in the feeling of the hand, but biteth so hard with the teeth, that if eateth the strongest timber. For indeed such a thing is usury: it seemeth for the present to benefit and refresh, but in the end, it will devour and consume. And such a man is an usurer, soft in his words, and fair in his promises: but by his deeds he stingeth to death, and wasteth the greatest substance. Hereof further it is, that Plutarch compareth the usurers to the d Plutarch lib. de non foenerando. Vultures and Ravens that will pick the guts out of a man's belly: and that Alphonsus the king of Arragon compared them to the Harpiae, e Virgil. Aenead. 3. that devoured the Troyans' victuals: f Licost. Apotheg. tit. usurae. Upon labores mortalium depescentes: As those that do eat up the fruits of other men's labours▪ Hereof also Caelius Secundus calleth usury g Caelius Secundus lect. antiquar. lib. 12. cap. 20. Tabem pestiferan: A deadly or contagious ague. And fitly: for by it poor men are cast into many a shaking fit, and at last are pined to the bones. Yea the Pope himself (who doth not easily condemn sin and insquitie) compareth usury unto h Sextus decretalium. D. Wilson fol. 92. a Gulf or whirlpool, which doth devour souls, and utterly wasteth wealth. These, and the like, (of which kind▪ I meet with diverse in reading of this argument) are: hard speeches, and hard comparisons (I confess,) and such as might make an honest minded man to loathe the practice, yea the very name of usury. Yet thus have wise men, and learned men, spoken and written of it, because they have observed by experience, that (as B. jewel said) i Io. jewel. Ser. in 1. Thess. 4.6. Usury consumeth the rioh, eateth up the poor, maketh bankrupts, undoth houshoulds, and (as before was delivered out of Melancthon) draweth dry hundreds, yea thousands of people in the world, and is the utter destruction of infinite families. Which destruction of private families, I am persuaded that men of all ages and places could never have observed, so usually and ordinarily to arise from usury, more than from buying, selling, letting, exchanging, and such like contracts: if there were not a marvelous inequality, and want of evenhood, in the very practice of usury. But now, upon this I know the usurer is ready to reply, that many have gained greatly by borrowing upon usury. And he will not stick to give instances of some, who by this means have recovered their houses and lands which lay to mortgage, like to be lost: and of some manlisters who at the first began with little stock of their own, but by using money taken up in this order, have grown very wealthy. Yea, and I lent money to such a man, and such a man, (saith he) and he brought my money again at the day with many thanks, & professed that he gained greatly by me. And how then is this such a monstrous decay to private families, as you have before reported? Now, to this I may make answer diverse and sundry ways: first, I doubt not but some men may gain by taking upon usury: for they may light on a match which shall yield them triple increase. So may a man gain that overbuyeth his wares, or overhireth his farm or over exchangeth his horse: he may happen on such gain in selling the same wares, or letting the same farm, or exchanging the same horse again, as shall yield double or triple recompense, for the harm of his former bargain. But that excuseth not the unrighteousness of the first seller, letter, or exchanger: no more doth this, the iniquity of the usurer. So that a man may say in this case of him that borroweth as Leo said of him that dareth, k Leo primus serm. 6. de jeiunio decimi mensis. cap. 3. Quilibet sequatur eventus, mala semper est ratio foenerantis: what event soever betide him that borroweth upon usury, gain he or gain he not, the course of lending forth upon usury is evil and ungodly. Secondly, I say, that though one, or two, or some few have gained by taking upon usury: yet One swallow maketh not summer, neither can a few gainers, argue this trade to be commodious. S. Basile doth notably answer the usurers objection in this behalf. l Basil. come. i● Psal. 14. Multi (inquies) ex foenore divites facti sunt. Plures ob hoc magis puto laqueos attigerunt. Thou wilt say unto me, that many have grown rich by usury. But I answer (saith he) that I suppose more by that means have come to hung themselves, or have been brought to the gallows. Now, tu divites factos respicis, eos verò qui desperaverunt, animumque desponderunt non numeras: thou lookest to those and repeatest those that have grown rich by usury: but thou namest not those which have grown desperate and faint hearted, and have come to their end by usury. D. Wilson hath a pretty history to this purpose, not unworthy the remembering. m D Wilson. fol. 189. A man coming into a certain Church, and seeing it fraught full of Images made of wax, demanded what might be the cause of such an unwonted sight? answer was made, that those whom these Images did represent were certain persons which on a time were saved from drowning, by calling upon our Lady. Nay then (quoth he again,) where be the Images of those (I pray you) that called upon our Lady, and were drowned notwithstanding? so say I in this case. If any man will set before me the instances, and as it were the Images of those, who took up money on usury, and grew rich thereby: I would demand on the other side that he show forth the hundreds, and thousands of those, who by that means have utterly impoverished, and overthrown their own estate. They will be found a million for one: yea to be without all comparison. Thirdly, I answer to that objection of theirs (viz. many have grown rich by taking goods upon usury,) with that saying of Hemingius, whom some of them suppose to be a patron to their practice. n Hemingius come. in jac. 5. Nihil boni per se ex usura esse potest, sed potius malorum pelagus: there can no good arise from usury of itself, but rather a main sea of evil. Verum si quid fortuitò boni, ex usuris provenire videtur, id ne quaquam usuris, sed mutuationi tribuendum est: If by chance (saith he) there seem any commodity to arise from usury, that is not to be ascribed to the lending upon usury, but to the lending which is in usury. If a man gain by borrowing upon usury, it is because he borrowed, not because he borrowed for increase. Borrowing yieldeth a benefit: but borrowing for usury is that which abateth the height, and greatness of the benefit. Fourthly, and lastly, I answer to this point, that to m●ke him gain who taketh upon usury, many must of necessity lose and be hindered. For he that dealeth by money taken upon usury, if he will gain, must use the more craft & subtlety in his trade: and besides that, o L. Humfred. in vita juelli. pag. 221. Cogitur merces suas tantòpluris vendere, & populus cogitur eas pluris emere, he is compelled to cell his wares, and the people are compelled to buy his wares at a higher and greater price. Wherhfore S. Chrysostome said well, p Idem. pag. 2●2. Foeneratorem communem esse hostem omnium, that the usurer is a common enemy to all the common weal. Now than what is this, but even to save a stick, and burn a house, to save ajoint and lose the body, to help one and spoil a thousand? and this is the best effect of some men's gaining by usury. Therefore said Bodine well, q Bodinus de repub. lib. 5. cap. 2. Nulla est tenuium sublevandorum via compendiosior, quàm omne genus foenoris ex lege divina prohiber●: there is no more compendious or ready way, to ease the poor and needy: then to forbidden all kind of usury, according to the law of God. Well then: if we proceed on from private families, to whole common weals, we shall see that usury hath decayed whole cities, and provinces and kingdoms. The Romans' give testimony to this, who r D. Wilson in epist. never began to decay, till usury lorded amongst them. The Germans give testimony to this, who before they knew what usury meant, s Aret. Prob. part. 1. loc. 50. tit. de usuris. Seize soli auderent Romanis opponere: they durst oppose themselves by themselves against the Romans'. hody in delicijs, & are alieno, & gloriam bellicam & germanicam integritatem amiserunt: now wasting themselves by delight and usury, they have lost both their warlike valour, and the German sincerity. According as Luther complained of it in his time: t Luther de taxanda usura tom. 7. Detestanda avaritia, & usura funditus eam corruperunt, & everterunt: Detestable covetousness, and usury, have wholly corrupted, and overthrown it. Again. The Egyptians give testimony to this. u Alex. ab Alex. lib. 1. cap. 7. Omnis Aegyptus foenore obruta: saith Alexander ab Alexandria: All Egypt is overwhelmed with usury. The Spaniards give testimony to this, who are said x D. Wilson. fol 180. to lose their gain which they gather among the Indians, by the usury which upon their return they bargain to pay unto the Genoese. Yea England hath in former ages given testimony to this: for riotes have been raised in the land, y Anno 47. Henrici. 3. D. Wilson. fol. 198. against the jews, and many hundreds of them slain, for the usury which they exacted of the Christians. What should I say more? Cornelius Tacitus speaketh thus of the estate of Rome. z Cornel. Tacit. annal. lib. 6. Sane vetus urbi foenebre malum, & seditionum discordiarumque creberrima causa: usury is an ancient evil to the City and a most usual cause of discord and sedition. S. Hierome saith, a Hierom. con. in Esay. 58.6. In cunctis is urbibus seditionis causa vel maxima est: It is a special cause of sedition in all Cities. Pomeranus saith (as Marloret doth allege him,) b In 1. Tim. 3.3. vitanda est usura, tanquam praesentissimum & ecclesiae, & reipublicae venenum. usury is to be avoided, as a strong poison both to Church and common weal. In word: all men almost do agree in this, that it is the confusion of countries, and the bale of common weals. Now I demand whence possibly it can be, that whole countries and cities, should be so usually, and so generally overturned by usury: but even from the unreasonableness, inequality, want of evenhoode, and want of due proportion committed in the very manner of the contracting itself? And therefore, we find that the great common wealth men of all ages, though they knew, and saw evidently, how without diverse kinds of bargaining and contracting, society among men could not possibly be maintained: yet they have always prohibited, and condemned usury, as a thing carrying with it so great inequality, that it, and the public good, could not well stand together. c Plato. de leg. lib. 5. Plato banished usury out of his common wealth. d Aret. Prob. part. 1. loc. 50. de usuris. Lycurgus drove all the usurers out of Sparta. e Ibidem. Agis brent all the usurers books in Athens: which fact Agesilaus beholding, said that he never saw Clarius lumen, or (as Northbrooke reporteth it) f Io. Northbrooke poor man's garden. Puriorem ignem, a more clear, or excellent, or purer fire: for indeed, it purified the city of a mass of corruptions. g D. Wilson. in epist. Solon took away the usurers books and gains, and brought in novas tabulas, new laws, or statutes, which are said in Greek to Bee 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, because they eased the people of an intolerable burden. And if from the Grecians, we will pass over to the Latins, Appian saith, that h Appian. Alexand. Rom hist. de bello. civil lib. 1. The ancient Romans abhorred usury, even as did the Grecians. And Cornelius Tacitus saith of it, i Cornel Tacit. annal. lib. 6. Cohibebatur antiquis, & minus corruptis moribus: It was restrained in ancient times, when manners were less corrupted among them. And the reason why they abhorred usury (saith Appian) was this, k Appian. Ibi. Because it was a traffic, very burdensome to the poor, and a thing that ministered matter of strife and enmity. We read further concerning the histories of the Romans', that l Aret. prob part. 1. loc. 50. de usuris. Cato freed all Sicilia of usury. m Luther. de taxand. usur. tom. 7. Genitius the Tribune made a decree against usury. n C. Suetonius. jewel. Caesar▪ cap. 42. julius Caesar took order that creditors should be paid, deducta summa aeris alieni, si quid usurae nomine numeratum, aut praescriptum fuisset: deducting that sum of money out of the debt, which did arise or grow due for usury. And if from the Latins, we will proceed to take a view of other nations: we shall see, that they also have condemned usury. o Appian. rom. hist. de bell. civil. lib. 1. The Persians' liked it not, Vt non aliena à fraud & mendacio: as a thing which they thought carried with it lying and deceit. The Indians liked it not, p Aelianus var. hist. lib. 4. cap. 1 Indi ad usuram p●cu●iam non locan●: the Indians put forth no money to usury. The Frenchmen liked it not * Cent. 1.3. cap. 7. S. Lewis the King of France, returning home from Dameata, q Io. Boemus Aubanus de ritibus gentium. lib. 1. cap. 5. a city in Egypt, sometimes called Memphis,) Commanded all usurers, jews, Disers, or gamesters, and blasphemers of God, to departed, out of his kingdom. The Englishmen never liked it: though sometimes they have tolerated it, to avoid a greater inconvenience. Before the conquest King r D. Wilson. fol. 64. Edgar, and Saint Edward (as they called him:) since the conquest, King Edward the first, and diverse others: and of late memory King Edward the sixth, did quite and clean banish it out of the land, as after shall appear. In a word, s Bodinus de repub. lib. 5. cap. 2. Not only the law of God, verum etiam sapientissimi quique legislatores, & Philosophi (saith Bodine,) but also all wise law givers, and Philosophers have utterly condemned usury. Now (to make an end at length) shall we think, that men of all ages, countries, and languages, who have been so provident to plant, and to continued the estate of common wealths: and who by their providence, have in their times raised their countries, and kingdoms, unto a wondered and glorious estate: have all doted with a general consent, and been utterly deceived in this one case of usury? or shall we not rather think, that these men saw in reason a marvelous inconvenience, arising from this kind of bargaining, which inferred a destruction upon their government and country? which if men in carnal reason did find out by experience, no marvel though God who is the planter, preserver, and approver of common weals, hath wholly forbidden it in the word. I might now proceed to another argument, but that me thinks I hear the usurer thus replying against that which hath been last delivered. It is true indeed (will some men say,) usury is able to overthrow, and sometimes (I confess) it hath overthrown whole families, yea whole countries, and kingdoms: but that is immoderate, extreme, oppressing, griping, and biting usury. So as hence it followeth not, that this should be ascribed as an ordinary effect to every degree, and measure of usury. To which I answer, that it is true indeed, usury the lesser it is, the less it hurteth: the greater it is, the sooner it consumeth. As poison the weaker it is, the longer nature resisteth it: and the stronger it is, the sooner it killeth. And as a burden the heavier it is, the faster it wearieth, but a light burden (saith the Proverb,) will prove heavy with far carriage: so is it with usury, the greater, and the smaller, both eat and consume, but the first in the shorter, the last in the longer continuance. But let us examine from experience (which is the foundation of wisdom,) if the measure, and moderating of usury, be able to make it commodious to a state: And if in the greatest moderation that can be made of so bad a practice, it have not proved the decay of families, and common wealths, as have been before expressed. We read that justinian ordained by his decree, t L. eos. c. de usuris. that noble men might let for four in the hundred, merchants for eight in the hundred, Adventurers for twelve in the hundred, all other common persons for six in the hundred. Long before justinian: u Aret. Prob. part. 1. loc. 50. tit. de usuris. Alexander Severus rated usury at four in the hundred. Long before him, x Ibidem. Antonius Pius the Emperor: did himself let money for four in the hundred: Vt plurimos adiuuare●, that he might relieve many: and by his practice, as it were pull down the higher price of usury. Long before them all, y Luther de Taxand. usura tom. 7. V Publicula▪ M. Rutilius, Hortensius the dictator, and others moderated usury in Rome. z Aret. Prob. part. 1. loc. 50. tit de usuris. Lucullus restrained the usurers in Asia: And a Cicero epist. ad Atticum lib. 5. epist. 20. Tully in Sicilia. Yea when the Romans were in their flourishing estate, b Cornel. Tacit. annal. lib. 6. they decreed by their ●●tables, that no man should take above one ounce (that is one pound) in the hundred. Dein, rogatione tribunitia ad Semuntias redacta: Afterwards, at the entreaty of the tribunes, it was allowed to an ounce and an half, that is, thirty shillings in the hundred. But yet for all that, Postremò vetita usura (saith Tacitus:) they saw the inconvenience of that moderated usury, to prove so great, that at the last all usury was forbidden: that is, c just. Lipsius annot. in Cornel. Tacit. Sublatum omne foenus, All kind of usury was clean taken away: for so Lipsius in his annotations doth expound him. And yet, as the world goeth now, one and an half in the hundred, is but a very mean and reasonable rate. And as it was among the Romans, so have we had a taste of it in this realm of England. In the days of Henry the eight, d Anno. 37. usury was tolerated to ten in the hundred: and these halcyon days of Queen Elizabeth, e Anno. 13. have permitted it in the one case of Orphans. Thus princes have from time to time done f Beza anno●. in Mat. 19.8. that▪ which only they could do: and that is this, Fo●noris modum certum constituunt▪ They prescribe a certain measure, and set as it were certain bounds, and li●tes to usury. But have they been able by this moderation of ten, or eight, or six, or four, or three, or one in the hundred, to prevent the decay, and subversion of the commonalty? No. We see the Empire of Rome, is at this day rather a shadow and a name, then in deed and in truth, an estate of authority. And for ourselves, let us observe, if since the repealing of King Edward's statute, the number of poor have not increased in every town, if the prices of all things have not risen, if the wealth of the country be not grown into few men's hands, if the usurers trade be not at this day the only gain of England. And therefore although I will not take upon me to censure the estate nor statute now in force, (for I know that policy must tolerate those things which cannot be abolished:) yet I doubt not, but I may say as D. Wilson hath said before me, g D. Wilson. fol. 69. I like King Edward's statute best of all: As that which cometh nearest to the word of God, and therefore carrieth with it the most hope of blessing to a christian common weal. In which regard may that truly be spoken of Bodine, h Bodin. de repub. lib. 5. ca 2. Tutius est usurarum non modò radices, sed etiam fibras omnes amputare: neque id reipublicae, nec corporibus ullis, aut collegijs, ulla utilitatis, aut pietatis specie permittere. It is the safest way to cut off (or to pull up) not only the greater roots, but also all the small strings of usury: and not to permit it to the common weal, or any corporations, or colleges, under any pretence of commodity, or godliness. Let then (at length) the conclusion of this third argument be this. Bullinger saith, i Bullinger. d●●ad. 3 serm. 1. Damnatur usura in Scriptures, quatenus coniungitur cum iniquitate, & pernicie proximi: Usury is condemned in the scriptures, so far as it carrieth with it unrighteousness, and hurt to a man's neighbour. Now of that nature and quality is all usury. It carrieth unrighteousness with it, by reason of the inequality in bargaining. For what can be more unrighteous, then for a man to exact gain for that which is none of his own? or to take two recompenses for one and the same thing? yea, I may add the third reason, to those two of the schoolmen. What can be more unrighteous in bargaining, then for the one party to take all the pains, and the other none: for the one party to bear all the hazard, and the other none: and yet he that taketh no pains, and beareth no hazard to be certain of a sufficient increase, when the other is sure of none? by reason of which unrighteousness and inequality in this kind of contracting, we see how usually and ordinarily families are decayed, & kingdoms overthrown. And therefore no marvel if God whose providence watcheth over every kingdom, yea over every family in the world, hath so evidently and so expressly condemned it in the word. THe fourth, 4 The fourth reason against usury: it is contrary to the law of nature. and the last argument which I mean to use against usury, shallbe drawn from the usurers themselves. For this is not the lest that can be said against it, namely that it is a practice which is judged and condemned in the usurers own conscience. And that may appear by diverse and sundry reasons. First, they will not willingly be known to be usurers: not some of them will protest and swear deeply that they are no usurers. And that they may not be known to be such as they are, they will either lend very closely, requiring faithful secrecy of the borrower: or they will colour their lending upon usury, with the pretence of some lawful contract, or they will when they have covenanted for gain, take certain notes, or (as I may call them) certain letters pattens, consigned with the borrowers hand, in which he shall make it known to all men by those presents, that the usurer hath lent him freely▪ and without any motion of increase. Secondly, that their own consciences do condemn them in their profession, may appear by this also: namely, that though they be known, and reputed to be common usurers, yet they take it a great disgrace to be so called and termed of others. Yea, and whereas other men have names and titles given them from their trades, by which they are commonly written, and distinguished: as, such a man merchant, mercer, grocer, tailor, cordiner, and such like: there is none of this trade, but doth both in speaking, and writing, disdain (nay abhor) the name and title of an usurer. Thirdly, that in their consciences they find this to be no lawful practice, may appear, in that they dare not call a spade, a spade, nor usury, usury. But whereas we are wont to say in our common and grosser speech, such a man, or such a man taketh usury: they say in somewhat a finer phrase, he taketh usance, or he taketh interest, or he taketh consideration: as being indeed ashamed of the direct name of usury. Now what doth the seeking of such coverts argue, but that themselves in themselves are condemned for their dealing. That even as S. Paul said of an heretic, that he k Titus 3.11. Sinneth being damned of his own self, because l Caluin Com. in Titus 3.11. with an evil conscience or against his conscience, he sinneth willingly, and of set purpose, (for so M. Caluine speaketh upon that place:) so I am afraid it may be said of a number of them, that in their sinning, they are condemned of themselves: because wittingly and willingly, they follow a practice, contrary to the check, and touch, and light of their own conscience. Now let us a little consider what this conscience is, which thus checketh them, and casteth shame upon them in their doing. The learned writers both m Philo. Gregor. Theol. citantur à Io. Langio. in just. Martyrem. de vita christiana tom. 3. old, and n Caluin instit. lib. 4. cap. 10. sect. 3. new, have called conscience, Forum, A court, or judgement seat, and Consistorium, A consistory: because in it men are convented, accused, examined, acquitted, or condemned, as before the judgement seat of the magistrate, or consistory of the church. Wherhfore the Apostle speaking of the heathen saith, that o Rom. 2.15. Their consciences do bear witness to them, & their thoughts do accuse, or excuse one an other. Yea, to proceed further, Basile calleth conscience, p Basil. in princip. Proverb. citatur à Tho. Aquin. Summae part. 1. quaest. 79. art. 13. naturàle iudicatorium, The natural judgement seat, or the judgement seat of nature: because (as I take it) the law which passeth and ruleth in this court for currant, is not only the written word of God, where it is known and received, but also the law of nature, which (as the Apostle saith) is q Rom. 2.15. Written in their hearts. Well then: the usurers consciences do accuse and convict them. And what are their consciences? judgement seats erected of God in their hearts, in which the law of nature doth rule and pronounce sentence upon them. And what is this law of nature? Bullinger said, r Bullinger. Decad. 2. ser. 1. Est dictamen conscientiae, adeòque directio quaedam, ab ipso Deo hominum animis & cordibus insita, admonens quid vel faciant, vel omittant. The law of nature is the verdict of the conscience, and a certain direction of God himself, engraven in the minds of men, teaching them what to do, and what to omit. The great schoolman saith, it is s Tho. Aquin. 12 ● quaest 91. art. 2. Participatio legis aeternae, in rationali creatura: The participation of the eternal law of God, in the reasonable creature. Others say it is, t Musculus loc. come tit. do legibus cap. 3. Sententia communis, cui omnes homines pariter assentimur, atque adeò quam Deus insculpsit cuiusque animo, ad formandos moros accommodatam. The law of nature, is the common rule whereunto we all assent, & which God hath engraven in every man's mind, for the direction of his life. From all which sayings, this one thing may certainly be concluded, namely, that the law of nature is the work and instinct of God: as Musculus also proveth by these arguments. u Ibidem. First, because it approveth good, and condemneth evil. Secondly, because it is not attained by learning, and art. Thirdly, because it is agreeable to the written word. Well then: I infer thus much upon the premises. The law of nature is put into us of God, and this law of nature is the squire of the conscience: and the conscience of the usurer condemneth him of evil: Ergo, he and his practices are condemned of the law of nature, which by the instinct of GOD ruleth in his heart. Now if it be condemned of the law of nature: no marvel though it be forbidden in the written word. For what difference is there between the law of nature, and the written word, but this, that the latter is as it were a termination, and specification of the former: and the one was written in tables of stone, but the other is engraven in the hearts of men? And in this sense no doubt, that may truly be affirmed which I meet withal in the writings of many learned men, and which it seemeth they have all drawn from Aristotle's fountain: namely that usury is x Arîstot. Polit. lib. 1. cap. 10. Contra legem naturae, contrary to the law of nature. Not so much because it is against nature, for money to beget money, (in which sense one said that usury was y Hugo Caerdinalis in Psal. 15. Sodomia naturae, a kind of Sodomy in nature:) but because it doth contrary the verdict of the conscience, and so by consequent the law of nature, which ruleth in the same. And that it is contrary to the law of nature may further appear: because not only the gentiles z Io. Wigandus. Syntagma part 1. colum. 45. who do derive all their streams of virtue from that law of nature, have condemned it in their writings: but also, because diverse christians which are ignorant of the word in this case, or knowing it, do either despise it or make exception against it: are notwithstanding from the light of nature flushing in their consciences, compelled to hung down their heads at the very naming of usury. Let this then be the conclusion of the second part of this treatise: seeing that usury overthroweth the nature, and equity, and use of lending: seeing it overturneth charity, and the rule of charity, do as thou wouldst be done unto seeing it carrieth with it so much inequality, as it is by that means the usual overthrow of private families and public estates: lastly, seeing it is by the light of nature judged, and condemned for evil in the usurers own conscience: no marvel though the word of God have so manifestly, and so often forbidden it as a wicked, and unrighteous practice. The end of the fourth Sermon preached Junii 4. 1593. The fift Sermon▪ beginning the third principal and general point of this treatise. For this Sermon handleth the special objections, which are wont to be made out of the places of Scripture before alleged, for the defence of some kind of usury. As namely that: 1. The laws that condemn usury in the word are only judicial, not moral. 2. The laws of usury have received exception. 3. They forbidden only lending upon usury to the poor. 4. They condemn only biting usury. Unto which objections diverse answers are severally made in this Sermon. THere is no Scripture so evident, but it hath been, or may be misconstrued: neither is there any truth, so clear and bright, whereupon the invention of man may not cast some cloudy darkness. That never appeared more evidently, in any one thing, then in this case of usury. For although those places of Moses, before alleged, out of the books of Exodus, Leviticus, and Deuteronomie, be as plain, as plain may be, and such against which, antiquity never took exception: Yet are there even out of those scriptures, objections made, and reasons devised, for the approbation of some kind, and measure of usury. As for the purpose. Object. 1. 1. The first objection in defence of usury: the law of Moses is only political. First, it is objected, that a Caluin epist. resp. de usuris. the law of Moses concerning usury, is political only: Ergo, illa non tenemur, ultrà quàm aequitas ferat, & humanitas: therefore we are not bound unto it, further than equity, and humanity permitteth. Answer. To which objection, I answer: first, that this is a very causeless Ergo, an inference, & Illation, made without cause: the law is political: Ergo, we are not further bound unto it, than equity, and humanity will bear. For, although those laws of Moses be acknowledged, and confessed to be moral, yet even then, they bind us no further, than equity, and humanity will permit: the moral law, being in itself, the pattern, and squire of all equity, and humanity among men. And that may appear, by other precepts, and commandments of Moses, of which no man ever doubted, but they were branches, and members of the moral law: and yet they bind us no further, than equity, and humanity do require. As for example, this is a branch of the moral law: b Levit. 19.32 Thou shalt rise up before the hoar head, and honour the person of the old man: and yet, a prince that is a child, is not by this law bound to rise up, or to stoop down, to an old man, that is a beggar. Why so? Aequitas non fert, & humanitas: Equity, and humanity will not bear it. Again, this is a branch of the moral law: c Exod. 23.8. Thou shalt take no gift, for the gift blindeth the wise, and perverteth the words of the righteous. And yet, is it not simply unlawful, for a Magistrate, to take a gift of a stranger, or of a near neighbour, which hath no cause like to come before him, or of him, whose cause he hath dispatched, with speed and righteous favour. And why? Aequitas fert, & humanitas: equity and humanity will permit it. Again, this is a branch of the moral law: d Pro. 25.21. If he, that hateth thee, be hungry, give him bread to eat, and if he be thirsty, give him water to drink. But now, what if mine enemy, be also a malicious professed enemy to God? What if my liberality, be like to minister fuel to his malice? What if I cannot both feed him, and myself, or my family? then, am I not bound, to ease and relieve him. Why? Aequitas non fert, & humanitas: Equity and humanity, will not bear it. So then, this is a very causeless, and unnecessary inference: the law of Moses is political: therefore we are not bound unto it, further than equity, and humanity will permit. For, though the law of Moses, concerning usury, be confessed to be moral: yet must equity, and humanity, prescribe bounds, and limits thereunto. But, further I answer, for the discussing of this question, that, I see no reason, why those precepts of Moses, concerning usury, should be reckoned among the judicial, and not among the moral laws. For first, sure I am, that most learned men, of all ages, and of all kinds, have numbered them, among the morals, and alleged them, and spoken of them, in their writings, as of moral laws. As for instance, (to go no further, than mine own reading) among the Fathers, Basile, Chrysostome, Clemens Alexandrinus, Gregorius Nissenus, Origen, Ambrose, Cyprian, Augustine, Hierome and others: among the schoolmen, Thomas Aquinas, Peter Lombard, Dionysius Carthusianus, Gabriel Biel, Lira, Rainerus, Aquileius, and others: among the late writers, Luther, Melancthon, Brentius, Musculus, Chemnitius, Aretius, Hemingius, Wigandus, Zegedinus, Molanus, Viguerius, Wolphius, and a number of others: who do all, in their writings, speak of this argument, as of a moral duty, and allege those places of Moses, as moral laws. And whereas here it may be replied, that diverse godly men, of rare learning, & singular judgement, as Caluin, Bucer, Bullinger, Danaeus, Lauater, Carolus Molineus, and some others, have judged those laws of Moses, to be but judicial, and therefore have tolerated, yea approved some kind of usury: to this I think good, not to answer, without some Preface, and preamble used in their behalf. I do acknowledge (and that unfeignedly) that these men have been great lights, to dispel the darkness of this latter age, and to be such, as from whose opinion, and judgement, I do not descent, without some fear, and suspicion of myself, nor without great reverence yielded to them: and after a sort, leave, and pardon, and licence craved of them. Especially M. Caluin: who for his pains taken in the Church of God, may be truly called, (as not long since he was called, in this town) e M. B. venerable or honourable Caluin, whose f Survey of the pretended discipline pag. 63. modesty, humility, sobriety, learning, and judgement, they do highly reverence, that differ from him in some opinions: and when they speak the lest of him, do give this verdict, that g Idem. pag. 127. he was surely an excellent man. For mine own part, I do so honour the soundness of his doctrine, and the excellency of his gifts, that I highly thank God that ever his books were extant in the world: and I wish that I had (with B. jewel) the art of memory, so as I might be able to repeat at my finger's ends, h L. Humfred in vita jewel. pag. 236. (as he could very roundly) not only Caluins Institutions, but all the treatises, and Commentaries, and Epistles which he framed. And I say as a learned man said of our time, i Bastinguius admonit. to the reader before his comment. upon the Catechism of the County Palatine of Rhine. That which Fabius saith of Cicero, that have I always applied to that writer: let him know that he hath profited much, who is much delighted in M. Caluin. And although if a man should call me a Calvinist, (as the Papists call us all in disgrace) I would say with Zanchius, k Zanchius Miscelan. epist. ad Lantgravium. Caluinianum me esse pernego: I deny to bear the name of a Calvinist, more than of a Lutheran, or a Zwinglian, or some other. For (as he there also saith,) Christianus sum, my title and style which I bear is to be a Christian: yet as Tully professed that he had rather err with Plato then hold the truth with others: so, if it were lawful to err with any man, I would err with M. Caluin. And I had rather hold with him in some things which the world judgeth to be errors: then profess many things, which contrary to him the Papists and others have deemed to be truth. But The good Homer sometime fell on sleep: and Bernhard himself saw not all things: and M. Caluin being but a man, had in this point his ignorance and error after the manner of men. His heresy I dare not call it, though I am not ignorant that some affirm l Archidiaconus 31. quest. 1 Card. Cle 1. de usur. citantur a Wilsono. fol. 144. usury to be heresy: and one saith that, m Martin. Ab Aspilcuet enchirid. cap. 17. numero. 207. It is heresy to deny usury to be a deadly sin. Yet (I say) his heresy I dare not call it, (as some have adventured to do of late,) partly, because that he did not n Caluin. epist. respon de usuris. tantum abest ut istud pro edicto vel axiom. haberi velim. etc. obstinately defend it, as it appeareth by his Epistle written of that argument: and partly because that this opinion of usury, neither concerneth any article of faith, nor any thing which by consequence followeth upon an article of faith: both which must concur o August. de civit. Dei. lib. 18. cap. 51. Thom. Aquin 22ae. quaest.. 11. articulo. 2. Pet. Martyr. loc. come. clas. 2. loc. 4. sect. 50. by the judgement of divines to the constitution, and naming of an heresy. But his error I hope I may call it without offence, not only because myself (which is little) do deem it so to be: but also (and much rather) because he, and the rest of his opinion, are in this point surcharged with a multitude of learned men, of the contrary judgement, as hath been before declared. For a man may say in this case with Alciate, p Andrea's Alciat respon lib. 1. consil. 3. sect. 12. Omnes militant in casunostro: all men (almost, or in comparison) fight under our banner, or are of our opinion. Yea, and because S. Hierome said well, q Hierom. comment in Esay. cap. 3. Non statim multitudinis acquiescamus judicio, we must not presently, (without further consideration) rest upon the judgement of the multitude: therefore, it is s●condly to be added, that they are overcome, not only with the greater number, but also with the better arguments. And thirdly it must be noted, that Caluin and Bucer and others of that judgement r D. Wilson. fol. 179. did (as D. Wilson hath well observed) somewhat enlarge this law by a charitable exposition, partly for the hardness of men's hearts, and partly for very necessities sake, to help the needy banished men then dwelling among them. In which cases we see that God himself hath yielded much to the weakness of men. For because of the hardness of men's hearts, s Deut. 24.1. Mat. 19.7.8. God permitted a bill of divorce to Israel, beyond the bounds of the seventh commandment. And in respect of necessity, David t Mat. 12.34. is tolerated eating of the show bread, which otherwise was not lawful for him to eat, neither for them which were with him, but only for the u Exod. 29.33. Levit. 8.31. Priests. Lastly (to make an end of this point) me thinketh, any usurer should be ashamed to allege in his defence the opinion & authority of M. Caluin: considering that, first, they approve not his judgement in a number of other things, and therefore in this may be justly suspected to be partial: secondly, because none of them will observe the laws and circumstances, which he hath prescribed in this case of usury: thirdly because Caluin himself when he hath delivered this opinion of usury, requireth that x Caluin. epist. respon de usuris. no man stand upon his judgement for the full and absolute determination of this controversy. And therefore vainly, and unjustly is M. Caluin ascited, as a Patron of their unlawful practice. But, to return thither from whence I have a little digressed: it is not otherwise like, but that the precepts of Moses concerning usury, are parts and parcels of the moral law. For David in the 50. Psalm y Psal. 15.5. reckoneth it among moral duties. And Ezekiell in one place hedgeth it in, with z Ezek. 22.12 Bribery on the one side, and with defrauding of our neighbour on the other: which are both notorious breaches of the moral law. And in another place, he combineth usury, and Idolatry together. For so I read that place with Tremellius (per appositionem) in his 18. chapter: a Ezek. 18.12.13. adstercoreos deos attollat oculos suos abhominationem faciens, in usuram det, & foenus accipiat: hath lift up his eyes to Idols, committing abomination. (And then it followeth immediately in the next verse) giveth to usury and taketh increase. Of which coupling of those sins in that place together, S. Ambrose hath thus observed, b Ambros. lib. Tobia. cap. 15. vide quomodo foenatorem cum Idololatria copulavit, quasi crimen aequaret: note (saith he) how the Prophet in this place, hath coupled an usurer with an Idolater, as if usury did match or conterpoyse the sin of Idolatry. Now, who knoweth not, that no breach of the judicial law is equal to Idolatry, and that Idolatry is one of the greatest trespasses against the moral law? If therefore usury do in any measure answer Idolatry, it will follow from thence, that the committing thereof, is a breach of the moral law. Besides, I see no reason why the laws concerning usury should not be reputed and taken for moral, as well as those which concern Incest: of which no divine (to my knowledge) ever doubted, but that they aught to abide perpetual and inviolable, as precepts of the moral law. For, if it be objected that the laws of usury have received some exceptions: it is evident that the laws of Incest have received exception and dispensation also. In the time of the law, c Deut. 25 5, one brother was permitted (nay commanded,) to raise up seed unto another, deceasing without issue: contrary to that law which said, d Levit. 18.16 thou shalt not discover the shame of thy brother's wife. Yea, in the first: beginning & creation of the world, (when notwithstanding) the moral law was written in Adam's heart, the laws of Incest received manifest exception. For the text saith, that e Gen 4.17. Cain knew his wife, which conceived and bore Henoch. Now whom could he know for a wife, or of whom could he beget children at that time, but either of Hevah his own mother, or of some of her daughters, his own sisters? For f Gen. 3.20. Hevah was the mother of all living: and Cain was her eldest son in the first generation. Now, to say that Cain knew his mother, is unsavoury, and a Paradox: the other therefore followeth of necessity. And it is certain, that besides their sons Cain and Habell g josephus antiquit. judaic. lib. 1. cap. 3. natae sunt eis etiam filiae (as josephus speaketh) there were also daughters borne unto Adam and Hevah, howsoever they be not mentioned (because there was no great occasion to mention them) in the Scriptures. So then of a daughter of Adam which was Cain's own sister, did Cain make a wife and beget issue, contrary to that law which said, k Levit. 18.9. Thou shalt not discover the shame of thy sister, the daughter of thy mother. Such exceptions therefore had the laws of Incest of which notwithstanding no man ever doubted, but that they were branches of the moral law. And if any man will object against this instance of Cain, that the law of Incest was to be broken in the first creation for very necessities sake: I answer, that it being granted that God would created but one man and one woman in the beginning, and that by them alone he would propagate mankind: it was of necessity to fall out, that men must come nigh to the kindred of their own flesh to uncover their shame, i Levit. 18.6. contrary to the law. But this was necessitas ex hypothesi, necessity by supposition, not simple nor absolute as the Logicians speak. For what necessity could compel God, to created only one man and one woman, to be the fountain of mankind, when k Malachy. 2.15. he had abundance of spirit (as the Prophet speaketh,) and could as easily have made many women of many ribs, yea many women of one rib; as he made one Heva of one bone to be the mother of us all. I conclude therefore a pari from the comparison of the equal. The laws of Incest are moral, and yet have received sundry exceptions: & why not then, likewise the laws of usury: howsoever they received sometime some such exception, as can no way exempt them from the compass of the moral law? But that remaineth afterwards to be declared. Lastly for this first obiecton, the very reasons which God annexeth as appendices or appurtenances to the laws of usury, may evince them to be moral. For the Lord saith in Exodus, l Exod. 22.25. Ye shall not oppress him with usury. Now to oppress thy neighbour, is against the moral law: and therefore if usury be oppression of thy neighbour (as after shall be showed) then without question usury is against the moral law. Again, Moses allegeth this for a reason why GOD forbiddeth a man to take usury of his brother: m Levit. 25.35 So (saith he) shall he live with thee, that is, so shall he be able in some measure, to support his outward estate: yea, that his life may be with thee, for so n Tremel. annot in Levit. 25.35. Tremellius observeth it to be read verbatim from the Hebrew. Now, to do, or not to do a thing by which thy brothers good estate may be furthered, or hindered, or by which his life may be shortened, or prolonged: are things, the forbidding, or commanding whereof belongeth to the moral law. And therefore in consideration of the premises, I conclude it to be mine opinion (submitting my reasons to them that are able to confute these, and to allege better to the contrary) that the precepts concerning usury delivered by Moses, and afterward revived by the Prophets, are essential branches and parts not of the judicial or political law, which was proper to those times and that nation of the jews: but of the moral law of God, common to all the nations, and times, and countries of the world: and so consequently to be kept inviolably, and without exception of us and of the generations to come. Object. 2. The second objection in defence of usury: it was permitted to be exacted of strangers. But it is secondly objected that the laws touching usury cannot be moral because they have received special exception, yea and by them usury is in some case suffered and permitted. For Moses saith, Deut 23. o Deut. 23.20. Extraneo foeneraberis, unto a stranger thou mayst lend upon usury. Now, the duties of the moral law, are the same to a stranger, that they are to our nearest friend: and therefore sith usury is forbidden to the one and permitted to the other, it seemeth that it is no transgression against the moral law. Answer. To this I answer. First, that it is no good argument to conclude in this manner: the laws of usury receive exception: Ergo, they are no part of the moral law. For, besides the instance afore given of incest, it is manifest that many other moral laws have by the special dispensation of God the law giver, received evident exceptions. As for example, this is a moral law: p Exod. 20.8.10. Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. And again, In it thou shalt do no manner of work. And yet, q joshua 6.3.4. the Israelites are commanded to march about jericho in their armour, with the Priests, and the ark carried before them, and to continued their marching in that order, for the space of seven days together. One of which seven, must of necessity be the Sabbath, in which God had forbidden the jews, by the moral law to do any manner of work. Again this is a moral law, r Exod. 20.13. thou shalt not kill: and yet, s Gen. 22.2. Abraham had a special commandment to sacrifice his son. Again this is a moral law, t Exod. 20.15. Thou shalt not steal, & yet God u Exod. 11.2. commandeth the Israelites to borrow, with a purpose of robbing the Egyptians. Even so, and in like manner, this may be a moral law, Thou shalt not lend to usury, and yet upon special occasion receive this special exception, extraneo foeneraberis, to a stranger thou mayest lend upon usury. And no marvel: for, if that be true which is said in our common speech, the Prince is above her law, and we see that she may do, and doth many times, by her royal prerogative give mandatum, and dispensation contrary to the law: far be it from us to imagine, that GOD who is the most absolute Lord of all the world, should not have authority, to give exception, and dispensation, even to his moral law. Secondly, I answer to this objection: that in this speech of Moses, unto a stranger thou mayst lend upon usury: we are to consider what kind of aliens, and strangers they were, towards whom the practising of usury was permitted. I am not ignorant, that some by the name of a stranger in that place, do comprehend x Caluin serm. 134. in deut. 23. all the nations and countries adjacent to Palestina, as Egypt, Syria, the Isles of the sea, and such like. Now, although I dare not resolutely deny, but it may be so, yet I am very hardly induced, and persuaded to believe that it should be so. Partly, because we have not so much as one jot, or title in the Scriptures, that mentioneth any usury exercised between judea, and other countries: which it is not likely, the holy Ghost would altogether have omitted, (if it had been so) to note a difference of the jewish traffic, between themselves and with other nations. And partly also, I can hardly condescend to that opinion, because it is not easy to say, that foenus nauticum, or bills of mart, or such like exchanges, were then used among merchants, as are now in ure and practice among us: without which conveyances, or the like, security cannot be made between trades men, or merchants of diverse jurisdictions. I do therefore understand with S. Ambrose, by the name of strangers in that place, y Ambros. lib. de Tobia. c. 15. the Amalekites and Amorites, and the other nations of the Gentiles: which being not utterly rooted out by the Israelites, at their first entrance into the land of Canaan, grew up and increased among them, to their incredible annoyance. So Paulus Fagius saith, that diverse learned men conceived of that place, z P. Fagius annot. in paraphras. Caldaic. in deut. 23.20. Sunt quidam in hac sententia, quod haec usura de qua hic agitur, solum concessa fuerit judaeis, in septem illas gentes quarum universam facultatem dominus Israelitis tradidit: There are some of this opinion, that the usury here spoken of, was only permitted to the jews, to be exercised upon these seven nations, all whose goods God had given to Israel. In deed, I am right sure that Tremelius, and junius, do so understand that place. For they translate the text, Extraneo isti dabis in usuram, a Deut. 23.20. to this stranger thou shalt lend to usury: As if Moses had after a sort pointed with his fingers to the strangers then in presence, and within the view of the eye among them. And so they do also interpret that place. Extraneo isti: viz. b Tremel. & jun. annot. in deut. 23.20. reliquijs istis Cenah hanaeorum to this stranger, that is, to these remainders of the Canenites, thou mayst lend to usury, Yea, and they tender in that their exposition, a reason why God permitted the jews, to exact usury of those strangers: Illas enim deus exitio destinaverat, & paulatim consumi volebat: for them God had ordained to destruction, and would have them c Deut. 7.22. consumed, and wasted away by little and little. Now, because he saw that usury was a means to humble them, yea, to waste them, and to eat them up, therefore towards them he permitted usury. S. Ambrose hath a notable sentence of that speech of Moses, Extraneo foeneraberis, to a stranger than mayst lend upon usury. d Ambros. lib. de Tobia. e. 15. Ibi (inquit) usuram exige, cui meritò nocere desideras. Cui iurè inferuntur arma, huic legitime indicantur usurae. Quem bello ●on potes facilè vincere, d● hoc citò potes centesima vendicare te: Of him (saith Moses) demand usury, whom thou willingly desirest to harm. Against whom thou mayest take up weapon, upon him mayest thou lawfully impose usury, whom thou canst not overcome by force of arms in battle, of him mayest thou soon rid, and free thyself by usury. And again, Ab hoc usuram exige, quem non sit crimen occidere: demand usury of him, whom it is no offence to slay. And a little after: Ergò ubi ius belli, ibi etiam ius usurae: Therefore, where war is lawful, there only is usury lawful also. The sentence of Ambrose, importeth, that because it was lawful for the jews, any way to annoyed the gentiles, yea to levy war against them, yea to 〈◊〉 them, and to put them to death: therefore it was, that God permitted them to take usury of the strangers, that by this means they might the sooner be wasted & consumed. A prince may use a condemned malefactor as he listeth himself. He may put him to grind in the mill, to dig in the mines, to row in the galleys, or to execute any other slavish service. And why? For he might slay him with the sword, and take away his life. So, God might justly give over these gentiles to the violence, oppression, and usury of the jews: because he had already adjudged them as notorious malefactors to an utter and final subversion. Now then, what maketh this exception: to a stranger thou mayest lend upon usury, for any man to justify his lending upon increase to his neighbour: whereas God permitted the practice thereof only towards those whom he would have to be consumed, as one special means to further forward, and to hasten on their destruction. For it is as if God had spoken more plainly in this case or the like: thou shalt only kill him whose blood I will have to be shed: thou shalt only steal from him, whom I would have to be impoverished: and so, thou shalt only take usury of him, whom I would have to be consumed. Such is the exception against the law of usury: and such only is the ease in which it was permitted. Thirdly I answer unto this objection, that although in that place of Deuteronomie, there should be comprehended under the name of stranger all the nations of the world, with which the jews had to deal in traffic: yet was it but e Lyra in Exod. 22. permissio minor is mali, ad maius evitandum: the permitting of a lesser evil, only to avoid the greater. He was contented to permit taking of usury of a stranger, lest the jews being covetously minded, should exercise that tyranny towards their own brethren and he was contented to permit them to lend for usury to some, lest for want of gain, they would have refused to lend unto any. As we see this to be the grievous evil of these days, that because some men may not lend upon usury, therefore they shut up their compassion from lending at all. Chen●nitius saith well, that: f Chemnit. loc. come. tom. 2. tit. de paupertate. cap 6. God in the old Testament showed himself to be & theologus & legislator: he dealt both as a divine, and as a lawgiver or Politician. As a Theologian or a divine he always prescribed, that which was only and perfectly good: as a lawgiver he did sometimes tolerate that, in respect of some circumstance, which was not simply, nor exactly good of it self. Vt in societate civili istius populi peiora vitarentur, minora quaedam mala, non quidem approbavit, sed forensi & politico fine toleranda permisit hactenus, quod per magistratum civilem non puniebantur. As for example (saith he) that some worse things might be avoided, in the civil society of this people of the jews: he did not approve, but tolerate, to a Political end, and purpose, certain smaller evils, so far only that they should not be punished of the civil Magistrate. And therefore, M. Beza speaking of that same bill of divorce, which Moses tolerated among the jews for the hardness of their hearts, g Beza annot. in Mat. 19.8. doth exemplify that fact of his, by that toleration of usury, which Magistrates, and Princes are compelled in these days to admit, for very necessity. God as a divine forbade both, but as a lawgiver, he permitted both unto his people. And that this lending to usury to a stranger, was but permissiuè concessum, granted only by permission for a time, and not to endure for ever, may partly appear by the confession of the jews themselves. For, h Petrus Galatinus, de arcanis catholicae veritatis. libro. 11. cap. 4. Galatinus reporteth out of their Talmud, that it was the judgement of the jewish Rabbins, that in that place of the Psalm, i Psal. 15.5. He that hath not given his money to usury, God did not only forbidden it towards the jews: but etiam ad usuram Gois, even toward him, which was a Gentle. Therefore we see, that as Polygamy, or the having of many wives, was long tolerated among the Fathers, but at the last, towards the breaking out of the clearer light of the Gospel, it was evidently, and flatly condemned by k Malac. 2.15. Malachi: so, howsoever usury towards strangers was long and many years permitted among the jews: yet when the strangers began to be worn out, according to the promise of God made unto the fathers: then was it absolutely and generally condemned, first by David as the jews themselves confess, and afterward morefully by Ezekiell, as appeareth in his prophecy. And therefore S. Hierome writeth thus upon that place of Ezekiell: l Hieron. come. Ezek. 18. dicitur Deut. 23. fraetri non foeneraberis, alieno foeneraberis. Sed vide profectum. In principio legis a fratribus tantum foenus tollitur: in Propheta ab omnibus usura prohibetur. It is said (saith Hierome) Deut. 23. thou shalt not lend upon usury to thy brother: but to a stranger thou shalt lend upon usury. Note herein the growing on, or the going forward of the law inperfection. In the beginning of the law, usury was only forbidden to be taken of their brethren: in this Prophet, usury is forbidden towards all men. And another agreeing with S. Hierome, writeth thus upon the same place of Ezekiel: m Dionis. Carthus cum. in Ezek. 18. Ecce, ho loco usura generaliter prohibetur: Behold (saith he) in this place of Ezekiell usury is forbidden generally, or simply, or altogether. undè quod Moses concessit filijs Israel, extraneis ad usuram accommodare, permissiuè fecit propter imperfectionem eorum: Quemadmodum & libellum repudij ipsis permisit. From whence it may appear, that Moses granting the children of Israel leave or licence to lend upon usury to strangers, did it only permissively, or by way of toleration, for their imperfections sake. As in like manner he permitted unto them the bill of divorce. Parents will tolerate much ignorance, much wantonness, much rudeness in their children during the time of their nonage and infancy. Even so under the pedagogy of the law, & during the infancy of his Church, did God permit & tolerate many imperfections among his people: which now in these days of grace, and of the fullness of the spirit, aught as clouds before the wind, to be dispersed and vanish away. Fourthly, I answer that, that permissive speech of Moses, unto a stranger thou mayest lend upon usury, yieldeth no liberty to us to exercise usury one towards another. For asmuch as we are all brethren in Christ, and fellow heirs together of everlasting salvation. Clemens Alexandrinus hath a notable sentence to this purpose. n Clemens Alexand. Stromat. lib. 2. Lex prohibet fratri foenerari: fratrem nominans, non eum solum, qui est ex ysdem natus parentibus, sed etiam qui fuerit eiusdem tribus, eiusdemque sententiae, & eiusdem verbi particeps. The law forbiddeth to lend to usury to our brother: under the name of a brother comprehending not only him which was borne of the same parents, but him also which was of the same tribe, & of the same opinion, and partaker of the same word. Now, we are all sprung from the same stock, bred in the same country, professing the same Religion, partakers all of the same word and Gospel. Yea, I may say with the Apostle o Ephes. 4.4 5.6. we are all one body, we have all one spirit, one hope of our calling, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and father of all, which is above all, and through all, and in us all. And therefore, if the jew might but lend unto a stranger upon usury: it is more than jewish for us to exact it of a Christian. I might add more reasons why God permitted the jews, to lend upon usury to the strangers, as namely, p Io. Woulfius in Deut. 23. because the Israelites fed their own poor, so as they burdened no man: and yet besides that, they fed the poor strangers also. In consideration whereof, they might by this means seek the better to bear their charges. Again, they received Proselytes which were converted from gentilism as their own, and fed them, nourished them, & maintained them together with their own people. For the better maintenance whereof, God gave them this liberty to exact usury of the strangers. But I need not stand upon these: for that is sufficient which is already answered concerning the second objection. Object 3. The third objection, in defence of usury: it is only forbidden to the poor. It is further objected touching the scriptures before alleged against usury, that although they be granted to be precepts of the moral law: yet they only forbidden lending upon usury unto the poor and needy. As it seemeth may appear by the very words of Moses himself. For he saith in one place q Exod 22 25. If thou lend to my people, that is to the poor with thee, thou shalt not be as an usurer unto him. And r Vatablus annot. in Exod. 22.25. Vatablus observeth that these words, to the poor with thee, are put 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, to expound whom in that place he understandeth by the name of his people: nempe pauperes, that is to say the poor. The poor they are only his people of whom he will have no usury to be taken. And in another place he saith, s Levit. 25.35. If thy brother be impoverished, and fallen in decay with thee, etc. thou shalt take no usury of him. By which places it may seem, that so we lend not to a man that is poor and needy, but to one that is rich and hath abundance, of him we may take usury without breach of the law. Answ. Now, to this also I answer diverse and sundry ways. First, I say with B. jewel, t L. Humfred. de vita juelli pag. 221. Quae est ista dialectica? What manner of logic or reasoning is this? A man may not take usury of the poor: Ergo, he may take usury of the rich. This is a plain Non sequitur, It followeth not in art. Let us see the like in other examples. Solomon saith in the Proverbs, u Pro. 22.22. Rob not the poor, because he is poor: shall I thence conclude, Ergo, I may rob the rich, because he is rich? Again, the law saith, x Deut. 27.24. Cursed be he that smiteth his neighbour secretly: shall I thence conclude that it is lawful for a man to smite his neighbour openly? so when Moses saith, Lend not to the poor for usury: Doth it follow from thence, therefore I may lend for usury to the rich? Nothing less: it carrieth no consequence at all. And therefore Chemnitius hath very fully and plainly resolved this doubt, y Chemnit. loc. come. part. 2. tit. de paupertate cap. 6. Quòd quibusdam testimonijs pauperum fit mentio, eadem ratione fit, sicut in quinto & septimo praeceptis plerunque nominantur viduae, pupilli, pauperes, ne illis inferatur iniuria. Whereas (saith he) in certain testimonies of scripture concerning usury, Note that Chemnitius reckoneth them for the 5. and 7. which we reckon for the 6. and 8. commandments: because he maketh the two first but one. there is mention made of the poor by name, that is done for the same reason, (or cause) for which in the fifth and seventh commandments the widows, orphans, and poor folks are commonly recited by name, that no injury should be offered unto them Sed inde non sequitur, ergò iniuria quae fit coniugatis, adultis, potentibus, divitibus, etc. non est peccatum. But (saith he) howsoever God in the precepts belonging to those commandments, make mention by name of widows, orphans, and poor folks: yet, it followeth not from thence, that an injury done to married people, to persons of full years, to mighty men, to rich men, etc. is no sin. Even so is it in this case: howsoever GOD in the laws of usury make mention of the poor by name, for some causes which afterwards shall be alleged: yet it followeth not from hence, by any consequence of argument, that therefore to lend upon usury to the rich, is no offence or breach of the law. Secondly, to this point I answer, that howsoever in these places aforenamed, there is special mention made of the poor: yet in other places, where the same thing is forbidden, there is no mention, nor recital of them at all. As Deut 23. Psal. 15 Ezec. 18. and others. Yea, and it is not nothing to this purpose, that josephus justifying against Appion the laws and statutes of the jews, reciteth this for one, z josephus contra Appionem. lib. 2. Mutuans non accipiat usuras: it is saith he, a law among us, that the lender shall take no usury: making no mention, or exception of the poor and needy at al. Now, why should those places which mention the poor by name, rather restrain the other which make no mention of them: then the other which make no mention of the poor, should enlarge those that name them? especially, if we consider that those places which mention not the poor, were the later written. Now, a L. A. Posteriores libri, ideò fere scripti, ut priorum interpretes essent: The latter books of the scripture were written somewhat to this purpose, that they might be interpreters and expositors of the former. And therefore, the latter written scriptures concerning usury, making no mention of the poor, may argue that the former scriptures are not to be tied and restrained to them alone. Thirdly, I answer, that if the law of lending to the poor without usury, should infer the lawfulness of lending to the rich upon usury: than it is evident that God's intendment in those laws for the benefit of the poor, should rather prove a hurt and hindrance unto them: because by this means it would come to pass that the poor should not borrow at all. For, who will lend to the poor for nothing, that might lawfully lend to the rich for usury? of which point we have so lamentable and evident experience in these days, as no man, not not the usurer himself is able to gainsay it. Yet of the two it were better for the poor man that he should borrow upon usury, then that he should not be able to borrow at all: now borrow at all he shall not, if it be lawful to lend to the rich for usury, and not unto him. And therefore as one said, Maledicta glossa quae corrumpit textum: Accursed be that gloss or commentary that destroyeth the text: so may I say in this case, evil fare that interpretation which overthroweth the intent & purpose of the commandment. Fourthly, and lastly, I answer to this third objection: that it is no marvel though God in the laws of usury do specially and by name forbidden lending in that manner to the poor. For, he doth it, partly to show what care he himself hath over them, who are commonly and usually neglected of men: and partly, because the poor are soon and easiest oppressed of the rich, as the lowest hedge is easiliest stepped over: yea, and partly also, because usury sitteth hardest upon the skirts of the poor, and will sooner bite and devour them, than it will the rich, able, and substantial men in the world. So that for these causes the poor had need of a special caveat, to be put in on their behalf. We see that God speaketh to the same effect in other places: b Esay. 1.17. judge the fatherless and defend the widow. And again, c Pro. 31.9. judge the afflicted and the poor. And again, d Pro. 23.10. Enter not into the fields of the fatherless. And again, e Zach. 7.10. Oppress not the widow, nor the fatherless, the stranger nor the poor: and many such other speeches hath God, concerning those parties in the holy scripture. Not as intending to infer thereby that we need not, or we aught not to judge the child that hath a father, the wife that hath a husband, the rich that hath plenty: nor as if it were lawful for us, unjustly to seize upon the possessions of the mighty, or to oppress our home borne brethren. But because the orphan, the widow, the poor, the stranger, are easily forgotten, seldom regarded, and soon overthrown: therefore is it, that specially, and by name, they are so often, and so particularly mentioned in the word. Even so, let us know that God dealeth after the same manner, when he mentioneth the poor in this case of usury. It is no humanity to draw the dagger to stab a man, who is thine equal in years and in valour of body. But for a man to draw his weapon on a child, who hath neither wisdom, nor strength to resist: is shameful cowardness, yea barbarous cruelty. So, it is inhumanity for an usurer to gripe a man that is rich and well able to pay: but with that sword of his, to run quite through the heart of the needy (to whom it were more alms to give the principal:) that, that is the horrible iniquity which God specially, and by name hath as it were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 forbidden in those places of scripture, that make mention of the poor. Object. 4. There is yet a fourth objection made as touching the places of Scripture before alleged against usury. The fourth objection in defence of usury: only biting usury is forbidden. For, say that the laws concerning usury be moral, and that they inhibit such lending both to rich and poor: yet they condemn not all measure of usury, but only that which is excessive, and biting, and which carrieth with it a devouring and oppressing of an other. And that (say some) appeareth by the express words of the text. For Moses saith, f Exod. 22.25. Ye shall not oppress him by usury: Ergò, if I oppress not my brother, if my usury be not so great as it bite, or devour him: I am not for lending in that sort condemned by the law of God. Yea, and that the scripture only forbiddeth biting usury, may appear (say they) also by the nature and Etymology of the word, which the holy Ghost useth to that purpose. For, usury is called in the Hebrew tongue Naeshaech, which g Lavat comment. in Ezek. 18. homil. 76. as Lauater and h Bodin. de repub. lib. 5. ca 2. others have truly observed, signifieth properly Morsus, a biting or gnawing of a thing. And it is a word borrowed as some think, i Lauater. comment. in Pro. 28.8. from the biting or stinging of a serpent: as others have judged k D Wilson. fol. 47. from the gnawing, or tiring of a dog upon a bone. So that, unless usury be Naeshaech, biting, unless by it a man sting his neighbour, as a serpent, or pray upon him as a dog upon a carrion: some hold opinion that it is not forbidden in the word of God. Answ. Now to this objection I might answer shortly, * Gal. de Hippoc. & Platon. decretis. Lib. 2. cap. 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉: The Etymology of a word is but a slender witness. But I have further to answer unto it, more ways than one. First, I say, that not only biting usury, but generally all measure of usury is forbidden in the word. For the text is plain, l Exod. 22.25. If thou lend money to my people, etc. non eris ei sicut usurarius: (Tremel. tanquam foenerator,) Thou shalt not be as an usurer unto him. Now, what is this that he saith, Thou shalt not be as an usurer unto him? his meaning is, thou shalt not deal with him as usurers are wont to deal with men. Well then, if thou lend covenanting for gain, and adventure not the principal: whether it bite him, or bite him not, whether thou demand of him more or less for increase: yet in that manner of bargaining, thou art to him as an usurer, for thou contractest with him in that manner which an usurer practiseth towards men, and therefore thou art therein condemned by the word of God. Besides that, it is evident from the Scripture, that not only bitting usury (Naeshaech) but generally all Increase of that kind and nature (which the Hebrews call Tarbith) is forbidden in the law. For Moses saith in Leviticus m Levit. 25.36.37. thou shalt take no usury of him, nor vantage. And again in the same place, Thou shalt not give him thy money to usury, nor lend him thy victuals for increase. And Ezekiell condemneth the people of his time, not only for taking of usury (Naeshaech) but also for taking of increase, (Tarbith.) n Ezek. 22.12. Thou hast taken usury and the increase. And therefore, Gregorius Nissenus doubted not to say o Gregor. Nissen. epist. ad Latoium Mitelenes episcopum bibliothec. Patrum tom. 1. col. 344. Apud divinam Scripturam, & foenus, & usura sunt prohibita: both increase (which the Latins call foenus, the Grecians 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, the Hebricians Tarbith) and also usury (which the Latins call usura, the Grecians 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, the Hebricians Naeshaech) is forbidden in the holy Scriptures. S. Ambrose saith plainly, speaking of that place of Moses Levit. 25. p Ambros. lib. de Tobia. cap. 1●. Generaliter haec sententia Dei omne sortis excludit augmentum: this sentence of God recited in that place doth generally exclude all increase above the principal. Yea, M. Caluin himself q Cal. serm. 134 in Deut. 23. will have no man to rest precisely upon that name of usury, which signifieth biting, and which word Moses useth speaking of that matter Deut. 23. His reason is, because Ezekiell condemning usury r Ezek. 18. ●3. Ezek. 22.12. placeth there not only the word Naeshaech which signifieth biting, but also the other word, which signifieth increase. As if he had said (saith Caluin) all that is above the principal.. So that, it is evident to a man whose skill is but mean in the tongues, that the Etymology of the Hebrew word can yield no sound argument for the defence of any kind of usury: not though it be not biting nor oppresseth not the borrower. Thirdly, it may be added to answer this objection, that though it be granted and yielded unto them, that the Scripture condemneth only biting usury: yet even that is a sufficient argument alone, to condemn all kind of usury which is practised under the sun. For it is as clear as the light of the sun, that all usury biteth, and carrieth with it an oppressing of the borrower. Bucer saith truly s Bucer come. in Psal. 15. Amordendo dicitur, tacit enim hominem mordet, rodis, & conficit: usury hath the name of biting: for it doth secretly bite, gnaw, and consume a man. And Paulus Fagius hath observed that t P. Fag. Chald. Paraphrast. annot in Exod. 22.24. the Chaldeans call usury Hafuliah, a perdendo scilicet, because it destroyeth, and overthroweth a man. Yea, so general, and common a thing it is for usury to bite, that as itself is called of the Hebricians naeshaech a biting: so the usurer is called mashic, quia morsum infligit, because he giveth the bite u Aret. Prob. part. 1. loc. 50. de usury. saith Aretius. And the borrower is called Nashic, quiamorsus est: because he is bitten and oppressed thereby. So that, wheresoever there is one that dareth, and another that borroweth upon usury: there is a biting, a biter, and one that is bitten assembled and met together. Now, it is true indeed which B. jewel said, x L. Humfred. in vita juelli. pag. 220. usura alia est acerbior, alia mitior: some usury is more hard, and some is more soft For there is great difference in biting. As for example. There is great difference between the biting of a flea, and the biting of a dog, and the biting of a Lion: yet all are bitings, and the lest will draw blood. So, there is difference between him that taketh five, and him that taketh ten, and him that taketh twenty in the hundred: yet all is biting, and the lest will consume a man in continuance. And if any man that payeth usury, do perhaps not feel the biting or oppression thereof, yet that is not because he is not bitten indeed, but because either he is so benumbed with want, that he feeleth no more than a man that is stung with an adder, when he is fast on sleep: or it is because that y Lauater. come. in pro. 28.8. tectè mordet: it biteth closely and secretly: or lastly, it is because that, z Musculus con. in Psal. 15. primò beneficium conferre videtur: usury seemeth at the first to yield the borrower a benefit. And so, he is deceived with the sweetness of the taste at the first drinking, as a man that taketh down poison into his bowels. Lira hath a notable similitude to this purpose, which he allegeth out of one of the Rabbins, a Lira come. in Exod. 22. sicut serpens mordens in silentio parum percipitur, vel sentitur in principio: sed posted inflatur homo, & diffunditur effectus illius morsus parvi, p●r totum corpus: sic usurae malum non sentitur in principio, sed posteà ascendit ad magnam summam, & devorat totam hominis substantiam. As a serpent that stingeth privily, is little perceived or felt at the first, but afterwards, the man that is stung swelleth, and the effect of that little stinging, is dispersed through the whole body: So the inconvenience of usury, is not felt in the beginning, but in time it amounteth to a great sum, and devoureth a man's whole substance. It may be also, that the riches and abundance of him that borroweth is so great coming in other ways, that it maketh so full a supply to the payment of increase, for that which he borroweth, as by that means he feeleth not the biting and gripping of the usury which he payeth. And even as we see it is in theft or robbery, if a man steal but twelve pence out of a rich man's purse, though the want of it be little felt, by reason of his store and abundance, yet he is hindered that looseth it, and he is a thief that taketh it: even so is it in usury, though it be taken of a rich man, and in so small a measure, as that his abundance hardly suffereth the evil thereof to be perceived, yet is he bitten that payeth it, and he that taketh it an oppressor. To conclude the answer to this fourth objection: that which alleged out of the text, b Exod. 22.25. ye shall not oppress him with usury, is of little moment to the usurers behoof. For, whereas we read it in our English, ye shalt not oppress him with usury, Tremellius readeth it ne imponite, and Pagnine, ne imponetis impose not (or, ye shall not impose) usury upon him.. And the Greek interpreter in the same manner 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, thou shalt not put usury upon him. So that, according to all their readings, not only the oppressing of a man by usury, but also the very imposing of usury upon a man, is condemned in that place of Moses All that the usurer, can gain by urging of the English translation is this. That which the Greek and Latin interpreters do call imposing of usury, that the English translators call more plainly oppressing by usury. As noting, that he which imposeth usury upon his neighbour, doth thereby bite him, oppress him, yea devour and consume him. Such is the deadly effect of this poisoned practice. The end of the fifth Sermon preached junii 18. 159●. The sixth and last Sermon: the special contents whereof are these. 1. One other objection is answered which commonly is made in defence of usury: namely that it is no where forbidden in the new testament. 2. The inconvenience of usury is showed, how unfit it is for a Christian to practise, though it were in any measure lawful. Because that 1. It maketh the practisers thereof subject to the curses of many. 2. It is a thing of very evil report. 3. They can have no resolution of conscience that they do well that use it. 4. They are but the instruments of evil unto men. 5. The positive laws of men both in Church and common weals do prohibit it: especially in this realm of England. The fifth objection in defence of usury: it is not forbidden in the new testament. Object. 5. IT is lastly objected, that the places before alleged against usury, are taken only out of Moses and the Prophets: and that usury is no where forbidden, not not so much as once named, in the writings of the Evangelists, and Apostles, contained in the new testament. From whence, they will conclude (I trow) either that the new testament giveth more liberty to sin, than the old, which were monstrous blasphemy against the Gospel of Christ: or at the lest, (to speak the best of them) that the laws touching usury are not moral: and so, not to abide to us that are christians, under these days of the Gospel. Answ. Whereunto may be answered: first, that this is no good argument, nor consequence in reason, usury is not named in the new Testament: Ergò, it is not forbidden in the moral law. For many sins are forbidden in the moral law; which are no where mentioned in the new testament. As for example, the sins of Polygamy, of Tyranny, of Treason, of jealousy, and many others, which come not to my remembrance, are manifest breaches of the moral law. And yet, I suppose, that no man can show them to be condemned, and reproved by those very nanies, in the new testament. Yea, I proceed further: there are infinite breaches, and trespasses against the moral law, which are not specified by name, either in the old, or in the new testament. The law of God condemneth many things, a puri, àmaiori, à reinoni, etc. by condemning the equal, or the greater, or the lesser offence. Sometimes, it includeth the particulars in the general, and sometimes, the general in one particular: sometimes, it condemneth the cause, from the iniquity of the effect: sometimes, the effect, from the iniquity of the cause: whereas notwithstanding, the thing that is condemned, is no where recited by name, in the holy scriptures. Nazianzene said truly, a Citat. ab Herbrando loc. come. cap. de trinitate. Quaedam & sunt, & dicuntur in scriptures: quae dam sunt in scriptures, & non dicuntur. Some things are both contained, and named in the scriptures: some things are contained in the scriptures, but are not named in them. Which saying of that ancient father, as it may be verified in many particulars, (for the Trinity, the persons in the Trinity, the unity of substance in the Godhead, are things contained in deed, but no where expressly named in the word of God:) so is it most certainly true, in this case which we have in hand. A thousand, and a thousand particular offences, are there against the moral law, which were never recorded, nor ever shall be found particularly named, in the books, either of the old, or of the new testament. But to join with them, in a nearer issue: dare any usurer say, and affirm, that usury is not forbidden in the new testame●● ●urely, if it be not, then was that great council of Laterane far received, in which some thirteen, or fourteen score Bishops were assembled, and gathered together. For they doubted not, to pronounce that usury was forbidden, b Conoil. Lateran. part. 1. cap. 25. tom. 2. Vtriusque tituli pagina, that is, (as I expound it) In both the volumes of the Bible. And again, the same Council c Concil. Lateran. part 16. tit. de usuris. cap. 1. Vsurarum crimen, utriusque testamenti pagina detestatur: The volume of both the testaments, or both the old and the new testament, doth detest, or abhor the sin of usury. Furthermore, if usury be not forbidden in the new testament: then was Basile far deceived, who persuaded men, even by this reason, to abstain from usury, d Basil▪ in Psa. 14. Vt tam ex veteri, quàm nova lege instructus, bona cum spe, ad dominum migrare valeas: That being instructed, or directed, as well by the old law, as by the new, thou mayest with good comfort go unto God. Than also were Ambrose, and Hierome much deceived, who, although they both acknowledged, that usury was flatly, and all sufficiently condemned in the old testament: yet Ambrose said, e Ambros. lib. de Tobia. cap. 15. evangelium dicit, quod est plenius: The gospel saith that, which is more full, or speaketh more fully in this matter. And Hierome said, f Hieron. come. in Ezek 18. In evangelio, virtutis augmentum est. The Gospel goeth further in this case, than the law. For the law forbiddeth usury, but the Gospel commandeth the contrary virtue: he meaneth free lending, without increase. Yea, then were also the divines of Wittenberg far deceived, who said that usury was forbidden, g Theses Wittenberg. citat. ab Aret. loc. come part. 1. loc. 50. tit. de usuris. Nedum iure positivo, Not only by the positive laws of men: Sed etiam utroque, tum veteri, tum novo testamento: But also both in the old, and new testament. Than also was B. jewel far deceived, who said, that usury was h B. jewel epist. before D. Wilsons usury. manifestly condemned, not only by heathens, by christians, by the old fathers, by the ancient Counsels, by Emperors, by Bishops, by decrees, by Canons, by all sects of all regions, and of all religions: But also, (which is the point, serving to this present purpose,) By the Gospel of Christ: by the mouth of God. Lastly, if usury be not forbidden in the new testament, than were Melancthon, Erasmus, Xystus Betuleius, Aretius, and a number of others, very learned men, far deceived, and overtaken in this argument. By whose writings, and allegations of scripture, it doth manifestly appear, that they deemed usury to be a thing forbidden, even in the new testament. But alas, alas, they are not the men, that are deluded, and deceived: but it is the usurer himself, who in this case, voluntarily deceiveth himself, shutting his eyes against the clear light of the word, as a bat, or an owl, that cannot endure to behold the beams of the sun. For the truth is, that usury is every where forbidden, even in the books of the new testament. The father's disputing against the Arrians, who denied God the son, to be of the same substance, and essence with the Father: i Pet. Martyr. loc come. clas. 3. loc. 4. sect. 89. Mordicus propugnare, acretinere volverunt 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, Would defend, and hold tooth and nail, the word, or name consubstantial. And therefore we see, that whereas the Nicene Council concluded: thus of the son of God. k Ruffinus eccles. hist. lib 1. cap. 5. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, patri, ho● est eiusdem cum patre substantiae, Consubstantial with the father, that is of the same substance with the father. The Western Bishops did, l Sozom. hist. Eccles. lib. 3. cap. 12. Mordicus adhaerescere, cleave close to that decree of the Nicene Council, against the Bishops of the East. And the Council of Constantinople, concluded in the same words, m Bullinger. confess. Eccles. ante Decad. Consubstantialem patri, Consubstantial with the father. And lastly, n Sozomen. lib. 6. cap. 4. the Council of Antioch, approved & expounded the word consubstantial, to justify, and to clear it, from the cavils of the Arrians. o P. Martyr. loc. come. clas. 3. loc. 4. sect. 89. Quod etiam pro suo iure facere potuerunt, saith Peter Martyr: the fathers might lawfully, and rightly, thus stick close, to the defence of the word consubstantial: Maxim verò, cum viderent eam vocem, ex divinis literis necessariò conclude: Especially, when they saw, that that word, though it were not named, yet was necessarily concluded, and gathered out of the holy scriptures. Now I note the example, and practise of the fathers, to this end and purpose. It appeareth thereby, that they held for truth, and for the word of God, not only that which was named, and expressed in the scriptures: but also that, which by inference, or illation, might be concluded from the same. And therefore, although the scripture hath no where the very name, or word consubstantial: yet because the matter which they would signify in that word, was partly expressed, and partly, to be concluded from the scripture: therefore, they doubted not, to receive it, as a point of faith, grounded assuredly upon the word of God. And so say I, concerning this case of usury. It is true, that the very name, and word of usury, is no where found, nor mentioned in the new testament: yet because the matter, and practise signified in that word, is by necessary consequence, and conclusion, inferred to be forbidden in the writings of the Evangelists, and Apostles: therefore, I doubt not, but I may boldly affirm this for truth, that usury is condemned even in the new Testament. Now, that it is by many, and manifest inferences, condemned in the new Testament, may easily appear in these instances, and examples. The new Testament saith, p Mat. 7.12. what soever ye would, that men should do to you, even so do ye to them. Now, usury observeth not this rule: for the usurer imposeth that burden upon another, which he will not gladly bear himself: therefore usury is forbidden, in the new Testament. Again, the new Testament saith, q Mat. 5.4.2. From him that will borrow of thee, turn not away therein commending unto us the loving, and charitable duty; and use of lending. Now usury, overturneth the nature, and equity, and use of lending: therefore usury is forbidden, in the new Testament. Again, the new Testament saith r 1. Thes. 4.6. that no man oppress, or defraud his brother in any matter. But usury, if it be open, and direct, it oppresseth, if it be covert and secret, it both oppresseth and defraudeth a man: therefore, usury is forbidden, in the new Testament. Again, the new Testament saith, s Ephes. 4.28. Let him that stole, steel no more. Now t Barthol. Westhimerus in Psal. 15. usura, furtum est: Si enim usura, furtum non esset; nequaquam Deus prohibuisset: usury is theft: for if it had not been theft, God would never have forbidden it. And S Hierome said, u Hieron. citat. ab Heming. & alijs. usuras quaerere, vel fraudare, vel rapere, nihil differunt: to take usury of a man, differeth nothing from cozening, & robbing of a man. And S. Ambrose said, x Ambros. lib. de bono mortis. citat. a Grat. decret. part 2. cause. 14. quaest. 4. Si quis usuram accipit rapinam facit: if a man take usury, he committeth robbery. Well then, the new Testament forbiddeth theft: & usury is one branch & kind of theft: therefore usury is forbidden in the new Testament▪ Last of all, the new Testament saith, y Luc. 6.35. Lend looking for nothing again. Concerning which speech of Christ, although I acknowledge with M. Beza, that z Beza annot. in Luc. 6.35. they are deceived which wrist this place to thee direct prohibition of usury: yet I doubt not, but from that place a man may draw a very sufficient argument against usury, and conclude as doth M. Beza upon that saying, a Ibidem. Illud tamen certum est, si iwandus est proximus, etiam nulla recipiendae sortis habita ratione▪ multò magis prohiberi foeneratorias pactiones. Yet this (saith he) is certain, that if our neighbour must be helped by lending, even without any regard had of receiving, the very principal again, then much more usurarious covenants are forbidden and condemned. So then in M. Beza his judgement, usury is by inference forbidden in the new Testament. It is therefore no good argument to reason thus, usury is not named, or it is not forbidden in the new Testament: ergò the laws concerning usury are not moral. For though usury be not named, yet is it by many inferences condemned in the new Testament: which is an argument that it is a breach, and transgression even of the moral law. It were needless, and superfluous for any man to attempt the answering of all objections, made in the defence of this unlawful practice. If the Scriptures alleges before against usury, be cleared of those doubts, which have been before objected: & it be proved that the laws concerning usury are moral, & that they forbidden it both to friend and stranger, yea both to rich & poor: & that they condemn not only gripping, & oppressing usury, but all measure thereof be it never so small: and lastly if it appear to be condemned not only in the old, but also in the new Testament: then all other cavils which carnal reason hath devised, must fade and fall to nothing. For reason must yield unto the word of God, and the necessity of man's life unto the authority of the Scripture. It was a good rule prescribed by S. Augustine, b August. de doctrina Christiana. lib. 2. cap. 7. Opus est mitescere pietate: men (saith he) must be mild, or soft, or tractable in godliness. Neque contradicere divinae Scripturae, sive intellectae si aliqua vitia nostra percutit, sive non intellectae, quasi nos melius sapere, meliusque percipere possimus. We must not contradict or gain say the holy Scripture, neither that part of it which we understand if perhaps it reproveth any of our defaults, neither yet that part which we understand not, as if we were wiser and could better prescribe duties or doctrine unto men. The Scripture in cases manifest must be obeyed, though it gainsay our will and affections, in hidden things, it must be believed, though it contradict our opinion and judgement: else we shall never attain to the sound knowledge thereof, nor conscionably practise that which we know, nor in the end receive the reward of our conscionable practice. The fourth, and last principal point. In which is declared, that usury is not to be practised of a Christian man, not not though it were not simply forbidden in the word of God. BUt go to: say it should be granted, that there is no express word of God condemning simply and generally these kinds of usury: yet doth it not therefore follow that the practice of them is clear from all default. The Apostle saith, c 1. Cor. 10.23. all things are lawful for me, but all things are not expedient. Noting, that some things may be done lawfully in respect of themselves, which cannot be done expediently in respect of circumstances. Now, how unexpedient it is for any Christian man to lend upon usury (though it were lawful in itself) shall evidently I hope appear by that which followeth. 1. First, Solomon by this reason condemneth their covetousness, who in time of scarcity hoard up the victuals, from sale to the people: d Pro. 11.26. He that withdraweth the corn, the people will curse him, that is, (as one well expoundeth it) e Pelican. come. in pro. 11.26. malè is audit passim, eidem malè precabuntur egen● familia Dei, odietur ut durus & perfidus, deo erit & hominibus odiosus. Such a man shall be every where evil spoken of, the poor (who are God's family) will ban and curse him, he shall be hated as an hard hearted and miserly wretch. In a word, he shallbe hated both of God and man. Now, if there be any strength in that argument, to dissuade men from hardness of heart, and uncharitableness towards the poor in that case, namely that in so doing, they hale the curse of the people upon their heads: then certainly, this is a very sufficient reason, to dissuade men from practising of usury, even because that, he which tendeth to usury the people will curse him. For indeed, every man whether he be rich or poor, whether he borrow or borroweth not, will curse and ban an usurer. He that is rich and needeth not to borrow, if he be a man of a tender heart, and hath any sympathy of another man's misery, will curse an usurer for pinching of the poor. He that is poor, (and therefore needeth to borrow,) but cannot borrow for want of sufficient security to put in, he curseth the usurer for the hardness of his heart▪ He that hath need to borrow, and doth borrow, many times curseth the usurer to his face, when he carrieth home his borrowed goods, for the griping & oppression which in the end he feeleth from that practice. So that, whether we speak of poor men, or of rich, of him that borroweth, or of him the borroweth not: usury is always (as B. jewel said of it) f Io. jewel. serm. in. 1. Thes. 4.6. the curse of God and the curse of the people. And therefore, if it be hateful to us, to have every man's tongue to curse us, and every man's heart to malign us: then let us abstain from this cursed course of usury. 2. Besides that, we may not, nay we cannot be ignorant how the Scripture requireth us only to do such things as are of good report in the world. g Rom. 12.17. Procure (saith the Apostle) things honest in the sight of all men. And again: h Phil. 4.8. whatsoever things are of good report, etc. think on these things. And no marvel, though the Scripture excite us hereunto. For, by doing things which are well reported of, a man shall grow to good report himself. Now, i Eccles. 7.3. A good name is better than a good ointment: yea, k Pro. 22.1. it is to be chosen before much riches, saith Solomon. For indeed, it is always more comfortable than the one, and many times more profitable than the other. S. Augustine said truly, that l August. de bono viduitatis cap 22. such as care not what report goeth of them, and make no account of their estimation, deal not only unwisely for themselves, but also uncharitably towards others. And why? Nobis necessaria est vita nostra, alijs fama nostra: our good life is necessary for ourselves, that it may be rewarded: but a good name is necessary for others: that those which are already of our profession may be thereby credited, and those which are not, may be drawn on to christianity. For the good report of the professor availeth much to the spreading of his profession. Lactantius speaking of this very case of usury, saith that m Lactant. lib. 6. de vero cultu. cap. 18. A just or an honest man, will not defile himself with any, such kind of gain, but will have always this care and respect, ut idipsum quod commodat inter bona nomina nominetur: that, that which he dareth may be lent in such order, as that it may be well reported of, and well spoken of among the people. A benefit, which he that dareth to usury can never attain. For who is of so ill report, and of so little estimation, as is the usurer for his trade? not the catch paul, not the promoter, not the executioner, not not the very scavenger. And no marvel: for the worst of them is of some use and benefit to the common weal, but this man is the subversion and the destruction thereof. Bromyard giveth an instance of a certain preacher, who knowing that there were many usurers among his auditory, broke out in his Sermon into ask of the question, n Io. Bromyard summa praedic●nt. tit. usura. Si aliquis esset usurarius, if there were ever an usurer there present? when every man held his peace, and no man made answer to that question, he demanded again, Si ibi aliquis esset Cloacarius, if there were ever a scavenger there? (I give it the cleanliest name for reverence sake: otherwise ye know what Cloacarius meaneth.) One rising up, and answering for himself, yea, there was one there, and he was that one: the preacher thereupon inferreth this invective against usurers. Ecce videtis quàm vile sit officium usurariorum: behold (saith he) you may see hereby how vile a trade the trade of usurers is. Quia cùm alius pro arte sua vilissima respondeat, ipsi pro arte sua loqui erubescunt: for when this man answereth for himself & in defence of his most filthy trade, they blush and are ashamed to answer for theirs. Now, why would an usurer be ashamed to profess his trade in the most public assembly, if it were of good report and accounted among men? Plutarch saith o Plutarch. lib. de non foenerando. that the Publican was a most infamous person, even among the heathen: and so much also the Scriptures do witness unto us. p Mat. 9.11. The pharisees noted it as a contemptible thing in our Saviour Christ, that he did eat and drink with Publicans. Now, foeneratores Publicanos agunt (saith Plutarch:) the usurers play the Publicans. And so they do indeed. For the Publicans were q Caluin. harmoni. in mat. 5.46. vectigalium redemptores, such as gathered tolls or customs, or tributes, or tasks, or subsidies of the people. And the usurers will have their custom penny, a man must pay their task or he cannot escape their hands, he must pay deep tribute that is subject to their dominion. And as for their conditions, the Publicans were such as r Beza annot. in mat. 9.10. rapacitate provinciales exugerent: by their ravenousnes & gripplenes, did suck up, & soak dry the poor people of the Provinces under their jurisdiction. Wherein they were a lively pattern of the greediness & covetousness of the usurer: whereby he casteth into an irrecoverable consumption, all those which for their disease seek physic at his hands. Well then, the Publican was an infamous person: and the usurer playeth the Publican: and therefore no marvel though he be of bad report among men. But it is objected in this behalf, that the base account which is made of usury among us in these days, ariseth from the iniquity of the time: and is of some imputed to the rashness and want of discretion, in the Ministers of the word, who with salt terms and ignominious speeches, have brought the usurers, and their doings into so great disgrace. To which it may be truly answered, that this is but a seely devise of the usurers themselves. For, it is evident that in other countries, and in former times, usury hath been always accounted a very base and ignominious trade. Those which travail daily from us into the low countries, do affirm, that no man dare there be seen (for shame) to enter into the Lombard's house, for so they call the usurer in that country. Yea, that it is not so much discredit to be seen going in, or coming out of the common stews, as it is to be found hovering about the door of the usurer: which argueth that in those places, it is reputed a very opprobrious thing. Petrarch saith that there is not s Petrarch. de remedio utriusque fortunae. lib. 1. Dialog. 56 foedius studium, a more filthy profession than usury, and that of former time, usurers were separated as lepers from the society of men. Yea, B jewel went further and reached to a longer day: for he saith, t L. Humfred. in vita juelli. pag. 227. haec, semper turpis fuit, this was always counted a filthy trade. And Chrysostome saith, u Chrysost. hom. 57 in Mat. 17. extremae impudentiae signum, foenus semper iudicatum est: usury was always judged a token of extreme impudency. That is, (more plainly) he was always accounted a notable impudent man, and one past all shame, that durst without blushing, take up the practice of usury. Among many things which be alleged to that purpose: that is famous which is recorded in one of the Centuries. The place is long, but it is so worthy a precedent of this matter, and so clear a looking glass, for an usurer to discern his face withal: as that I thought it no small offence, either to pass it over in silence, or to contract it into a shorter room. The words are these: x Centur. 12. cap. 4. e P. Cantor. Antiquitùs in tota civitate vix unus foenerator inveniebatur, & ille quidem occultus, nec foenerabatur nisi pauperibus: nec tamen nisi clam, data fide quòd non publicaretur. De quo si fortè prava oriretur suspicio, dicebatur domus illius domus diaboli, vinea, puteus, ager diaboli: & doinceps osculumpacis non dabatur ei in missa: ignis à vicinis in domo e●us non sumebatur, sed nec aliquis cum eo aliquod participium habebat. Pueri ad eius occursum pavescebant, & alterutrum eum digito monstrabant. Adeò enim detestabile tunc temporis fuit vitium usurae. The words in english are thus much in effect. In old time scarce one usurer was to be found or heard of in a whole city, and he dealt but very secretly, and closely neither, and he lent to usury to none but to the poor, and he would not lend to them neither, but privily, and binding them by a faithful promise that they should not disclose him. And if happily there arose any evil suspicion of him that way in the city, than his house was commonly called the devils house, the vinyeard, the well head, the field of the devil. The pax was not offered to him to kiss in the time of the celebration of the mass: the neighbours would not fetch fire from his house: no not any man would have any fellowship with him. The children were afraid to meet him in the streets, as if they met a bug or a monster: and one would point at him with the finger to an other. So detestable in those days was the sin of usury. Thus we see, that it is not the sole opinion of this time, but of all times, not of this countri● only, but of other countries also, so basely and ig●●niniously to accounted of usury. And if any man will yet further reply, that this vile account which is made of usury, is but the private conceit of some particular persons: let him know that mighty princes▪ and whole estates, have dorréed and concluded of usury, that it should be accounted and reputed to all purposes for a very infamous action. Luther saith, y Luther. de taxanda. usura tom. 7. Vetuit Caesar ne usurarius haberetur & iudicaratur vir bonus & honestus. Caesar forbade that an ●surer should be accounted or adjudged in law (or in common estimation) for a good and an honest man. And D. Wilson saith, z D. Wilson. fol. 136. that in law, they are defamed persons, and that the law defames them. So that, a L●improbum. & ibi Bald C. de insamibus. put the case my brother make an usurer his heir, I may break the testament, and by excluding of him be admitted myself, by complaint of a testament made against office or good right: because he is thereby constituted the heir whom the law hath disabled to inherit, as an infamous person. And surely no marvel though usurers be of so bad and evil report, and have been ever reputed as men of extreme infamy. For first, their course of life is base than any, b Zuinger. Tab. in Aristot. de repub. lib. 1. cap. 11. Vita foener atoria omnium specierum vitae 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 abiectissima, & odiosissima. The usurers life is more base, and hateful than any kind of life or trade which is employed about goods or money. Secondly, their conditions are commonly as bad as any. M. Caluine saith, c Caluin. epist. respon de usuris. Adeòplus quàm rarum est eundem esse hominem probum & foeneratorem: It is more than rare (or it is very seldom seen) that one and the same person, should be both an honest man, and an usurer Now, their trade being so base, and their conditions so evil: no marvel though shame follow them at the heels, as the shadow doth the body by nature. For, Ignominia comes turpitudinis: Shame is the companion of beastliness. But to conclude at length the point now in hand: sith the word of God enjoineth us to do things of good report, and usury is a thing which all times, all countries, all sorts of people have held in extreme contempt: though it should be granted, that no express word of God doth absolutely condemn it, yet we see how unbeseeming, and unexpedient a thing it is, to be practised of a christian. 3. But to proceed. The Apostle saith writing to the Romans, that d Rom. 14.23. Whatsoever is not of faith is sin. And the name of faith I take with M. Caluine in that place, e Caluin. come. in Rom. 14.23. Pro constanti animae persuasione & firma certitudine. For a constant persuasion and certain assurance of the heart. As if Paul had said: whatsoever a man doth, not being resolutely persuaded in his conscience, ruled by the word of God, that therein he doth well and pleaseth God: this is reckoned and imputed for sin unto him. Now, I can but wonder in my heart, what kind of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, what full persuasion and resolution of conscience, the usurer can gather to himself, that he doth well, and pleaseth God in the practising of usury. Considering that, first, there is no example of any godly man to be found either in holy scriptures, or human writers, that ever took up that kind of profession. Not, B. juel whose writings do argue him to be a man that had read▪ exceeding much, saith confidently and boldly, f Io jewel. serm. in 1. Thes. 4.6. Such a kind of bargaining no good man or godly ever used. Secondly, considering that most learned men of all ages, and places, have condemned it. Yea, he went far that said, (and yet was he wise enough to consider what he said,) g D. Wilson fol. 192. God, nature, reason, all scripture, all law, all authors, all Doctors, yea all Counsels beside, are utterly against usury. Thirdly, considering that those which are supposed to speak most for usury, as Caluine, Bucer, Bullinger, and some others, when they entreat of this argument, they touch it tenderly, as if a man did handle a soar, and they use many preambles before they come to it, to prevent the evil advantage which bad men would happily gather from their words, and they approve it not, but with many and those very strict limitations: and lastly, M. Caluine will have no man to hold his opinion and judgement for a decree and general rule in that case. Now, when a man hath no example to go before him, when he hath the opinions of so many against him, when he shall see that those which justify it, speak very sparingly, and they that admit it do it very warily, and the best of them will not have men to rest upon their opinion: I wonder whence it is that our usurers are so resolute without doubting to approve it, and without all fear to practise it. Antoninus said well, and it is a maxim in law, h Antoninus. summae part. 1. ●i. 20. de regulis juris. In dubijs tutior via est eligenda: In doubtful cases we must take the safer way. This case of usury, though in itself I hold it out of doubt, yet by reason of some new writers, is among many grown into question: therefore wisdom would, that men should advise themselves to sail the surest course. And which is that? Alciate doth by his card plainly point it out unto us: i Andrea's Alciat. respon lib. 1. Concil. 3. cap. 24. Cúm dubium est, an aliquid peccatum sit vel non: credendum est esse peccatum, quia id tutius. When it is a doubt or a question, whether a thing be sin or no: it is to be believed and held that it is a sin: because that is the safest opinion. Therefore if any man doubt (as I see not but the most resolute usurer may doubt) whether usury be a sin or no: let him believe and hold that it is a sin, till he clearly see the contrary, and so abstain from it as from an unlawful and ungodly thing. So shall he be sure to take the safest way. For, neither in the doing of the thing, nor in the wavering of the mind, shall he offend against the majesty of God. 4. I will not stand long to show, that this is one of the evils which David wisheth to light upon his enemy: namely, that he and his goods might fall into the usurers hands. k Psal. 109.11. Let the extortioner catch all that he hath, and let the strangers spoil his labour. Now, it is to be noted, that the word which we in our english read extortioner, the Greek interpreter translateth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and Tremellius, Pagnine, yea and the old translation also readeth, Foenerator, an usurer: Let the usurer catch all that he hath. And Musculus commenting upon that place of the Psalm, observeth from thence two notable things worthy of our consideration. The first, l Musculus. come. in Psal. 109.11. Maledictionis genus esse si quis incidat in illorum laqueos: It is a kind of curse to fall into the usurers bands. The second, Esse illos non benedictionis, sed maledictionis ministros: The usurers are the ministers not of blessing, but of cursing unto men. Now, if the borrower did well consider of the one, namely that it is a curse to grow in debt to an usurer: & if the lender did lay to heart the other, namely that he is but an instrument or hand to hale God's curse upon a man: I suppose that neither borrowing, nor lending upon usury, would seem so small a matter, nor prove so common a thing, as it doth with most men at this day in the world. 5. But I come to the which I suppose to be very material, and which should bind us that are Englishmen especially, from the lending upon usury: yea though it were not directly nor generally condemned in the word of God. It is to be considered (and wise men I doubt not do observe it) that those men of learning, which speak most for usury, do refer the approving or disproving, the enlarging or restraining thereof unto the authority of the civil Magistrate. That if the governor, or magistrate allow it to be used, than it is allowable: if he abolish it, then it is to be abolished. M. Caluin prescribeth this rule among others to be observed in usury, m Caluin. epist. respon de usuris. ne excedatur certus modus, constitutus in quanis regione: that the usurer exceed not in taking the certain rate ordained in every country. Whereby it appeareth that he referred the moderation of usury unto the Magistrate and governor. n Bucer. come. in Psal. 15. Bucer commendeth justinian's law for the moderating of usury, & approveth the equity of the Roman laws in that behalf. From whence it may be gathered, that he also reposed the disposing of usury, in the discretion of the Magistrate. Bullinger saith, o Bullinger. decad. 3. serm. 1. sancti magistratus erit, coercere usurarios aequis legibus, constituereque pro temporum & locorum, personarum & rerum qualitate, quod aequum, justum, & sanctum fuerit: It is the duty of a godly Magistrate, to restrain the usurers by equal laws, and to ordain in this case that which is just, and equal, and holy, as the times, and places, and persons, and matters shall require. Therefore in his opinion if the Magistrate see it good to allow it, he may: if he see it not good, he need not allow it at all. For, so far he may allow, or not allow it, as he shall see by circumstances that it is expedient. Lauater saith, p Lauater. homil. 76. ●● Ezek 18. particular judicium de contractuum formis, aequalitate & justitia, peti debet ex bonis & aequis legibus: the particular judgement of the forms, equality, & justice of contracts, must be sought and fetched from good, and equal laws. Therefore by his judgement, the laws (and so consequently the Magistrate, who is the mouth of the law) must determine either of the lawfulness, or the unlawfulness of this case of usury. But Zuinglius hath a notable place to this purpose, so notable, that though it be long, yet I will not fear tediousness in the repeating thereof. q Zuinglius. lib. de duplici justitia. tom. De usura & foenore sic sentio: as touching usury and increase thus I think, or this is my judgement. Quandò magistratuum leges foenus exercere permittunt, iam illud solvere debent, quicunque pecuniam ijs conditionibus receperunt: when the laws of the magistrate do permit the exercising of usury, they aught to pay the usury which have taken money upon such conditions. But he addeth a little after, Si magistratus ea integritate est, ut foenus non ferat, nec foeneratoribus ius dicat, nullo iure foenus deberi affirmo. If the magistrate be of that integrity, that he will not permit usury, nor give sentence for the usurer, or hear the cause of the usurer: then I affirm, that the increase is due to be paid by no law. Than we see his opinion is, that where the Magistrate permitteth usury, there the borrower is bound to pay the increase: but where the magistrate permitteth it not, there it is by no law due unto the lender. And consequently we see, that it was his judgement, that the permission, or not permission of usury (as touching the people) dependeth upon the Magistrate. All these testimonies. I repeat to show, that it is the opinion even of those that seem most to favour usury, that the approving, tolerating, rejecting, and moderating thereof, dependeth upon the positive laws of countries, & the civil authority of the Magistrate. Which if it do, than we that are inhabitants of this Realm, and members of the Church of England: have not left unto us so much as a fig leaf to cover our nakedness, I mean we have not the lest colour, or pretence in the world, to defend the practising of usury in our country. For it is to be known and acknowledged, to the glory of God, and to the honour of our Church, and to the everlasting renown of Queen Elizabeth and her government, that all the authority, and all the laws which are now in force, both in the Church and common weal, have forbidden and do forbidden usury, throughout the whole realm of England. For the manifestation whereof, we are to consider that the strength and state of our country, dependeth partly upon the common law, partly upon the statute law, partly upon the civil law, and partly upon the canon law. Now, all these so far as they are at this day in force, do condemn and inhibit usury. And first for the common law. I find that Glanuill sometimes Lord chief justice of England in the days of Henry the second, delivereth this for the law of the land, namely r D. Wilson. fol. 196. Glanuil. lib. 7. cap. 16. that all the goods of an usurer, whither he die making a will, or not making a will, are proper to the king. Agreeable to this is that, which Mathaeus Parisiensis reporteth in his writings. His words are these. s Mathaeus Paris. in vita Richards 1. Quicquid laici in vita sua donaverint, vel quocunque titulo à se alienaverint, etsi usurarij fuisse dicuntur, post mortem non revocabitur: whatsoever lay men have given away in their life time, or by what title soever they have alienated any thing from themselves: although they were said to be usurers while they lived, yet after their death it shall not be revoked. Quae verò post mortem non alienata fuerint, si cognitum fuerit ipsos tempore mortis fuisse usurarios, confiscabuntur. But the things which were not alienated after their death, if it be known that at the time of their death they were usurers: they shallbe confiscated or forfeited to the crown. So then by the ancient common law of this land, usury is prohibited, upon the penalty of the loss of all the goods of the usurer. Proceed we from thence unto the statute law: and we shall see that from time to time, diverse kings of this Realm, have by their Acts and Statutes condemned usury. In the days of Edward the third t Anno. 15 cap. 5. the cognisance of the usurers deceased, was allotted to the king: The cognisance of usurers alive, to the ordinaries of holy Church. In the days of Henry the seventh, by one statute: u Anno. 3. cap. 5 All usurarious bargains were made void, and of none effect: and by another, x Anno. 11. c. 8. usurers were punished with the forfeiture of the moiety, put forth to usury. In the days of Henry the eight, p Anno. 37. c. 9 those that took above ten in the hundred, were punished with the forfeiture of the triple value of the goods put forth to usury. z Anno. 5. &. 6 Eduardi. 6. cap. 20. The which actè (saith the Parliament assembled in the reign of Edward the sixth,) was not meant nor intended, for the maintenance and allowance of usury, etc. As by the title and preamble of the same act, it doth plainly appear. For indeed, howsoever king Henry's statute doth tolerate for necessity's sake, the lending for usury in some rate and measure: yet the preamble thereof doth manifestly and flatly call it, an unlawful thing. But whatsoever king Henry intended, it is clear that king Edward the sixth by his statute, condemned indeed all kinds and all measure of usury: and affirmed directly, that a Ibidem. usury is by the word of God utterly prohibited, as a vice most odious and detestable. Lastly, came Queen Elisabeth b Beza. epist. ad Angliae reginam. ante no●um testamentum. nobilissimum instrumentum, that most noble instrument of God, as M. Beza rightly calleth her. She indeed repealed king Edward's statute, c Anno. 13. c. 8. because (as her Act allegeth,) It had not done so much good as was hoped for: but rather the said vice of usury, and specially by way of sale of wares and shifts of interest, had much more exceedingly abounded. The usurer being therein like unto the water, which the more it is penned, the more it swelleth: and like a thief, who when he is locked in at the prison door, breaketh out at the window. Even so, the usurers being by king Edward's statute absolutely restrained, from all measure of usury: they fell to shifts, subtleties, and devices, yea and that with the more greediness, by how much it was the more generally forbidden. For Nitimur in vetitum s●mper cupimusque negata: The more we are restrained from aught, the more we run thereto. In consideration whereof, she revoked and annihilated K Edward's statute: but did she therefore approve or justify usury? no: one said well, that d Phillip Stubs. The Anatomy of abuses fol. 75 Those that say that the laws in England do allow of usury, and licence men to commit it freely: do slaundor the laws, and are worthy of reprehension. For, that Queen elisabeth's statute doth not allow nor approve usury, may appear evidently by these reasons. First, it is entitled An Act, (not for or in defence, but) against usury. Secondly, it calleth usury a vice, or sin: the vice of usury. Thirdly, it saith, that all usury is forbidden by the law of God, and is sin and detestable. Fourthly, whereas commonly penal laws are administered with as favourable exposition as conveniently they can be, for the benefit of the subject offending: in this statute, there is a special proviso that It shall be most largely and strongly construed to the suppressing of usury. And lastly, it is so far from approving any, as that it punisheth usury even to the lowest degree and measure. For, whereas whosoever dareth to usury, must of necessity lend either for ten, or above ten, or under ten in the hundred: it punisheth him that dareth for above ten, with a triple forfeiture of the principal: and him that dareth for ten, or under ten, with the forfeiture of the usury and increase. So that, neither the taking of ten, nor more than ten, nor less than ten, not not the taking of one penny in the hundred is approved by that statute. O sir (will some man say) but Queen elisabeth's statute, exempteth from the penalty thereof, all usury taken for the relief of orphans in the city of London, and such other places. I answer: the law generally condemneth usury in itself and in the own nature: but it is compelled to tolerate it in that particular case, for very necessities sake. M Beza hath a notable saying, fully fitting this purpose. e Beza annot. in Math. 19.8. Leges civiles si benè sunt constitutae, nihil quidem praecipiunt quod Deus prohibuerit, & nihil prohibet quod Deus praeceperit: The civil laws of princes, if they be rightly ordained, do command nothing which God forbiddeth, neither do they forbidden any thing which God commandeth. Sed improbitate hominum, coguntur multa duntaxat moderari, quae penitus tollere non possunt: But by reason of the wickedness of men, they are compelled only to moderate many things, which they cannot altogether take away. Et haec sunt quae permitti legibus dicuntur: And these are the things which are said to be permitted, or tolerated by law. An instance of this he giveth in this very case of usury: which many magistrates are compelled to permit, because they see it cannot be utterly abolished. And this is it, which is to be said in defence of Queen Elizabeth's statute, concerning that clause. Iniquity hath now gotten the upper hand so much, and men's hearts are grown so hard, and so cold in the duties of charity: as that the governors of this age, have been compelled to tolerate that one point, for the relief of poor children and orphans, which otherwise they feared for want of due provision would fall to utter decay. God beareth many things at our hands by reason of our obstinacy, and we must bear many things amongst men for their want of charity. For otherwise, we know what the Church of England teacheth: namely, that f Rom. 3.8. We must not do evil that good may come thereof. And if the g Concil. Lateran sub. Alexand. ● part. 16 'tis. de usuris. cap. 1. Council of Laterane rightly resolved, that as a man must not lie to save an other man's life, so he must not lend to usury to redeem a Christian out of the hand of the Turk: then may we easily gather what is to be judged of money lent to usury for the maintenance of orphans. And thirdly, it is evident that if people were as they might, and as they should be, there were other means by which orphans might be provided for. As h Chemnit. loc. come. tom. 2. tit. de paupertate. cap. 6. Contractus redemptionis, contractus societatis: The laying to mortgage, the bargaining by society: and such other contracts allowed by law, and justifiable by the word of God. We see that in the days of K. Edward, men being more merciful, and more careful over the poor, then now they are among us: the orphans were well and sufficiently provided for, even when usury was altogether and utterly prohibited. But it is not for us to dispute what might be done if men would, (for nothing is hard to willing minds:) but we are to consider what can now be done, as the times serve, and as men are affected: which was the only reason no doubt, why they that condemned usury in general, were compelled to exempt that one particular from penalty. So then by the common and statute law of this land, usury is condemned. Come we now unto the civil law, and we shall found that therein also usury is prohibited. For the understanding whereof, we are to remember, that the body of the civil law, is divided as it were into three parts. The first containeth the laws made before the Roman estate became a monarchy: and with them, those laws which were made after it arose to a monarchy, from the time of julius Caesar, unto the reign of Constantine the great. And these are called Pandectae, the laws or volumes of the pandects. The second part containeth those laws which were made from the time of Constantine, unto the reign of justinian the Emperor: comprehending also some of justinian's laws. And those be called the Code, or the laws of the Code. The third containeth the latter laws made by justinian: and they be commonly called Novellae constitutiones, or Autenticae, The laws of the Autentiques. Now, it must be confessed, that by the Pandects, and the Code, usury is not simply forbidden, i Leos §. 1. c. de usuris. but tolerated and permitted unto a certain rate. But by the Autentiques, which are the latter laws, (and so do abrogate the former) it is evident and manifest that usury is altogether prohibited. For, justinian among other decrees of his, enacted this for a law: k Constitut. 131. de ecclesiasticis canonibus, & privilegijs, etc. vel de ecclesiasticis titulis. Sancimus ut sanctie ecclesiastici canon's, qui à sanctis quatuor concilijs, (hoc est, Niceno decem trecentorum & octo, Constantinopolitano centum quinquaginta doctorum patrum, Ephesino primo, in quo Nestorius condemnatus est, & Calcedonensi, in quo Eutiches cum Nestorio anathemate percussus est,) expositi & confirmati sunt, vicem legum obtineant. We decree (saith the Emperor) that the holy ecclesiastical canons, which were published and confirmed, by the four holy counsels, (that is, by the council of Nice, consisting of three hundred and eighteen, by the council of Constantinople, consisting of a hundred and fifty learned fathers, by the first council of Ephesus, in which Nestorius was condemned, and by the council of Chalcedon, in which Eutiches and Nestorius were both accursed,) shall have the place, or the power, or the authority of laws▪ By this constitution of justinian, all the decrees of the Council of Nice, are (among the rest) established and ratified for Authentical laws. Now, the council of Nice concluded directly, & expressly against usury, in this form of words. l Concil. Nicen. cap. 18. Quoniam multi Clerici avaritiae causa turpia lucra sectantes, obliti divini praecepti quo dictum est, (qui pecuniam suam non dedit ad usuram,) foenerantes, centesimas exigunt: statuit hoc sanctum concilium, ut si quis inventus fuerit post hanc definitionem usuras accipere, vel ex quolibet tali negotio turpia lucra sectari, vel etiam species frumentorum ad septuplum dare: omnis qui tale aliquid conatus fuerit ad quaestum, deijciatur à Clero, & alienus habeatur ab ecclesiastico gradu. Because many Clergy men following of covetousness filthy lucre, forgetting the commandment of God which saith, * Psal. 15.5. He that hath not given his money to usury: exact after ten in the hundred: this holy council enacteth, that if any man shall be found to take usury after this decree made, or by any such practice to follow filthy lucre, or to put forth any kind of grain to increase: he that attempteth any such thing for gain, shall be cast out of the clergy, and reckoned as none of any ecclesiastical degree. Thus did the council of Nice conclude against usury: and justinian ratified this with the other canons of that council for a law: therefore by that law usury is condemned. Now if any man reply (as happily some will) that the Council forbiddeth usury only in Ecclesiastical persons, and so will infer, that notwithstanding that canon, it is lawful in the common people: he must know that howsoever Church men, or Clergy men, (as we call them) are only named and specified in that decree: yet because the reason which induced them to enact that Canon is drawn from the word of God, (for they allege the words of the Psalmist to that purpose:) and the word of God is a rule and squire, not only to the Clergy, but also to the laity, that is, both to men of the Church, & to men of the Common weal: therefore the received judgement of the law and lawyers is, that usury is by it forbidden in all estates, degrees, and callings of men. So then usury is prohibited by the civil law. And is the Canon law any whit more beneficial to this trade? Nay: that above all the rest damneth it (as we say) even to the pit of hell. For, the Canons of the Church forbidden it upon great penalty both in the Clergy, and in the Say people: for so you must give me leave to speak now after the manner of Lawyers. In the Clergy. The Canons ascribed to the Apostles say, m Canon. Apostol. cap. 43. Episcopus aut Presbyter, aut Diaconus, qui usuras à mutuum accipientibus exigit, vel desineto, vel deponitor: The Bishop, or Priest, or Deacon which exacteth usury of the borrower, let him either surcease to do it, or let him be deposed from his office. The Council of Arles said, n Concil. Arelat. secundum. cap. 14. depositus à clero, à communione alienus habeatur: let him that taketh usury, be deposed from the Clergy, and be secluded from the communion. The Council of Carthage said, o Concil. Carthag. 6 cap. 17. Abijciatur à clero, & alienus à Canone sit: let him be cast out of the Clergy, and secluded from the Canon. A number of other testimonies might be alleged, some of which I will be contented only to quote for brevities sake. Concil. Turonic. 1. cap. 13. Concil. Laodicen. cap. 5 Concil. Coloniens. part. 2. cap. 31. All which, with many others, do strongly inhibit usury in the Clergy. And as for the laity (by which name they understand all those that are not entered into the holy orders of the Church) against them the constitutions and Canons of the law, are yet more severe. For the law p Council Aelebert. cap. 20. excommunicateth them, q Concil. lateran. part. 1. cap. 25. debarreth them of the communion, r Concil. Lugdunens. tom. 3. disannulleth their testaments, s Statut. Synod. Hildesheimensi●. cap. 46. denieth unto them Christian burial, t D Wilson. fol 138. permitteth not a Minister to visit them in time of sickness, nor any man to be present at the making of their wills, u Ibidem fol. 139. nor any public Notary to draw their wills. x Ibidem. No the law saith, no man aught to take care what become of an usurer, though he beg his bread, or dye for hunger: because his life is as hateful as it is abominable. But among many other things, I may not forget that our late English Canons agreed upon by the Convocation house for this province of Canterbury, y Canon's aediti Londin. Anno. 1584. cap. 4. do couple usury with the most grievous sins of heresy, schism, perjury, incest, and Adultery. And do ordain that the sentence of excommunication, shall not be denounced against an usurer, but by the Archbishop, or Bishop, or Archdeacon, or by a prebendary at the lest, in his own proper person. Whereby it appeareth, that the authority of the Church of England, would not only proceed against usury according to the penalty of the ancient Canons: but would also set such a brand, and a mark upon the face thereof, as it might be noted, and reputed, for a right grievous and heinous offence. Thus than we see, that both the common and statute law of this land on the one side, and the Civil, and Canon law on the other side: that is to say, all the authority and power both of the common wealth and Church of England, have forbidden and condemned usury. That we may truly say in this respect as he said in Plautus: z Plautus. Mestellar. Act. 3. Nullum aedipol genus hodiè est hominum tetrius, Nec minus bono cum iure quam Danisticum. There is not a worse kind of men living, nor any that dealeth with less justice, or equity, or conscience, or approbation of law, then doth the usurer. Now, we have heard it declared before, that those which speak most for usury, have notwithstanding submitteth the approving, the rejecting, the tolerating, the moderating of usury, unto the statutes of several countries, and the authority or determination of the Magistrate. And therefore if the usurers will stand to their judgements, to whom they are wont to appeal as to their special patrons: then certainly, forasmuch as they live here in a Church and Kingdom, in which usury is so generally by all kinds of government prohibited and condemned: they may not be any practisers thereof, of, not not though it were not simply forbidden by the word of God. I Come now at length to the shutting up and conclusion of this whole treatise. Seeing we have learned, not only what usury is, and what are the kinds and branches thereof: but also that it is forbidden in the word, upon very great and sufficient reasons, and that it is in so many respects, an unfit thing to be practised of a christian man: I exhort all those who have hitherto kept themselves unspotted of this evil, that so they abide and continued still. And I say to them with our Saviour Christ in the Revelation: a Apoc. 22.11. He that is righteous, let him be righteous still: and he that is holy, let him be holy still. Partake not the usurers sin, jest ye be also partakers of his punishment. Those that have been overtaken with this evil, not seeing (it may be) the iniquity thereof, I exhort as the Apostle doth the Ephesians, b Ephes. 4 28. Let him that stole steal no more: Let him that hath lent to usury, lend to usury no more▪ c Esay. 58.6. Lose the bands of wickedness, take off the heavy burdens: that is, (as Hierome expoundeth it) d Hieron come. in Esa. 58. discharge the poor men of their bands, at the leastwise of their interest, in which and for which they stand bound unto you. Ease them of that burden, wherewith they are so laden, as a number are daily pulled upon their knees, yea laid along, yea swallowed up of poverty. Leave off that trade, surcease that course: the way to goodness is never entered too late. Cyprian said well, e Cyprian. ser. de passione Christi. Nec in ultimis Dei clementia poenitentes excludit: The mercy of God excludeth not them that repent at the last hour. f Cyprian. ser. de Coena D●min●. Nec serum est quod verum, nec irremissibile quod voluntarium: The repentance is never too late that is done in truth, neither is that repentance without pardon which is willingly done. But if any man be so far gone in this disease, that he is past recovery, and his heart is so far hardened, as it cannot be pierced with the word: to him I say as it is in the Revelation, g Apoc. 22 1●. He that is unjust, let him be unjust still: and he which is filthy, let him be filthy still. Continued in thine evil, delight in thine evil, bless thyself in thine evil. But withal, take that which followeth in the same place, as a sting in the tail: h Apoc. 22.12. And behold I come shortly, and my reward is with me, to give every man according as his works shall be▪ It is not long, before the Lord jesus will come against thee in judgement, either particularly at the day of thy death, or generally in the end of the world. And then, that God who hath promised that, i Psal. 15.1.5. He which giveth not his money to usury shall devil in his tabernacle, and rest in his holy mountain: He will take thee that dost the contrary, and cast thee into a clean contrary place, even into utter darkness, where shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth. And because the nature of worldly men is such, that the loss of their goods will rend their hearts in pieces, when the fear of the loss of heaven will not once stir their affections: therefore let me end my speech to them, with that sentence of Solomon, where with I began this treatise: k Pro. 28.8. He that increaseth his riches by usury and interest, gathereth them for him that will be merciful to the poor. If God be true and this be the word of God, let them fear, that as God took the goods l Gen. 31.9. of covetous Laban, and gave them to holy jacob: so he will take the riches which they have unlawfully gathered, from them, and from their house, and from their children: and will bestow them upon others, who shall show themselves better employers, and disposers of his blessings. And lest this sentence of Solomon should seem to be a frivolous surmise, and want his due effect, let me make relation of some examples, which Hemingius a godly and learned man, hath observed and recorded from his own experience. m Heming. come▪ in lac. ●. He saith, that when he was a child there were only two usurers known, & of note in the whole kingdom and country where he dwelled. One was a man but of mean place, and dwelled in Chersoneso Cimbrica: so he nameth the place, and I cannot otherwise express it, because I know not the country. This man grew exceeding rich by lending upon usury, & died (as it seemeth) leaving abundance of wealth. And yet after his death, the children that he left behind him fell into extreme poverty. In so much that a daughter of his was found to have not so much as a whole coat on her back to cover her nakedness, and was many times seen, Obire sordidissimum ministerium, To do most base or vile service to get her living: and yet could not thereby keep herself from beggary. The other usurer, he saith, was borne of a better house, and had much wealth left him of his ancestors. But, following this trade, & growing very rich thereby: it came to pass that afterwards part of his goods were confiscated to the crown, and the rest served to the maintenance of luxury, & prodigality. To these I might add some examples of our own. And if we were wise to observe the proceedings of God among us, it were no hard thing to point out beggarly children that have descended from usurarious parents. But those are more safely commended to your secret meditations, then publicly detected to the world. This only let me admonish you of, that as you tender the continuance of that wealth which you love so well, and as you desire to reserve it to the benefit of your posterity: so have a special care not to increase it by usury and interest, jest God translate it from you to another family, and make you to gather it for him, that will be mer●●full unto the poor. Last of all, sith the sword is committed to the Magistrate that the evil may fear, & sith he is the minister of God for the suppressing of sin: let me exhort him, that he bend the point and edge of his authority, towards the throat of this unjust and uncharitable practice. Ye know that by the statute, n Statut. Anno 13. Elisab. ca 8 justices of Oyer and Terminer, and justices of assizes in their circuits, justices of peace in their Sessions, Mayors, Sheriffs, and Bailiffs of Cities, have full power and authority to inquire, hear, and to determine of the main breaches of this law, touching the offence of usury. Let it never be reported in the generations to come, that usury hath in our time gone away uncontrolled by authority, or that Magistrates herein have borne the sword in vain, or that the country hath not been in this case benefited by their government. And the ecclesiastical governors I exhort, that sith the same statute hath given them liberty also to punish and to censure the extremity of this evil: they would bend themselves and their strength, to suppress this unchristian, this heathenish, this jewish kind of practice. It was the complaint of the commons in France, o Bertrand. contra Petrum de Coniers in Bibliothec. Patrum tom. 5. colum. 889. that the Officials were too strict, and too busy, and too gripple in enquiring after usury: and that for covetousness of his goods they would convent every man for an usurer, and draw him within the compass of that default. But certainly, it may be the complaint of the commons of England, that many Officials are too lose and remiss in pursuing of this offence. No man is presented, no man is ascited, no man is convicted, no man is punished ever since I could remember, by the ecclesiastical law for the committing of usury. And yet the poor people every where complain of a number of men, that by one means or other take above the rate of ten, yea of twenty in the hundred: the punishment of which excess, the statute hath flatly permitted unto the ecclesiastical governors. And certainly the daily growth and increase of this evil seemeth for to argue, that both Divines, and Lawyers, both preachers in the church, and governors of the church have been too sparing, the one in reproving, the other in punishing and suppressing this enormity. Luther said, p Luthe. de taxanda. usura. tom. 7. Illi qui in scholis profitentur, diligenter haec inventuti inculcare debebant: They which are public professors in schools, should beat upon these points diligently, to the youth that are their auditors. Et illi qui in foro causas agunt litigatores, diligenter & seriò hac de re debebant monere & edocere. And they that handle causes in the courts, should diligently and earnestly admonish and instruct the people of this matter. Yea, he would have schoolmasters to teach their scholars while they are children, to detest and abhor the very name of usury. But now, while men are neither taught to leave this sin, nor punished for the committing of this sin: each man takes liberty to do herein that which is right in his own eyes, yea which is gainful to his own purse. As if there were no king in Israel, that is, as if there were no government, neither in the Church, nor common weal of England. But thanked be God there is government in both: and that government which I hope will be hereafter more vigilant in this case. To conclude: my fellow ministers I exhort, that they lift up their voices as trumpets, and tell the people of this sin. q Heming. in lac. 5. Non tamen sine spirituali prudentia: Yet not without spiritual wisdom: which may direct us, when, and where, and to whom, and in what manner to speak of this argument. But let us take heed that wisdom quench not our zeal, and while we will become too discrete, we forget how forward we should be in reproving of evil. If we be instant in admonition this way to the people, and then seek unto God for a blessing upon our labours: it may be that our own eyes may see in our time the languishing and decaying of this offence, to the glory of God, and the benefit of his Church. To which God be honour, and to which Church be peace both now and ever. Amen. The end of the sixth Sermon preached julij. 2. 1593. Barnard. serm. 61. in Cant. Meritum meum Miseratio Domini. M. M.