The Bibles Abstract and Epitome, Part 74 – Part 75
Gods Justice Usurie punished.
VSurie is the Devils Alchimistrie, which turnes silver into gold, and Chymically projects money out of the poores bowels: it is lucre by lending: It is a sin that hath many advocates and patrons: it is (as Aristotle saith) a monstrous thing by the very light of Nature, for money to beget money: and thereupon the heathen by the light of reason stiled Usurers, ravenous usurious Vultures, being infamously guiltie of that sinne of which a converted Jew, an honest heathen, or tollerable Turke would be ashamed and remorsefull: being stigmatized by joynt consent of charitable hearts, and strongest current of best Divinitie with a brand of extraordinary bruitfulnesse, hard-heartednesse, and crueltie: in that he is like a fretting Canker with a plausible invisible consumption, wasting day▪ staies, sucksProv. 22. 7. the bloud, eates the lives of many, fils townes and cities with improfitable persons, and the countrey with miseries and inhumanities.
Now Usurie is a gain exacted by Covenant above the principall, only in liewEzek. 18. 8. and recompence of the lending, which is quite contrary to Gods Word, and therefore may sitly be called biting Usurie.
Object. The Law of England doth permit Usurie to raise two shillings in the pound, therefore Usurie is not unlawfull?
Answ. It is one thing to permit Usurie, and another to allow thereof, by our positive Lawes is meant, that those men, who cared not how much they exacted out of poore mens hands for the loane of their money, should be limited within certain bounds, lest they should overflow reason. So that the Lawes doe but mitigate the penaltie, which if it were possible would restraine men from it.
The Person that
Hath given forth upon usurie, and hath taken increase, he shall not live, heEzek. 18. 13. hath done abominably, he shall surely dye.
Hath taken usury and increase, and hath greedily gained of his neighbour by extortion, the Lord will smite his hands at his dishonest gaine,Ezek. 22. 12, 13. which he hath made, and will scatter him among the heathen: and he that putteth his money to usury, and taketh reward shall not rest on …hePsal. 15. 5. Prov. …8. 8. Chap. 20. 21. holy hill of the Lord. And that increaseth his substance by usurie and unjust gain, he shall gather it for him that shall pittie the poore, and the inheritance that he hath gotten hastily, the end therof shall not be blessed.
Iudas
By evill gotten goods purchased shame, and a field with the reward of iniquitie,Act. 1. 18, &c. who falling headlong burst asunder in the midst, so that all his bowels gushed out.
The Lord thy God saith,
Thou shalt open thy hand wide to the poore, and shalt lend him sufficientProv. 28. 8. Hab. 1. 6. Deut. 15. 8. &c. for his need in that which he wanteth.
If thou lend to any that is poore, thou shalt not be to him an usurer, neither shalt thou lay upon him usurie.
Thou shalt not lend upon usurie to thy brother, usurie of money, usurie of victuals, or usurie of any thing whatsoever, unto a strangerDeut. 23. 20, &c. thou maist lend on usurie (meaning that the Israelites might lend to the Canaanites, &c.) whom they might lawfully murther, toExod. 22. 25. those they might lend upon usurie, to murther them therewith by little and little.
Christ thy Saviour
Commanded to lend freely, looking for nothing againe (that is, forMatth. 5. 42. the use or gaine thereof) to every man that asketh of thee: and of him that taketh away thy goods, aske them not againe, and in soLuk. 6. 84. doing thy reward shall be great.
The Remedie of Usurie.
To abstaine from Usurie remember the Lords Promise, saying, The man that Ezek. 18. 8.hath not given upon usury, neither hath taken any increase shall surely live and shall not die.
The man that putteth not out his money to Ʋsury, nor taketh rewards against the Psal. 15. 5.innocent, shall rest on the holy hill of God.
Use.
1. Seeing thou seest the way to Heaven, learne to follow it.
2. Let godly Magistrates learne to tread the steps of good Nehemiah, who remediedNeh. 5. 1. &c. 10. the oppression of many by usury, and that by causing them to leave off that burden, and by making them to restore the land, vineyards, houses, &c. as also to remit the hundred part of the silver, corne and wine that was exacted by any of the Jewes.
3. For admonition: Let racking, extorting usurers, whose inclosures hath wounded whole villages and friended only two or three with the plaister of their bounties by an Almeshouse, not thinke that a sufficient satisfaction for their wrong.
4. Let all covetous hunger starved Usurers, who sell wheate and eate beanes, who have many in their debt, and yet are most in their owne debt, for not paying their belly and backe a quarter of their dues, learne to make better use of Gods Creatures.
Reade Ecclu…. 25. 29. Pro. 22. 7. Pro. 13. 11. Syr. 5 8. Ezek. 22. 12.
Gods Justice Oppression punished.
Oppressed
Ahab Naboth taking his vineyard from him, it was his ruine.2 Chro 16. 10. 2 Ki. 1…. 4. 222 King. 10. …sai. 47. ….
Babylonians The Israelites with heavy yoakes: Gods judgements fell on them.
Edomites The Jewes, for which shame covered them, and evill tookMat. 23. 4. Ezek. 7. 23. & 22. 26. Isai. 3. 15. Amo… 8. 5, 8. Mich. 2. 2. Job 2…. 6. Ps. 140. 1…. Isa. 52. 4. Ioel 1. 9. Ohad. 1 10. Exod 7. Ch. 14. Chap 3. 9. Ier. 22.them.
Egyptians The Israelites, they were often plagued, at last drowned.
Iehoiakim His subjects, he had the buriall of an Asse, and was not lamented.
Rehoboam His subjects by laying burdens on them: ten Tribes fell1 King. 12. from him.
The Israelites Divers, for which adversaries were brought against them,Amos 3. Cha 4. Mich 2. Ier. 21. Ezek. 12. 12. Gen. 6. 11. who laid their lands waste, spoyled their pallaces, so that they decayed.
The old world The poore with cruelty, they perished in the floud.
The Person that oppresseth
The Widdow and Fatherlesse God will slay him, and will make his wife a widdow, &c. Exod. 22. Psal. 7. 16. Mal. 3. 5. Mal. 3. 5. Ier. 22. 13. Prov. 22. 16. Ezek. 18. 12. Pr. 5. 1… C. 20. 19 … Th. 4. 6 Ze. 7. 10 Pro. 20. 22 …. & 27. 14. & 14. 31. Iob 20. 19. & 24. 2 & 27. 25. Psal. 140. 11. Mich. 2. …. &c. Chap. 6. 12. Ier 17. 11. Isai. 5. 7. Iam 5. 4. Hab. 2. 9. Iob 20. 8. 19, 20. Prov. 22. 23. Iob 35. 9. Isai. 10. 1.and his children fatherlesse, so that his oppression shall fall on himselfe.
The Hireling …y keeping backe of his wages, the Lord will punish him.
The Poore To increase himselfe, shall himselfe come to poverty, and that hath not restored the pledge, hee shall die, his bloud shall be upon him.
The afflicted In judgement, the Lord will spoyle the soule of that man, or by fraud doth injury any, the Lord will avenge himselfe on him.
Any By refusing to heare his cry, the Lord will not heare him, and that doth evill to any one, it shall be his destruction, and that taketh the fields of others, the Lord will devise an evill against that family, so that they shall eat and not be satisfied, &c. And as the Partridge gathereth her young, which she hath not brought forth; so he that gathereth riches and not by right, shall leave them in the midst of his dayes: and that joyneth house to house, and field to field, woe shall be unto him, for such houses shall be desolate, and that by building by bloud, and stablishing it by iniquity, the stones thereof shall cry out of the wals, and the beame out of the timber shall answer it: he shall feele no quietnesse in his body, hee shall be in paine, the hand of the wicked shall assaile him, the Lord will do violence unto him, who hath prepared judgements for him.
Because of unrighteous dealings and wrongs, and riches gotten by deceit andEzek. 12. 9. Ecclus. 10. 8. oppression, the land shall be desolated, and the kingdome from one people to another translated.
The LORD Will set at liberty those who are snared by oppression, when they thatMal. 3. 5. Psal. 12. 5. Psal. 72. 4. Deut. 2. 23. Levit. 17. 10. Deut. 14. 21. Deu 22. 6. &c. Gen 9. 4. Psal. 12. 5. Psal. 62. 10. have oppressed them shall cry and not be heard.
The Lord Did so abhorre oppression and crueltie, as that hee required theMal. 3. 5. Psal. 11. …. & 12. 3. & 140. 11. & 35. 1…. Vse. bloud of that man, that did eate the flesh of beasts with the bloud thereof: as also commanded the Israelites, that if they found any birds nests in their way travelling, that they should not seeth a kid in his mothers milke, nor destroy the dam of the young one, nor eate flesh with the life thereof, that is the bloud.
Reade of Tyrants and tyrannie.
Use.
1. Doth the Lord so abhorre oppression and cruelty, as that he would have mercyProv. 12. 10. Prov. 3. 14. Mich. 3. 3. Iob 27. 13. Psal. 62. 10. Prov. 16. 8. Prov. 22. 20 Ezek. 7. 11. Dan. 4. 27. shewed even to the beasts and foules. What then shall those oppressours expect, whose hearts are cruell, whose teeth are as swords, and their jawes as knives to devoure the poore from the earth, and the needy from among men: who eate the flesh of the people, and slay off the skinne from them, who breake their bones and chop them in peeces as for the pot, and as flesh within the Cauldron (saith the Prophet Michah.) Surely they shall cry unto the Lord, but he will not heare them, he will hide his face from them: trust not then in robbery and wrong.
2. Doth the Lord so abhorre oppression? Follow then the counsell of Daniel: Breake off that sinne by repentance unto God, by mercy to the poore: and with Zacheus by restitution to wronged, oppressed and injured men.Luk. 19.
The Lord saith Thou shalt not oppresse the stranger that dwelleth with thee, if thou sell ought unto thy neighbour, or buy ought of him, yee shall not Levit. 19. Chap. 25. 14.oppresse one another therein.
Iob 35 9. Chap. 5. 7. Prov. 13 11. Chap 14. 31. Chap. 28. 20. Chap. 29. 13. Chap. 30 15. Isai 3 14. Eccles 4. 1. Prov. 21. 6. Amos 1. Chap. 2. Chap. 3. Iob 20. 19. Psa. 72. 4. Psal. 62. 10. Psal. 140. 7. Iam. 5. 3. Syr. 5. 8. Levit. 25. 14, 17. Syr 34. 18. Am. 5. 11. Obad. 14. Hab. 1. 17. Mich. 3. 3. Zeph. 1. 9. Isai. 47. 6. Ezek. 22. 7 Syra 40. 13. Chap. 10. 8.
Prov. 20. 21. Iob 24. 2. &c Psal. 12 5. Prov. 16. 8 Chap. 14 31. Zech. 7. 11. Mic. 6. 12. Iob 20 8. Prov. 22. 23. Iob 35. 9. Prov. 14. 31. Isai. 58. Isai. 10 1. Iob 22. 6. Ier. 17. 11. Zeph. 1. 9 Reade of Tyranny.
Of Restitution.
REstitution is to be made by all such as have taken any thing wrongfully by Usury, oppression, deceit or such like: Without which mans repentance for sinneNumb. 5 6, 7. is not acceptable before God: And therefore we are to follow Christs command herein, (saying) If thou bringest thy gift to the Altar, &c. go… first and be reconciled Mat. 3. 25.to thy brother, then come and offer thy gift, &c.
Object. What if I be not able to make restitution, will not God then be mercifull and heare the prayer made to him?
Answ. Debt is not deadly sinne, when a man hath no meanes, there must be votall restitution, if there cannot be actuall, quoad affectum, though thou cannot quoad effectum: *2 Cor. 8. 12 Deut. 10. 17. Bern. 2 Cor. 8. 11.If there …e a willing mind it is sufficient, not according to that a man hath, but according to that which he hath not. God reckons that as done, which a man, Vere voluit, tametsi adimplere non valuit: faithfully would, though not fully could accomplish.
David said, O Lord, thou knowest mine innocencie.Psal. 7 8. 1 Sam. 12. 3.
Samuel Whose oxe or asse have I taken, whom have I defrauded, whom have I hurt? Or of whose hand have I received any bribe to blind mine eyes therewith? And I will restore it.
Michah give to his mother, the silver that he had taken from herIudg. 17. Iob 31. 38.
Iob Said, If my land cry against me, or the surrowes thereof complaine together, let 2 King. 8. 6.this…les grow instead of wheate, and cockell instead of barly: And againe saith, The wicked shall restore that he tooke violently.Iob 20. 18. Luk. 19. Mat. 27. Nehem. 5. 8.
Zacheus, If I have taken by false accusation: I will restore four fold.
Iudas will condemne many, who brought againe the peeces of silver.
Nehemiah caused the Jewes to restore what was exacted by them.
Salomon willed not to with-hold the goods from the owner of them▪Prov. 3. 2. Numb. 5… Exod. 22. Ezek 33. …5.Phil…m 9.
The Lord commanded restitution to be made of things taken to keepe, taken by robbery, by violence, oppression and such like.
If the wicked restore the pledge, and give againe that he had robbed, &c. He shall Prov. 6. 3…. Job 20. …8.live and not die, saith the Lord.
Owe nothing to any man, but love one another (saith the Apostle.)Rom. 13 8. Psal 37. …1.
The ungodly borroweth and payeth not againe, but the righteous is mercifull and Eye for eye, Levit. 24▪liberall (saith the Psalmist.)
Reade Ier. 20. 18. … Cor. 7. 2. Exod. 22. 3. &c Numb. 5. 8. &c.