Usury Stated Overthrown, Treatise · Part 1 · Section 46
NVM. XLVI.
Next unto His Remark, my Adverſary approaches to His Money (which the Uſurer loveth with all his heart.) Not, quoteth Mr. Jelinger. As if a Man might put out another's Money; as Children's Money. Mark his reaſon, for a Man muſt not partake of other Men's Sins, 1 Tim. 5.2. which I underſtand not: for if putting out to Uſe be a Sin, it is the Man's own Sin that puts out the Money, and not the Child's, that is meerly paſſive. Underſtand, for the preſent, while it is a Child; which is my Anſwer partly, but not fully and wholly; for I obſerve, that commonly Children, when they are grown up, live and continue in the ſame Sin of Uſury, whereinto thoſe that did put out their Money brought them. And are they not guilty of making themſelves partakers of ſuch Children's Sin of Uſury, though they do not put out their own Money to Uſury? So that I am much afraid that thoſe Children, living after, and dying in that damnable Sin of Uſury, unto which ſuch Guardians have enchained them, will, when, as Vſurers, they ſhall be, chained up by the Chains of utter Darkneſs in Hell, they will curſe ſuch as have brought them to that unutterable Miſery; ſaying, O curſed Guardians! if you had not been, we had not been in this woful and dreadful place, nor in ſuch Chains and Bonds, for you were the Men that cauſed Uſury-bonds to be made for us to make us Uſurers, before we, poor Souls, knew what Uſury is. Thus it is to be dreaded, that poor fatherleſs Children will curſe theſe Men ſo in their miſery, who have made them miſerable. Even as (a)Mr. Smith in his Sermons, p. 105.One ſaith of a Man's own Children, that They will curſe their Father; ſaying, Curſed be you, Father; for you were the Cauſe of our Torments; for if you had not ſhewn us the way of Uſury, by your Example, we had never gone that way to Hell.
But let us ſee farther how the Champion goeth on with his work; ſad work indeed which he is like to make. His Money, to ſhew, ſaith he, what a Man has ſhould be truly his, I mean, civilly his.
And how doth the Champion anſwer this? I ſuppoſe he ſaith, he had no mind on this Text, and many other places of Scripture, when he wrote, that Worldly Goods are not our own, to ſpeak according to Scripture, Pſal. 24.1. Where note,
1. That I ſpake this upon another Subject and Scripture; and that according to that (b)Viz. on Mat. 13.44, 45. handled in my Spiritual Merchant, by himſelf mentioned in his Margin.Scripture by me named, Pſal. 24.1. The Earth is the Lord's, and all that therein is. And what fault have I committed and perpetrated in it, and by it? I do thereof put a gloſs upon the Merchant's ſelling all that he had, meaning, as others alſo do, his Sins, and not his Worldy Goods, as (c)Lyra in Mat. 13.Lyra doth; for this cauſe, becauſe Worldly Goods are not our own: and how ſo? According to Scripture, and that fore-alledged Scripture, which ſaith it, Pſal. 24.1. I do not ſpeak it with a reſpect had to the Law of Man, which is the bringer in of Meum, Tuum; Mine, Thine, among Men; and giveth a Man a Civil Propriety in what he has and poſſeſſeth, reſerving for God his, mentioned in that Pſal. 24. And whereas he would make me an Offender, becauſe I ſay, what a Man has ſhould be truly his, and that this Saying is to ſhew that: And ſaith farther, that I had no mind in my Text, &c. I anſwer, Whatſoever he may wrongfully ſuppoſe, I minded my Text for all, and forgat not the laſt Commandment neither, nor other places, as well as he; but withal, do and ſhall ſtill mind that never to be forgotten Saying of a greater, learneder, holier Man than he is; St. (a)Auguſt. ad Maced. & habetur 14. q. 4. Can. Quid Dicam.Auſtin I mean; who ſaith expreſly, The whole World is a Believer's Wealth, but the Infidel is not worth a Farthing. Intimating, that the one has what he hath as a Proprietary, as his own; but what the other has, he has as an Vſurper, though, according to the Law of Man, it be called his, in the tenth Commandment, &c. And ſo he goes on, Do we not convince all Men, who ſeem to rejoyce in what they have gotten, and know not how to uſe the ſame (as Uſurers, who abuſe what Money they have to Uſury, putting it forth to Uſury) that they poſſeſs what is not their own (as Uſurers alſo may be ſaid to be ſuch Poſſeſſors, becauſe what they get by Uſury is not their own, but ſhould be reſtored to them to whom it belongeth.) And ſo progreſſeth; adding, and concluding at laſt, Omne ergo quod male poſſidetur, alienum eſt: that is, All that which is ill poſſeſſed is not a Man's own.
2. Note that I ſay no more than other modern Writers ſaid before me, viz. famous (b)It is required (ſaith this great Man, Biſhop Downam, upon this ſame Pſal. 15.5.) of every Chriſtian, that he get his Goods juſtly, &c. And therefore why muſt I be ſo blamed, who ſay the ſame?Biſhop Downam. And therefore let the Reader judge what cauſe this Zoilus has to pick ſuch needleſs frivolous Quarrels, which do but recoyl to his own Diſhonour, Opprobry and Shame. See the Margin before I go farther.
But after all this, he cometh at laſt to that which he loveth moſt dearly too, even, to Vſury; which is the Vſurer's great Diana.