Usury Stated Overthrown, Treatise · Part 2 · Section 44 · Contradiction
The ſecond Contradiction.
4. As for me, I am but the Eccho of theſe men, and mention their bitter ſayings, becauſe I look upon them as wiſe, learned, and Godly men (Chriſtians I mean) whom one may ſafely make uſe of, and without any diſparagement, and becauſe I would have the World to ſee how I am not the only man, who dealeth ſo hardly with the poor Vſurer, as to give him ſuch language now and then, but that others, being my betters by far have given him the ſame or the like before me: but of this much has been ſaid formerly, and therefore I ſhall ſay the leſs now.
Num. 109.2. The ſecond Contradiction concerning me moſtly, and my Authors in part is this, (as methinks I hear it whiſpered.)
If theſe reaſons, which you have given us, be the beſt you can ſhew, and in that, which out of Authors you have quoted to us, your ſtrength be ſuppoſed by you to lie, as it ſeemeth ſo to us, becauſe you reckon up ſo many, you might well have ſuperſeded, ſat ſtill, and not troubled the world with your Uſury Books: For we look for ſtrength of reaſon and not for railings, of which your Writings and Sayings and theirs are full.
1. Anſwer, Whereunto I anſwer thus.
1. That I and my Aſſiſtants (called Authors) need not to be aſhamed of what we hold forth, becauſe we let all the world ſee it at home in England and out of England beyond the Seas, where many of my Authors like flowers did flouriſh in Gods Eden, and ſhine, like Starrs in the Firmament, as Luther, and *Keyſerberg, Cruciger, Weſſelius, Capito, Wittenvachius.Zwinglius, who preacht the Goſpel before Luther in a place called Clarona, and many †Monſieur Hotton my learned Brother in law makes it out in his Concordia, reports it.others formerly named; and as for my poor labours lately publiſhed, and the Uſurer caſt by name, (I can produce a Letter written to me from the Belgick Orbe concerning both ſome of the Miniſters themſelves, and many private perſons too. So that I do not regard what ſome may ſay againſt me, and againſt my brethren, which agree with me in this point of Uſury, and are a numerous company; nor do I count my labour badly beſtowed, and I hope withal that no judicious Reader will ſay ſo, that if the reaſons, arguments, and ſayings, which I and my friends uſe and have uſed againſt Uſury to make it damnable, are ſo ſimple and weak, as that I might well have ſuperſeded and forborn to trouble the world therewith; ignoramus's may ſay it, but true learned men will not.
Not to ſay much of and for my reaſons, ſure I am, that ſome of my Authors eſpecially, have ſhewn as much reaſon as men can, being admirable Logicians, ſo as that they touched their mediums in unanſwerable ſyllogiſms, Dictick and Ap… dictick, fetcht from all manner of Logical terms, internal ‖Of whom my friend being a Stationer Writes thus: Our Citizens (which underſtand Engliſh) are much taken with your book (wherein the Ʋſurer caſt is concerned): and our Miniſters ſtill come to me to know whether I have any more of the ſame Authors labours, thus he.and external and conſequences, and from comparatis, or compariſons, definitions, and diviſions, and ab impoſſibili, from that which is impoſſible, and from teſtimonies both divine and humane, and did with much exactneſs make uſe of Barbara, Celarent, Darii, that is Logical Figures, ſo called, whom alſo I did trace as near as I could all along, being backt by them ſtill, tho not in ſyllogiſms (for that, if need be, I reſerve for a peculiar Latin Treatiſe ſyllogiſtically penned againſt Uſury) yet by Logical mediums, as alſo the holy Fathers, Schoolmen, and other Writers by me cited do, without railing, without jeering, without ſlandering, ſeriouſly, ſoberly, ſatisfactorily: which is not ſo to be ſeen and obſerved in my Adverſary, and his Second. For I do not remember that I met with one ſyllogiſm in any one of them, they ſuppoſing that foreign was enough for them.