THE Debtor's apology OR, A QUAINT PARADOX Proving That it is good to be in Debt, and (in this Age) may be useful for all Men.  
By T: I.  
Written in the year of Engagements, 1644.   

That it is good to be in Debt.  
WE are fallen into that dotage of the world, in which the worst thin●s do overtop the worthiest, sense doth besot the understanding, drink overcometh the brain, and the eye beguileth and misleadeth the sight; And therefore in tender commiseration of mankind, I will endeavour to rectify their Judgements in a Paradox, than which there hath none more intricate been discussed and canvased among the Stoics in Zeno's Porch, that is, That it is better for a man to live in Debt, than otherwise: Ordiar ab ovo, I will begin from an egg, that your concoction may be the easier. In the whole course and frame of Nature, we see that nothing is made for itself, but each hath a bond of duty, of use, or of service, by which it i●, indebted to other; The sun by his splendour to enlighten all the world; by his warmth and heat, to cherish and comfort each living and vegetable creature. Yea, Man himself is so framed of God, that not only his country, his Parents, and his Frien●●s claim a share in him, but he is also indebted to his Dog, and to his Ox, the one for hunting for his pleasure, the other for labouring for his profit, so that quicquid babet genii ingenii moris amoris, the abilities of his spirit, the affections of his mind, he hath them for others as much as for himself; nay, the more for others, by how much he desired to be the greater Lord over others. Let him but look into himself, and see how his constitutive parts are debtors each to other; the soul doth qui●ken and give life to the body, the body like an Automaton, doth move and carry itself and the sou●; survey him in his parts, the eye seeth for the foot, the foot standeth for the hand, the hand toucheth for the mouth, the mouth tasteth for the stomach, the stomach eateth for the whole body, the body repayeth back again that nutriment which it hath received to all the parts, dis●harging the retriments b● the Port Esquiline; and all this in so comely an order, and by a Law so certain, and in so due a time, as if Nature had rather man should not have been at all, than not to be a debtor in every part of him; which hath made me resolve, That to whomsoever I mean to be a friend, I will strive to be in his debt: and what can I do less? for to him that doth me a good turn, I am bound to return him the greatest pleasure, which I can no way do, but by being in his debt; for what contentment will it be unto him, when I shall repay him his own again? The Alchimist● who promise to themselves to turn Tin into Silver, and Copper into Gold, how will they be transported out of themselves with joy, if they should but see a happy issue of their attempt? how much more a Creditor, when he shall recover a desperate debt? it is like the joy of a Father that receives his lost Child.  
Again, he that is in de●t, hath this great privil●dge above other men, that his Creditors pour out ● ear●y prayer● for him, the● wish that he may live, thrive, prosper, and g●ow rich, all for t●eir own advantage, they seem to be careful for their debtors, that they may not lose their principal with the interest, for their Money is their life; witness those Usurers of France, who when they heard that the price of Corn was fallen, went and hanged themselves for grief.  
What a command doth the Debtor g in over his Creditors? he becometh in a manner their landlord to whom they cap, crouch, and kneel, as if they did owe him all suits and services, and are as ambitious of their favours, as they who in Rome did canvas the people for their voices to attain the greatest offices: but here is their cunning, laudant ut laedant, they praise them that they may prey upon them. And therefore you brave Gallants & spendthrifts, who find by your woeful experience, that no whip gives a shrewder lash than the labels of a Bond or Obligation, with a Noverint universi, Skinner and Lacie, whensoever y●u fall into the mercers' Books, never take care or make conscience of paying your debts, for by that means you shall keep your Creditor in awe; and shall have him wonderful courteous, officious, and obsequious towards you, and a great mintmaster of fair words.  
Without debt and loan, the fabric of the world will be disjointed and fall asunder into its first Chaos; the beauty of the stars, what would it be but vastness, and deformity, if the Sun did not lend them light? the earth would remain unfruitful, if it did not borrow refreshing dews from the watery signs and Planets; the summer is pleasant and promiseth great hopes of plenty, but it is, because it taketh up much upon trust from the friendly and seasonable temperment of the Elements. And, to say the truth; there is nothing good or great in the world, but that it borroweth some thing from others to make it great, or lendeth to another to make it good, and therefore I marvel why Antiquity, 
1 Aerugo;  who made Mildew, fever, 
2 Febris.  and Scurvig●asse Goddesses, 
3 Phoris.  did not Matriculate Loan and Debt among the rest.  
The Elements who are linked together by a league of Association, and by their symbolising qualities, do barter and truck, borrow and lend one to another, as being the Burse and Royal-exchange of Nature, they are by this traffic and intercourse the very life and nourishment of all sublunary bodies, and therefore are called Elimenta, quasi Alimenta, whose happy concord and conjunction hath brought forth those, whom the world for the good done to mankind, hath esteemed Gods, as Bacchus the great Vintner, Ceres the Meal-mother, Flora the Tutty-maker, Vertumus and Pomona Costard mongers.  
Now if every man would render and repay in full weight, that which by due debt he oweth, and hath borrowed from others, Satur's golden age would return again, in which there was no difference of metals, but Gold and Silver were all one oar, and made the yelk of the earth, nature's great E●g; neither did Meum & Tuum bound out, and apportionate Lands and Lordships, by Mear-stones, and diversity of tenures of socadge and focadge; since when, qui habet terras, habet guerras, and the King of heaven's peace hath been disturbed amongst men: but then all things were all men's, as necessity did allot and award, who was then the only Judge and Arbitrator, competently allowing to every man, that which he stood in need of.  
With what dearness have both Gods and good men countenanced and gra●ed debtors? to whom Diana the great goddess of Ephesus, granted her Temple for a Sanctuary, to keep them out of Pagwell Pigeon Houses, or if they were caught, Solon, by a solemn law infacted, would not have their bodies to be fettered or manacled amongst Malefactors, but that they should enjoy their liberty throughout all the Parks and purlieus of the Prison, or, to speak more mildly, of their restraint and endurance; for the Prison is built Purgatory-wise, after the architecture of Rome with a Limbus and Tullianum; The Dungeon is the devil's pinfold and the very suburbs of hell, where Varlets, Roarers, and stiletto-stabbers are let down, as the proper food that stuffs that greedy Ma●; the next Room is the Lollard of trunk-hosed Famelists and Separatists, who after they have been rowelled in the neck, to cure them of the Megrim of the head, they are by the gentle flame of this ●●ove, and the heat of their own zeal, made to sweat our their contumacy and other peccant humours; the upper skirt and stage of this building, is the Garret of expenseful Wasters, Gamesters, and unthrifty Debtors, where though they live robbed of their liberty, as they rifled others of their Money, yet is it their great happiness, that being glutted, as it were, with an Aplaustick voluntary life, they have an easy overture made to the contemplative and practic life of virtue: Who ever lived more like a soused Gurn-head amongst men, than Diogenes the cynic, barreling himself up in his Tub like a Kegg of sturgeon? yet was the happiness of his contented life envied of the greatest Monarchs, who having made their throats the thoroughfare and the Cullenders of meats and drinks, found an over-gorged Belly to be Wits clog, reason's sepulchre, lusts-arsenal, the magazine of lewd practices, and the Nursery of all Vices: all which provocations are defaulted by debts, wants, and indigency.  
And lastly, the Lombards, Usurers, and Scriveners, who are the beadles of begga●s, and are accounted the Tetters upon the body politic of the commonweal, who turn the Kalends and new M●ons, and the festival days of quarter gaudies, into the octaves of disaster, & doomsday-reckonings; when any of these come to heaven, there is a wonderment amongst the angels, and they cry out with Sir Guzman of Alfarache, fruta nueva, fruta nueva; here is a new kind of fruit start up, a pum-paradise upon a Crab-stock, Lombards and Scriveners are become the Popes cannonized and beatified Saints.  
Farewell then, Vlpianus, Modestinus and other Pettifoggers of the Law, solicitors and molesters of causes, who account being in debt a kind of bondage and fervitude. I pity Seneca's weakness, who blushed to borrow, Miserum verbum, & dimisso vultu proferendum, rogo: That Poet laureate forfeited his wreath of bays and Ivy-twine, who made his prayers to his Purse, to keep him out of debt, in this manner.  

To you my Purse, 
Ocleve in Chaucer.  and to none other wight  
Compla●n I, for you to be my Lady deer:  
I am sorry now that you be light,  
For certes ye now make me heavy cheer,  
Me were as lief laid upon a beer.  
For which unto your mercy thus I cry,  
Be heavy again, or else moat I die.   

Now vouchsafe this day, or it be night,  
That I of you the blissful sound may hear,  
Or see your colour, like the Suny bright  
That of yellowness had never peer  
Ye be my life, ye be my hearts fler●;  
Queen of comfort and of good company  
Be heavy again, or else moat I die.   

Now Purse, that art to me my lives light,  
And Saviour as down in this world here,  
Out of this Town help me by your might,  
Sith that you will not be my treasure,  
For I am shave as near as any frere,  
But I pray unto your courtesy,  
Be heavy again or else moat I die.   
Yet welfare the prodigal unthrift who is Magis promus quam condus, and serves at the Buttery hatch, whatsoever is in his been or his barrel, and therefore could never endure the complaint of his Purse, who thus bemoaned herself unto him.  
Materia infoelix, detracta cadavere, forma  
Tam varia, ut nec ego me mihi posse queam,  
Haud melius fatum, nam pendeo more latronis,  
Ingenium sic me fueris habere puyant.  
Si dederis servo, servatunt reddo petenti,  
Non nisi at auriculis tracta referre volo.  
A Skin flaied off, makes my materials,  
My form is various, where myself I lose,  
My doom a felon's death and funerals,  
For at a belt I am hanged by a noose,  
I do not filch for mine own thrift and gain  
But what you give, I closely keep and bear,  
And when you ask, I it restore again,  
Yet not, except you pluck me by the ear.  
For the All-te-maell, and foot of the reckoning, this is the summa summarum, debemur morti nos nostraque so that whilst I live, I must resolve to live in debt, in debt to God for my Being, in debt to Christ for my Well being; in debt to God's sanctifying spirit, for my New being, and I will ever be ready to pawn my life for my country's liberty; I will owe obedience to my parents, faith and loyalty to my Prince, and when I shall pay my great debt unto Nature, I will render my spirit into the hands of God, bequeathe my Body to be deposed in the lap and bosom of the earth, and cry Domine Demitte debita mea.  
FINIS.