THE DEBT BOOK: Or, A TREATISE UPON Romans 13. ver. 8. Wherein is handled: The Civil Debt of Money or goods, and under it the mixed Debt, as occasion is offered.  
ALSO, The Sacred Debt of LOVE.  
By HENRY WILKINSON, Bachelor in Divinity, and Pastor of Wadesdon in Buckinghamshire.  2. CHRON. 16. 9 
jehovae oculi discurrunt per totam terram, ut firmum se exhibeat erga eos quorum animus est integer erga ipsum.  
LONDON, Printed by R. B. and G. M. for ROBERT BIRD, and are to be sold in Cheapside at the sign of the Bible. 1625.   

TO THE HIGH AND MIGHTY Prince CHARLES, by the grace of God, King of great Britain, France and Ireland, Defender of the Faith, etc. (* ⁎ *)  
Most gracious Sovereign:  
DEbt is a thing which hath exercised the minds of most men in all ages, but the pens of very few in this kind wherein I handle it. The Civilians I know tell us what it is, and determine the cases incident to their faculty worthily and skilfully; but to show how Debt not duly and seasonably paid, falls heavy upon a man's outward estate, yea, and reflecteth bitterly, sometimes upon the conscience, this few or none (that I know) have hitherto undertaken. And yet we see not any thing more frequent in experience, than the dismal effects, which Debt produceth in the life of man: some it pierceth with perpetual cares, some it impoverisheth, some it imprisoneth, some it banisheth, to some it cleaveth, and to their seed for ever, like the leprosy of Naaman, to Gehazie, till they he consumed utterly. It stayeth not hear but in some cases; it staineth and polluteth men's consciences. The wages of the hireling, the portion of the Labourer in the Lord's harvest, the patrimony of the fatherless, the widow's right, kept back by force or fraud, are due Debt: the cries whereof as they are entered into the ears of the Lord, so can they not choose but pierce the consciences of the unjust detainers of them unless they be seared or otherwise sealed up by some just judgement of God leaving them to their wilfulness and obduration.  
The ordinary silence of Ministers in this argument may make men think, perhaps, that we justify, either the security of those who willingly continue in the bonds of Debt, or the sinfulness of those who pay them not at all. The sins of the times and the vices of the several ages of the world have been imputed, for the most part, to the Pastors and Ministers of those ages and times, who by holding their tongues have seemed to consent thereunto: though it may be they mourned for them in secret. This hath made me willing to say somewhat in this thing, to free myself and others, whom it doth concern, from the censure of posterity, for seeming by silence to give way to that which clogs a Christian life otherwise comfortable, with intolerable troubles and molestations; and to draw on others, who are better able to give their counsel and directions for the preventing or removing of this misery of Debt which hath wasted the state, and perplexed the souls of many thousands in the world.  
This Treatise I have desired not without your Gracious permission to present unto your Majesty, as the ablest instrument of God, by justice to reform the unrighteous dealing of such as will not pay their Debts, and by Law to restrain the grievous exactions of usurious lender's, and by mercy to relieve the misery of such as in the business of Debt are not willing doers, but unwilling sufferers: such I mean as either by the hardness of men's hearts are constrained at their need, to borrow upon conditions to them intolerable, or as cannot get their own though never so due, without spending more than the thing is worth, in trying a doubtful issue for an undoubted right, which is the case of almost all the inferior Ministers of the Kingdom, who cannot without such cost as they are not able to bear, recover their due, if a covetous or crafty or wilful opposite will deny it. It might possibly have seemed fit for one of my coat to have handled some matter of Faith, or tending to mortification or some controversy of the times, these I know are more properly pertinent to my calling, had not other men of better gifts done them abundantly with good success and approbation; but this argument of debt as a barren soil, hath lain untilled like a desolate wilderness: no man regarding to reduce that into order, which hath disordered and put out of frame the thoughts and actions of the wisest men in the world. In managing whereof if I have done the office of a faithful Minister, let me pass under the protection of your Gracious countenance; if in any thing I have failed (as easily a man may do) I humbly crave pardon, but no protection. Pardon alone will serve his turn, who will throw the first stone at his own error when he sees it.  
In an argument of this nature its easier to speak pertinent things to men of low degree, then to Princes and Potentates; the state of Kings is above private capacities, and reasons of State beyond common rules, yet my hearts desire and prayer to God shall be that the cares of your Kingdoms (impossible to be governed without a most excellent spirit in your Majesty, and special divine assistance from God) may not be aggravated with the snares of Debt. Debt is a burden to a free spirited man, be he otherwise never so well able to bear it.  
And though it stand with the power and magnificence of great Princes freely and daily to grant just requests, and be also a more blessed thing to give then to receive, yet ordinarily it is counted a more necessary, just, and conscionable act to pay Debts, then to give gifts: If the one at any time but prejudice to the other; for although in them both, goodness and greatness, work together: yet the giving of gifts is more properly a fruit of power and greatness, payment of Debts an act of goodness, and true goodness will then stand in greatest perfection, when all earthly greatness will be laid in the dust.  
The Lord of heaven bless your Majesty with a religious, aprosperous and long Reign over us, and make you as supreminent in goodness, as you are glorious in greatness; that you may not only long enjoy these earthly Dominions, but a Crown of Immortality, a fare most excellent and exceeding weight of Celestial glory, by the only merit of our Lord and Saviour JESUS CHRIST, to whose blessing and grace I shall as humble duty binds me, commend you while I live in my truest Affections, and heartiest Prayers.  
Your Majesty's most humble and faithful Subject HENRY WILKINSON.   

THE Contents of the Chapters in this Treatise, upon Rom. 13. 8. Own nothing to any man, but this, that ye love one another; for he that loveth another hath fulfilled the Law.  
CHAP. I. 
THe words opened, and a discourse touching Debts in general, with reasons why we should not continue in them. page 1.  CHAP. II. 
That we should owe no man any thing so much as lieth in us. pag. 7.  CHAP. III. 
The division of Debts, and of the first kind of civil Debts imposed by others namely Hereditary. pag. 10.  CHAP. IU. 
Of legal Debts, and first to the Magistrate. pag. 17.  CHAP. V. 
Of Debts to the Minister of the Gospel. pag. 24.  CHAP. VI 
Of Debts to the poor. pag. 43.  CHAP. VII. 
Of Debts procured by ourselves, and first of necessary Debts. pag. 55.  CHAP. VIII. 
Of voluntary Debts transient and permanent. pag. 57  CHAP. IX. 
A confutation of such Apologies as men plead for their continuing in Debt. p. 67.  CHAP. X. 
Directions for avoiding Debt that it break not upon our estate. pag. 79.  CHAP. XI. 
Directions how to get out of Debt, if we be already entangled. pag. 100  CHAP. XII. 
Of the sacred Debt of Love, that we ought to love one another, and why. pag. 114.  CHAP. XIII. 
Of the diversities of love: and of the nature of Christian religious love towards one another. pag. 119.  CHAP. XIV. 
The qualities of religious love. pag. 120.  CHAP. XV. 
The effects of love, with rules to dispense the fruits thereof. pag. 124.  CHAP. XVI. 
That love is a fulfilling of the Law according to the measure of it, and that yet hence it doth not follow: that either the perfect fulfilling of the Law is possible in this life: or that any can be justified by the works of the Law, in this state of corruption. pag. 134.    

THE DEBT BOOK.  ROM. 13. 8. Own nothing to any man but this, that ye love one another; for he that loveth another, hath fulfilled the Law. 

CHAP. I. The words opened; and a discourse touching Debts in general, with reasons why we should not continue in them.  
IN the words before, the Apostle exhorteth to render to every man his due, tribute, custom, honour and fear to whom they belong, and in these things not to remain debtors to any; but so fare as in us lieth to yield to every man his right; from which particular enumeration, he proceedeth here to the general admonition, to owe nothing to any man but love, this is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, saith Chrysostome, a Debt never fully paid, but always to be yielded and always due; the Argument is thus. Debts must be paid, but love is an universal and a perpetual debt, therefore it must be yielded to all: the Verse is resolved into two propositions.  
First, we must not be in debt in such things as can be discharged.  
Secondly, we must always continue and keep on foot the debt of love. A reason is annexed of the latter Proposition; He that loveth another hath fulfilled the Law. For the understanding of the former proposition, we must consider what Debt is. Debitum est quicquid obligatione aliqua alteri praestatur: Debt is whatsoever is performed to another, upon any bond or reasonable consideration: Now as is the obligation, such is the debt; obligations are of three sorts, of Nature, of Grace, and of Civil contract. Bonds of Nature and Grace are perpetual, so long as the parties remain, as a child oweth a perpetual respect to the Parents, and they to him, even by nature: so Christians are united in the bonds of grace, which must not fail but aught to continue. Yet the civil bonds of debt, which come by borrowing and lending, by buying and selling, or any interchangeable duties and services, do then cease when they are paid and performed. The proposition is to be understood of this third kind of debt as we may see by the exception in the Text, which keeps that debt on foot which cannot totally be discharged.  
Now when he saith, Own nothing to any man, I took it not to be a simple prohibition of all civil debts, which cannot be avoided, while humane contracts stand; but it is an admonition duly and truly to discharge all such debts, and so much as in us lieth, not to continue in them. Hortatur, saith Chrysostome, ut nullius rei quám solius dilectionis debitores maneamus, soluentes scilicet quicquid rerum aliarum aut officiorum debemus. He exhorteth that we remain not debtors of any thing, but of love only, paying forthwith whatsoever other things or duties we do owe; this doth Bucer follow, and other the best Expositors.  
The instruction is this: That whatsoever civil debts or duties we own to any, we must truly and duly pay them, and so much as in us lieth not continue under that bond and obligation. Give unto Caesar that which is Caesar's, is an excellent rule, Mat. 22. 21. and is it not even as true and as good; render to your neighbour that which is your neighbours? If the workman be worthy his wages, Luke 10. 7. then even the hireling must have his due; the poorest labourer his due; specially the labourer in the Lord's harvest. If it be a brand by God's Spirit upon the wicked, that he borroweth, but payeth not again, Psal. 37. 21. Then should every good man, so much as in him lieth, pay every man his own, and not willingly continue under the bond of debt.  
First, because debt consumes many a Reason. 1 man's estate, by the hard conditions upon which they are constrained to borrow; as upon usurious contracts, or upon cruel bargains, or upon such pawns and Mortgages and Obligations as utterly undo a man in the forfeiture.  
Secondly, in many cases it is a servile thing to be indebted: and therefore when the Lord will set down an underling, he describes him by being a borrower, and not a lender. Deut. 28. 43. He shall lend to thee, but thou shalt not lend to him. Solomon is more peremptory; The borrower is a servant to the lender, Prou. 22. 7. supposing them equal before, as we may see by his submissiveness and flatteries, and obsequiousness, and servile observations. By Debt a man's state and person is in a manner mancipated to the lender. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, gifts for loan of money, make free men servants, by turning, as I conceive, the state of him that so borroweth, from freedom to servility.  
Thirdly, by long continuance of a debt, freely lent, the Lender may be damnified greatly by the Borrower. A man by trading and turning the Stock, may raise maintenance to himself, and such as depend upon him; whereas the money in another man's hand long detained, is like aburied Talon, in respect of the owner.  
Fourthly, Debt may prove uncomfortable fortable to a man's own Conscience, for what if payment be so long deferred till a man be not able to pay? till he be compelled to engage others? what if it be deferred till a man dye? then that which might have been satisfied by one's self, will very hardly be discharged by his Executors. A man well able to pay his own debts, may leave an Heir that shall not be bound to pay. Lands pay no debts, or not in haste; not at a man's need.  
Fiftly, a man indebted cannot (while he so continueth) live comfortably, because, though otherwise frugal and industrious, yet he enjoyeth not the labour of his hands, but he soweth, and another reapeth; or he reapeth to another that which he soweth: he earneth wages, but another man's bag must be filled with it, and so he laboureth for the wind; specially when he borrows upon usury, for that will eat out all a man's increase. Nor can a man thus continuing, prepare to die contentedly, by setting his house and outward state in order. For, if debts must first be paid, as undoubtedly they should, and then Legacies and Portions, what certainty can be assigned to the fatherless and widow, when whatsoever is most precious in a man's house or substance, must be drawn out to the satisfying of the Creditor, before they can be sure that they eat their own bread? Many men seeming rich, are found poor and naked, when every bird hath her own feather.   

CHAP. 2. That we should owe no man any thing.  
THese grounds being thus laid, I proceed as the words lead me.  
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉.] Two negatives in other languages make an affirmative, in the Greek, Duae negativeae plerumque vehementiús negant, two negatives for the most part do more vehemently deny, as Heb. 13. 5. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉: in this place in hand, each negative hath its several weight, for if we must owe 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, to no man, then suum cuique red, pay every man his own: if we must owe, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, than we must pay all fully, without compounding at an undervalue, out of pretence of poverty.  
First, be indebted to no man, so much as in you lieth: not to a rich man, lest he draw you before the Tribunal: not to a poor man, lest his maintenance detained be a crying sin in you: not to a Landlord, lest he take occasion to root out you and your Family: not to a Tenant, lest his stock in our hand, which might have been improved unto profit, make him fall short in payment of his rent: not to a Minister, lest he be impoverished, and instead of hospitality to others, be cast upon the courtesies of a merciless world: not to the fatherless and widow, lest in the bitterness of their soul and sense of their want, they make their moan to God, who will certainly judge their cause: not to a servant lest he be discouraged, and put upon shifts uncomfortable to himself, unprofitable to you. Own nothing to a friend, lest you be burdenous where you should be helpful, or lest failing of payment prove a shipwreck of friendship: not to a foe lest he exact rigorously, and work upon some vantage: Own not to a Neighbour, lest you lose your liberty: not to a Stranger, lest you fall into some snare: not to a buyer, lest you disappoint his own necessity: not to a Seller, lest he enhance the price of his commodity: not to a free Lender, lest you disable him from managing his own affairs: not to an Usurer, lest he consume you as a Canker. We should owe no man any thing, if we be in case to pay it; no not our own Fathers, to whom we should, vicem rependere, make requital rather than run further upon that score. By making too bold, even with parents in this kind, many men have lost their very patrimony.  
There is in borrowing, a kind of obnoxious ill-liberality, which an ingenuous spirit brooketh not, if there be any other remedy. Besides, there is such a corruption in the hearts of men, that even a free lender will think he may well abate the fruit of his benevolence some other way, and that makes him cease to be a free lender. Lastly, by deep and great debts, there is such a world of cares upon the heart of the debtor, that it breaks his sleep, it distempers his affections, and afflicteth him so continually, that Augustus Caesar, hearing of a man that died exceedingly in debt, desired to buy the Pallet or Bed upon which a man so deeply indebted could sleep; intimating thereby, that great debt is such a corrasive as is able to molest the mind of any man, even of an Emperor, and to make it restless.   

CHAP. 3. The division of debts, and of the first kind of debts, imposed by others, namely, Haereditary.  
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, Own nothing.] That our proceeding may be such, as he that runs may read it. Let me here propound in a short division, the substance of the ensuing discourse, touching civil and mixed debts, which fall first to be handled. Debts are either imposed by others, or procured by ourselves. Imposed by others, are hereditary, or legal. Legal are of three sorts, to the Magistrate, to the Minister, or to the Poor. Debts procured by ourselves, are either necessary, or voluntary. Voluntary are either casual and transient, or permanent and standing debts: The remedies whereof are either such as prevent, or such as remove the disease: Of all which in their order. The sacred debt of Love is also to be handled in the second proposition. But first of Hereditary debts, which are the first kind of civil debts imposed by others.  
These are such as Parents impose upon their Heirs, or Testators upon their Executors by will and testament; or which necessarily fall upon the state of the deceased. A Testament or Will, is; Voluntatis 
Ulpian in d. lib. 1.  nostrae iusta sententia, de eo quod post mortem nostram fieri voluerimus. A Testament is a just declaration of our will, touching that which we would have done after our death. By this a man may have a calling to the payment of debts and legacies; & consequently unto debts which cannot perhaps with comfort, perhaps not without loss to himself and others be avoided.  
Now if a man, in regard of the trust reposed in him, and of the means allotted for performance of the same (without which, and his own acceptation concurring, no man stands charged) will undertake the execution of any man's Will, then must he accomplish what is enjoined and prescribed, by the true meaning of the Will, according to Augustine's rule; Aut Testatoris voluntas seruanda, aut haereditale carendum. Either must the Will of the Testator be observed, or the inheritance must be lost. In debts then thus imposed, this remaineth to be done; We must pay them speedily at the time prefixed, lest they lose their acceptation, by hanging too long in our hands: We must also pay them faithfully and fully, without keeping back from any that which is intended to them.  
Among things which pass by Will, besides that which is given to kindred and friends, there are sometimes sums of money and yearly pensions allotted to Colleges, and Schools of learning, to Hospitals, and Highways, to the poor of certain parishes, and to other godly uses, and then the debt so to be paid, is not merely civil, but a mixed debt: of a common nature in respect of the matter, as money or goods; but in respect of the godly & pious use, of a higher strain. In all these we must deal truly and worthily, both with the dead, and with the living: For as the counterfeiting and forging 
Lege Corn. de falsis.  of a false Will, was punishable anciently in some cases by death, in some by banishment and publication of goods: so the suppressing of a true will, by not publishing or not performing it, to those whom it doth concern, is a sin and an iniquity, not much inferior to the other: the one justifies a dangerous lie, the other conceals a necessary truth, not without perjury perhaps in both. It was sometimes David's complaint; Defecerunt veraces 
Psal. 12. 1.  a filiis hominum. The trusty are failed from among the sons of men. The complaint is still just, in this particular as much as in any. I am persuaded very few Wills are executed by the common sort of men, in estates of any value, without some notable fraud, partly by alleging (when payments should be made) defect in the state, and partly by concealing legacies from those who cannot demand them, out of ignorance of the Will; to whom I say, that so long as wrong reckoning is no payment, that the debt remaineth in the sight of God, how ever it be crossed out of their accounts. They shall also find, that 
* Luk. 16. 11.  for being unfaithful in the dispensation of earthly talents, they shall never be trusted with the true treasure. It may also one day be their own case, that as they have canceled and made void the Will of the dead, by detaining debts and legacies from the right owners, so by the just judgement of God, the like 
* Mat. 7. 2.  measure may be meated to their widows and fatherless children, by those whom they shall unworthily put in trust: we may not think an account discharged, when a fraud and a deceit is cunningly contrived. A debt cannot be paid but by real satisfaction, without which the obligation remaineth in full strength and force; upon the conscience whereof, an honest heart cannot but be tenderly sensible: And therefore I am not of Cyprians mind, who took order; Ne quis Clericum tutorem 
Cyp. Epist. 66.  aut curatorem testamento constitueret. That none should appoint a Clergy man Guardian or Executor by Will, lest he should be molested with the affairs of this life. I rather think that men should be chosen out of all vocations and callings whatsoever, of most unstained conversation and conscience most alienated from covetousness, lest entangled in worldliness, for the dispensation of our estate to whom it is intended.  
Before I leave this point, let me ad one caveat to Parents and Testators, not to charge their Wills with that which their state cannot discharge; for this is the way either to have nothing done at all, or to expose their executors or successors to perpetual suits and clamours. A man were better sell all that he can spare, and pay his own debts himself, than out of an ambitious humour of leaving so much in lands to his Heir, lay withal upon him such a mass of debts & legacies, as shall mancipate him to the inevitable yoke of the Usurer, till he can redeem himself, by selling what is most precious in his patrimony: which when one is compelled to do, let him then consider whether the great possessions which came to him by inheritance, were not partly the spoil of the Church, the prey of the poor, and the fruits of oppression, which like Aurum Tolosanum, the gold of Tolosa, 
Aul. Gel. lib. 3.  makes every hand unfortunate, into which it comes: let him also well consider, whether the intolerable mass of debt, be not that unmoveable yoke, spoken of by Micah, and threatened to them 
Micha 2. 2. 3.  who covet fields, and take them by force, who root out men and their families, threatened, I say, to them, and their posterity. Let them lastly consider, whether a small thing to the righteous man be not 
Psal. 37. 16.  better, then great riches to the wicked and mighty; however some of them flourish till the measure of their iniquity be at the full. Thus of the first kind of debts imposed by others: the next are Legal.   

CHAP. 4. Of Legal debts; and first to the Magistrate.  
THE debts imposed by humane laws and ordinances, are of diverse sorts, as Subsidies, Fifteen, Tenths, Oblations, and other pensions to the Church or to the Common wealth, in peace or in war. These are common burdens, which every man in his place must necessarily bear. as a member of a politic body, and readily for avoiding offence and molestation justly ensuing upon neglect. These fall due either to the Magistrate, specially to the King's Majesty, or to the Minister, or to the Poor. In all these I know there is a moral right, and so they may be called moral debts, in respect of the common ground of divine or natural justice: But we call them legal debts, Secundum regulam legis determinantis, in respect of the Law, determining thus much to such a man, of such a calling, at 
Aquin. prima, secundae quest. 99 art. 5.  such a time: it's Aquinas his distinction. The ground of such debts as come to the Magistrate, is from divine Authority, though for the manner and measure of them determinable by law. For if the Magistrate be God's Minister (so is he 
Rom. 13. 4. 6.  called both 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉) if for our wealth, if for the punishment of evil doers, and praise of them that do well, if he labour and attend continually upon this thing, is there not an equity manifest to the conscience, that such a workman, so ordained of God for so excellent a service, should have his reward? Or doth not the Apostle conclude invincibly? For this cause pay we tribute, Rom. 13. 6. and Ver. 7. pay therefore tribute, custom, fear, honour to whom they are due. Ministers of Peace and justice, as they should not consume their inferiors: (for so the remedy will be worse than the disease) so should they not be constrained to spend upon the stock, & to waste their own estate further than as members of eminent ability, should bear a burden for the common good, proportionable to their strength. But Magistrates ought to have Tributes and Pensions of their inferiors, as pledges of subjection, as recompenses of service, and as means to defray expenses for the public good; even equity and necessity requires all this.  
Now because in Monarchies (the perfection of earthly governments, and types of the heavenly) the King is supreme Governor, not only over all persons, but in all causes, Ecclesiastical and Civil, to see them done and managed according to Gods will, by Officers qualified with gifts and callings requisite for such matters: And seeing these Officers of eminent place and trust, at home and abroad, are employed immediately by the King's Majesty, and consequently maintained by him that sets them on work; hereupon it is, that by virtue of some laws perpetually in force, and by virtue of some Statutes, devised for supply of casual occurrents, besides the power of Prerogative Royal, Tributes and Customs, Subsidies and Tenths, with many other pensions fall due to the King, and so are counted legal debts, though moral in their original, yet legal, ex determinatione legis, the Law prescribing how it shall be for quantity and circumstances. In payment whereof, it is the wisdom of our State, that though where nothing is to be had, the King must lose his right, yet he seldom doth lose any thing of that which is found due by Officers employed & put in trust; and it were pity it should not come entirely into his treasury. For how should the most illustrious estate of such a Monarch? how should such ministers of State, of justice of Peace, peareless (I am persuaded) for worth and wisdom? How should such a Navy? such men and munition as must be always in a readiness against casual events? how should such Armies as may be requisite in a tumultuous and raging world be maintained at his cost? how should true Religion, and the Gospel sincerely preached, (for which the world hates us, and yet without which our life would be tedious, and a very shadow of death) be defended by his power against the malice of the Devil and his instruments, if all the springs and fountains of the Kingdom, did not constantly run into the Ocean of his Treasury?  
As our Nation hath not been backward in the payment of this debt, so hath it been more happy than any nation in the world, in our two last Sovereign's, Queen Elizabeth, and King james, both of blessed memory, to whom it hath been paid. For, besides protection by the Sword of Power and justice, common to other Subjects (yet not every where so common as were to be wished) we have had the true Faith of jesus Christ professed, and the preaching of the Gospel established and countenanced by public Authority, for the space of sixty six years without interruption. A most inestimable blessing, for which we own even ourselves unto them, as Paul speaks to Philemon, 
Philem. v. 19  and for which none but God only can make recompense. The Children that now are shall not forget King james when they are old; the Elder also shall reverence his memory, because by his princely care, and express direction, for Catechising the ignorant, not only the younger are able to give an account of their Faith; but even the elder, though unwilling to appear, senes elementarij, old men learning principles, yet they do both countenance the work by their presence, and do increase daily in knowledge and zeal.  
Thus our two late gracious Sovereigns, most memorable for great matters, but for none so much, as in that they were an incomparable pair for defence the true Faith, and propagation of the Gospel, have had (as they deserved) the love of our hearts, & a real performance of those pecuniary debts whereof I speak, and shall be had by us and ours in an everlasting remembrance: which we doubt not shall daily be renewed by that most noble branch springing from that root so blessed to our Nation, our dear Sovereign Lord King CHARLES, that now is. Concerning whom we cannot express the greatness, either of our hopes, or joys which we conceive. For his life, hitherto unspotted of the world, so free in youth from the lusts of youth; so fare from intemperance in the fullness of plenty; so prevalent over pride in such a fortune; so unstained by Popery in the school of Spain; so attentive and judicious in hearing God's word; so full of goodness when it was not in request; such a life, I say, hitherto in the blossom and spring doth promise precious fruits in the ripeness and maturity.  
Blessed are those guides, living and dead, who had the seasoning of such a vessel of honour and grace, and failed not in the service: and blessed is his Majesty, who in his Christian education laid such a foundation of religion and wisdom, of godliness and honesty; as is the unspeakable joy and comfort of all his loving subjects, and will bring him infallibly in a course of holiness, to a perfection of life and happiness at last.  
Our Saviour pleads the right of 
* Mat. 22. 21.  Caesar, even then, when Tiberius a subtle Tyrant was that Caesar. Paul in this place doth most earnestly urge the payment of Tributes and all other duties to the Superior powers at that time when Nero, whom elsewhere he calls the 
* 2. Tim. 4. 17.  Lion, was the Roman Monarch. What else doth this teach us, but that however the importunity of governors may at some time be grievous in exacting; yet the subject, (if release cannot be had by supplication) must be always obedient in performing to the uttermost of his ability. How much more should we having by the gracious providence of the Almighty, such a King set over us, as we trust will prove a man after the heart of God; as David did in Israel, and a pattern of grace and zeal, as josuah was in judah: How much more, I say, should we most cheerfully yield unto him the homage of our hearts, the service of our hands and the portion of our substance required by Law to the uttermost mite: beside, our continual prayers unto God for his present and future happiness.   

CHAP. 5. Of Debts to the Minister of the Gospel.  
ANother debt imposed by humane Ordinance pertaineth to the Minister, as Tithes and other pensions in the right of the Church. These I call, imposed by humane Laws, not as waving the claim by Divine right (till I be otherwise instructed then yet I am): For, if Tithes were due to the Priest of the most high God 
* Gen. 14. 20 Gen. 28. 22.  paid by Abram; if vowed by jacob, before the Law given in mount Horeb; if they were due under the Law, to the Priests and Levites, by divine right for the service of the Tabernacle; If a maintenance be due to the ministers of the Gospel, as the Apostle pleadeth purposely, 1. Cor. 9 from verse 7. to the 15. & Gal. 6. 6, 7. If God have ordained, that they who preach the Gospel should live of the Gospel, and that he who is taught in the word should communicate unto him of whom he is taught in all good things: then surely I see not, but that tithes at least, or some better thing, should be due to the Minister of the Gospel by Divine Ordinance; and that those who take them from us, should give us a better thing, as those who under the Law had a mind to redeem their tithe, were bound to add to the price every 
* Levit. 27. 31.  fift penny above the true value. But I make it not my task to dispute this question, my betters have done it lately and worthily. I here consider tithes, and other portions of the Ministers maintenance as a legal debt due by a double right. First, the faithful labourer in the Lord's harvest is worthy his wage, ex debito, not ex gratia, by debt, not by courtesy; though he be 
2. Cor. 3. 7, 8, 9  but an earthen vessel, yet his treasure is very precious, and his Ministry much more excellent than that of the Law.  
Secondly, that he ought to have the tithes in kind by virtue of the positive Law of our kingdom, most agreeable and consonant to the Original Law of God, 
* Ephes. 4, 12  in lieu of his service for the gathering of the Saints, and for the edifying of the body of Christ by the Ministry of the Gospel; so that it is not a mere Legal but a Moral debt, as I noted of that to the Magistrate out of Aquinas. A mixed debt, so let me call it, because the service is holy, and the things ministered are spiritual, though the recompense be temporal goods or money. I need not cite the words of the 
* Henry 8. an. 27. and 32 Edw. 6. an. 2. cap. 3.  Statute, the practice is payment, under pain of triple damage, even in Impropriations, where the work is not done by him that takes the wages. What then can be alleged why this debt should not be paid? So assigned by God, who holds his workman 
* Luk. 10. 7.  worthy his wages, as well in the New Testament as in the Old; so confirmed by Law, proportioned to the 
* Numb. 18. 21, 22. 24. etc.  authentical pattern; so dear earned by the continual pains of the faithful Pastors, who have the most dreadful charge of Souls. I speak not for Improprietaries, they will be sure to shift for themselves. I put the case with all the favour that may be, yet not otherwise then stands with the truth in many places.  
That which they answer for nonpaiment of this debt, is, that they own us no such matter; for Debitum est quod iure ab invito exigi potest: That is a debt which may lawfully be required of a man against his will; but this cannot so be exacted say they: for their land is Abby-land, and consequently exempted as was the Abbey; or their land is freed by composition, prescription or custom: and for these they will stand, tanquam pro aris & focis, as for their altars and their houses, indeed against their altars and houses of God, To whom I say not any thing to plead for the belly, as they suppose: If I had the tongue of the eloquent and learned, their bellies would have no ears to give me audience in such an Argument; I speak only for discharge of my own conscience, in service of the truth, and to clear myself for ever from consenting unto sacrilege in any man, or matter.  
First, their land is Abbey-land, belonging 
Places exempt.  to such a Monastery before the dissolution; so let it be, and so let them enjoy it, unless it be a thing consecrated to the Church; if so, then except they be Prophets, or Prophet's Children, or superannited Levites (who always had their allowance and portion in things consecrated) or in the nature of these, let them take heed and look well to themselves, because it is a snare to devour that which is holy, & after the vows to make enquiry, Pro. 20. 25. It is an ancient Canon; Semel dicatum Deo, non est ad humanos usus ulteriús 
De reg. jury in Decr. reg. 51.  transferendum: That which is once dedicated to God, is not to be translated afterwards to the uses of men: That is, if it be consecrated rightly to the service of God it may not be alienated to the private common uses of men, not employed in that service; some few cases are excepted, whereof this is none. To this they will say, That they find themselves hereof possessed by inheritance, and they have digested it already well enough. If God be pleased with it, I wish them all prosperity; their lot is fallen to them in a fair ground: they have a goodly heritage: yet I had rather have my part in a lot less disputable. But, admit all is well, and that they hold what they have without any scruple, I envy not unto them the least dram of their right. But, what doth become of the Tithe of those lands? are not those more specially consecrated in their original, & in their use more properly necessary to the maintenance of God's service then the Lands themselves? Why then is the payment of these denied? and in lieu thereof, some pitiful contemptible pension ill paid, to the miserable defacing of the Ministry in that place.  
The same Authority, say they, which gives Ministers the Tithe in places not exempted, hath exempted our lands from payment of Tithes in kind; thus we have it, and so we mean to hold it.  
I dispute not the power of Princes and Parliaments, it is above my capacity, and out of my element, I always yield to Law, presuming reason of state in it, though I see it not. But what if the Law be not so clear as is imagined? The alienation of these Tithes, (which came to the King at the dissolution of Abbeys, together with the lands) was at first an Act of the Pope, by an injurious usurpation upon the right of the Church, and against the Laws of God and man then in force. If this were in the Pope a sacrilegious Act, hateful to God, who detesteth robbery 
Esay 61. 8.  in the sacrifice, it is not to be thought, that our Statute Law intended, to justify that in any which is sacrilege in the Pope; or to make that just, which is originally unjust. I do not think that our Statute Law intended, either to abolish Tithes utterly, or to decide the right, but to change the possession for the present time, till the claim of the Church might more evidently appear. But suppose the Law for nonpayment of these Tithes were as clear as the practice, yet as in the business of the Tabernacle, Moses was admonished, See thou do all things according 
Exod. 25. 40. Hab. 8. 5.  to the pattern shown thee in the mount: so in matters of the Church, all things should be done, chief in matters of importance, according to the pattern of holy Scriptures. Now whether the Law enjoining Tithes in general, or the Act releasing that payment to some, be more agreeable to the Original pattern, let any man judge that is not a party. For mine own particular, when I find it punctually set down, That as those who ministered 
1. Cor. 9 13▪ 14.  about holy things, did live of the things of the Temple, and they which waited at the Altar, were partakers of the Altar, that so the Lord hath ordained, that they who preach the Gospel, should live of the Gospel: Me thinks it hard dealing, that we should be barred of the benefit of the ancient ordinance of Tithe, till some other Law of provision disannulling the former can be produced out of the Scripture.  
Another exception against true payment, 
Composition▪  even where lands are not exempt, is composition with the former Incumbents. Of this kind I have heard many pretended, but I could scarce ever see any produced, lest some thing of advantage should relieve the present Minister, which shows the obnoxious diffidence of a guilty heart, when the cause is nought; for otherwise men are forward to make proof of their right, for satisfaction of such as have just cause to question it. But suppose a composition as firm as covetousness and craft can device it, I would gladly learn, how it stands with conscience or common sense, that the act of an Incumbent only for term of life, removable upon preferment, or misdemeanour, should prejudice his Successor in a place of painful service, to the utter impoverishment and undoing of all posterity? Is it possible, that in any lawful contract, the fruit of the godly and religious labours of a free and ingenuous man, in the Lord's harvest, should be bought and sold before he is borne, by those who are mere strangers unto him? Or if this cannot be done in any godly and righteous course, why should not the ancient rule take place; Quae contra tus fiunt, pro infectis haberi debent: That those things which are done against right, aught to be esteemed as if they had not been done. The old word is, Caveat Emptor, let the buyer look to it: but I think, both the buyer and seller, being in this case brethren in evil, had need to look to it, lest they swallow that in earth, which they shall digest in hell; I doubt it will one day be a cold comfort to those who are parties to such an act, to consider upon their deathbed, that by their sinful hands the Church is deprived, for the time present and to come, of what soever hath fallen within their power to dispose of. Can that man have any hope to be found a true member of the Church triumphant in heaven, that life's & dies a betrayer & spoiler of the Church militant here on earth?  
Prescription is another mousell of the 
Prescription.  Ox that treadeth out the Corn: the original of this work of darkness is commonly thus; There are few great rich men to be found, that can endure with patience to pay any Tithe in kind; hereupon they take their opportunity, when some Minister is incumbent, either not able to do the work, or not resident, or some other way obnoxious, to agree with him for their Tithe at an undervalue, a pound perhaps in the hundreth, pretending, that they can use the matter so, as that the Tithe shall be little or nothing worth unto him; yet this yearly pension they will allow for zeal to the Church, and good will to the man, whom they will not stick to mollify with compliments, or with any thing else that shall cost them nought: these conditions are continued from the father to the child, by the same arts and practices, till a new man come to be presented, who for quietness sake must take things as he finds them; or if he dare contend, they will scourge him through all the Courts of the kingdom. When thus it hath been carried for two or three descents, though men know in their consciences, that, Non firmatur tractu temporis, quod de iure ab initio non subsistit: That it gets no validity by tract of time, which is not grounded upon right from the beginning: yet from these deceitful practices thus continued, prescription doth arise to put the Minister to perpetual silences, who having spent his patrimony in the University, hath neither time nor money nor evidence on the sudden to manage the Churches right, though a prescription once begun, consume it daily more and more. For if the prescribers add by purchase or enclosure to their domains within the same Parish, the thin and ill-favoured prescribed pension, like the 
* Gen. 41. 4, 7.  thin ears of corn, and lean Kine in Pharaohs dream will swallow up all the Tithe of the portions so annexed, and be never a whit the fuller.  
On the other side, if the prescribers chance to sell, it's no savoury bargain unless the Tithe be included, and the Minister excluded out of that portion, and confined to some smaller piece of ground more proportionable to his pitiful pension. The time was when our Saviour 
joh. 2. 14, 15, 16.  in a fervent zeal cast buyers and sellers out of the Temple, what will he do one day to those who thus covetously encroach upon the patrimony of the Temple?  
Customs are no less pernicious to 
Customs.  the state of the Minister in keeping back his due, than these; for as these exempt some particular persons or places in great matters, so customs swallow all so far as they go like a general Deluge; if they find a Benefice like the Garden of Eden, they will leave it like a desolate wilderness. I speak of such as are pretended upon usage without any evident reasonable cause, whereby the Church's patrimony is most injuriously detained: and why should not every man that is able to oppose reason and truth against them, cry them down? For though it be true that diuturni mores consensu utentium comprobati 
Iust. lib. 1. ●●●. 2.  legem imitantur, that manners long continued, and approved by consent of such as have used them are a kind of law; yet consent and practice is not enough to give a custom the power of a law, unless it be consensus rationabilis, a consent grounded upon reason, nisi enim consuetudo ratione munita sit, non est consuetudo, sed corruptela: If custom be not fortified by reason, it is not a custom but a corruption. Now it will be hard to prove either reason in the thing or consent of the Minister, who is always a party in those things which are obtruded as custom upon the Church. If men will swear that it is their custom to pay no tithe wood, than you must have none, though the greatest part of the Parish be wood-ground▪ If men will swear that it is their custom not to pay tithe Wool, for sheep not wintered in the field, than you must have none, though they have a full stock that takes I benefit of the Common for eight the most profitable months of the year; but it may be you shall have some proportionable rate: nothing less, but some such contemptible scraps as are not worth the gathering up; which how it stands with reason, or the good liking of the Minister let wise men judge. Yet if men will affirm upon oath that these and the like are the customs of their Parish, we have no remedy; and customs seldom fail for lack of swearing. If thiefs had come unto thee; if robbers by night, would they not have stolen that which were enough for them? If Grape-gatherers had come to thee, would they not have left some Grapes, Obadiah, verse 5. but customs sweep all away, they leave in a manner nothing. The Church, says Austen, discoursing of customs, being 
August. januar. Epist. 119.  placed in the midst of many Tares, and much Chaff, tolerates many things; Et tamen quae sunt contra fidem, & bonam vitam non approbat, nec tacet, nec facit: yet such things as are against faith & a good life, it neither doth approve, nor conceal, nor practise. The like say I in this, the Church, whose cause I plead, tolerates many pressures, sustaineth many injuries; but customs against all reason and right, against justice and common sense, it neither approveth, nor concealeth; nor practiseth the like itself towards others.  
When the malignity of all these exemptions, compositions, prescriptions and customs, like ill constellations, bring penury and misery upon the Clergy. When these four come upon us, like the four several sorts of Vermin mentioned by the Prophet, the Palmerworm, the Locust, 
joel 1. 4.  the Cankar-worme, and the Caterpillar, the latter still consuming the residue of the former, is it not time to mourn and complain when out meat is cut off before our eyes, and joy and gladness from the house of our God? joel 1. 16. Is it not time to say with Amos, O Lord God 
Amos 7. 2  forgive we beseech thee, by whom shall jacob arise, for he is small. Querelae (says one) 
Livius l. 1.  ne tam quidem grate, quanda fortasse necessary; Complaints are not then welcome when perhaps they are necessary; but it were better to complain, and admonish, and reprove, then that a curse should rest upon us as it did upon judah, for robbing God in Tithes & Offerings, Mal. 3. 8, 9 If answer be made, that the case is not like; I confess it is not like in many circumstances, but it is very like, if not the same, in substance: For if God have as peculiar an interest in us, and as fatherly a care over us, as in and over the Ministers of the Law; then, if the defrauding of Priests and Leuits were sacrilege in the jews, how▪ ever the style and word may be mitigated; yet our curbing the Ministers of the Gospel by force or fraud, will prove something which cannot be answered in the day of account.  
In this point I had much rather refer the Reader to the godly Sermons of the most learned Doctor Raynolds, upon the Prophecy of Obadiah, specially upon the 5. and 6. Verses, then say any more myself; only let me add these few things: First, let that of jeremy be well considered; Thus saith the Lord against the Ammonits, 
jerem. 41. 1, 2.  hath Israel no Son? hath he no heir? why then doth the Ammonite possess God, and dwell in his Cities? Behold I will cause the alarm of war to be heard in Rabbah, of the Ammonits, and it shall be an heap, and his towns shall be burnt with fire, and Israel shall be heir unto them that were his heirs, etc. Let me now inquire as God did of Israel and God; hath Levi no sons? or hath the Minister of the Law no heir? why then doth the Lay man possess the Clergy? Why doth he encroach upon the portion of the Minister of the Gospel▪ Remember the imprecation upon the haters of Levi, Deut. 33. 11. Smite through the loins of them that rise against him, that they rise not again. The Lord turn the hearts of the spoilers of his inheritance, who do not now as the jews, Aggry 1. 4. neglect the house of God to build their own, but take away the maintenance & revenues of God's house to enlarge their own. The old word was, Decimas red & diues sis, pay tithes that thou mayest be rich: & it is Ieromes observation, Decimi● redditis ubertas, non redditis fames fuit; That there was plenty when Tithes were paid, & penury when they were not. But the present practice is, pay not Tithes that thou mayest be rich; & it is the common opinion now, that its all one, whether Tithes be paid or not, & that the Lord in that respect will do neither good nor ill. Is there then no difference between the clean and the unclean? or between well gotten goods, and the wages of iniquity? If under the Law a man otherwise 
Agg. 2. 14.  clean, did hold in his hand a thing polluted and unclean, if he washed himself never so oft, yet he was still unclean: all the water in jordan, and the ceremonies of Leviticus could not cleanse him, so long as the polluted thing remained in his hand. The Minister's portion wrongfully usurped and unjustly detained from him, is an unclean thing in the hand of the oppressor, who so long as he holdeth the unclean thing in his possession, cannot but be polluted and unclean in God's sight. The Lord I trust will at last remove the veil of ignorance and covetousness from their hearts whom it concerns, that they may see the breaches which they make upon God's Ministers, and will give them true repentance and amendment, that their sin may be forgiven, and their polluted consciences purged in the blood of jesus Christ, applied to them by a lively Faith; and remember Lord in mercy those who have compassion on the daily ruins and decays of thine house, and let not the kindness be wiped out which they show to thine house, and to the Officers thereof. Thus much of the Legal debt to the Minister, which I take not to be merely civil, but a mixed Debt, because though that which is yielded be a temporal thing, yet it is the compensation of a spiritual service.   

CHAP. 6. Of Debts to the poor.  
A Third kind of debt imposed by Law, is to the poor: the burden hereof is laid upon the richer sort, according to their ability. I speak not now of alms which is voluntary and left to discretion; yet required in 
* Deut. 15. 10, 11.  Scripture with much importunity: but of such moneys as are paiable by virtue of the Law, made in the days of Queen ELIZABETH, and 
Reg. Eliza. 43. cap. 2.  continued in the reign of King JAMES of blessed memory for the raising of a stock to set the poor on work, for relieving of the lame, impotent, blind, aged, and such as are not able to work, and for putting out of poor children to be prentices, which ever being not only politic but godly also and religious. I hold the debt not merely civil, but a mixed debt, as was the former: for the cheerful and ready payment whereof let me use these motives.  
First the care which God hath had always for the poor: He doth not only plead their cause Deut, 15. 10, 11. And open thy hand liberally to thy brother, to thy poor, to thy needy; for even for this cause the Lord thy God shall bless thee in all thy work, and in every thing that thou puttest thine hand unto; but he allots a portion of the third years Tithe, not only to the Levite (who never is excluded) but to the stranger, the fatherless and the widow; Deut. 26. 12. As Hierome hath observed upon Ezech, 45. and calls it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the poor man's Tithe. 
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉.   
God allotted them a portion in his own lot and portion: when God takes order that every thing may not be taken as a pledge, not the upper or neither millstone, Deut. 24. 6. and that if a poor man lay his garment to pawn, it shall be restored before the going down of the Sun, Exo. 22. 26. Doth not this restrain from offering hard measure to the poor in his extremity? Besides, we know, that as the poor lie open to the greatest injuries, men treading down where the hedge is lowest: so God takes special notice of the wrong done unto them, he denounceth his judgements against such as do concutere tenuem, shake them to pieces, as Ahab did Naboth, 1. King. 21. Such as take their corn from them, Amos 5. 11. Such as grind their faces, Esay 3. 16. as root them out and their families: Mic. 2. 1, 2, 3. He also counts a scorn to them, a contempt to himself; Prou. 17. 5. Who so mocketh the poor, reproacheth his Maker; let not us therefore deny them their right, whom the Lord doth take into such special protection, as to interpret a kindness or unkindness to them, as done unto himself.  
Let us also remember that this is God's will and appointment, that the poor should always be in the Land, for exercise of their patience, and trial of the richer men's benevolence, and his own glory out of them both. For the ability of the one being accommodated to the necessity of the other; thanksgiving unto God ariseth from them both, as from the Physician and the Patient when a bodily cure is done. We must not think that when the cause of the poor is so often and so tenderly in the Scriptures commended to the rich, that all this ado is for a penny now and then to a beggar when we list; but it is to draw us to a wise consideration, how the strong may support the weak, how we may bear one another's burden, and as fellow members serve one another through love, that the wealth of one supplying the want of the other, there may be no defect. Wherefore when such Laws are devised and established by authority, as enjoin a performance of Gods revealed will, touching the poor of the Land, in such sort, as may be comfortable to them and easy to us, ought we not most willingly to pay this debt both in respect of God and of man?  
A second motive to the payment hereof is the provision of the godly in former ages for the poor. In the Primitive Church Deacons were appointed for the daily ministration of necessary things, Acts 6. 1, 2. Paul ordained in the Churches of Galatia and Corinth, that on the first day of the week every one should lay by in store, as God had prospered him for relief of the poor, 1. Cor. 16. 1, 2. How earnestly also doth he exhort the Corinthians to liberality towards the poor Saints, by the example of the Macedonians, who had been beneficial to their power and above their power, 2. Cor. 8, 9 This I mention to show, that the more the Gospel was embraced, the more bountifully was Christ relieved in his members. When after the bitter storms of persecution, the Church in succeeding ages had rest, than were Hospitals erected and endowed with revenues, that the poor might both be harboured and nourished: They had also receptacles for the sick. The first founders of which kind, was Fabiola, prima omnium 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, instituit in quo aegrotantes colligeret deplateis, et consumpta languoribus atque inedia miserorum membra foveret, Hieron Epitaph Fab. Fabiola was the first of all that built a receptacle for the sick, into which she might gather the diseased out of the streets, and might cherish the bodies of poor wretches, consumed with languishing and famine.  
Our own Nation wanteth not examples of this kind, which I rehearse to this purpose, that the voluntary contributions of Gods religious people in all ages, may make us more willing to bear the necessary burden imposed by law as a debt upon us. If our hearts and hands had not been straitened too much this way, there had been no need of compulsory means; but, Ex malis moribus bonae leges: For the hardness of our hearts was this law made. Out of the sinful defect of Charity in the greatest part of men, hath arisen a legal imposition of this duty, that many hands might make lighter work. Some I know we have, who may truly say with job; that, They have not restrained the poor of their desire; that they have not caused the eyes of the widow to fail: who have not eaten their morsels alone, but the fatherless hath eaten thereof, job 31. 16, 17. Some there are who in the strangers and poor, have entertained, Christum convivam, even Christ as a guest, as Hierom speaks it. But there are others again of competent wealth & state, who the more they have, the less good they will do, and so long as they were left to themselves, would never touch the burden with the least of their fingers: and now that they are compellable by law, it's incredible to hear how they quarrel at every Levey, how they make the Collectors attend, how they grudge against the poor, adding sorrow to their affliction, forgetting that of Paul; That God loveth a cheerful giver: 2. Cor. 9 7. And that of our Saviour too; that, It is a more blessed thing to give then to receive: Act. 20. 35. whom I would mitigate, if they were tractable, with these considerations, as further motives to pay this debt.  
First, they bear not the yoke alone, but jointly with others of their own rank, as equally laid upon them as indifferent men can device it: we must pay scot and lot (as is the word) unless we will be, Homines nullius census, Men of no account. Secondly, this payment to the poor is not made to maintain idleness, the mother of lust, a sin of Sodom; but to raise a stock to set such to work, who would otherwise be unprofitable burdens of the earth, living on the spoil, not eating their own bread; whereas a small contribution out of every hand a little to raise a stock, doth take away the common evasion of idle persons; I have no work, therefore I must beg or steal. A stock will find them work, and a diligent hand at work will not only feed, but also enrich. That which makes us tremble at the multitude of the poor, (and say with the Prophet; Thou hast multiplied 
Esay 9 3.  the nation, but not increased the joy) is, our failing in setting the poor to such work as they are able to do, for want of a stock always in readiness to keep them employed. Thirdly, whereas many true labouring men are not able by diligence & assiduity to support the weight of their charge: by the payment of this debt, opportunity is offered to raise them up who sink under their burden, & who in sense of their necessity, having made their moan to God, will be thankful for a supply to him and to us. Our plenty being applied to our brethren's want in such a case, is like precious seed, sowed upon good ground, tilled and prepared; we need not doubt of an increase at harvest. Fourthly, whereas many are aged and passed their work, blind, impotent, diseased; by the payment of this debt, we are helpful unto those whom it were sin and shame to forsake. Hic, ad cuius intuitum nobis vomitus 
Hieron. Epit. Fab.  erumpit, nostri similis est, de eodem nobiscum formatus luto, ijsdem compactus elementis: this man, at whose presence our stomach is turned, is like unto us, form of the same clay, and composed of the same elements; whatsoever he suffers, we may suffer the same ourselves: 
* Esay 58. 7  Turn not then thine eyes from thine own flesh. Whereas the visiting of these would be very tedious unto us, yea impossible, by true payment of this little, we are, Clementes per altena ministeria, merciful to them by the ministry of others, which in our persons we could not so well be. Lastly, whereas the breeding of poor children in families of small employment and rude education, doth utterly cut off all proof and hope; by the payment of this allowance, imposed by law, diligent and discreet Officers are enabled to bind them to occupations answerable to their capacity, that so as good plants, translated from a barren to a better soil, become profitable & fruitful; so these transplanted from idleness & rudeness, to a family of employment and discipline, may be of use and service, both in peace and war. I am persuaded, the wisest of us cannot tell, how to dispense so small a portion as goes from us by this means, to so many excellent purposes, when the Statute is duly executed; and if it fail in execution, the fault is not in us, if the debt be truly paid. Let it not then be tedious to us to do so much good, with so little cost or loss, if that can be counted loss, which being sown on earth, we shall reap in heaven. When we see wicked men so violent in doing ill, as Oppressors and Idolaters daily are, should not we be ashamed to be weary of doing well? Quale hoc est, cumpeccatores in malis 
Hieron in Epist. ad Gal. cap. 6.  operibus quotidie augeantur, ut nos in bono opere lassemur: What a thing is this, that when sinners are strengthened in evil works, we should be weary of our well-doing.  
I speak not any thing in this discourse for the vagrant Rogues and Beggars of our nation, they are the Sodomites of the Land, without God, without Magistrate, without Minister, Children of Beltal, without yoke, none can rule them, nor make them ashamed, though they live in prodigious lusts. 
* 2. Thes. 3. 10.  He that will not labour, shall not eate, says Paul, yet they will eat the sweat of other men's faces, though they be idle and unprofitable, and to every good work reprobate; these I leave to such extremity as the Law of God and man lays upon them: 
* Prou. 31. 8.  I open my mouth for the dumb, who will not speak for themselves, and for the godly poor, who had rather be helpful then chargeable to others; and for the aged and impotent, whose misery moves compassion without an Orator. For these I speak, who if there were no Statute of provision to enforce the payment of this debt, or to direct the uses, yet have a just claim to the alms of the rich, & the rich hath such an interest in them, as that they are called as well their needy, and their poor, as their brethren, Deut. 15. 11. which I chief understand of those, who being joined to us by vicinity or affinity, are by God's providence put upon us, as a part of our charge, to whom, Eleemosinas non facere crimen habentis est, Hier. in Psal. 112. to these not to give alms were a sin in him that hath where withal; so that if there were no law at all, yet there is such an equity in the thing, and such a necessity in the poor, that a rich man ought to be a law unto himself; he ought in this case, to 
* Prou. 3. 9  honour God with his substance, which cannot be better done, then by parting to such as want it, the fruit of his benevolence. I say not as some do; that, Eleemosiva est debitum, that alms is debt; which in some sense may be true; but, seeing the law requireth a portion of the richer, seeing there is an equity and a piety in the thing, seeing the necessity is perpetual, The poor ye shall have always with you, Mat. 26. In this concurrence of law and conscience, the non payment of this debt is uncomfortable and sinful. Thus of legal Debts, which for most part are not simply civil, but mixed.   

CHAP. 7. Of Debts procured by ourselves: and first of necessary Debts.  
DEbts imposed by others, having hitherto been handled; now follow in order, Debts procured by ourselves: these are either necessary, or voluntary. Necessary are such as could not by discretion or industry be prevented, nor discharged by any means within our power. Put case a man's house, which he is bound to repair, as being tenant to another, be utterly consumed with all his substance by casualty of Fire, the condition of reparation, which is always reasonable in such contracts, brings upon this man a necessary debt, which neither could be prevented before, nor performed in this case, which by God's providence is befallen him. Suppose a man in time of dearth have spent all his money, and cattles, and substance whatsoever; his lands also for bread: It was the case of the Egyptians in josephs' time; what remedy hath he, but 
Gen. 47.  to run in debt, though he mancipate his very body for the payment. If these seem (as indeed they are) unusual events, let us consider things more common. Whena a man's wages, which he can earn, are so small, and his domestical charge so great, as that the one cannot support & sustain the other; then comes Debt, as a wayfairing man speedily, and as an armed man violently, that will not be kept off. This, as I conceive, might be the case of the man of God, the poor Prophet, who feared God, and yet died in debt, 2. King. 4. 1. and it is the case of many a poor man, whose whole family depends upon his industry and frugality; he riseth early, and late takes rest, and eats the bread of care, yet cannot for all this live out of debt. Some men also turn from one trade to another, from husbandry to grazing, from that to merchandizing,  mutando industriam mutant 
Hieron. in Esaie. 43.  infaelicitatem, nihilominus dispensatione dei, his quos saluare dignatur, omnia nitentibus eveniunt contraria; Though men by changing their employment would change their hard estate, yet by the dispensation of God, even to those whom he vouchsafes to save, all things fall out cross when they have tried all the ways. These debtors, thus enforced by necessity to groan and to struggle under the burden, are to be pitied by the lender, to be relieved by the giver, and God undoubtedly will requite it.  
This Debt is no sin, nor any other pecuniary debt of itself, but a cross it is: in some, a punishment of sin, in all, an exercise of patience, and a discipline of humility, and so, Paupertas salutaris, a wholesome kind of poverty, teaching men to lay up treasure in heaven, when things here upon earth frame so little to their contentment.   

CHAP. 8. Of Voluntary Debts, transient and permanent.  
VOluntary Debts are such as might at first have been avoided, or satisfied and paid within some time convenient, yet▪ were incurred notwithstanding and continued, either to serve our turn for some profit, or perhaps for some delight; or, it may be, for relief of others in some extremity. I censure not all these with a note of reproof, they may sometimes be helpful in compassing gainful bargains, yea, in supplying the wants of such as cannot shift for themselves; those only I mislike which entangle men in worldly cares, in wilful snares, and unsupportable losses; and yet serve but to the satisfying of some foolish lust when all is done.  
These voluntary debts are either casual and transient, or permanent and standing. It is a casual debt which any man may incur, Ex re nata; out of some present sudden occasion. David is commanded by God to offer a Sacrifice to the Lord, in the Threshing-floare of Arauna the jebusite. David will not offer of that which shall cost him nought, he therefore 
1. Chro. 21. 25. 2. Sam. 24. 24.  buys the Threshing floor at a price by itself for 600 sickles of gold, and the Oxen for 50 sickles of silver: after this bargain made, it was a casual Debt of David till the money was paid, which I know was done speedily: yet in every bargain of sale accomplished, as the buyer hath a property in the thing sold, so oweth he a debt till payment be made, be it sooner, or later. Without these casual debts, the life of man doth not consist, and in these, as a man needs not to be scrupulous in making use of a friend for a short time, so must he be exact & punctual in keeping day; not keeping time makes a jar in payments, as well as in music. He must also be cheerful in doing the like courtesy again, whether it be lending or forbearance. That which I call a transient debt, is always like, often the same with this; when a man owes somewhat to a workman, or a Tradesman, for a short time, or to a Servant for his wages, till a set day, it is a transient debt, daily running and passing among men, and not settled or permanent in respect of time. In these we must be honest, and real, and trusty, and speedy. For as the Grasshopper is a burden to the aged: so a little thing detained, or not duly performed, may be a troublesome disappointment to the poor (and the greatest part are poor) and may afflict them by tedious delays, when money hangs too long in the hands of ill paymasters.  
As for permanent and standing debts, these are indeed, fundi calamitas; these break down as it were the blade of corn in the field; these, like worms & moths, fret out a man's estate, be it never so firm and sound at the first. This cometh, when men able to give security, borrow great sums of money or wares, without either purpose or possibility of payment, within any competent measure of time; and it is commonly procured, either out of a covetous desire of purchasing whatsoever lieth conveniently; or out of a prodigal and riotous humour of overspending upon lusts and curiosities; or by giving more for a casual preferment than a man is worth; or by some other gross failing in judgement; or indiscretion about the dispensation of our estate.  
These are the lamentable consuming debts, with which, when a man's credit is rend and torn, as it will be very quickly, then must the ancient inheritance be mortgaged, then must their best and dearest friends be engaged, than Servants and Tenants must be brought to the stake, and bound for more than they are worth; then must depopulations and racking of rents, and defrauding of Ministers be put in practice, and yet all too little, because Amalecke, the licking people, I mean the nation of Usurers and their Factors, as Cormorants fall upon the borrower. Then the debt is multiplied when the revenues are diminished, and the Usurer consumes all a man's increase. Let no man continue in the Usurer's book for one and twenty years (as some are never out while they live) for, a hundred pound, paying interest upon interest, after ten pound in the hundred, (suppose nothing given to Scriveners and Brokers, yet for his hundred pound) he shall pay in that time six hundred & forty pound, besides the principal, as appears by calculation; which makes me wonder why any man should open his mouth for usury, which thus opens her mouth, and enlargeth her bowels like hell, to swallow the poor Borrower.  
Let those who plead this cause consider, that God dispenseth with no usury, when Neshek the biting, and Tarbith, which they call the toothless Usury are both condemned, Ezech. 18. 8. 13. that the lender, for eight or five in the hundred, deals not as he would be dealt withal, for he himself would neither give eight, nor five, nor two, if he could borrow freely; and the rule of love is, To do to all men as we would they should do to us, Mat. 7. 12. Let them consider, how Usury is cried down, among other oppressions, Nehem. 5. and Psal. 15. 5. How it is condemned by the Council of Nice 
Concil. tom. 1. Concil. Nic. Cap. 18. secundum Ruffin. can. 17.  in Clergymen, as matter of filthy lucre, (if filthy lucre in Ministers, than no righteous dealing in others.) How it hath been the utter ruin of many thousands in our Nation; how in the Church of Rome at this day, all Usurers are excommunicated monthly; how no man of note in all antiquity (jews & Manichees excepted) none I say of honesty and learning, for fifteen hundred years after Christ hath ever undertaken the defence hereof: wherefore as joash sometimes said 
judg. 6. 30, 31.  to the men of Hophra, when they stood for Baal against Gideon, Will you contend for Baal? let him plead his own cause: so say I to the patrons of Usury; Will you contend for Mammon? let him plead his own cause. Shall Tirus and Zidon rise 
Mat. 11. 21.  up in judgement against Corazin and Bethsaida, for not bringing fruit answerable to their means? And shall not the Romanists rise up in judgement against us for practising that oppression, which they, who walk not by so clear a light, condemn? Let the Borrower himself also consider the unsatiable Daughters of the 
Prou. 30. 15  Horseleech, that suck him, and devour the sweat of his face, the fruit of his labour, industry, and skill. If the King should take out of the poor man's ground three of his best Kine yearly, or so many horses out of his Team, would he not cry, that he must needs give over house-keeping, and husbandry? Yet, the Borrower of 100 pound from year to year, suffers, in effect, all this which I say, at the hands of the Usurer, and dare not speak a word against his consumer; but only suffers and gives thankes. If one word of discontentment fall from him, then must the stock be sold, that satisfaction may be made, lest any advantage of forfeiture be taken. If an usurious contract for so small a sum, make such a breach into a man's estate, what will the borrowing of thousands do for many years together? When I see any man of eminent place and worth, cast upon the Usurer (whose mercies are cruel) for greater matters than he is able to wield, I cannot but interpret it as a dismal sign of some fatal ruin to the family: or, at least of some notable defalcation of estate, for causes best known to God, and sometimes apparent to the eyes of the world.  
Moreover, this soaking and standing debt, doth so exercise and afflict some men deeply engaged, that it takes up better studies & meditations, it spends much precious time in solicitation of Broker, Lender, and Sureties; it leaves no free time for prayer & repentance; it drowns the comforts which men otherwise might enjoy, when they see how debt consumes them day and night; yea, and continues still, without any diminution of the sum. Much perhaps some borrowers have in lands, and in revenues, in possession and expectation, but as Alexander the great sometimes said: Quid refert si multa habeam 
Plutarch in Alex.  & nihil agam, what matters it if I have much and do nothing? So say I, what is one the better for a great estate; if debt bind his hands, from doing good to the poor answerably, from providing for younger children, from restoring the Ministers right?  
If a man out of debt will do more good with a hundreth, than a man under the Usurer's chain with a thousand pound a year, yea and much more cheerfully. Let us then be thus fare indulgent to ourselves, as to shake off the deadly yoke of Bills and Obligations, which mancipate the most free and ingenuous spirit, and dry up the very fountains of liberality. Yea, they so put a man out of aim, that he cannot set his state in order, but lives and dies entangled and puzzled with cares and snares; and after a tedious and laborious life passed in a circle of fretting thoughts, he leaves, at last, instead of better patrimony a world of intricate troubles to his posterity, and to his sureties, which cannot be managed by those who understand them not but to great disadvantage.  
When 
* Acts and Monuments, Vol. 2. p. 1692. col. 2.  Archbishop Cranmer (as is recorded in his life, by reverend M. Fox) discerned the storm which after fell upon him in Queen Mary's days, he took express order for the payment of all his his debts; which when it was done a most joyful man was he, that having set his affairs in order with men, he might consecrate himself more freely to God. This should teach us all in this tumultuous and raging world, to free ourselves so much as is possible, from the bonds of debt to men, that we may more freely and constantly perform our duties and vows to God, which will otherwise be interrupted, if not utterly abolished by worldly cares and molestations; if we give them entertainment, as we cannot choose but do, so long as we are in debt.   

CHAP. 9 A confutation of such Apologies as men plead for their continuing in debt.  
THat the Apostles counsel of owing nothing to any man may the better be followed: three things remain to be added to this discourse. First, I would show the vanity of those Apologies, which men have devised for continuing in debt. Secondly, how to avoid it that we come not into it. Thirdly, how to get out of the snare if we be entangled.  
That debt is a consumer of credit and state, of goods and good name; however some men think the contrary, yet there is no question to be made. How ofter do we see, that as after the biting of an Asp, the man smitten falls asleep, but the poison disperseth itself through every member till the whole body be poisoned: So after debt contracted, specially upon the hard terms of usury, or ill conditions the debtor is lulled a sleep by the sweetness of the present supply, but the debt passeth as a poison through every part of a man's substance, donec totum convertatur in debitum, till all be turned into debt, it is Chrysostom's comparison. Yet 
In Matth. 5  for all that; as the dropsie-man delighteth in abundance of drink, though most hurtful in that disease, because it satisfies the present appetite: so men in debt already are willing to continue, yea to multiply the same, (because thereby their present need is served) though it be never so pernicious in the conclusion. Let us see their allegations and accordingly determine.  
First they hold it lawful without all Allegation. 1 question, to borrow when they can, and think it convenient, and make no scruple at all to continue in an usurious debt for many years together; and commonly so far and so long as they can give security, they will never by their good wills come clearly out of debt: for howsoever they condemn the lender upon usury, at least in their consciences, though they dare not tell him so; yet they take the borrower to be clear, and rather to be pitied then censured by any. But in this, as I take it, they are deceived. For, though the case may so be put, that a man may borrow, and aught to borrow, even upon usury, if there be no other remedy; as, when money is payable upon forfeiture of a Lease, or of a Bond, or of a man's living; and the party that owes it, is utterly and suddenly disappointed by another; then is he, by the reason of the hardness of men's hearts, who will not help him at such a need, inevitably cast upon the Usurer, as choosing of two evils of loss the less: Yet, to stick and to continue in the Usurer's furnace, which will leave a man at last neither mettle nor matter, I hold it to be utterly against prudent frugality, which is a duty of the eight Commandment, most requisite for the discreet dispensing both of plentiful and poor Estates, and necessary to be observed by such as intent an entire obedience unto God, as well in one thing as in another; without which the royalty of Solomon, could not have consisted for all his riches.  
I know that as in full bodies evacuations may be not hurtful: yet, if a man should be purged and let blood every six months, without fail, for many years together, it would not only weaken, but at last consume him: So in plentiful estates to be sometimes straitened and put upon difficulties, may be of use to make the rich more cautelous for themselves, and more sensible of poor men's wants. Yet if the richest should be put to do his homage to the Usurer every six months after eight or ten in the hundreth, per annum, for many years together, and for great sums, without failing or excuse, it would waste by degrees the greatest wealth that is, till it were exhausted and utterly brought to nought.  
Reges Parthos non potest quisquam salutare 
Sen. Epist. 17.  sine munere; No man might salute the Parthian Kings without a present. A man may not salute an Usurer gratis, nor look him in the face (which yet must be done at times prefixed) without the tribute of interest in his hand. Yet is he not mollified at all by this: but, as the Philistimes, when they had put out Samsons eyes, 
judg. 16. 21  made him grind in the Mil: so, when borrowers are blinded with a thick mist of probabilities to justify their own particular case, than the Usurer makes them grind in his Mill. All the profit they can make by industry or skill, perhaps by racking Tenants, and robbing the Church, is added to his heap: and when they have compassed the circle from year to year; they are just where they were at first. Notwithstanding the yielding of the interest all the while, yet the debt remains entire. In payment whereof, if any default be made, than forfeitures and suits at law, and costs & damages; then executions upon body, goods, lands, & imprisonments, till the utmost farthing be paid, do ensue.  
Thus the Borrowers thrift is spent, their substance is dilapidated, their wives and children are impoverished, & themselves wearied with labouring for the wind; which how it stands with that discreet frugality which God requireth in his most righteous Law, and without which no State can steadfastly hold out: let them whom it concerns examine, for satisfying their own consciences, and not go on with security where there is certainty of danger.  
This foundation being now laid, that the borrower is not always so innocent as is supposed, let us hear what men indebted, and not resolved to seek their freedom, will say further for themselves.  
Debt is chief by borrowing or buying Allegat. 2 upon time; I borrowed, saith the servant of debt, but I purchased with it, and a great pennyworth I had at the hands of a young Prodigal, who scatters more in a year, than he will gather in an age: him I observed and humoured, I furnished him with supply for all excess of riot, till I found an opportunity to lay out all my stock, and great sums beside out of the Usurer's treasury. Torua leaena Lupum 
Virg. Ecl. 2.  sequitur, lupus ipse capellam; Thou art as a ravening Wolf to the wanton unthrift, till the grim Usurer devour you both. But was this well done of thee to work upon the ignorance, or necessity, or wilfulness, of a raw and unexperienced Waster, and to build thy rising upon his ruin? Shall any man be established 
Prou. 12. 3.  by wickedness? Was it well done, by crafty insinuation to circumvent thy brother? Is not God an avenger of all such? 
1. Thes. 4. 6.  What else is this, but, Crimen stellionatus; the very sin of cozenage? Yet for all thy cunning, and buying at an undervalue, do but add to the price, that which is paid for the loan, and in seven years it will prove very dear, unless thou help thyself in making the poor a prey; and so, Lucrum tuum, shall be, damnum publicum; Thy private gain shall be a public loss: as Ambrose observeth; Officiorum, Lib. 3. And indeed in most cases it so falls out to be, even in those which seem most tolerable. A skilful Tradesman (for example) lacks a stock; another that wanteth skill hath money lying by him, to no use nor profit; here, by the passage of an usurious contract, the money of the wealthy is accommodated to the industry of the skilful, and so both become gainers. And may they not both become loser's, God denying his blessing to unsanctified means? Is not every unjust gain a true loss? Though gain in the Coffer, yet wrack in the Conscience: But of this they are willing not to be sensible. Admit them both gainers in sundry returns, yet may not the poor Buyer, (honester than them both) be compelled by this occasion, to pay a higher rate for commodities, without which man's life is not sustained. And where this practice is general, (Usury being the bewitching sin of the age as polygamy sometimes was) may it not turn to the public detriment of Buyers and Borrowers, when the Seller must proportion the price, as well to the advantage of the Usurer, as to the industry of such as are employed, and the worth of the thing? May not this raise just cries and complaints against them both in the Court of heaven? Why doth 
* jerem. 15 10.  jeremy clear himself both of lending upon usury, and of borrowing upon usury, if there may not in some cases be matter of exception against them both?  
Another allegeth for his continuance Allegat. 3 in debt, that, He doth it to preserve his ancient Inheritance, which is a good thing and a just: one would be loath to be the man, in whose person and time, the splendour of a family should be eclipsed. It was the honour of Augustus, that he could say of Rome; Accepi lateritiam, reliqui marmoream; I received it of Brick, I left it of Marble. But, as it is better in a Gangrene to cut off one member, then by suffering it to fret from part to part, to lose the whole: so, when great and grievous debts consume a man's revenues, it's better by selling part of an inheritance, though ancient, to clear the State, then by suffering this Gangrene to overspread the whole, at last to lose all. Antiquity will not pay the rent of Usury: And a debt continued till it be ancient, will consume the most ancient both inheritance and reputation.  
I continue in debt, will another say, Allegat. 4 that my trading be not diminished: it's great dealing that brings in great gaining: so then, as one notes; Lucrum est esca, sed fraus est laqueus, sic attende escam, ut videas & laqueum; Gaine is the bait, deceit is the snare; so look at the bait, that thou discern also the snare. But commonly in trading men light upon the snare, committing fraud industriously with both their hands, who yet could never catch the bait, the gain which did allure them. Nor is it any marvel, for in debt continued, there is certainty of loss, but in great trading, above a man's ability, no certainty of gain, nor assurance of God's blessing, when men take too much upon them, and will be rich in all haste, against the rule of 
* Prou. 20. 21▪  Solomon, who teacheth; that, An inheritance hastily gotten, shall not prove happy in the latter end.  
Another imputes his debt unto great Allegat. 5 house-keeping, and maintaining himself according to his birth and rank. This is a mere frivolous pretence; for, when God cuts us short in point of ability, should not we abridge ourselves in matter of expense? must we not be content to cut our Coat according to our cloth? It is the quarrel of God against 
Esay 22. 12 13, 14.  the jews, that when he called to lamentation and mourning, to baldness and sackcloth; behold joy and gladness, slaying of Oxen and killing of Sheep, eating of flesh and drinking of wine; As I live, saith the Lord, this iniquity shall not be purged till ye die. When God, by impoverishing a man's house, calls from superfluity, to a moderate stint, & a stricter course, shall we go on in lavishing and in spending excessively above our means? And shall not God abridge us and daily cut us short, till he have cast us upon extremities? Qui iniuste se ordinat 
August. Honour epist. 120.  in peccatis, just ordinatur in paenis; He that carries himself unjustly in sinning, shall be ordered justly in the punishment of sin.  
Others lay their debt upon magnificence Allegat. 6 of building, and furniture, and other devices and curiosities, and think it well bestowed, because they have not spent it in eating and drinking. This kind of delight, though very costly, is yet more permanent than those which perish suddenly, in the use; and of these it is said; Haec sunt quae faciunt invitos mori; These are the things which make men unwilling to die; which should make us, whose life ought to be a meditation of death, less willing to set our hearts upon them, or to cast ourselves for them upon the miseries of debt. For mine own part, I see no warrant for undoing ourselves upon any appetite or humour of this kind. If a man will be sumptuous in the satisfying of any lust whatsoever, the revenues of an Empire will not keep him out of debt.  
Others lay their debt upon preferment Allegation. 7 of children in Offices, Marriages, Honours or the like: to whom I say, that Christian education in the service and fear of God, and supply of things necessary for the present and time to come as God inables us, and employment in such vocations, as may yield a maintenance to the industrious, that they be not cast upon the courtesies of a merciless world, is the duty and task of Parents. The vehement affectation of superfluities of wealth and eminency of honour, may be a strain of pride and covetousness in us, how ever God allots them in his providence to some. Besides it is preposterous to put ourselves in debt for the advancement of one or many, the burden whereof must finally fall upon him that shall inherit as well our debt as our state.  
It is lastly pleaded that the very procurement Allegation. 8 of things necessary and honest, even in a slender manner and measure is the cause of debt to some, these only of all the rest are to be pitied and excused; for ultra posse non est esse, men cannot do more than they can. If those men pay their debts so fare as they are able, and keep out of debt so fare as to them is possible, and crave not only patience and forbearance till they can make satisfaction, but remission of the debt if their ability fail them utterly; then they observe the precept of owing no man any thing, so fare as in them lieth. Which that we may do, it remaineth in the next place for eschewing the inconveniences incident to a state clogged with debt, to show by what means and courses debt may and aught to be avoided.   

CHAP. 10. Directions for avoiding of Debt that it break not upon our estate.  
AS it is easier to keep out then to cast out an enemy, so it is easier to keep debt out of our state, then to remove it having entered. The first and fairest way to avoid debt that it break not in upon us, and poverty is not sought unto; it is the Lord that maketh poor and that maketh rich, 1. Sam. 2. 7. There is a curse upon idleness though men be rich, as in Sodom; upon negligence and security, as in the men of Laish, judges 18, 27. A curse upon unlawful practices though men be industrious, as in jehoiachim, whom God would not bless though he used all endeavour of heart and hand to get riches, jerem. 22. Yea, there may be a curse upon the laborious, even in lawful things, if God be not first and chief sought and served by such as profess religion, as Haggay 1. upon the children of the Captivity, for building their own houses at their return to jerusalem, and neglecting the Lords house; for this cause they sowed much, but reaped little; they did eat, and were not satisfied; they did drink, and were not filled; they were clothed, but not warmed; they earned wages, but were not enriched. Yet at last, when they fell seriously to the work of God, than he returned graciously with his blessing upon them. Hag. 2. 19 The way then to avoid both debt, and other consuming miseries, is faithful industry in a lawful calling, which God vouchsafeth to crown with his blessing, where the service is chief intended and done unto him.  
Men of great estate and means are often indebted, Vsque ad stuporem, even unto astonishment; for, where should there be water, if not in the rivers? will you seek it in ditches, which have no spring to feed them? Where should there be plenty, if not among men of great possessions and revenues? will you seek it among those who have no such standing helps to yield them supply? Yet, sometimes these men of great possessions, are full of nothing else but debt; and why so? God's judgement is upon them, either for an idle, or an unprofitable life; or, for activity and forwardness in vanities and voluptuousness; or, for a heavy and dismal hand in sacrilege and oppressions; or, for neglecting the work and service of God, when they will not miss a minute in advancing their own. But this they will not see, lest they should turn to him that striketh: 
* Esay 42. 25  God poured upon Israel the fury of his anger, and the strength of battle, and it hath set him on fire round about, yet he knew not; and it burned him up, yet he considered not: That is, he took no notice that this was God's judgement, and that his sin had deserved it: so is it with these men, they see themselves consumed, but will not be brought to lay those sins distinctly to heart, for which they suffer and are consumed.  
A second way for the avoiding of debt is, discreet and honest thriftiness: Vectigal magnum parsimonia; Frugality is a great revenue: the great saveurs are the rich men: he that having gotten great abundance of wealth, by industry or patrimony, will spend excessively & ryotusly above his means, though he be rich, will quickly come to poverty; and thereupon Prodigals are commonly termed, Decoctores, Heluones, Gurgites, Speadthrifts, unsatiable wasters, and devourers; such men will never keep out of debt. It is noted of the Roman Commonwealth, that it perished and flourished by thriftiness and unthriftiness: under the Bruti, the Fabritij, the Cincinnati, the Scipios, frugal and moderate men, contemners of voluptuousness, it was most flourishing; but, Abundantes voluptates dissiderium 
Livius lib. 1  per luxum & libidinem, pereundi perdendique omnia invexêre; Superfluities of pleasures brought in a desire of spilling and spoiling all by luxury and wantonness, and then the State declined from the former eminency of brightness; 
* Prou. 21. 27  He that loveth pastime shall be a poor man, and he that loveth wine and oil shall not be rich: Voluptuousness & unthriftiness will make a rich man poor, and a poor man penurious.  
This makes the Prodigal hang in the Mercer's book for his clothes, in the Tailor's note for making, in the Butcher's score for his meat, and in his servant's debt for wages; and when thus many hands come to rifle one, they will quickly make an empty purse. Yet let all these 
Prou. 27. 22.  hands bray the unthrift as wheat is brayed in a mortar with a pestle, and his folly will not departed from him till it be too late to spare when all is spent. As Adam's 
Gen. 23. 24▪  intemperance in not abstaining from the forbidden fruit did cast him out of Paradise into a vale of tears, so riotous wastfulness in any kind, be it in meat, drink, apparel, building, gaming or any other course of voluptuousness, is able to cast a man out of plenty into penury, and out of a free and comfortable estate into debt and danger.  
A third way to avoid debt, is a severe watch over our word and promise. Promise is debt, and must be performed though to our hindrance. Faithfulness in promises is the bond of humane contracts; Fides inde dicta, quia fit quod dicitur; So called Fidelity, because that which is said is fulfilled. Circumspect promises are of use I know to assure true men's words, to secure good men's hopes, to encourage industry, and make it lively in well-doing; but then we must beware we be not like Antigonus, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That will give; ignominiously so called, because forward in promising, but slack in performing. Promises are as vows, much better never made, than not made good: Facile ex amico inimicum facies cui promissa 
Hier. ad Celantiam.  non reddas; One may easily make of a friend a foe, to whom he keeps not promises: yet what man almost is there of any competent state, so cautelous and wary that is not sometimes snared in his words, & overtaken with unadvised suretishippe. Yet Solomon tells us; that, He 
Prou. 11 15  is utterly quashed in pieces that is surety for a Stranger: It is the rock on which many make shipwreck of credit and: Sponsioni non deest iactura; Stipulation is not without loss accompanying: it was the Symbolum, or memorable word of Chilo the Lacedaemonian; Sponde, noxa prasto est: Pass thy promise, and forthwith ensues some hurt, said a greater than he. I know we should 
* Gal. 6. 2.  bear one another's burden, and so fulfil the law of Christ, even of charity; but to bear another's burden till I sink under mine own, is no charity but folly; and to pull another out till myself stick fast, is no discretion but destruction both to me and mine: now, he that promiseth for himself more than he can perform, or becomes surety for another in more than he makes account to pay (if the principal debtor fail) he is snared in his words, he 
Prou. 6. 1, 2  is taken in the words of his own mouth, nor dare I in all cases excuse his conscience.  
Fourthly, he that will avoid the troubles of debt, must reserve something in store against casual events; I speak not of public judgements, as war or famine, wherewith God visits a Nation in his anger, which are much more prevented or mitigated by repentance and prayer, then by any civil policy, but of private casualties, daily incident upon the persons or states of men; in regard whereof, a man desirous to live out of debt, must resolve to spend within his compass, that he may have somewhat more in readiness then from hand to mouth. What if sickness come, and make one the Lords prisoner, and bind his hands from dispensing his own affairs? What is more ordinary? Da mihi corpus quod nunquam languerit, 
Hieron aduer. Pelagianos' lib 3.  aut quod post languorem perpetua sanitate securum sit; Show me the body that never languished, or that is secure after sickness recovered. So long as corporal diseases are spiritual remedies, God will hereby draw us to the Physician of our souls. Suppose losses come in the house or in the field, Spem mentita seges, bos est 
Horat. epist. lib. 1. epist. 7  enectus arando; The crop answers not the cost, or the expectation, the cattles are killed with working, or the like, no man hath a perpetual gale of prosperity. Deus faelicitatibus 
August. in Mat. Serm. 29.  terrenis amaritudines miscet, ut alia quaeratur faelicitas, cuius dulcedo non est fallax; God mingleth bitterness with earthly prosperity, that another happiness may be sought, whose sweetness is not fallacious.  
Suppose Suits at Law come, which to some are inevitable, for necessary defence of innocency and patrimony, and yet are always costly, whether one win or lose the thing in question; and dangerous for breeding anger, 
* Aug. ep. 87.  which corrupts the heart as vinegar doth the vessel wherein it doth continue. Suppose a man's charge be multiplied and increased by number of children, poor, friends, strangers, by frequent pensions and services to the Church or Commonwealth; suppose any of these, or many of these do fall upon a man that is not provided before hand for them, he cannot choose but run in debt, he must borrow where he can; and lending upon any tolerable terms is in a manner out of date. Let every man therefore so husband the opportunity of thriving and plenty, as wisemen do of Vintage and Harvest against harder times ensuing, lest the storm arising from the mutability and vicissitude of earthly transitory things, overwhelm him with debt, as the whirlwind doth the unwary Traveller upon the Alps with snow.  
Lastly, there are baits to catch the most thriving & circumspect men in the snares of debt; Ouer-purchasing, and overtrading: and, which is a consequence of these, usurious contracts. Ouer-purchasing, and Ouertrading are delightful burdens, if a man can bear them without straining conscience or credit, or, without hazarding the principal, to compass the overplusse; yet, because the aiming at superfluities and excesses, is but the fruit of an inordinate appetite, it were better to restrain both our actions and affections, to that which we are able to wield, then to run so greedily upon the world: Qui periculosior est blandus, quam 
Aust. Epist. 144.  molestus; Which is more dangerous, when it flatters us, then when it afflicts us? When it allures us to love it, then when it compels us to despise it: He that 
1 joh. 2. 15.  loveth the world, and the things of the world, the love of the father is not in him. Why then should we so wilfully and so eagerly embrace the world? the moderate love whereof, as it is an alienation from God, and from the comfortable refresh by the light of his countenance: so, instead thereof, it casts us upon the mercies of the cruel, the Usurer I mean; Qui alienas negotiatur miserias, & lucrum suum alterius adversitatem facit; The Usurer, I say, whose traffic and trade it is to make men miserable, and to raise his gain out of other men's adversity, he is saith Chrisostome, Quasi manum suscipiens 
Hom. 6. in Matth.  & in naufragium impellens; As a man taking one by the hand to pull out of the water, but kicking him back again to the shipwreck of his substance, and of himself, which is a rude and a barbarous part in any, to hurt infallibly, whom he pretends to help. This is one of the bitter potions which the world reacheth forth to Ouer-purchasers, and Ouer-traders, which they are forced to drink to the very dregges, when they cannot be content to walk within their compass. As a man cannot touch pitch but be defiled therewith: so he cannot deal with Usury without detriment, ipso facto, the first moment.   

CHAP. 10. Directions how to get out of Debt, if we be already entangled.  
IT may be these directions, for avoiding Debt, come too late for many men, who have hitherto erred, not considering the danger; and have run constantly in a course of multiplying Debts, ever since they were of age and discretion to procure credit by giving security. So that they may say of Debt, as the Strumpet Quartilla did of her virginity; junonen 
Petron. satire.  meam iratam habeam, si unquam me miminerim virginem fuisse; So let me have the displeasure of my juno, if ever I can remember myself a Virgin; The like may many a man say of this; Mammona meum iratum habeam; So let me have the displeasure of my Mammon, if ever I can remember myself out of debt; but I was always a borrower of little sums, when I could not speed in greater.  
To these now I say, that if they be so hardened with custom of owing, that they have settled a resolution to live and dye in debt: then indeed my counsel either of eschewing debt, that they come not in, or of quitting themselves, being in already, can do them little good. They will despise it as a barren and naked contemplation of a man without experience, who makes no difference between a mere Scholar, and a man wholly exercised in worldly affairs. Well, let them hold their course, if it will be no better, I leave them to the Usurer to be brayed in his mortar; or to the office of Insurance, to be stripped of thousands by the lump, while they are catching after scraps by the morsel.  
There are others also, whose case falls not within the compass of my advice, such I mean, as are either desperate Bankrupts professedly; or, indeed and in truth, being indebted for great sums, are little worth, and have no possibility to pay. For, as the Psylli of Lybia, who had power to cure the biting of Serpents, by sucking the venom out of the wounds, could not help 
* Di●● Rom. Hist. lib. 51  Cleopatra, Queen of Egypt, smitten with Asps, or with a poisoned Needle, or Crisping-pin, because the poison was dispersed through all the veins, and had damped the vital spirits, before they came: And, as Physicians undertake not to work a cure where the principal parts of the body are wasted away: so, where Debt hath run through every part, and hath searched every vein of a man's substance, and as a poison hath fretted in true calculation both goods & lands, it's past my skill to prescribe any remedy, to get out, where there is no matter to work upon. I can only leave such to the mercy of God and men, as Physicians do their Patients in desperate diseases. I address myself to those, who having something left, are willing to improve the remainder of their time and state, in getting and keeping themselves out of debt.  
The first direction for coming out of Debt, is that which Solomon gives for getting out of suretyship, Prou. 6. 3, 4, 5. Submit thyself, and entreat thy neighbour, solicit the Creditor, ut diem ampliet, to have patience with thee, and to grant some respite: solicit the Debtor, for which thou art engaged,  fidem liberet, to clear his fidelity by keeping promise: solicit thy friends to interpose themselves, to mediate for thee, to put to their helping hand. Give thyself no rest, nor sleep to thine eyes, till thou be delivered as a Roe from the hand of the Hunter, or as a Bird from the Snare of the Fowler. Delay breeds danger, put it not off. If we must do thus when we are engaged for others, how much more when the debt is our own?  
All means must be used instantly, importunately, not to renew the bond from six months to six months, till many years be expired, that is a meditated continuance in the snare, and an addition to the debt: as if a man in fetters & chains, should entreat that one ten pound more, one todd more, one hundreth weight more might be added to his Shackles, and laid upon him. But all means must be used by submission, by composition, by help of friends, satisfaction must be given to the uttermost that the state will bear, before it be clean wasted, that it may manifestly appear, that we are truly willing not to delude the world, nor to raise ourselves a fortune by defrauding others; but so fare as we are able to give contentment, and where power faileth, to crave remission or respite, without further aggravating the burden by interest. Nor must these serious endeavours be deferred, but as the 
* Esay 51. 14  captive hasteneth to be loosed, that he die not in the pit, and that his bread fail not, so must we quit ourselves, that debt pine us not in the pit. Say not; He is my friend, he will spare me, I need not fear, he will use no extremity; for, if he be a free lender, he will not be a long lender, he deserveth currant & speedy payment. If the Creditor be an Usurer, than the debt is nothing mitigated, but doubled by continuance, though thou sleep thus indebted, yet thy consuming disease sleepeth not: this worm dyeth not till the debt be paid.  
Qui non est hodie: cras minus aptus erit; The longer in debt, the less able to discharge it: the burden will increase hourly, and thy ability will be diminished by the very edacity of debt. Fellow then the Prophet's counsel; Give no sleep to 
Prou. 6. 4.  thine eyes, nor to thine eyelids any slumber, till thou be delivered as a Dear out of the snare. I cannot but interpret the counsel of Solomon, as an intimation of deliverance, if it be followed. I take it for a rule, that obedience to holy authentical counsels and precepts, is always an assurance of good success to him that practiseth the same, which hath made me importunate in urging expedition. All things I know must have a time, and inveterate diseases are not cured in a moment, only be impatient till thou find the means, and restless in the way of getting out of debt: which way I will ●eat out as a second remedy.  
That contraries are cured by contraries is often true, and certainly in this: Egressus malitiae, virtutis operatur ingressum, Ambrose; The out going of wickedness works an entrance unto goodness. If a man came in debt by intemperance, he must come out by sobriety; if by riot and voluptuousness, he must bind himself to a stricter and severer course. Legimus quosdam (says Hierome) morbo articulari & podagrae humoribus laborantes, proscriptione bonorum ad simplicem mensam & pauperes cibos redactos convaluisse: We have read of some, who being sick of the Gout through abundance of humours, did recover their health, being forced to a poor and slender diet by confiscation of their goods. As extravagant humours are cured by a sparing diet, which came by riotousness; so all other superfluities are tempered by moderation. He therefore that ran in debt by any excess, must come out by order, and a discreet method of circumspect mediocrity. If a man came in debt by over-purchasing, he must be content to sell; if by over-trading, he must not overly himself with that burden, under which he hath sunk already; if by sumptuousness in apparel, if by curiosities in building: these superfluous expenses upon our lusts must be cut off, Men must not imitate 
* Athenaeus lib. 6. ca 8.  the magnificence of Lucullus without the wealth of Lucullus; no, nor yet of Solomon, he lived in a golden, we in an iron age. Finally, if a man came in debt by idleness, and sloth, and unprofitableness; he must struggle out by a contrary course of diligence and industry, and employment in well doing. A necessity lieth upon him so to do: for every man is bound to eat his own bread which he can never do, that pays not his debts truly, but lives and spends upon another man's stock and substance, taking the injury upon himself, but leaving the justice and mercy to another.  
But alas, may some man say (in prejudice of this advice) how little can one man's industry and frugality avail, in the removing and overcoming of great and consuming debts? these are above the power and reach of a man already sunk and decayed in his estate. To this I answer; First, that the diligence and forecast of some one man may be of great efficacy in itself, for the accomplishment of great matters, if God be with him; 
* Gen. 30. 27. 30.  as of jacob in the service of Laban, whom God blessed for his sake, and increased his little into a multitude. So 
* Gen. 40. to Chap. 48.  of joseph in Pharaohs. Also the diligence and prudent frugality of one may be of consequence in the example to many; as 
* Ruth chap. 2. & 3.  Booz may be a pattern in this kind to all posterity: how did he follow the business himself? How were his eyes on the Servants, on the Reapers? even on the gleaners? he doth even lodge in the midst of his husbandry.  
Secondly I answer, that diligence, thriftiness, temperance after a rude and unruly course, are not so much to be considered in themselves, as in the blessing of God annexed unto them, which can as well draw men out of debt, as adorn them with riches. If 
* Luk. 15. 22.  the prodigal be never so needy, yet if the father will receive him upon his submission, the rags will quickly be changed into robes. This changing also of the former misdemeanours into a state of reformation; of dissoluteness and luxury, into diligence and sobriety, is an evidence and an exercise of true repentance; without which, no release nor deliverance from the judgements of God, which have ceased upon us, can be expected. Whereas upon repentance and amendment, which implies an entire change of the mind, and of the manners, and a lively accommodating of our will to the work, and of our best endeavours to the accomplishment of our just desires: deliverance in due time may be expected, as well from this of debt, as from any other judgement of God. His hand that laid it on, can take it off again, if he be sought unto by fervent prayer and supplication, which I willingly propound as the next remedy and special help against debt.  
In those things which are merely civil, and are transacted by dexterity in managing worldly affairs, it is a hard thing to make men believe (so that industry and skill be used) that prayer is of any great consequence for good or bad events. This makes the Day-labourer, the Artificer, the Husbandman (for most part) fall downright to his work, without any set▪ invocation of God, more than perhaps a Pater noster inhast, or some other word of course, without in tention of the spirit. As they deal in other things, so likewise in this of debt; they are sensible of the burden, and capable of all politic directions, tending to their ease; but how prayer and debt should have any relation, or the one give furtherance to the removing of the other, they are not willing to conceive. And hence it is, that being perplexed in this labyrinth of debt, they cast away their confidence, nor seeking any issue or help by prayer; yet 
* Phil. 4. 6.  Paul hath taught in all things to make our requests known to God by prayer and supplication. If in all things, why not in debt? 
* 2. Chro. 6. 29. 30.  Solomon hath taught us; that, When a man shall see his own plague, and his own disease, and shall make his moan accordingly, God shall hear him in heaven. Now they, who are for other things in a kind of stupidity, yet acknowledge debt to be their plague and undoing: Why then use they not the remedy prescribed by the wisest? 
* Psal. 50. 15.  God himself encouraging to call upon him in the day of trouble, and they esteeming this to be the ulcer of all their trouble? If the house cannot be builded, if the City cannot be guarded without the Lord; if nothing can be done by early rising and late resting, but only so far as God puts to his helping hand, working in us and for us: why then is not he entreated for his assistance, in this difficulty of debt, as well as in other things? When Amaziah 
2. Chr. 25. 9  asked the man of God, who forbade him to take the Ephraimits into the battle against the Edomits, because God was not with them, what then should become of the hundreth talents, which he had given them for their help? cannot God, said the Prophet, give thee more than this? So say I to him that trembles at the inundation of debt upon him; Cannot God, if he were sought unto, give an issue out of this? Cannot God, if the stumbling block of thine iniquity, (which makes the separation, and hinders good things from thee) were removed, give even more than this? If it be replied; That God worketh men out of debt, by means, which thou hast neither in thy power, nor in thy view. To this I say, that prayer itself is a means, whereby all other helps & practices receive their force, virtue, & success, which have failed hitherto for want of this. Faithful prayer puts a man upon the cheerful use of subordinate means, and binds to such pertinent courses, and serious endeavours, as are most likely to remove, or at least to mitigate this languishing consumption of our estate. All our policies without this are but, Arena sine calce, Sand without Lime. They will not hold together when we have most need of them, but like vntempered mortar, will fall asunder. Let earnest prayer be joined with frugality, skill, and diligence, and payment so far as our ability will extend; and then expect with comfort the end that God will give.  
Suppose when all is done that is directed or devised, that we cannot for all this satisfy the Creditor; yet this shows a man's repentance for his former indiscretion, and his true desire to make satisfaction, when he seriously sets himself to make such payment as to him is any way possible: which though it come short of contenting the Creditor, may notwithstanding serve to pacify the conscience of the Debtor, which will be surely clamorous where justice is not done to a man's power, by yielding every man his own.  
I know some cruel Lender's will be bitter & violent in exacting, which makes the clamours great of oppressed Borrowers, Nehem. 5. yea, secessions of the poor, and separations from the rich, as appears in the 
* Livius D●c. 1. lib. 2.  Roman story, but no cry is so intolerable, as of a tender conscience, if debts and duties be not faithfully performed. Let us therefore not remain indebted any thing to any man, but pay every man his due, not out of constraint only, but even for conscience sake.  
I end with Aquinas his words upon this place, It a plené omnibus omnia debita persoluatis, ut nihil remaneat quod soluere debeatis; Pay all your debts so fully unto all, that (so fare as is possible) nothing rest behind which ought to be paid; the debt of love only excepted, which follows in the next place. Hitherto of civil and mixed debts.   

CHAP. 12. Of the sacred Debt of Love, that we ought to love one another, and why?  
BUT that ye love one another.] As is the Obligation, such is the Debt: civil obligations cease when the pecuniary debt is paid, but the bond of love among Christians is perpetual; so that as we say of thankes in case of benefits received, Gratiae agendae & habendae; Thanks must be given and held as still due: so of love it is; Debitum semper reddendum & semper habendum; A debt which always is to be paid, and yet always continues payable; I am (saith Paul) a debtor, both to the Grecian 
Rom. L 14  and Barbarian, both to the wise and to the unwise; he means the debt of love and of service. The instruction is this; That Love and Charity is a due debt, perpetually to be performed by one Christian to another; Let brotherly love continue, Heb. 13. 1. Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself, I am the Lord, Levit. 19 18. Beloved, let us love one another; for love is of God, and every one that loveth is born of God and knoweth God. 1. joh. 4. 7. 
* joh. 13. 34  A new Commandment give I unto you, that ye love one another. How a new commandent? Austin answers, quia exuto veteri induit nos nowm hominem Because the old man being put off, it puts on us the new man. Whereunto I add this, that when the Scribes and Pharises by false glosses and corrupt interpretations had put it out of date; 
* Mat 5. 43, 44, 45, 46, etc.  Christ restored it by a true interpretation, and revived and illustrated it by his own practice and example: as Paul also doth observe, Eph. 5. 2. Walk in love as Christ hath loved us, and Phil. 1. 9 This I pray that your love may abound more and more in knowledge, and in all judgement. To walk in love intendeth a proceeding and going forward till we come to an eminency, and this we should endeavour.  
Reason. 1 First, because it is a good thing and a pleasant, 
Psal. 133. 1.  that brethren, should dwell together in unity and amity. Some things are pleasant that are not good, as unlawful gains to a covetous man. 
* 2. Pet 2. 15.  Balaam love's the wages of iniquity to his hurt: some things are good that are nor pleasant, as to suffer affliction, so 
* Heb. 11. 25.  Moses did with the people of God: But the love of the brethren is both good and pleasant: Good, because agreeable to Gods will: Pleasant, because comfortable to the heart of man to enjoy the society and communion of Saints: both good and pleasant, 
* Psal. 133. 3.  because God hath commanded his blessing to rest upon the unity of brethren in that which is good.  
Secondly, Christ hath loved us being his 
* Rom. 5. 2. 10.  enemies; therefore we ought to love one another: If Christ have taught us this, not only by precept, but also by example, and by illustration of the precept in his own person, should we not herein conform ourselves unto him? Should not every one accommodate himself to that, which is the proper end and use of his calling? Should not the Shepherd feed his flock, the Pilot at Sea guide his Ship, the Captain in war exercise military discipline? Should not the watchman keep his watch? Now brotherly love is as proper and peculiar to Christians, as any of these services to the undertaker of them. By this shall all men know, that ye are my disciples, if ye love one another, joh. 13. 35.  
Thirdly, many excellent things are spoken of love: it is 
* 1. Tim. 1. 5.  the end and scope of the Law;  est in medicina sanitas, as health is the end of Physic. It is the sum of the Law saith Christ, Mat. 22. 40. Where he speaks of the love of God, and of the love of man jointly: In which sense it is noted to be a transcendent virtue required in every commandment. It is the 
* Col. 3. 14.  bond of perfection, quo omnia hominum inter se officia continentur & coherent, wherein all the duties which pass between men are comprehended and combined. As faith is the bond of our union with Christ, so is love of our communion with our brethren, the members of Christ, in which two consists the perfection of the mystical body. It is called here the fulfilling of the Law, both in this verse and in the tenth, because, qui diligit, non unum aliquod praeceptum obijt, sed in genere praestitit quod lex iubet, he that loveth, observeth not some one precept, but performeth in general what the Law inioineth, but of this in the next place.  
4. Fourthly, where love is not, the life of man is like a perpetual tempest, here rushing, and there blustering, here beating and there bearing down all before it; without this we still do live in the gall of bitterness and bond of iniquity: where this fails, mischief comes in place thereof; dissensions, discords and such curses as accompany them. Non evenissent 
Cyprian. Ep. 8.  fratribus haec mala, si in unum fraternitas fuisset animata. Such evils had not befallen the brethren, if the brotherhood had held together in one mind. Let us therefore nourish this precious charity in our hearts, in obedience and true conformity unto Christ; as also for the worthiness of the grace itself, and for our own refreshing and consolation in our pilgrimage here on earth.   

CHAP. 13. Of the diversities of love, and of the nature of Christian religious love, towards one another.  
BUT that ye love one another.] We have a rule even in moral discipline that the praise of virtue consisteth in action. This is as true of love as of any other whatsoever, 
* 1. Cor. 13. 13.  in this preferred before faith and hope, not simply, but because it is diffusive of itself to the use of others, whereas these are confined to the person of the believer. We have also another rule that whatsoever we would that men should do unto us, even so should we do to them; for this is the Law and the Prophets: Mat. 7. 12. But we desire that men should love us, and accommodate themselves to our service; therefore it is a natural and a perpetual debt to do the like unto them.  
Now that love may be diffusive of itself in precious streams, and operative with approbation of God and of man: let us choose out among the several kinds of love, 1. the most excellent in nature, 2. the best esteemed in quality, 3. the most beneficial in the operations & fruits of it.  
For the first, we must observe that there are divers kinds of love; as natural affection whereby we love our Parents, Children, and Kindred. He that hath not this is worse than brutish: even beasts cherish and suckle their young ones. This though a Christian cannot want, yet a reprobate may have. There is a civil love, the obligation whereof is domestical or political society. Mere natural men yield this for mutual commodity and consolation. There is a moral love consisting in an exact compensation of affection with affection, of benefit with benefit, which falls short indeed of that love which here we seek, as our Saviour shows, Mat. 5. 46. 47. It may be in unregenerate men, yet it is a great furtherance, to the producing and preserving of the charity, whereof we speak. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. 
Greg. Nazian.  Nothing so available unto love, as compensation of affection: which is expressed by mutual offices, Vis ut ameris, ama; Wilt thou be beloved, then do thou love.  
Lastly, there is a christian religious love, which is a sanctified affection, whereby our hearts are joined either to our brethren in the faith, in contemplation of God's image in them, shining in an eminency of Graces; or in respect of the common hope of our calling, declared by outward profession; or else whereby we wish and do good to our enemies, in obedience to him who hath commanded us so to do.  
There is not any kind of these love's above mentioned, but it is a debt; and so is this christian religious love also, and must be duly paid. First, in respect of the communion of Saints: there is one body, one spirit, one hope of our calling, one lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and father of all, Eph. 4. 4, 5, 6. If a 
* Eccle. 4. 12▪  threefold cord be not easily broken, how much less this of love in such a concurrence of invincible obligations? It must also be paid as an homage to God, who will take no notice of our love to him, unless we love our neighbour; Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself, I am the Lord, Levit. 19 18. as also 1 joh. 4. 20. He that saith he loveth God and hateth his brother, is a liar. Who so loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom bee hath not seen?  
Thirdly, it must be paid, in regard of mutual offices and duties, as of tender affections and earnest prayers for one another; the intercourse whereof cannot be stopped among Christians. Maior est fraternitas Christi, quàm sanguinis; Brotherhood in Christ is stronger than in blood. If kin will creep where it cannot go, christian charity cannot choose but be diffusive of itself, from the highest to the lowest. 
* Psal. 133. 2. 3.  As the precious ointment from the head of Aaron to his beard, and to the skirts of his garment: as the dew of Hermon upon the hill of Zion; so this love imparts itself by a co-operation of God's spirit, to the comfort and refreshing of high and low, pertaining to the covenant.  
Moreover, as in civil debts, so also in sacred, the payment must be currant. It is not the love of brethren in evil, be it never so strong that will serve the turn; such concord is a conspiracy, as in 
* Gen. 34, 25.  Simeon and Levi, in the outrage upon the Shechemites. It is not the doting of 
* judg. 16. 4. etc. Num. 25. 15.  Samson upon Dalilah, or of Zimry upon Cosby, be the men never so great, that will serve the turn; this is but carnal lust. The currant love which bears the stamp of the Sanctuary, must be derived 
* 1. Tim. 1. 5.  from a pure heart, a good conscience, & an unfeigned faith; this is the right mine out of which it must be taken. And in this respect the christian love doth as much surmount all carnal loves, as gold or silver doth copper or lead; which makes me wonder, why we should be so ambitious of the friendship and countenance of men notoriously sinful, seeing how much soever they are beloved of us, yet they can but give us dross for gold, chaff for wheat. True christian love indeed, as it is a noble heroical grace, so can it not proceed but from a sanctified original.   

CHAP. 14. The qualities of religious Love..  
AS is the nature of religious Love, so are the qualities holy and heavenly. These are three; Patience, Constancy, and Fervency: Love is patiented; Charity suffereth long, and is kind; it is not easily provoked, it beareth all things, it endureth all things, 1 Cor. 13. 4, 5. 7. The Israelits depose Samuel from his government, as great an indignity as could be devised; yet, God forbidden (said he) that I should cease to pray for you, or to show you the right way, 1. Sam. 12. This was the patience of his love, to recompense good for evil. Saul persecutes David bitterly; 
1. Sam. 24. 5 & 26. 11. etc.  David having his life in his power twice, takes not the opportunity of private revenge, but dismisseth him safe; this was the patience of his love to the Lords anointed; 
ȣ Greg. hom 7 in Ezech.  Patientia vera est, quae ipsum amat quem portat; It is true patience to love him whose weight we feel. Thus the nurse bears the unquietness of her child, that breaks her sleep: the Minister the ignorance and wilfulness of the opposite: the husband and the wife suffer the infirmities of each other without grudging or repining, because there is true love in the flesh, and in the Lord. As is the measure of Love, so of Patience: much love, much patience. Love is strong as death, being supported with patience. Whereupon also doth depend the next property which is Constancy.  
The Apostle having said, that Charity 
Aquin. in hunc locum  beareth all, and endureth all things; inferreth in the next words; Charity never faileth, 1. Cor. 13. 8. Charitas in diligendo non deficit, sed proficit; Charity in loving goes not backward but forward; as appears in the Philippians, whose love abounded more and more. The love of Ruth to Naomi, makes her cleave unto her constantly, though she had persuasions, and example, and discouragements to the contrary, yet the resolution was; That nought but death should make a separation. 
Ruth 1. 16 17.  The like steadfastness is in the love of Paul towards the Corinthians, though the more he loved them, the less he was beloved, Yet will I spend most willingly (saith he) and will be spent for your sakes, 2. Cor. 12. 15.  
True love is not apprehensive of offences, nor alienated upon slight occurrents, though the services of love be sometimes costly, as in relieving the poor: and the labour of love sometimes painful, as of 
* jerem. 38.  Ebedmelecke in drawing jeremy out of the dungeon of Malchiah, hazarding thereby the displeasure of Prince and State. Yet love, armed with constancy, persisteth in good purposes; against all difficulties & oppositions whatsoever; yea, when many other eminent gifts do cease, yet shall love continue, 1. Cor. 13. 8. 9  
The third quality of this love is Fervency. Above all things have fervent love among yourselves, 1. Pet. 4. 8. This sets an edge on love, it keeps it from languishing, it suffers not so gracious an affection to settle upon the lees of sluggishness, but will quicken it as a taskemaster, exacting daily the service of the day, it will make us restless till some good be done, and sensible in case we fail: as is noted of 
* Hieron. in Epist. ad Gal. cap. 6.  Titus the Emperor, when he had not done some memorable good, he would lament the loss of such a day. Fervency will make us sow our seed in the morning, and not suffer our hand to 
Eccle. 11. 6.  cease in the evening. Want of fervency in our love, makes us unprofitable in time of need; like the Priest and Levite to the 
Luk. 10. 30 31, 32, 33.  man that was wounded and half dead, they looked on, and perhaps pitied him, but passed by the other way, without vouchsafing any relief at all: So is the common temper of men's love, they think themselves in charity, else God forbidden, they hate no body, they hurt no body, they are no quarrellers, or otherwise injurious; thus they make fair weather with all: but let a man fall into some extremity; and then they will not ease his burden with the least of their fingers. It is Fervency must make our love active & useful, and which must make us like the good Samaritane, ministering to the distressed as we are able, and they have need, Never turning our eyes from our own flesh, Esay 58. 7.   

CHAP. 15. The effect of love, with rules to dispense the fruits thereof, and a complaint for the neglect of it.  
THe religious love thus qualified will quickly show itself in the fruits and effects; it will sweeten and season all our actions, making us full of mercy, and as 
* Rom. 15. 14  Paul speaks of the Romans full of goodness. If you would know wherein this love must and may be discerned; I answer even in all things. Let all things be done in love, is the Apostles direction, 1. Cor. 16. 14. Because without this, the best things degenerate and turn the edge: 
* 1. Cor 8. 1  Knowledge without love puffeth up. 
* 1. Cor. 13. 1, 2.  The gift of tongues and prophecy, without love, is as a vanishing sound. Alms without love is ostentation. Martyrdom without love is fruitless and unprofitable. Let me speak it as it is; as faith without works is dead: so works without love are counterfeit and hypocritical. 
* Rom. 12. 9  Let love be then without aissimulation, in all our doing, which will make them pass more sweetly than all the springs of Lebanon. ●f we further inquire when and to whom this love must be showed, that also is set down, Gal. 6. 10. While we have time let us do good unto all: 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, 
Theophilact  the time of working is the time of living; and though there may be difference in the opportunities: yet shall we never want such as will want us. Which burden for all that, where love is, will not seem tedious. Charitas facit iugum leave: Love makes the yoke easy. 
* Gen. 29. 20  jacob endured a hard service under Laban, of seven years for his daughter Rachel, yet they seemed in his eyes but a very few days, because be loved her.  
If yet we further ask in what manner this love must be declared: That also is set down, 1. joh. 3. 18. Little Children, let us not love in word and in tongue: he means, not in bare verbal compliment only, (for words otherwise must be the Interpreters of the heart) but in deed and in truth; our love must be real and beneficial; if it be barren, it is certainly counterfeit. If this precious treasure be in our hearts, we ought not to hide it; concealed love is like concealed learning, unprofitable. We must profess it then to the comfort of our brethren, as 
* Ruth 2. 13.  Booz spoke to the heart of Ruth, yea and express it too as he did: 
* Ruth 3. 18.  he rested not till he had done her good in the highest degree. Thus Mordocai procured the wealth of his people, and spoke peaceably to all his seed, Esther 10. 3. He was beneficial in word and in work.  
Besides these general directions, for the better dispensing the fruits of our love there are certain special rules to be observed. First we must consider our own ability, and our brethren's necessity, accommodating the one to the relief of the other, as the plaster to the sore.  
If our ability be great, then 
* 2. Cor. 9 6.  by sowing plentifully we shall reap plentifully, and 
* 1. Tim. 6. 17.  lay up a good foundation against the time to come. This showeth want of love in those who having great ability, do little or no good therewith; like Nabal and the rich Glutton, who had great abundance, even a 
* Prou. 17. 16  price in the hand, but wanted a heart to use it. They feared to lose their wealth by giving, but feared not to lose themselves by keeping it. If on the other side, our wealth be small, yet if our good will be great, it is accepted, as were the Widows two mites, Luk. 21. 3. He that is faithful in a little enters into his Master's joy Mat. 25. 23. God crowneth the inward will, where he finds not the outward wealth, says Austin. If 
2. Cor. 8. 12  there be a willing mind, it is accepted by him who judgeth not after the outward appearance, but beholdeth the heart. Yea though some must say with 
* job. 42. 8, 9  Peter, Silver 
Acts 3. 6.  and gold have I none; yet love is as effectual, in dispensing the spiritual talon as the temporal. Those who have not the worldly goods, may be helpful and beneficial, by pouring out faithful prayers, as job did for his three friends: or by ministering a word of counsel, admonition, or exhortation at our need. He that doth so, may turn a sinner from going astray, he may save a soul from death, and cover a multitude of sins. jam. 5. 20. Ability must be improved according to the condition of it: which that it may be with success, we must also consider the necessities of those with whom we have to deal. Love's travails in pain with some, till Christ be form in them, as Paul did 
Gal. 4. 19  with the Galathians; with others it is weak; to some it stoops; it raiseth itself to others: 
* August. de catechiz. rudib. cap. 15.  alijs blanda, alijs severa, nulli inimica, omnibus matter: gentle to some, severe to others, an enemy to none, a mother to all. Some have more need of our prayers then of our purse, of our counsel then of our commodities, of our good example then of our goods. Paul 
* Act. 20 33.  craves neither silver nor gold, nor raiment, but 
* Eph. 6. 19 Col. 4. 3. 2. Thes. 3. 1.  prayers often and with importunity. David on the other side craves not Nabals' counsel, 
* 1. Sam. 25. 8.  but a supply of things necessary, when he might have spared it. As one member serves another according to the necessity of it, so should we. Because by how much more fitly we apply ourselves to one another: by so much more feelingly is God glorified by the party that is succoured, job. 31. 20.  
After ability in the author, and necessity in the object of benevolence observed, the next rule pertaineth unto order. All things are comely in their order, and love is orderly and discreet, non agit indecorè, it deals not unseemly, 1. Cor. 13. 5. The orderly course in disposing the fruits of love is, that (where present occasion imposeth not a necessity) the special duties of love should be conferred, where there are the principal bonds of nature or grace, or other respects of society or vicinity: specially where there is an eminency of desert at our hands. The case may so be put that a beast must be relieved before a man: yet other things being like, we must specially do good to 
Gal. 6. 10.  the household of faith.  
A cup of cold water thus bestowed is not forgotten, Mat. 10. 42. but shall be remembered in the day of accounts, Matth. 25. 40. Even among these, love ordered by discretion leads to our special charge. Integer rerum aestimator est, qui 
Aug. de doc. Chr. lib. 1. cap. 27, 28.  ordinatam habet dilectionem: nam quum omnibus prodesse non possis, his potissimum consulendum est; qui constrictius tibi quasi quadam sorte coniunguntur. He is an upright esteemer of things that hath an orderly charity: for seeing thou canst not do all men good, provision must chief be made for those, who are as it were, by a certain lot, most nearly joined unto us.  
David provides for his Parents in the midst of his persecution: Our Saviour for 
1. Sam. 22. 3.  his 
* joh. 19 26, 27.  mother in the midst of his passion. But the bowels of compassion are for the most part chief moved, when the state of the Church is under the eye of tenderhearted men, as Psal. 122. Amos 7. 2. 5. jeremy 9 1, 2, etc. But such men are very rare, the most even of professors, pleasing themselves abundantly, if their personal state be good, and if there be plenty within their private walls, never look further at the distressed abroad: nor at well deserving men of Church and Commonwealth: thinking because charity begins at home, they need not strain themselves with supporting such as fall not within the domestical verge. But these men are much deceived; For though it be true, that charity begins at home; Yet it must not also end at home, and never go further. For as parents and children claim their portion in us, so doth the Church and Commonwealth also: specially such as have deserved our love, to whom, perhaps we own even ourselves 
* Phil. ver. 19  as Philemon did to Paul.  
Can that love be religious, which is so straitened in the bowels of compassion, as that it will not enlarge itself to the afflicted? Or is that love religious, which can be unthankful to men of special merit, for temporal or spiritual service? Let charity begin where it ought, but let it not both begin and end in one Period. If it be naturally diffusive, confine it not to one point or centre, which ought to live and move, and work in the circumference round about.  
The third rule in the exercise of love concerneth those who are without, or at least farther off. 
* Rom. 12.  We must have peace and concord with all, so far as is possible: our God is the God of peace, not of dissension 
1. Cor. 14. 33.  or confusion; and when he exhibited himself to Eliah, he was not in the 
1. King. 19 11.  mighty wind, nor in the Earthquake, nor in the fire, but in the still and quiet voice: to show that he is not among tumults and quarrels, but where peace, and unity, and amity is embraced. Yet he that must endeavour to have peace with all is not bound to have society, nor ordinary intercourse of consultations and familiarity with all, nor peace neither, further than may stand with holiness and godly wisdom. For what if there be inevitable occasion of a breach? What if a man will needs become an enemy? and provoke us with heavy injuries? Here now is love put to the greatest trial, yet will it be fruitful, and that in season. For Christian love may as truly be exercised to an enemy as to a friend: and in forgiving injuries, as in giving gifts. Did not Stevens charity shine as clearly, 
* Acts 7. 60. Acts 6. 6  in praying for the forgiveness of his persecutors, when he suffered as a Martyr, as in ministering to the necessities of the Saints as a Deacon? Forgiveness is like a blossom in March, that shrinks not at a nipping blast, this will prove the forwardest and goodliest fruit in Autumn. But what if forgiveness be not sought by him that doth the wrong? yet must thou daily ask forgiveness at God's hands under condition of forgiving. What if the injury be daily multiplied and renewed? Heaven is open to thy complaints, and the Law is open to restrain intolerable persons, only in suits at Law, when they are inevitable. Love's first retaineth an unfeigned desire of peace, though it be provoked. Secondly, it abstaineth from private revenge, though it have opportunity. Thirdly, true love prayeth for the enemy's conversion, though continuing refractory.  
But here may I justly take up a complaint; Charitatem in terris peregrinam agere. As one speaks of Truth: so may I of Charity, that it life's as a stranger here on earth; little religious love is to be found in the world. Some men love no body but for some carnal respects. Others can love any, but the servants of God; as Achab could like well of all Prophets, but of Michaiah and Eliah, and 
1 King. 22. 68 1 King. 21. 20.  them he hated, and counted them as enemies. Others that can find no fault in God's children, yet hold off their love in suspense; and they must know them better, before they will join with them in amity and society, and so perhaps they never meet. Others confine their love to society in revelling & lasciviousness, or some other rudeness in which there is at last but a bond of iniquity. So little entertainment finds love upon earth: yet it is the bond of perfection, both in heaven and in earth, and hath the most noble testimony and style to be called in this place, the fulfilling of the Law.   

CHAP. 16. That love is a fulfilling of the Law according to the measure of it, and that yet hence it doth not follow: either that the perfect fulfilling of the Law is possible in this life: or that any can be justified by the works of the Law, in this state of corruption.  
FOr he that loveth another hath fulfilled the Law.] These words are a reason of the former exhortation. The argument is thus. The mutual love of Christians is the fulfilling of the Law, therefore we ought to love one another. When love is said, Cantic. 8. 6. to be strong as death: non potuit (saith Austin) Charitatis fortitudo magnificentiùs exprimi, quàm quòd morti comparatur: The strength of love could not be more magnifically expressed, then when it is compared unto death. As he saith of the strength of love, that it could not be expressed in more lofty terms: so may I say of the supereminent excellency of love, it could not be set down in higher terms, then in calling it the fulfilling of the Law. Concerning which words sundry things may be enquired, both for the meaning and certainty of them. As first, the thing in hand being mutual charity and brotherly love which is limited and confined to the second table of the Law, and is no further extended; how the performance of it can be said to fulfil the Law? seeing in this duty (supposed as good as can be in this life) a man only fulfilleth the second table of the Law.  
The answer herein is this: that though he that loveth his neighbour entirely, do but fulfil the second table expressly, yet he performs the first also by necessary consequence. For all religious love to men floweth originally from our love to God: and our love to God dependeth wholly on his love to us. 
* 1 joh. 4. 19  We love him because he loved us first. As therefore a great brightness of the air at midnight, argueth the shining of the Moon, and that presumeth an illumination from the Sun, because these depend one on another: so the diffusing of our charity on our neighbours proveth our love to God, and our love to God presumeth his love to us first, for the inseparable dependence which they have on each other. We may also briefly answer, that our brotherly love fulfilleth the Law, that is, that part of the Law which doth punctually require it.  
The other questions arise from the ambiguity of the speech, Hath fulfilled the Law. Out of which our adversaries draw two conclusions. First, that the fulfilling of the Law is possible in this life. Secondly, that a Christian may be justified by the works of the Law.  
For the first, the Rhemists in their marginal notes upon these words say this. Here we learn that the Law may be, and is fulfilled by love in this life, against our adversaries, who say, it is impossible to keep the Commandments. The argument may thus be framed. He that loveth another, or that loveth his neighbour fulfilleth the Law. But every true Christian can, and must, and doth love his neighbour; therefore every true Christian can, and must fulfil the Law. First, to the proposition I say, that he that loveth another fulfilleth the Law, according to the quality and measure of his love. Qualis & quanta dilectio, talis & tanta est legis impletio: so fare as he loveth, so fare he fulfilleth the Law. But say they, in the assumption; every good Christian can, and may, and doth love his neighbour. To this I answer, that love is either perfect and full in the affections and offices of it, without any error or defect at all: this is that which fulfilleth the Law, according to the severity of it to the uttermost, but it is impossible in this life through the weakness of the flesh. There is another love which is true, sincere, and hearty, yet not without imperfection, for in many things we all fall short in affections, in actions, 
* Gal 5. 17  The flesh lusteth against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh, so that we cannot do as we would. 
* Phil. 3. 12▪ 13.  I have not (saith Paul) attained unto perfection. This love is possible, but not perfect, the other is perfect, but not possible to us compassed as we are with imperfections; and consequently the perfect impletion of the Law in this life is not possible.  
The second argument depends on this, framed by those, who by building justification upon the works of the Law, put themselves upon the hazard of falling from grace. The argument is thus. He that fulfilleth the Law is justified thereby; according to that word, 
* Gal. 3. 12.  He that doth these things shall live by them. But every true Christian fulfilleth the Law by love; therefore every true Christian is justified by the Law. Stapleton propounds it thus 
Stapleton Antidote.  in sense, and triumpheth like a conqueror against Caluin and Beza. His argument is thus. The fulfilling of the Law is true righteousness; but he that loveth his neighbour fulfilleth the Law; therefore he that loveth his neighbour obtaineth true righteousness, or true justification thereby.  
The strength of these arguments is in the ambiguity of the phrase: for true it is; He that fulfilleth the Law shall be justified thereby, if he fulfil it in all points perfectly; otherwise not justification, but malediction is of the Law. But he that loveth his neighbour fulfilleth the Law. That I grant is true, he that loveth perfectly without any defect fulfilleth the Law perfectly; but where is that man, that ever so loved, or observed the Law without error or imperfection?  
Was there ever Patriarch, Prophet, or Apostle without sin?  
Doth not David the man after Gods own heart confess this sin with much contrition against himself, Psal. 32. 5. and Psal. 51.  
Doth not 
* Dan. 9  Daniel the like against himself and all the people?  
Doth not 
* Rom. 7.  Paul after his conversion yet lament his unwilling subjection unto sin? When the best of men condemn themselves, is it not impudent pride in any to justify himself by the works of the Law? Can any be so partial in his own cause, or so senseless of his own estate, as not to tremble at his daily transgressions, arising from the sink of original corruption?  
I know for the opening of this speech in hand, the learned bring this distinction. There is, impletio legis quoad parts, or quoad gradus; We fulfil the Law say they, according to the parts, or according to the degrees. According to the parts, when we have respect to all the commandments, as well in one thing as in another, not allowing ourselves in the neglect or breach of any; thus fare say they we attain. But according to the degrees or perfection required in the strict letter of the Law, (for which cause it is called the kill letter,) so we do not fulfil the Law.  
In this distinction some satisfy themselves, but for mine own part I am of opinion, that the best men fail, not only in the degrees, but even in the parts of the Law, omitting at some time the very duties of love by infirmity, ignorance, negligence, or temptation, so that our best fulfilling of the Law is, when that which is not fulfilled is forgiven: according to that of Austin, Omnia mandata Dei tunc implentur, quando quod non fit, ignoscitur; All the commandments of God are then fulfilled, when that is forgiven which is not fulfilled. And our best justification is; Quando fides impetrat, quod Lex imperat: When faith obtaineth in jesus Christ that perfect righteousness, which the Law enjoineth by a lively application of the same to the conscience. As our love is not perfect in regard of our defects in matter, measure, and circumstance: so it cannot be meritorious, because it is a debt, and such a debt as is never fully paid, but still remaineth due. No debt is merit; Est ae natura meriti, ut sit opus indebitum, pramium ex indebito faciens debitum: It is of the nature of merit, that it be a work not due, & which makes the reward being nor due of itself, due to the doer.  
Is all our labour of love then lost, because it is unperfect? and because our fulfilling of the Law is unperfect? or because when we have done our best, yet our love is not meritorious? or because our best fulfilling of the Law, is but only a true and sincere observation of the Commandments, but not a full obedience of the Law 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, in exactness? Is all our labour I say then lost? God forbidden: for though we cannot attain unto perfection in this life, it is reserved for the next: our righteousness being here eclipsed with manifold defects: yet the nearer we come unto it, the more conformable we are to God, and to his Law, than which nothing is more beautiful, or more blessed.  
Paul professeth that though he had 
Phil. 3. 12. 14.  not as yet attained, yet he aspired with great endeavour, and pressed toward the mark, for the price of the high calling of God in CHRIST JESUS: even so should we do also, who come much shorter of perfection than he did: the remainders of sin continuing more, & the Image of Christ being less renewed & restored in us then in him. We should, I say with all our strength & intention of spirit, strive to be advanced to a higher pitch & measure of grace, of goodness, of love with the fruits thereof; knowing that love is the 
* john 13. 35.  mark of God's children: the proof of 
* 1 john 47.  our regeneration: the seal of our translation 
* 1 joh. 3. 14.  from death to life: yea such an evidence hereof as will show itself and stand upon record in the effects, when other signs may fail in the day of temptation: knowing also that hatred, which is contrary hereunto, is the devil's 
* 1 joh. 3. 10. joh. 2. 11.  brand on the vessels of wrath; he that hateth his brother walketh in darkness, and knoweth not whether he goeth, because darkness hath blinded his eyes, even his judgement, the eye of the inner man. For 
* Austin & glossa ordin.  Ira est festuca, odium est trabs in oculo; anger is a moat, but hatred is a beam in the eye.  
The sum is this. Debts must be paid to whom they are due. Love is a Debt; therefore it must be paid to all, as time, and place, and power do permit: that by yielding hereof in obedience to the Commandment, our love to God himself may appear, 
* john 14, 15.  who measures our love by our obedience. Who if he discerneth the readiness of the spirit, though the flesh be weak: if a promising and cheerful heart, though ability be not great, he will draw us on to further proof.  

* john 15. 2.  Every branch that beareth fruit he purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit, to the honour and glory of his own name, and to the benefit of his Elect.  
FINIS.    

Errata.  
PAge 3. line 15. for took read take. p. 12. l. 12. for haereditale r. haereditate▪ p. 35. l. 2. for silences r. silence. p. 43. l. 16. for ever r, ends p. 47. l. 16. for founders r foundress. p. 56. l. 23. for mutant. r mutent. p. 61. l. 11. for no, r. a. p. 67. l. 13. for ofter, r. often p 92. l 14. for saveurs r. saviours p. 95. l. 7. add to the end of the l. substance. p. 99 for moderate r immoderate. p 103. l. 9 for which r. whom. p 125. l. 1. for doing r. doings. in the Marg, for Theophilact, 1. Theophylact. p. 139. l. 16. for this, r. his.