A MOTION AGAINST Imprisonment, Wherein is proved that Imprisonment for debt is against the Gospel, against the good of Church, and commonwealth  Matthew 18. 29. Have patience and I will pay thee all. 
By Thomas Grantham, Master in Arts; Curate of Eston, near Tocester in northamptonsheire.  
PRINTED at London for Francis Coules 1642.   

A Motion against Imprisonment.  
AMongst the great abuses of this age, I have taken into Consideration, that cruel, and inhuman act of imprisoning men for debt: and my hearty wishes are: that this tyranny may no longer reign, for these reasons.  
First it is against the law of God Deu: 24. 12 if the man be poor thou shalt not sleep with his pledge, in any case thou shalt deliver him the pledge again, when the sun goeth down, but imprisonment is a far greater affliction, or torment, then keeping of a pledge, therefore if I ought not to do the lesser, I ought not to do the greater, a man was bound by the l●w of God to lend his brother sufficient for his need, although he was sure to lose it Deut: 15. 7. 8. and in the 9 verse, It was sin unto him, if he did it not then how great sin shall it be: to deprive his Brother of all ways to live by imprisoning of him?  
Then every seventh year was a year of rel●ase a free forgiveness of all debts Deu. 15. 1. than every fifth year was a jubilee, every man's posse●si●n returned to him again Leviticus 25. 10. God's law was full of mercy to the very strangers that dwelled amongst them Deu: 24. 19 the lost sheaf was for the stranger, fatherless and widow, than verse the 20. of that Chapter the Olive tree was to be beaten but once, & the remnant to be left for the stranger, fatherless and widow, and in the next verse he was to do so when he gathered the grapes of his vineyard He that takes the nether milston, takes a man's life to pledge Deut: 24. 6. but he that imprisons a man takes not only the nether millstone, but the upper, he takes away all courses of living for a man, hath no ways to grind or labour for his living then he was not to take the widow's raiment to pledge much less her body Deut: 24. 27. God's law is full of mercy, Exodus 22. 25. 29 27. and Deut. 15. 13. 14 15. and many other places.  
Then this tyranny of imprisonment is against the gospel, our saviour tells you Mat: 8. 32. how he was used that took his fellow servant by the throat and cast him into prison, and in this last verse he tells you his heavenly father will do so to those who will not forgive their debtors, the Apostle saith Romans 13. 10. that love is the fulfilling of the law, and he gives there the reason because it works not ill to his neighbour, now how far is that man from obeying God's law that doth so great a hurt to his neighbour as to imprison him, Saint John saith, John 1. 3. 17. how can the love of God dwell in that man who shuts up his bowels of compassion from his needy Brother? but what shall we say of that man who is not only far from reliveing his brother, but imprisons him and forces him to all need and affliction, where hunger withers him, diseases lick up his blood, and swarms of care and trouble sting him and torment him; Saint Ambrose saith of the covetous rich man, est panis famelici quem tu ●enes, quem nos parer●s, occidisti: and Cyprian saith the like in his sermon de Elemosin●y if any man starve at thy door, or by thy means that is for want of thy assistance thou shalt answer for it, & the Digddi●n●es Theologi (as Bishop Davenant calls them in his book de pace ecclesiae) the p●l●mi●●ll divines say, the altitude of a sin is taken as it doth depart or is distant from Charity, the further a sin is from Charity, the greater it is, and what greater uncharitableness can there be then to lay a man in prison, where he is deprived of wife, Children, friends, Trade, profession, where he is deprived of all manner of help or comfort.  
Then it is against the good of Church and commonwealth, one man may be worth ten Thousand men, as the people said to David 2▪ Samuel 18. 3. such an one as Joseph may be a Steward for a kingdom, as Eliah whose fiery spirit, consumes the false prophets, why should that fiery▪ spirit be smothered and buried in a Cave. God himself calls him out twice 1. King's 19 10. 14. what dost thou hear Eliah? what should John Baptist to whom all Judea came out and they of Jerusalem do in a prison? what should M●chaiah do in a prison who opposes all the false Prophets? Paul spoke many languages, was effectual in his preaching, he could make Felix tremble and Agrippa become half a Christian, but this man could beget but one Onesimus in his bonds, Philemon 10. whereas it he had been at liberty, he might have begot Thousands as Peter did at one sermon.  
Then it is against the good of a private family for how are the members grieved, if the head ache.  
It is against the nature of man to be imprisoned his soul is actus Corporis, his mind is continually in action all ways thinking of something never idle, his thoughts run swifter than the sun in a superior or be ready to overtake Eternity, some translations read that 5. verse in 8. psalm thou hast made him little lower than God, not little lower than the Angels, but little lower than God, and Estius maintains this translation in his second book of his sentences, the first distinction, the verses following (saith he) prove this translation, thou hast made him to have dominion of the works of thy hands, thou hast put all things in subjection under his feet the fowls of the air, Fishes of the Sea, for that he is saith Estius Microtheos' a divine God, a little God, I have said ye are God's psalm. 82. 6▪ and although man be not the highest God, yet he is the Image of the highest God and will any man fetter him that carries such an Image livery.  
In some cases the scripture doth approve a Prison as for blasphemy Leviticus 24. 12 for Sabath breaking Numbers 15. 14. for David's Concubines that were defiled by Absolom 2. Samuel 20. 3. and so we grant it for a seditious man for, a man that will make away himself, for a quarrellar, a prodigal, a Rover but for debt altogether unlawful.  
A good action produces a good effect. Aquinas in prima secundae questione 18. Articulo 1. in corpore. but this hath an ill effect as the starving, pining, griving of his Neighbour.  
And as in nature saith he whatsoever is deficient in generation is a fault, so in morality whatsoever causes thy Neighbour to be deficient is a fault.  
Aquinas in his Secund: Secunda questione ●●. Articulo 3. saith every imprisonment must be in Penamuel in Cantelum, either for punishment or to make a man an example. Now for a man to say he will punish his debt or because he is not able to pay him and that he will make dice of his bones, is not Christianity.  
Then it cannot be for a warning, or to make a man an example to others from running into debt, for what tradesman will say I will make this man an example for running into debt, I will make men take heed how they run into my debt, that man would have little custom that should say thus, they rather protest they never arrested man, they will not do a Gentleman that wrong, and thus they flatter men into their debts, if any man shall say I neither arrest him to punish him, nor to make him an example, but for my money I confess that's allowed of, if he have money to pay, but if he have it not, 'tis diabolical, for divines do hold that whatsoever is a man's own is his neighbours in case of necessity, quo az proprietatem thine, quo ad usum thy Neighbours, if he want it 'tis his as well as thine, but he that imprisons instead of relief adds affliction.  
Who can but grieve to see a man's cattle look lean like Pharaoh's lean Kine, his Carts drive heavily like Pharaoh's troops, follow fast after him, and he ready to be drowned in a Sea of misery.  
And if the voice of Neighbours, a miserable and beggarly living, the want of means to put forth his children, proclaim a man insuffitiant I say and have proved, it is super-diabolical to imprison this man.  
But will some reply you dispute against the law, the law allows imprisonment.  
I answer the law supposes a man is able to pay and upon that ground does admit an imprisonment, but when a man is not able and hath neither able, nor willing friends, he ought not to be imprisoned, for Ra●io stanima legis saith Sir Francis Bacon reason is the soul of the law, and there is no reason, to imprison a man because he paid not when he is unable.  
Then reason tells us bona Corporis are better then bona fortunae, a man's body is of more value than his estate, and why should the better suffer for the worse, there is no Corrispondency.  
I conclude all with this. Christ bids some go into everlasting torments because they did not feed him, when he was hungry, nor visit him in prison, and if this be the doom of those that would not give relief, what shall be the doom of those that have been the cause of their brother's hungering, and starving, and if he shall becast into everlasting torments, who did not visit, surely his torments shall be great, who was the cause of casting men into prison.  
And thus will I end this little treatise, which because of my great occasions, I have writ Currente calamo, for he that knows me, knows, it was as much for me to spare this little time, as it was for the widow of Zar●pta, to spare Elias a Cake out of her little barrel of oil 1. King's 17. 12. but rather then Elias should want, I have cast in this little mite.  
FINIS