are able to pay him, or acquaint him truly with your case.
_Quest._ VIII. Suppose that I have no probability of paying the
last creditor, may I borrow of one to pay another, and so live upon
borrowing; or must I rather continue in one man's debt?
_Answ._ If you truly acquaint your creditors with your state, you
may do as is most to your convenience. If the first creditor be able
and willing rather to trust you longer, than that you should borrow of
another to pay him, you may continue his debtor, till you can pay him
without borrowing, but if he be either poor or unwilling to bear with
you, and another that is able be willing to venture, you may better
borrow of another to pay him. But if they be all equally unwilling to
stand to any hazard by you, then you must rather continue in the first
man's debt, because if you wrong another you will commit another sin:
nay, you cannot borrow in such a case, because it is supposed that the
other will not lend, when he knoweth your case. And you must not at
all conceal it from him.
_Object._ But it may be my ruin to open my full state to another.
_Answ._ You must not live upon cheating and thievery to prevent
your ruin: and what can it be less to get another man's money against
his will, if you hide your case, which if he knew he would not lend it
you.
_Object._ But what if I tell him plainly, that I will pay him
certainly by borrowing of another, though I cannot pay him for mine
own, and though I be not like to pay the last?
_Answ._ If you truly thus open your case to every one that you
borrow of, you may take it, if they will lend it; for then you have
their consent: and it is supposed, that every one is willing to run
the hazard of being the last creditor.
_Quest._ IX. May I lend upon pledges, pawns, or mortgages for my
security?
_Answ._ Yes, so you take not that from a poor man for a pledge, which
is necessary to his livelihood and maintenance: as the bed which he
should lie on, the clothes which he should wear, or the tools which he
should work with; and be not cruel on pretence of mercy.
_Quest._ X. May I take the forfeiture and keep a pledge or
mortgage upon covenants?
_Answ._ If it be among merchants and rich men, an act of
merchandise, and not of mere security for money lent, then it is
another case: as if they make a bargain thus, Take this jewel or this
land for your money; and it shall be yours if I pay you not at such a
day: I am willing to stand to the hazard of uncertainty; if I pay you
not, suppose it is for my own commodity, and not through disability.
In this case it is lawful to take the forfeiture, or detain the thing.
But if it be properly but a pledge to secure the money, then the final
intent is but that your money may be repaid; and you may not take the
advantage of breaking a day, to take that from another which is none
of your own. Justice will allow you only to take so much as your money
came to, and to give the overplus (if there be any) to the debtor. And
mercy will require you rather to forgive the debt, than to keep a
pledge which he cannot spare, but to his ruin and misery, (as his
food, his raiment, his tools, his house, &c.) unless you be in as
great necessity as he.
_Quest._ XI. May I take the bond or promise of a third person as
security for my money?
_Answ._ Yes, in case that other be able and willing to be
responsible; for you have his own consent; but great caution should be
used, that you take no man that is insufficient, from whom mercy
forbiddeth you to take it, in case the principal debtor fail; unless
you take his suretiship but _in terrorem_, resolving not to take
it of him: and also that you faithfully tell the sureties that you
must require it of them in case of non-payment, and therefore try
whether indeed they are truly willing to pay it: for if they be such
as truly presume that you will not take it of them, or will take it
ill to be sued for it, you should not take their suretiship, unless
you purpose not to seek it (except in necessity).
_Quest._ XII. Is it lawful to lend upon usury, interest, or
increase?
_Answ._ This controversy hath so many full treatises written on
it, that I cannot expect that so few words as I must lay out upon it
should satisfy the studious reader. All the disputes about the name of
usury I pass by; it being, The receiving any additional gain as due
for money lent, which is commonly meant by the word, and which we mean
in the question. For the questions, Whether we may bargain for it, or
tie the debtor to pay it? Whether we may take it after his gain as
partaking in it, or before? Whether we must partake also in the loss,
if the debtor be a loser? with other such like, are but subsequent to
the main question, Whether any gain (called use) may be taken by the
lender as his due for the money lent? My judgment is as followeth.
I. There is some such gain or usury lawful and commendable. II. There
is some such gain or usury unlawful and a heinous sin. I shall first
give my reasons of the first proposition.
I. If all usury be forbidden it is either by the law of nature, or by
some positive law of supernatural revelation: if the latter, it is
either by some law of Moses, or by some law of Christ: if the former,
it is either as against the rule of piety to God, or against justice
or charity to men. That which is neither a violation of the natural
laws of piety, justice, or charity; nor against the supernaturally
revealed laws of Moses or of Christ, is not unlawful. But there is
some usury which is against none of all these; _ergo_ there is some
usury which is not unlawful.
I will first lay you down the instances of such usury, and then prove
it. There is a parcel of land to be sold for a thousand pounds, which
is worth forty pounds per annum, and hath wood on it worth a thousand
pounds (some such things we have known): John N. is willing to
purchase it; but he hath a poor neighbour, T. S. that hath no money,
but a great desire of the bargain. J. N. loving his neighbour as
himself, and desiring his wealth, lendeth him the thousand pounds upon
usury for one year. T. S. buyeth the land, and selleth the wood for
the same money, and repayeth it in a year, and so hath all the land
for almost nothing; as if J. N. had purchased the land and freely
given it him, after a year or two; the gift had been the same.
_Object._ Here you suppose the seller wronged by selling his land
almost for nothing.
_Answ._ 1. That is nothing at all to the present case, but a
different case by itself. 2. I can put many cases in which such a sale
may be made without any wrong to the seller: as when it is done by
some prince, or state, or noble and liberal person, purposely
designing the enriching of the subjects, or after a war, as lately in
Ireland. So that the question is, whether J. N. may not give T. S. a
thousand or eight hundred pounds' worth of land, taking a year's rent
first out of the land, or a year's use for the money, which cometh to
the same sum.
Another: a rich merchant trading into the East Indies, having five
thousand pounds to lay out upon his commodities in traffic, when he
hath laid out four thousand five hundred pounds, lendeth in charity
the other five hundred pounds to one of his servants to lay out upon a
commodity, which when it cometh home will be worth two thousand
pounds; and offereth him to secure the carriage with his own;
requiring only the use of his money at six per cent. Here the taking
of thirty pounds' use, is but the giving him one thousand four hundred
and seventy pounds, and is all one with deducting so much of the gift.
Another instance: certain orphans having nothing left them but so much
money as will by the allowed use of it find them bread and poor
clothing; the guardian cannot lay it out in lands for them; and if he
maintain them upon the stock, it will be quickly spent, and he must
answer for it: a rich man that is their neighbour tradeth in iron
works, (furnaces or forges,) or lead works, or other such commodities,
in which he constantly getteth the double of the stock which he
employeth, or at least twenty pounds or forty pounds in the hundred;
the guardian dare not lend the money to any poor man, lest he break
and never be able to pay it; therefore he lendeth it this rich man.
And if he have it without usury, the poor orphans give the rich man
freely twenty pounds or forty pounds a year, supposing their stock to
be a hundred; if he take usury, the rich man doth but give the poor
orphans some part of his constant gain.
Another instance: in a city or corporation where there is a rich trade
of clothing or making silks, there is a stock of money given by legacy
for the poor, and intrusted into the hands of the richest of the city,
to trade with and give the poor the use of it: and there is another
stock left to set up young beginners, who have not a stock to set up
themselves; on condition that they give the third part of their gain
to the poor, and at seven years' end resign the stock: the question
is, Whether the poor should be without this use of their money, and let
the rich go away with it? or whether they may take it?
Now I prove that such usury is not forbidden by God.
1. It is not forbidden us by the law of Moses: (1.) Because Moses's
law never did forbid it: for, 1. It is expressly forbidden as an act
of unmercifulness; and therefore forbidden only to the poor and to
brethren, Exod. xxii. 25; Lev. xxv. 36, 37. Yea, when the poor are not
named, it is the poor that are meant; because in that country they did
not keep up stocks for merchandise or trading, but lent usually to the
needy only: at least the circumstances of the several texts show, that
it is only lending to the needy, and not lending to drive on any
enriching trades, which is meant where usury is forbidden.[157] 2. And
it is expressly allowed to be used to strangers, Deut. xxiii. 19, 20,
to whom nothing unjust or uncharitable might be done; only such a
measure of charity was not required towards them as unto brethren. And
there were more merchants of strangers that traded with them in
foreign commodities, than of Jews that fetched them home: so that the
prohibition of usury is in the law itself restrained only to their
lending to the poor; but in the prophets who do but reprove the sin,
it is expressed without that limitation, partly because it supposeth
the meaning of the law to be known, which the prophets did but apply,
and partly because there was little or no lending used among the Jews,
but to the needy as an act of charity.
(2.) And if it had been forbidden in Moses's law only, it would not
extend to christians now; because the law of Moses, as such, is not in
force: the matter of it is much of the law of nature indeed; but as
Mosaical, it was proper to the Jews and proselytes, or at least
extended not to the christian gentiles; as is plain in 2 Cor. iii. 7;
Gal. iii. 19, 24; v. 3; Ephes. ii. 15; 1 Tim. i. 7; Heb. vii. 12, 16, 19.
Moses's law as such never bound any other nations, but the proselytes
that joined themselves to the Jews (nor was all the world obliged so
to be proselyted as to take up their laws): much less do they bind us
that are the servants of Christ, so long after the dissolution of
their commonwealth. So much of them as are part of the law of nature,
or of any positive law of Christ, or of the civil law of any state,
are binding as they are such natural, christian, or civil laws. But
not one of them as Mosaical: though the Mosaical law is of great use
to help us to understand the law of nature in many particular
instances, in which it is somewhat difficult to us.
2. There is no positive law of Christ forbidding all usury: as for
Luke vi. 32, 35, it is plainly nothing to the case; for he saith not,
Lend, looking for no gain or increase, but looking for nothing again.
And the context showeth that the meaning must be one of these two;
either, q. d. Lend not only to them that will lend to you again when
you are in want; but even to the poor, that you can never hope to
borrow of; or else, Lend not only to them that are able to pay you,
and where your stock is secured, but to the needy where your money is
hazarded; and though they will pay you if they are able, yet you have
little or no hope that ever they should be able to repay: lend so, as
to be willing to make a gift of it in case the borrower never repay
it. And there is no other text that can be pretended against it in the
New Testament.
3. And that the law of nature doth not forbid all usury, will appear
by examining the several parts of it. The law of nature forbiddeth but
three sorts of sins: 1. Those that are against piety to God. 2. Those
that are against our own welfare. 3. Those that are against our
neighbour's good: and that is, 1. Against justice. 2. Against charity.
There is none that falleth not under some of these heads.
1. And that usury is not naturally evil as against piety to God; 2. Or
as against ourselves, and our own welfare; I need not prove, because
no reason nor reasonable person doth lay any such accusation against
it. Though they that think it absolutely unlawful, say that it is
consequently against God, as every violation of his law is. But that
is nothing to the case.
3. Therefore there is no doubt but the whole controversy is resolved
into this last question, Whether all usury be against justice or
charity to our neighbour? Justice obligeth me to give him his own;
charity obligeth me to give him more than his own, in certain cases,
as one that love him as myself. That which is not against justice, may
be against charity; but that which is against charity, is not always
against justice strictly taken. And that which is an act of true
charity, is never against justice; because he that giveth his
neighbour more than his own, doth give him his own and more. There is
a usury which is against justice and charity; there is a usury which
is against charity, but not against mere justice; and there is a usury
which is against neither justice nor charity. If I prove it charitable
it is superfluous to say more.
All the instances before given are notoriously charitable. That which
is for the preservation of the lives and comforts of the poor, and of
orphans, or for the enriching of my neighbour, is an act of charity;
but such is some usury, past all doubt, as is before declared. Where
the contrary is an act of cruelty, the usury is not against charity,
but for it. For the rich to deny to the poor and orphans a part of
that gain, which they make by the improvement of their own money, is
oppression and cruelty; if it be cruel to let a beggar die or starve,
when we should feed and clothe him of our own; much more to let the
poor and orphans starve and perish rather than give them the increase
of their own, or part of it at least. As for them that say, It may be
as well improved otherwise, they are unexperienced men; it is a known
falsehood as to the most, though some few may meet with such
opportunities. At least it is nothing to them that cannot have other
ways of improving it; who are very many.
Moreover, when it is not an act of charity, yet it may be not against
charity in these cases: 1. When the lender is poor and the borrower
rich; yea, it may be a sin to lend it freely. "He that oppresseth the
poor to increase his riches, and he that gives to the rich, shall
surely come to want," Prov. xxii. 16. It is a giving to the rich to
lend freely that money which they improve to the increase of their
riches. 2. When the lender is not obliged to that act of charity,
though the borrower be poorer than himself. Which falleth out in a
hundred cases; and may be comprised under this one general, When the
lender is obliged to expend that same money in some other greater,
better work: as at the same time while a man that is worth but twenty
pounds a year, is in debt to a man that hath a thousand pounds a year,
there may be a hundred or a thousand poor people worth nothing, ready
to perish, whom the rich is rather bound to succour, than him that
hath but twenty pounds a year. And there may be works of piety (as to
set up a school, or promote the preaching of the gospel) which may be
as great as either. And the richest that is, cannot do all the good
that is to be done, nor relieve all the persons that are in want;
therefore when he must leave much undone, if he would give all his
substance, it is (_cæteris paribus_) a sin, to give that to a man that
can make shift without it, and pass by a hundred in much deeper
necessity and distress; so that he who either exerciseth charity in
his usury, or doth nothing against charity and justice, certainly
sinneth not by that usury. For all the scriptures which speak against
usury, speak against it as a cruel or uncharitable thing.
_Object._ But it is sometimes necessary for a law to forbid that
which otherwise would be good, when it cannot be done, without
encouraging others to a greater evil; such as ordinary usury is; and
then that law must be observed.
_Answ._ This is true _in thesi_, that such cases there are;
but it is unproved and untrue in this case; for, 1. There is no such
law. 2. There is no such reason or necessity of such a law. For God
can as well make laws against unrighteous or uncharitable increase or
usury, without forbidding that which is charitable and just, as he can
make laws against unrighteous or uncharitable buying or selling
without condemning that which was good and just; or as he can forbid
gluttony, drunkenness, idleness, pride, without forbidding eating,
drinking, apparel, or riches. He can easily tell men of whom and in
what case to take use, and when not.
He that would see all other objections answered, and the case fully
handled, hath many treatises on both sides extant to inform him.
II. That there is a sort of usury which is evil I know of no man that
doubteth, and therefore need not stand to prove.
_Quest._ When is usury sinful?
_Answ._ As is before said, When it is against either justice or
charity. 1. When it is like cheating bargaining, which under pretence
of consent and a form of justice doth deceive or oppress, and get from
another that which is not truly ours but his. 2. When you lend for
increase where charity obligeth you to lend freely; even as it is a
sin to lend expecting your own again, when charity obligeth you to
give it. 3. When you uncharitably exact that which your brother is
disabled utterly to pay, and use cruelty to procure it (be it the use
or the principal). 4. When you allow him not such a proportion of the
gain as his labour, hazard, or poverty doth require; but because the
money is yours, will live at ease upon his labours. 5. When in case of
his losses you rigorously exact your due without that abatement, or
forgiving debts, (whether use or principal,) which humanity and
charity require. In a word, when you are selfish, and do not as,
according to true judgment, you may desire to be done by, if you were
in his case.
_Quest._ But when am I bound to exercise this charity in not
taking use?
_Answ._ As I said before, 1. Whenever you have no more urgent,
and necessary, and excellent work, to lay out that money on, which you
are so to receive. 2. Yea, though another work may be in itself
better, (as to relieve many poorer, better men with that money,) yet
when you cannot take it, without the utter undoing of the debtor, and
bringing him into as bad a case, as any single person whom you would
relieve, it is the safer side to leave the other unrelieved, (unless
it be a person on whom the public good much dependeth,) rather than to
extort your own from such a one to give another. Because that which
you cannot get without a scandalous appearance of cruelty, is _quoad
jus in re_ not yours to give, till you can better get possession of
it; and therefore God will not expect that you should give it to
another.
In all this I imply that as you must prefer the lives of others in
giving alms, before your own conveniences and comforts, and must not
say, I cannot spare it, when your necessity may spare it, though not
your pleasure; so also in taking use of those that you are bound to
show charity to, the same rule and proportions must be observed in
your charity.
Note also, that in all this it appeareth, that the case is but
gradually different, between taking the use and taking the principal.
For when the reason for remitting is the same, you are as well bound
to remit the principal as the use.
But this difference there is, that many a man of low estate may afford
to lend freely to a poorer man for a little time, who cannot afford to
give it. And prudence may direct us to choose one man to lend freely
to for a time, because of his sudden necessity, when yet another is
fitter to give it to.
_Quest._ XIII. Is lending a duty? If so, must I lend to all that
ask me, or to whom?
_Answ._ Lending is a duty, when we have it, and our brother's
necessity requireth it, and true prudence telleth us, that we have no
better way to lay it out, which is inconsistent with that. And
therefore rich men ordinarily should both lend and give as prudence
shall direct. But there is an imprudent and so a sinful lending: as,
1. When you will lend that which is another's, and you have no power
to lend. 2. When you lend that which you must needs require again,
while you might easily foresee that the borrower is not like to pay.
Lend nothing but what you have either great probability will be
repaid, or else which you are willing to give in case the debtor
cannot or will not pay; or at least when suing for it will not have
scandalous and worse effects than not lending. For it is very ordinary
when you come to demand it and sue for it, to stir up the hatred of
the debtor against you, and to make him your enemy, and to break his
charity by your imprudent charity; in such a case, if you are obliged
to relieve him, give him so much as you can spare, rather than lend
him that which you cannot spare, but must sue for. In such cases, if
charity go not without prudence, nor prudence without charity, you may
well enough see when to lend, and how much.
_Quest._ XIV. Is it lawful to take upon usury in necessity, when
the creditor doth unjustly or unmercifully require it?
_Answ._ Not in case that the consequents (by encouraging sin or
otherwise) be like to do more hurt, than the money will do you good.
Else, it is lawful when it is for your benefit; as it is lawful to
take part of your wages for your work, or part of the worth of your
commodity, when you cannot have the whole; and as it is lawful to
purchase your rights of an enemy, or your life of a thief; as is
aforesaid. A man may buy his own benefit of an unrighteous man.
_Quest._ XV. Doth not contracting for a certain sum of gain, make
usury to be in that case unlawful, which might lawfully be taken of
one that is free?
_Answ._ Yes, in case that contracting determine an uncertain case
without sufficient cause: as if you agree, that whether the borrower
gain or lose, and be poor or rich, I will have so much gain; that is,
whether it prove merciful or unmerciful, I will have it. But then in
that case, if it so prove unmerciful, it may not be taken without
contracting, if freely offered. No contract may tie the debtor to that
which is against justice or charity; and no contract may absolutely
require that which may prove uncharitable; unless there be a tacit
condition or exception of such a case implied. Otherwise I see no
scripture or reason, why a contract altereth the case, and may not be
used to secure that increase which is neither unrighteous nor
unmerciful: it may be the bond of equity, but not of iniquity. As in
case of a certain gain by the borrower, a certain use may be
contracted for; and in case of uncertain gain to the borrower, a
conditional contract may be made. Yea, in case of merchandise, where
men's poverty forbiddeth not such bargains, I see not but it is lawful
to sell a greater uncertain gain, for a smaller certain gain; and so
to make the contracts absolute (as Amesius Cas. Consc. on this
question showeth). As all oppression and unmercifulness must be
avoided, and all men must do as they would (judiciously) be done by;
so it is a bad thing to corrupt religion, and fill the world with
causeless scruples, by making that a sin which is no sin. Divines that
live in great cities and among merchandise, are usually fitter judges
in this case, than those that live more obscurely (without experience)
in the country.
_Tit. 5. Cases of Conscience about Lusory Contracts._
_Quest._ 1. Is it lawful to lay wagers upon the credit or
confidence of one another's opinions or assertions in discourse? As e.
g. I will lay you so much that I am in the right?
_Answ._ Yes, if these three things concur: 1. That the true end
of the wager is, to be a penalty to him that shall be guilty of a rash
and false assertion, and not to gratify the covetousness of the other.
2. That it be no greater a sum than can be demanded and paid, without
breach of charity, or too much hurt to the loser (as above the
proportion of his error). 3. That it be no other but what both parties
are truly willing to stand to the loss of, if either of them lose, and
that beforehand they truly seem so willing to each other.
_Quest._ II. Is it lawful to lay wagers upon horseraces, dogs,
hawks, bear-baitings, or such games as depend upon the activity of
beast or man?
_Answ._ Yes, upon the two last expressed conditions; and, 3. That
it be not an exercise which is itself unlawful, by cruelty to beasts,
or hazard to the lives of men, (as in fencing, running, wrestling, &c.
it may fall out if it be not cautelously done,) or by the expense of
an undue proportion of time in them, which is the common malignity of
such recreations.
_Quest._ III. May I lawfully give money to see such sports, as
bear-baitings, stage-plays, masks, shows, puppet-plays, activities of
man or beast? &c.
_Answ._ There are many shows that are desirable and laudable, (as
of strange creatures, monsters, rare engines, activities, &c.) the
sight of which it is lawful to purchase, at a proportionable price; as
a prospect through one of Galileo's tubes or such another, is worth
much money to a studious person. But when the exercise is unlawful,
(as all stage-plays are that ever I saw, or had just information of;
yea, odiously evil; however it is very possible that a comedy or
tragedy might with abundance of cautions be lawfully acted,) it is
then (usually) unlawful to be a spectator either for money or on free
cost. I say, (usually,) because it is possible that some one that is
necessitated to be there, or that goeth to find out their evil to
suppress them, or that is once only induced to know the truth of them,
may do it innocently; but so do not they, who are present voluntarily
and approvingly. 3. And if the recreation be lawful in itself, yet
when vain persons go thither to feed a carnal fancy and vicious
humour, which delighteth more in vanity, than they delight in piety,
and when it wasteth their time and corrupteth their minds, and
alienateth them from good, or hindereth duty, it is to them unlawful.
_Quest._ IV. Is it lawful to play at cards or dice for money, or
at any lottery?[158]
_Answ._ The greatest doubt is, whether the games be lawful, many
learned divines being for the negative, and many for the affirmative;
and those that are for the affirmative lay down so many necessaries or
conditions to prove them lawful, as I scarce ever yet saw meet
together; but if they be proved at all lawful, the case of wagers is
resolved as the next.
_Quest._ V. May I play at bowls, run, shoot, &c. or use such
personal activities for money?
_Answ._ Yes, 1. If you make not the game itself bad, by any
accident. 2. If your wager be laid for sport, and not for covetousness
(striving who shall get another's money, and give them nothing for
it). 3. And if no more be laid than is suitable to the sport, and the
loser doth well and willingly pay.
_Quest._ VI. If the loser who said he was willing, prove angry
and unwilling when it cometh to the paying, may I take it, or get it
by law against his will?
_Answ._ No, not in ordinary cases: because you may not turn a
sport to covetousness, or breach of charity; but in case that it be a
sport that hath cost you any thing, you may in justice take your
charges, when prudence forbids it not.
_Tit. 6. Cases of Conscience about Losing and Finding._
_Quest._ I. If I find money or any thing lost, am I bound to seek
out the owner, if he seek not after me? and how far am I bound to seek
him?
_Answ._ You are bound to use such reasonable means, as the nature
of the case requireth, that the true owner may have his own again. He
that dare keep another man's money, because he findeth it, it is like
would steal, if he could do it as secretly. Finding gives you no
propriety, if the owner can be found: do as you would be done by, and
you may satisfy your conscience. If nearer inquiry will not serve, you
are bound to get it cried in the market, or proclaimed in the church,
or mentioned in the Curranto's that carry weekly news, or any probable
way, which putteth you not upon unreasonable cost or labour.
_Quest._ II. May I take any thing for the finding of it, as my
due?
_Answ._ You may demand so much as shall pay for any labour or
cost which you have been at about it, or finding out the owner. But no
more as your due; though a moderate gratuity may be accepted, if he
freely give it.
_Quest._ III. May I desire to find money or any thing else in my
way? or may I be glad when I have found it?
_Answ._ You should first be unwilling that your neighbour should
lose it, and be sorry that he hath lost it; but supposing that it be
lost, you may moderately desire that you may find it rather than
another; not with a covetous desire of the gain; but that you may
faithfully gratify the owner in restoring it, or if he cannot be found
may dispose of it as you ought. And you should be more sorry that it
is lost, than glad that you find it, except for the owner.
_Quest._ IV. If no owner can be found, may I not take it and use
it as mine own?
_Answ._ The laws of the land do usually regulate claims of
propriety in such matters. Where the law giveth it to the lord of the
manor, it is his, and you must give it him. Where it giveth it to no
other, it is his that findeth it; and occupancy will give him
propriety. But so as it behoveth him to judge, if he be poor, that
God's providence ordered it for his own supply; but if he be rich,
that God sent it him but as to his steward, to give it to the poor.
_Quest._ V. If many be present when I find it, may I not wholly
retain it to myself; or may I not conceal it from them if I can?
_Answ._ If the law overrule the case, it must be obeyed; but if
it do not, you may, if you can, conceal it, and thereby become the
only finder, and take it as your own, if the owner be not found: but
if you cannot conceal it at the time of finding, they that see it with
you, are partly the finders as well as you; though perhaps the largest
share be due to the occupant.
_Quest._ VI. If I trust my neighbour or servant with money or
goods, or if another trust me, who must stand to the loss if they be
lost?
_Answ._ Here also the law of the land as regulating proprieties
must be very much regarded; and especially the true meaning of the
parties must be understood: if it was antecedently the expressed or
implied meaning that one party in such or such a case should bear the
loss, it must in strict justice be according to the true meaning of
the parties. Therefore if a carrier that undertaketh to secure it,
loseth it, he loseth it to himself. Or if one that it is lent to on
that condition (explicit or implicit) lose it, it is to himself. But
if a friend to whom you are beholden for the carriage, lose it, who
undertook no more than to bestow his labour, the loss must be yours;
yea, though it was his negligence or drunkenness that was the fault;
for you took him and trusted him as he is. But if a servant, or one
obliged to do it by hire, do without any other agreement, only
undertake to serve you in it, and loseth it, the law or custom of the
country is instead of a contract; for if the law or custom lay the
loss on him, it is supposed that he consented to it in consenting to
be your servant; if it lay it on you, it is supposed that you took
your servant on such terms of hazard. But if it be left undecided by
law and custom, you may make your servant pay only so much as is a
proportionable penalty for his fault, but no more, as any satisfaction
for your loss; except you agreed with him to repay such losses as were
by his default. And when it is considered what strict justice doth
require, it must also be considered what charity and mercy do require,
that the poor be not oppressed.
_Tit. 7. Directions to Merchants, Factors, Chaplains, Travellers,
that live among Infidels._
_Quest._ I. Is it lawful to put oneself, or servants, especially
young unestablished apprentices, into temptations of an infidel
country, (or a popish,) for the getting of riches, as merchants
do?[159]
_Answ._ This cannot be truly answered without distinguishing, 1.
Of the countries they go from. 2. Of the places they go to. 3. Of the
quality of the persons that go. 4. Of the causes of their going.
I. Some countries that they go from may be as bad as those that they
go to, or in a state of war, when it is better to be absent, or in a
time of persecution, or at least of greater temptation than they are
like to have abroad. And some are contrarily as a paradise in
comparison of those they go to, for holiness and helps to heaven, and
for peace and opportunities of serviceableness to God and the public
good.
II. Some countries which they may go to, may have as good helps for
their souls as at home, if not by those of the religion of the
nation, yet by christians that live among them, or by the company
which goeth with them; or at least there may be no great temptations
to change their religion, or debauch them, either through the civility
and moderation of those they live among, or through their sottish
ignorance and viciousness, which will rather turn men's hearts against
them. But some countries have so strong temptations to corrupt men's
understandings through the subtlety of seducers, and some have such
allurements to debauch men, and some such cruelties to tempt them to
deny the truth, that it is hard among them to retain one's innocency.
III. Some that go abroad are understanding, settled christians, able
to make good use of other men's errors, and sins, and ill examples or
suggestions, and perhaps to do much good on others; but some are
young, and raw, and unexperienced, whose heads are unfurnished of
those evidences and reasons by which they should hold fast their own
profession against the cunning reasonings of an adversary, and their
hearts are unfurnished of that love to truth, and that serious
resolution, which is necessary to their safety, and therefore are like
to be corrupted.
IV. Some are sent by their princes as agents or ambassadors on
employments necessary to the public good; and some are sent by
societies on business necessary to the ends of the society; and some
go in case of extreme poverty and necessity, having no other way of
maintenance at home; and some go in obedience to their parents and
masters that command it them; and some go to avoid the miseries of a
war, or the danger of a sharp persecution at home, or the greater
temptations of a debauched or seducing age, or some great temptations
in their families. But some go for fancy, and some for mere
covetousness, without need.
By these distinctions the case may be answered by men that are
judicious and impartial. As,
I. _Affirm._ 1. It is lawful for ambassadors to go among
infidels, that are sent by princes and states; because the public good
must be secured.
2. It is lawful for the agents of lawful societies or trading
companies to go (_cæteris paribus_, the persons being capable);
because trade must be promoted, which tendeth to the common good of
all countries.
3. It is not only lawful, but one of the best works in the world, for
fit persons to go on a design to convert the poor infidels and
heathens where they go. Therefore the preachers of the gospel should
not be backward to take any opportunity, as chaplains to ambassadors,
or to factories, &c. to put themselves in such a way.
4. It is lawful for a son or servant (whose bonds extend to such a
service) to go in obedience to a superior's command; and God's special
protection may be trusted in a way of obedience.
5. It is lawful for one in debt to go, that hath probable hopes that
way and no other to pay his debts. Because he is a defrauder if he
detain other men's money, while a lawful way of repaying it may be
taken.
6. It is lawful for a duly qualified person to go in case of extreme
poverty, to be able to live in the world; and that poverty may be
called extreme to one that was nobly born and educated, which would be
no poverty to one that was bred in beggary.
7. It is lawful for a well qualified person, who desireth riches to
serve God, and to do good with, to go in a way of trading, though he
be in no poverty or necessity himself. Because God's blessing on a
lawful trade may be desired and endeavoured, and he that should do all
the good he can, may use what lawful means he can to be enabled to do
it. And other men's wants should be to us as our own, and therefore we
may endeavour to be able to relieve them.
8. In a time of such civil war, when a man knoweth not which side to
take, it may be better for some men to live abroad; yea, among
infidels.
9. There is little to dissuade a man whose trade leadeth him into a
country that is better than his own, or so sottish as to have small
temptation, and that hath the company of faithful christians, with
which he may openly worship God, and privately converse to his
spiritual edification.
10. In urgent cases one may go for a time, where he can have no use of
public church worship, so be it he have private means and
opportunities of holy living.
11. It is lawful on less occasions to leave one's own country in a
time of debauchery, when temptations at home are greater than those
abroad, or in a time of such persecution as may lawfully be avoided,
than at another time.
12. A settled christian may go more safely, and therefore lawfully, on
smaller urgencies, than a young, raw, lustful, fanciful, unsettled
novice may.
II. _Neg._ 1. It is not lawful for any one to seek riches or
trade abroad or at home, principally for the love of riches, to raise
himself and family to fulness, prosperity, or dignity: though all this
may be desired when it is a means to God's service and honour, and the
public good, and is desired principally as such a means.
2. It is not lawful to go abroad, especially into infidel or popish
countries, without such a justifiable business, whose commodity will
suffice to weigh down all the losses and dangers of the remove.
3. The dangers and losses of the soul are to be valued much above
those of the body and estate, and cannot be weighed down by any mere
corporal commodity.
4. It is less dangerous usually to go among Turks and heathens, (whose
religion hath no tempting power to seduce men,) than among Socinians
or papists, whose errors and sins are cunningly and learnedly promoted
and defended.
5. It is not lawful for merchants or others for trade and love of
wealth or money, to send poor raw, unsettled youths into such
countries where their souls are like to be notably endangered, either
by being deprived of such teaching and church helps which they need,
or by being exposed to the dangerous temptations of the place; because
their souls are of more worth than money.
6. It is not lawful therefore for master or servant to venture his own
soul in such a case as this last mentioned; that is, so far as he is
free, and without necessity doth it only for commodity sake.
7. We may not go where we cannot publicly worship God, without
necessity, or some inducement from a greater good.
8. The more of these hinderances concur the greater is the sin: it is
therefore a mere wilful casting away of their own souls, when
unfurnished, unsettled youths (or others like them) shall for mere
humour, fancy, or covetousness leave such a land as this, where they
have both public and private helps for their salvation, and to go
among papists, infidels, or heathens, where talk or ill example is
like to endanger them, and no great good can be expected to
countervail such a hazard, nor is there any true necessity to drive
them, and where they cannot publicly worship God, no, nor openly own
the truth, and where they have not so much as any private company to
converse with, that is fit to further their preservation and
salvation, and all this of their own accord, &c.
_Quest._ II. May a merchant or ambassador leave his wife, to live
abroad?
_Answ._ 1. We must distinguish between what is necessitated, and
what is voluntary. 2. Between what is done by the wife's consent, and
what is done without. 3. Between a wife that can bear such absence,
and one that cannot. 4. Between a short stay, and a long or continued
stay.
1. The command of the king, or public necessities, may make it lawful,
except in a case so rare as is not to be supposed (which therefore I
shall not stand to describe). For though it be a very tender business
to determine a difference between the public authority or interest,
and family relations and interest, when they are contradictory and
unreconcilable, yet here it seemeth to me, that the prince and public
interest may dispose of a man contrary to the will and interest of his
wife; yea, though it would occasion the loss, 1. Of her chastity. 2.
Or her understanding. 3. Or her life: and though the conjugal bond do
make man and wife to be as one flesh. For, 1. The king and public
interest may oblige a man to hazard his own life, and therefore his
wife's. In case of war, he may be sent to sea, or beyond sea, and so
both leave his wife (as Uriah did) and venture himself. Who ever
thought that no married man might go to foreign wars without his
wife's consent? 2. Because as the whole is more noble than the part,
so he that marrieth obligeth himself to his wife, but on supposition
that he is a member of the commonwealth, to which he is still more
obliged than to her.
2. A man may for the benefit of his family leave his wife for travel
or merchandise, for a time, when they mutually consent upon good
reason that it is like to be for their good.
3. He may not leave her either without or with her own consent, when a
greater hurt is like to come by it, than the gain will countervail. I
shall say no more of this, because the rest may be gathered from what
is said in the cases about duties to wives, where many other such are
handled.
_Quest._ III. Is it lawful for young gentlemen to travel in other
kingdoms, as part of their education?[160]
_Answ._ The many distinctions which were laid down for answer of
the first question, must be here supposed, and the answer will be
mostly the same as to that, and therefore need not be repeated.
1. It is lawful for them to travel that are necessarily driven out of
their own country, by persecution, poverty, or any other necessitating
cause.
2. It is lawful to them that are commanded by their parents (unless in
former excepted cases, which I will not stay to name).
3. It is the more lawful when they travel into countries as good or
better than their own, where they are like to get more good than they
could have done at home.
4. It is more lawful to one that is prudent and firmly settled both in
religion, and in sobriety and temperance, against all temptations
which he is like to meet with, than to one that is unfurnished for a
due resistance of the temptations of the place to which he goeth.
5. It is more lawful to one that goeth in sober, wise, and godly
company, or is sent with a wise and faithful tutor and overseer, than
to leave young, unsettled persons to themselves.
6. In a word, it is lawful when there is a rational probability, that
they will not only get more good than hurt, (for that will not make it
lawful,) but also more good than they could probably have other ways
attained.
II. But the too ordinary course of young gentlemen's travels out of
England now practised, I take to be but a most dangerous hazarding, if
not a plain betraying them to utter undoing, and to make them
afterwards the plagues of their country, and the instruments of the
common calamity. For, 1. They are ordinarily sent into countries far
worse and more dangerous than their own, where the temptations are
stronger than they are fit to deal with; into some countries where
they are tempted to sensuality, and into some where they are tempted
to popery or infidelity. In some countries they learn to drink wine
instead of beer; and arising from the smaller sort to the stronger, if
they turn not drunkards, they contract that appetite to wine and
strong drink, which shall prove (as Clemens Alexandrinus calleth
gluttony and tippling) a throat-madness, and a belly-devil, and keep
them in the sin of gulosity all their days. And in some countries they
shall learn the art of gluttony, to pamper their guts in curious,
costly, uncouth fashions, and to dress themselves in novel,
fantastical garbs, and to make a business of adorning themselves, and
setting themselves forth with proud and procacious fancies and
affections, to be looked upon as comely persons to the eyes of others.
In some countries they shall learn to waste their precious hours in
stage-plays, and vain spectacles, and ceremonies, attendances, and
visits, and to equalize their life with death, and to live to less use
and benefit to the world than the horse that carrieth them. In most
countries they shall learn either to prate against godliness, as the
humour of a few melancholy fools, and be wiser than to believe God, or
obey him, or be saved; or at least to grow indifferent and cold in
holy affections and practices: for when they shall see papists and
protestants, Lutherans and Calvinists, of contrary minds, and hear
them reproaching and condemning one another, this cooleth their zeal
to all religion, as seeming but a matter of uncertainty and
contention. And when they also see how the wise and holy are made a
scorn in one country, as bigots and Hugonots, and how the protestants
are drunkards and worldlings in another country, and how few in the
world have any true sense and savour of sound and practical religion,
and of a truly holy and heavenly life, (as those few they are seldom
so happy as to converse with,) this first accustometh them to a
neglect of holiness, and then draweth their minds to a more low,
indifferent opinion of it, and to think it unnecessary to salvation.
For they will not believe that so few shall be saved as they find to
be holy in the world; and then they grow to think it but a fancy and a
troubler of the world.
And it addeth to their temptation, that they are obliged by the carnal
ends which drew them out, to be in the worst and most dangerous
company and places, that is, at princes' courts, and among the
splendid gallantry of the world; for it is the fashions of the great
ones which they must see, and of which when they come home they must
be able to discourse: so that they must travel to the pest-houses of
pomp, and lust, of idleness, gluttony, drunkenness, and pride, of
atheism, irreligiousness, and impiety, that they may be able to glory
what acquaintance they have got of the grandeur and gallantry of the
suburbs of hell, that they may represent the way to damnation
delectable and honourable to others, as well as to themselves.[161]
But the greatest danger is of corrupting their intellectuals, by
converse with deceivers where they come; either infidels, or juggling
Jesuits and friars: for when those are purposely trained up to
deceive, how easy is it for them to silence raw and unfurnished
novices, (yea, even when all their five senses must be captivated, in
the doctrine of transubstantiation)! And when they are silenced they
must yield: or at least they have deluding stories enough of the
antiquity, universality, infallibility, unity of their church, with a
multitude of lies of Luther, Calvin, Zuinglius, and other reformers,
to turn their hearts and make them yield. But yet that they may be
capable of doing them the more service, they are instructed for a time
to dissemble their perversion, and to serve the Roman pride and
faction in a protestant garb and name.
Especially when they come to Rome, and see its glory, and the
monuments of antiquity, and are allured with their splendour and
civilities, and made to believe that all the reports of their
inquisitions and cruelties are false, this furthereth the fascination
of unexperienced youths.
2. And usually all this while the most of them lay by all serious
studies, and all constant employment, and make idleness and converse
with the idle or with tempters, to be their daily work. And what a
mind is like to come to, which is but one half year or twelve months
accustomed to idleness, and to vain spectacles, and to a pleasing
converse with idle and luxurious persons, it is easy for a man of any
acquaintance with the world or with human nature to conjecture.
3. And they go forth in notable peril of their health or lives. Some
fall into fevers, and die by change of air and drinks: some fall into
quarrels in taverns, or about their whores, and are murdered. Some few
prove so stedfast against all the temptations of the papists, that it
is thought conducible to the holy cause that they should be killed in
pretence of some quarrel, or be poisoned. Some by drinking wine do
contract such sickness, as makes their lives uncomfortable to the
last. And the brains of many are so heated by it, that they fall mad.
4. And all this danger is principally founded in the quality of the
person sent to travel; which are ordinarily empty lads, between
eighteen and twenty-four years of age, which is the time of the
devil's chief advantage; when naturally they are prone to those vices
which prove the ruin of the most, though you take the greatest care of
them that you can.[162] 1. Their lust is then in the highest and most
untamed rage. 2. Their appetites to pleasing meats and drinks are then
strongest. 3. Their frolicsome inclinations to sports and recreations
are then greatest. 4. And ignorant and procacious pride beginneth then
to stir. 5. All things that are most vile and vain, are then apt to
seem excellent to them, by reason of the novelty of the matter as to
them, who never saw such things before, and by reason of the false
esteem of those carnal persons, to whose pomp, and consequently to
whose judgment, they would be conformed. 6. And they are at that age
exceedingly inclined to think all their own apprehensions to be right,
and to be very confident of their own conceptions, and wise in their
own eyes; because their juvenile intellect being then in the most
affecting activity, it seemeth still clear and sure to them, because
it so much affects themselves. 7. But above all, they are yet
unfurnished of almost all that solid wisdom, and settled holiness,
and large experience, which is most necessary to their improvement of
their travels, and to their resistance of all these temptations. Alas!
how few of them are able to deal with a Jesuit, or hold fast their
religion against deceivers! If the very vices, the ambition, the
carnal policies and pomps, the filthiness and worldliness of the Roman
clergy, did not become a preservative to men's minds against the
temptations which would draw them to their way, and if the atheism,
infidelity, whoredoms, and profaneness of papists did not become
antidotes, how few were like to return uninfected! And because the
Jesuits know that they can never take this stumblingblock out of the
way, therefore too many of them have thought best to debauch those
first whom they would proselyte, and reconcile them first to plays,
and drunkenness, and whoredoms, that so the dislike of these may not
hinder their reconciliation with the kingdom of Rome; yea, that a
seeming necessity of a priest's pardon, may make it seem necessary to
become their subjects.
And as unfurnished are these young travellers usually to resist the
temptations to this sensuality, lust, and pomp, as those of popery; so
that they are perfidiously sent into a pest-house, when they are in
the greatest disposition to be infected. And if they come not home
drunkards, gluttons, gamesters, idle, prodigal, proud, infidels,
irreligious, or papists, it is little thanks to those perfidious
parents, who thus perform their promise for them in baptism, by
sending them to Satan's schools and university to be educated.
Whereas if they were but kept to their due studies, and under a holy
government at home, till they were furnished with sound religious
knowledge, and till they were rooted in holiness, and in love to a
pious, sober life, and till they had got a settled hatred of
intemperance and all sin, and till they had a map of the places,
persons, and affairs of the world well imprinted on their minds by
study and due information, then necessary travel would be more safe;
and then they would be in a capacity to learn wisdom from other men's
folly, and virtue from other men's vice, and piety from other men's
impiety; which novices are rather apt to imitate.
5. And in the mean time the loss of all the helps which they should
have at home, doth greatly tend to their destruction. For they oft
travel into countries, where they shall have no public worship of God
which is lawful, or which they understand; or if they have, it is
usually cold preaching and dull praying, when they have need of the
best, and all too little. And they have seldom such pious society to
edify and quicken them by private converse, as they have, or might
have, here at home; and seldom come into such well ordered, religious
families. And if human nature be prone to infection by temptations,
and so averse to holiness, that all means is too little, and even in
the best families folly and sensuality, and a distaste of godliness,
often thrive; (as unsown weeds overspread the garden, where with great
cost and labour only better things were sowed;) what then but sin and
misery can be expected from those that by their own parents are
banished from their native country (not so well as into a wilderness,
but) into the pestilent, infected countries of the world.
I would ask those parents that plead for this crime and cruelty as a
kindness; are you no wiser or better yourselves than the company into
which you send your children? Can you teach them and educate them no
better, nor give them better examples, than they are like to have
abroad? Can you set them on no better work, for the improvement of
their time? If not, why do you not repent of this your shame and
misery, and reform yourselves? If you can, why will you then betray
your children? Or if you cannot, are there no schools, no learned and
pious men, no religious families and company at home, in your own
land, where you might place them to better advantage, than thus to
expose them to the tempter? Undoubtedly there are; and such as may be
had at cheaper rates.[163]
6. And it is not the smallest part of the guilt and danger, that they
are sent abroad without due oversight and conduct. They that do but
get them some sober or honest servant to attend them, or some sober
companion, think they have done well; whenas they had need of some
divine or tutor of great learning, piety, prudence, and experience,
whom they will reverence and obey, that may take the oversight of
them, and be ready to answer any sophist that would seduce them. But
the charge of this is thought too great for the safety of their own
children, whom they themselves expose to a necessity of it.
I know that carnal minds will distaste all this, and have objections
enough against it, and reasons of their own, to make it seem a duty to
betray and undo their children's souls, and to break their promise
made for them in baptism: "All this is but our preciseness: they must
have experience and know the world, or else they will be contemptible
_tenebriones_ or owls! Whenever they go it will be a temptation,
and such they must have at home. There is no other part of their age
so fit, or that can be spared, and we must trust God with them
wherever they are; and they that will be bad, will be bad in one place
as well as another; and many are as bad that stay at home." And thus
_quos perdere vult Jupiter hos dementat_; yea, the poor children
and commonwealth must suffer for such parents' sottish folly. And well
saith Solomon, "The rich man is wise in his own conceit," Prov.
xxviii. 11. And because it is not reason indeed but pride, and the
rich disease and carnality which is here to be confuted, I shall not
honour them with a distinct, particular answer; but only tell them, If
all companies be alike, send them to Bedlam or to a whorehouse. If all
means be alike, let them be janizaries, and bred up where Christ is
scorned: if you think they need but little helps, and little watching,
it seems you never gave them more. And it is a pity you should have
children, before you know what a man is, and how much nature is
corrupted, and how much is needful to its recovery. And it is a pity
that you dedicated them to God in baptism, before you believed Christ,
and knew what you did, and engaged them to renounce the world, the
flesh, and the devil, under a crucified Christ, while you purposed
like hypocrites to train them in the school and service of the world,
the flesh, and the devil, and in the contempt of the cross of Christ,
or of a holy, mortified life. And if all ages be alike, and novices be
equal to experienced persons, let the scholars rule their master, and
let boys be parliament men and judges, and let them be your guides at
home! And if acquaintance with courtship and the customs of the world,
and the reputation of such acquaintance, be worth the hazarding of
their souls, renounce God, and give up your names to Mammon, and be
not such paltry hypocrites, as to profess that you believe the
Scriptures, and stand to your baptismal vows, and place your hopes in
a crucified Christ, and your happiness in God's favour and the life to
come. And if the preaching of the gospel, and all such religious
helps, be unnecessary to your unsettled children, dissemble not by
going to church, as if you took them to be necessary to yourselves.
In a word, I say as Elias to the Israelites, "Why halt ye between two
opinions? If God be God, follow him." If the world be God, and pride
and sensuality and the world's applause be your felicity, follow it,
and let it be your children's portion. Do you not see more wise, and
learned, and holy, and serviceable persons among us, proportionably,
in church and state, that were never sent for an education among the
papists and profane, than of such as were?
But I will proceed to the directions which are necessary to those that
must or will needs go abroad, either as merchants, factors, or as
travellers.
_Direct._ I. Be sure that you go not without a clear warrant from
God; which must be (all things laid together) a great probability, in
the judgment of impartial, experienced, wise men, that you may get or
do more good than you were like to have done at home. For if you go
sinfully without a call or warrant, you put yourself out of God's
protection, as much as in you is; that is, you forfeit it: and
whatever plague befalls you, it will arm your accusing consciences to
make it double.
_Direct._ II. Send with your children that travel, some such
pious, prudent tutor or overseer as is afore described: and get them
or your apprentices into as good company as possibly you can.
_Direct._ III. Send them as the last part of all their education,
when they are settled in knowledge, sound doctrine, and godliness, and
have first got such acquaintance with the state of the world, as
reading, maps, and conversation and discourse can help them to: and
not while they are young, and raw, and uncapable of self-defence, or
of due improving what they see. And those that are thus prepared, will
have no great lust or fancy to wander, and lose their time, without
necessity; for they will know, that there is nothing better
(considerably) to be seen abroad, than is at home; that in all
countries, houses are houses, and cities are cities, and trees are
trees, and beasts are beasts, and men are men, and fools are fools,
and wise men are wise, and learned men are learned, and sin is sin,
and virtue is virtue; and these things are but the same abroad as at
home: and that a grave is every where a grave, and you are travelling
towards it, which way ever you go. And happy is he that spendeth his
little time so, as may do God best service, and best prepare him for
the state of immortality.
_Direct._ IV. If experience of their youthful lust and pride, and
vicious folly, or unsettled dangerous state, doth tell you plainly,
that your child or apprentice is unfit for travel, venture them not
upon it, either for the carnal ornaments of education, or for your
worldly gain. For souls that cost the blood of Christ, are more
precious than to be sold at so low a rate; and especially by those
parents and masters that are doubly obliged to love them, and to guide
them in the way to heaven, and must be answerable for them.
_Direct._ V. Choose those countries for your children to travel
in, which are soundest in doctrine and of best example, and where they
may get more good than hurt; and venture them not needlessly into the
places and company of greatest danger; especially among the Jesuits
and friars, or subtle heretics, or enemies of Christ.
_Direct._ VI. Study before you go, what particular temptations
you are like to meet with, and study well for particular preservatives
against them all: as you will not go into a place infected with the
plague, without an antidote. It is no small task, to get a mind
prepared for travel.
_Direct._ VII. Carry with you such books as are fittest for your use,
both for preservation and edification: as to preserve you from popery,
Drelincourt's and Mr. Pool's small Manual: for which use my "Key for
Catholics," and "Safe Religion," and "Sheet against Popery" may not be
useless. And Dr. Challoner's "Credo Ecclesiam Catholicam" is short and
very strong. To preserve you against infidelity, "Vander Meulin," in
Latin, and Grotius; and in English my "Reasons of the Christian
Religion" may not be unfit. For your practice, the Bible and the
"Practice of Piety," and Mr. Scudder's "Daily Walk," and Mr. Reyner's
"Directions," and Dr. Ames's "Cases of Conscience."
_Direct._ VIII. Get acquaintance with the most able reformed
divines, in the places where you travel; and make use of their
frequent converse, for your edification and defence. For it is the
wisest and best men in all countries where you come, that must be
profitable to you, if any.
_Direct._ IX. Set yourselves in a way of regular study if you are
travellers, as if you were at home, and on a course of regular
employment if you are tradesmen, and make not mere wandering and
gazing upon novelties your trade and business; but redeem your time as
laboriously as you would do in the most settled life. For time is
precious, wherever you be; and it must be diligence every where that
must cause your proficiency; for place and company will not do it
without your labour. It is not a university that will make a sluggish
person wise, nor a foreign land that will furnish a sensual sot with
wisdom: _Cœlum non animum mutant qui trans mare currunt_.
There is more ado necessary to make you wise, or bring you to heaven,
than to go long journeys, or see many people.
_Direct._ X. Avoid temptations: if you acquaint yourselves with
the humours, and sinful opinions, and fashions of the time and places
where you are, let it be but as the Lacedemonians called out their
children to see a drunkard, to hate the sin; therefore see them, but
taste them not, as you would do by poison or loathsome things. Once or
twice seeing a folly and sin is enough. If you do it frequently,
custom will abate your detestation, and do much to reconcile you to
it.
_Direct._ XI. Set yourselves to do all the good you can to the
miserable people in the places where you come. Furnish yourselves with
the aforesaid books and arguments, not only to preserve yourselves,
but also to convince poor infidels and papists. And pity their souls,
as those that believe that there is indeed a life to come, where
happiness and misery will show the difference between the godly and
the wicked. Especially merchants and factors, who live constantly
among the poor ignorant christians, Armenians, Greeks, papists, who
will hear them; and among heathens (in Indostan and elsewhere) and
Mahometans (especially the Persians, who allow a liberty of
discourse). But above all, the chaplains of the several embassies and
factories. Oh what an opportunity have they to sow the seeds of
christianity among the heathen nations! and to make known Christ to
the infidel people where they come! And how heavy a guilt will lie on
them that shall neglect it! And how will the great industry of the
Jesuits rise up in judgment against them and condemn them!
_Direct._ XII. The more you are deprived of the benefit of God's
public worship, the more industrious must you be, in reading Scripture
and good books, and in secret prayer and meditation, and in the
improvement of any one godly friend that doth accompany you to make up
your loss, and to be instead of public means. It will be a great
comfort among infidels, or papists, or ignorant Greeks, or profane
people, to read sound, and holy, and spiritual books, and to confer
with some one godly friend, and to meditate on the sweet and glorious
subjects, which from earth and heaven are set before us; and to solace
ourselves in the praises of God, and to pour out our suits before him.
_Direct._ XIII. And that your work may be well done, be sure that
you have right ends; and that it be not to please a ranging fancy, nor
a proud, vain mind, nor a covetous desire of being rich or high, that
you go abroad; but that you do it purposely and principally to serve
God abroad, and to be able to serve him the better when you come home,
with your wit, and experience, and estates. If sincerely you go for
this end, and not for the love of money, you may expect the greater
comfort.[164]
_Direct._ XIV. Stay abroad no longer than your lawful ends and
work do require: and when you come home, let it be seen that you have
seen sin that you might hate it; and that by the observation of the
errors and evils of the world, you love sound doctrine, spiritual
worship, and holy, sober, and righteous living, better than you did
before; and that you are the better resolved and furnished for a
godly, exemplary, fruitful life.
One thing more I will warn some parents of, who send their sons to
travel, to keep them from untimely marrying, lest they have part of
their estate too soon: that there are other means better than this,
which prudence may find out: if they would keep them low, from fulness
and idleness, and bad company, (which a wise, self-denying, diligent
man may do, but another cannot,) and engage them to as much study and
business (conjunct) as they can well perform, and when they must needs
marry, let it be done with prudent, careful choice; and learn
themselves to live somewhat lower, that they may spare that which
their son must have: this course would be better than that hazardous
one in question.
[156] Whether the consequent be good or hurt is like to be greater,
must be well considered.
[157] Exod. xx. 21, "Thou shalt neither vex a stranger, nor oppress
him." Exod. xxiii. 9, "Thou shalt not oppress a stranger," &c. So
that usury to a stranger was no oppression.
[158] Of recreations, see before.
[159] Leg. Steph. Vinan. Pigh. in Hercule prodigo, pag. 130-132. Cui
peregrinatio dulcis est, non amat patriam: si dulcis est patria,
amara est peregrinatio. August.
[160] Lege Eurycic. Pateani Orat. 9.
[161] Read Bishop Hall's "Quo Vadis" on this subject.
[162] Peregrinatio levia tædia quædam animorum et veluti nauseas
tollit: non tollit morbos qui altius penetrarunt, quam ut externa
ulla medicina huc pertingat. Id. ib.
[163] Congressus sapientum confert prudentiam: non montes, non maria.
Erasm.
[164] Peregrinatio omnis obscura et sordida est iis quorum industria
in patria potest esse illustris. Cicer.