DIRECTIONS AGAINST OPPRESSION.
_Tit. 1. Motives and Directions against Oppression._
Oppression is the injuring of inferiors, who are unable to resist, or
to right themselves; when men use power to bear down right. Yet all is
not oppression which is so called by the poor, or by inferiors that
suffer; for they are apt to be partial in their own cause as well as
others. There may be injustice in the expectations of the poor, as
well as the actions of the rich. Some think they are oppressed, if
they be justly punished for their crimes; and some say they are
oppressed, if they have not their wills, and unjust desires, and may
not be suffered to injure their superiors: and many of the poor do
call all that oppression, which they suffer from any that are above
them, as if it were enough to prove it an injury, because a rich man
doth it: but yet oppression is a very common and a heinous sin.[165]
There are as many ways of oppressing others, as there are advantages
to men of power against them. But the principal are these following.
1. The most common and heinous sort is the malignant injuries and
cruelties of the ungodly against men that will not be as indifferent
in the matters of God and salvation as themselves; and that will not
be of their opinions in religion, and be as bold with sin, and as
careless of their souls, as they. These are hated, reproached,
slandered, abused, and some way or other persecuted commonly wherever
they live throughout the world. But of this sort of oppression I have
spoken before.
2. A second sort is the oppression of the subjects by their rulers;
either by unrighteous laws, or cruel executions, or unjust impositions
or exactions, laying on the people greater taxes, tributes, or
servitude, than the common good requireth, and than they are able well
to bear. Thus did Pharaoh oppress the Israelites, till their groans
brought down God's vengeance on him. But I purposely forbear to meddle
with the sins of magistrates.
3. Soldiers also are too commonly guilty of the most inhuman,
barbarous oppressions; plundering the poor countrymen, and domineering
over them, and robbing them of the fruit of their hard labours, and of
the bread which they should maintain their families with, and taking
all that they can lay hold on as their own. But (unless it be a few
that are a wonder in the world) this sort of men are so barbarous and
inhuman, that they will neither read nor regard any counsel that I
shall give them. (No man describeth them better than Erasmus.)
4. The oppression of servants by their masters I have said enough to
before; and among us, where servants are free to change for better
masters, it is not the most common sort of oppression; but rather
servants are usually negligent and unfaithful, because they know that
they are free (except in the case of apprentices).
5. It is too common a sort of oppression for the rich in all places to
domineer too insolently over the poor, and force them to follow their
wills, and to serve their interest be it right or wrong: so that it is
rare to meet with a poor man that dare displease the rich, though it
be in a cause where God and conscience do require it. If a rich man
wrong them, they dare not seek their remedy at law, because he will
tire them out by the advantage of his friends and wealth; and either
carry it against them, be his cause never so unjust, or lengthen the
suit till he hath undone them, and forced them to submit to his
oppressing will.
6. Especially unmerciful landlords are the common and sore oppressors
of the countrymen: if a few men can but get money enough to purchase
all the land in a country, they think that they may do with their own
as they list, and set such hard bargains of it to their tenants, that
they are all but as their servants, yea, and live a more troublesome
life than servants do: when they have laboured hard all the year, they
can scarce scrape up enough to pay their landlord's rent; their
necessities are so urgent, that they have not so much as leisure to
pray morning or evening in their families, or to read the Scriptures,
or any good book; nor scarce any room in their thoughts for any holy
things: their minds are so distracted with necessities and cares, that
even on the Lord's day, or at a time of prayer, they can hardly keep
their minds intent upon the sacred work which they have in hand. If
the freest minds have much ado to keep their thoughts in seriousness
and order, in meditation, or in the worshipping of God; how hard must
it needs be to a poor oppressed man, whose body is tired with
wearisome labours, and his mind distracted with continual cares, how
to pay his rent, and how to have food and raiment for his family! How
unfit is such a troubled, discontented person, to live in thankfulness
to God, and in his joyful praises! Abundance of the voluptuous great
ones of the world, do use their tenants and servants but as their
beasts, as if they had been made only to labour and toil for them, and
it were their chief felicity to fulfil their will, and live upon their
favour.
_Direct._ I. The principal means to overcome this sin, is to
understand the greatness of it. For the flesh persuadeth carnal men to
judge of it according to their selfish interest, and not according to
the interest of others, nor according to the true principles of
charity and equity; and so they justify themselves in their
oppression.
1. _Consid._ That oppression is a sin not only contrary to
christian charity and self-denial, but even to humanity itself. We are
all made of one earth, and have souls of the same kind: there is as
near a kindred betwixt all mankind, as a specifical identity; as
between one sheep, one dove, one angel, and another: as between
several drops of the same water, and several sparks of the same fire;
which have a natural tendency to union with each other. And as it is
an inhuman thing for one brother to oppress another, or one member of
the same body to set up a proper interest of its own, and make all the
rest, how painfully soever, to serve that private interest; so it is
for those men who are children of the same Creator. Much more for them
who account themselves members of the same Redeemer, and brethren in
Christ by grace and regeneration, with those whom they oppress. Mal.
ii. 10, "Have we not all one Father? Hath not one God created us? Why
do we deal treacherously every man against his brother, by profaning
the covenant of our fathers?" If we must not lie to one another,
because we are members one of another, Eph. iv. 25; and if all the
members must have the same care of one another, 1 Cor. xii. 25; surely
then they must not oppress one another.
2. An oppressor is an antichrist and an antigod: he is contrary to
God, who delighteth to do good, and whose bounty maintaineth all the
world; who is kind to his enemies, and causeth his sun to shine and
his rain to fall on the just and on the unjust: and even when he
afflicteth doth it as unwillingly, delighteth not to grieve the sons
of men.[166] He is contrary to Jesus Christ, who gave himself a ransom
for his enemies, and made himself a curse to redeem them from the
curse, and condescended in his incarnation to the nature of man, and
in his passion to the cross and suffering which they deserved: and
being rich and Lord of all, yet made himself poor, that we by his
poverty might be made rich. He endured the cross and despised the
shame, and made himself as of no reputation, accounting it his honour
and joy to be the Saviour of men's souls, even of the poor and
despised of the world. And these oppressors live as if they were made
to afflict the just, and to rob them of God's mercies, and to make
crosses for other men to bear, and to tread on their brethren as
stepping-stones of their own advancement. The Holy Ghost is the
Comforter of the just and faithful. And these men live as if it were
their calling to deprive men of their comfort.
3. Yea, an oppressor is not only the agent of the devil, but his
image: it is the devil that is the destroyer, and the devourer, who
maketh it his business to undo men, and to bring them into misery and
distress. He is the grand oppressor of the world: yet in this he is
far short of the malignity of men-devils, 1. That he doth it not by
force and violence, but by deceit, and hurteth no man till he hath
procured his own consent to sin; whereas our oppressors do it by their
brutish force and power. 2. And the devil destroyeth men, who are not
his brethren, nor of the same kind; but these oppressors never stick
at the violating of such relations.
4. Oppression is a sin that greatly serveth the devil, to the damning
of men's souls, as well as to the afflicting of their bodies. And it
is not a few, but millions, that are undone by it. For as I showed
before, it taketh up men's mind and time so wholly, to get them a poor
living in the world, that they have neither mind nor time for better
things. They are so troubled about many things, that the one thing
needful is laid aside. All the labours of many a worthy, able pastor,
are frustrated by oppressors: to say nothing of the far greatest part
of the world, where the tyranny and oppression of heathen infidels and
Mahometan princes, keepeth out the gospel, and the means of life; nor
yet of any other persecutors: if we exhort a servant to read the
Scriptures, and call upon God, and think of his everlasting state, he
telleth us that he hath no time to do it, but when his weary body must
have rest. If we desire the masters of families to instruct and
catechise their children and servants, and pray with them, and read
the Scriptures and other good books to them, they tell us the same,
that they have no time, but when they should sleep; and that on the
Lord's day their tired bodies, and careful minds, are unfit to attend
and ply such work: so that necessity quieteth their conscience in
their ignorance and neglect of heavenly things, and maketh them think
it only the work of gentlemen and rich men, who have leisure (but are
further alienated from it by prosperity, than these are by their
poverty): and thus oppression destroyeth religion, and the people's
souls as well as their estates.
5. Oppression further endangereth both the souls of men, and the
public peace, and the safety of princes, by tempting the poor
multitude into discontents, sedition, and insurrections. Every man is
naturally a lover of himself above other: and the poor, as well as the
rich and rulers, have an interest of their own which ruleth them; and
they will hardly honour, or love, or think well of them by whom they
suffer. It is as natural almost for a man under oppression, to be
discontented and complain, as for a man in a fever to complain of
sickness, heat, and thirst. No kingdom on earth is so holy and happy
as to have all or most of the subjects such confirmed, eminent saints,
as will be contented to be undone, and will love and honour those that
undo them. Therefore men must be taken as they are. If "oppression
maketh wise men mad," Eccles. vii. 7, much more the multitude, who are
far from wisdom. Misery maketh men desperate, when they think that
they cannot be much worse than they are. How many kingdoms have been
thus fired (as wooden wheels will be when one part rubbeth too hard
and long upon the other)! Yea, if the prince be never so good and
blameless, the cruelty of the nobles and the rich men of the land, may
have the same effects. And in these combustions, the peace of the
kingdom, the lives and souls of the seditious, are made a sacrifice to
the lusts of the oppressors.
_Direct._ II. Consider with fear how oppression turneth the
groans and cries of the poor to the God of revenge against the
oppressors. And go to that man that hath the tears and prayers of
oppressed innocents, sounding the alarm to the vindictive justice, to
awake for their relief. "And shall not God avenge his own elect, which
cry day and night to him, though he bear long with them? I tell you,
that he will avenge them speedily," Luke xviii. 7, 8. "The Lord will
be a refuge to the oppressed," Psal. ix. 9. "To judge the fatherless
and the oppressed, that the man of the earth may no more oppress,"
Psal. x. 18. "The Lord executeth righteousness and judgment for all
that are oppressed," Psal. ciii. 6; cxlvi. 7. Yea, God is doubly
engaged to be revenged upon oppressors, and hath threatened a special
execution of his judgment against them above most other sinners:
partly as it is an act of mercy and relief to the oppressed; so that
the matter of threatening and vengeance to the oppressor, is the
matter of God's promise and favour to the sufferers: and partly as it
is an act of his vindictive justice against such as so heinously break
his laws. The oppressor hath indeed his time of power, and in that
time the oppressed seem to be forsaken and neglected of God; as if he
did not hear their cries: but when his patience hath endured the
tyranny of the proud, and his wisdom hath tried the patience of the
sufferers, to the determined time; how speedily and terribly then doth
vengeance overtake the oppressors, and make them warnings to those
that follow them! In the hour of the wicked and of the power of
darkness Christ himself was oppressed and afflicted, Isa. liii. 7, and
"in his humiliation his judgment was taken away," Acts viii. But how
quickly did the destroying revenge overtake those bloody zealots, and
how grievous is the ruin which they lie under to this day, which they
thought by that same murder to have escaped! Solomon saith, Eccl. iv. 1,
he "considered all the oppressions that are under the sun, and
behold the tears of such as were oppressed, and they had no comforter;
and on the side of the oppressors there was power, but they had no
comforter." Which made him praise the dead and the unborn. But yet he
that goeth with David into the sanctuary, and seeth the end of the
oppressors, shall perceive them set in slippery places, and tumbling
down to destruction in a moment, Psal. xxxvii.; lxxiii. The Israelites
in Egypt seemed long to groan and cry in vain; but when the
determinate time of their deliverance came, God saith, "I have surely
seen the affliction of my people, and have heard their cry by reason
of their task-masters; for I know their sorrows: and I am come down to
deliver them.--Behold, the cry of the children of Israel is come up
unto me, and I have also seen the oppression wherewith the Egyptians
oppress them," Exod. iii. 7-9. Deut. xxvi. 5, 6, "The Egyptians evil
entreated us, and laid upon us hard bondage, and when we cried to the
Lord God of our fathers, the Lord heard our voice, and looked on our
affliction, and our labour, and our oppression." See Psal. cvii.
39-42. So Psal. xii. 5, 6, "For the oppression of the poor, for the
sighing of the needy, now will I arise, saith the Lord; I will set him
in safety from him that puffeth at him (or would insnare him). Thou
shalt keep them, O Lord, thou shalt preserve them from this generation
for ever." "Trust not therefore in oppression," Psal. lxii. 10. For
God is the avenger, and his plagues shall revenge the injuries of the
oppressed.
_Direct._ III. Remember what an odious name oppressors commonly
leave behind them upon earth. No sort of men are mentioned by
posterity with greater hatred and contempt. For the interest of
mankind directeth them hereunto, and may prognosticate it, as well as
the justice of God. However the power of proud oppressors may make men
afraid of speaking to their faces what they think, yet those that are
out of their reach, will pour out the bitterness of their souls
against them. And when once death hath tied their cruel hands, or any
judgment of God hath cast them down, and knocked out their teeth, how
freely will the distressed vent their grief! and fame will not be
afraid to deliver their ugly picture to posterity, according to their
desert. Methinks therefore that even pride itself should be a great
help to banish oppression from the world. What an honourable name hath
a Trajan, a Titus, an Antonine, an Alexander Severus! And what an
odious name hath a Nero, a Caligula, a Commodus, a D'Alva, &c.! Most
proud men affect to be extolled, and to have a glorious name survive
them when they are dead; and yet they take the course to make their
memory abominable; so much doth sin contradict and disappoint the
sinner's hopes!
_Direct._ IV. Be not strangers to the condition or complaints of
any that are your inferiors. It is the misery of many princes and
nobles, that they are guarded about with such as keep all the
lamentations of their subjects and tenants from their ears; or
represent them only as the murmurings of unquiet, discontented men; so
that superiors shall know no more of their inferiors' case than their
attendants please; nor no more of the reproach that falleth upon
themselves. Their case is to be pitied; but the case of their
inferiors more (for it is their own wilful choice which hath
imprisoned their understandings, with such informers; and it is their
unexcusable negligence, which keepeth them from seeking truer
information). A good landlord will be familiar with the meanest of his
tenants, and will encourage them freely to open their complaints, and
will labour to inform himself who is in poverty and distress, and how
it cometh to pass; that when he hath heard all, he may understand
whether it be his own oppression or his tenants' fault that is the
cause: when proud, self-seeking men disdain such inferior converse,
and if they have servants that do but tell them their tenants have a
good bargain, and are murmuring, unthrifty, idle persons, they believe
them without any more inquiry, and in negligent ignorance oppress the
poor.
_Direct._ V. Mortify your own lusts and sinful curiosity, which
maketh you think that you need so much, as tempteth you to get it by
oppressing others. Know well how little is truly necessary! and how
little nature (well-taught) is contented with! and what a privilege it
is to need but little! Pride and curiosity are an insatiable gulf.
Their daily trouble seemeth to them a necessary accommodation. Such
abundance must be laid out on superfluous recreations, buildings,
ornaments, furniture, equipage, attendants, entertainments,
visitations, braveries, and a world of need-nots, (called by the names
of handsomeness, cleanliness, neatness, conveniences, delights,
usefulness, honour, civilities, comeliness, &c.) So much doth carnal
concupiscence, pride, and curiosity thus devour, that hundreds of the
poor must be oppressed to maintain it; and many a man that hath many
score or hundred tenants who with all their families daily toil to get
him provision for his fleshly lusts, doth find at the year's end, that
all will hardly serve the turn, but this greedy devourer could find
room for more; when one of his poor tenants could live and maintain
all his family comfortably, if he had but so much as his landlord
bestoweth upon one suit of clothes, or one proud entertainment, or one
horse, or one pack of hounds. I am not persuading the highest to level
their garb and expenses equal with the lowest; but mortify pride,
curiosity, and gluttony, and you will find less need to oppress the
poor, or to feed your concupiscence with the sweat and groans of the
afflicted.
_Direct._ VI. Be not the sole judge of your own actions in a
controverted case; but if any complain of you, hear the judgment of
others that are wise and impartial in the case. For it is easy to
misjudge where self-interest is concerned.
_Direct._ VII. Love your poor brethren as yourselves, and delight
in their welfare as if it were your own. And then you will never
oppress them willingly; and if you do it ignorantly, you will quickly
feel it and give over upon their just complaint; as you will quickly
feel when you hurt yourselves, and need no great exhortation to
forbear.
_Tit. 2. Cases of Conscience about Oppression, especially of
Tenants._
_Quest._ I. Is it lawful for a mean man, who must needs make the
best of it, to purchase tenanted land of a liberal landlord, who
setteth his tenants a much better pennyworth than the buyer can
afford.
_Answ._ Distinguish, 1. Between a seller who understandeth all
this, and one that doth not. 2. Between a tenant that hath by custom a
half-title to his easier rent, and one that hath not. 3. Between a
tenant that consenteth and one that consenteth not. 4. Between buying
it when a liberal man might else have bought it, and buying it when a
worse else would have bought it. 5. Between a case of scandal and of
no scandal.
And so I answer, 1. If the landlord that selleth it expect that the
buyer do use the tenants as well as he hath done, and sell it
accordingly, it is unrighteous to do otherwise (ordinarily). 2. In
many countries it is the custom not to turn out a tenant, nor to raise
his rent; so that many generations have held the same land at the same
rent; which though it give no legal title, is yet a half-title in
common estimation. In such a case it will be scandalous, and infamous,
and injurious, and therefore unlawful to purchase it with a purpose to
raise the rent, and to do accordingly. 3. In case that a better
landlord would buy it, who would use the tenant better than you can
do, it is not (ordinarily) lawful for you to buy it. I either express
or imply "ordinarily" in most of my solutions; because that there are
some exceptions lie against almost all such answers, in extraordinary
cases; which the greatest volume can scarce enumerate.
But if, 1. It be the seller's own doing to withdraw his liberality so
far from his tenants, as to sell his land on hard rates, on
supposition that the buyer will improve it. 2. And if it be a tenant
that cannot either by custom or any other plea, put in a claim in
point of equity to his easy-rented land. 3. And if as bad a landlord
would buy it if you do not. 4. If it be not a real scandal: I say if
all these four concur; 5. Or (alone) if the tenant consent freely to
your purchase on these terms; then it is no injury. But the common
course is, for a covetous man that hath money, never to consider what
a loser the tenant is by his purchase, but to buy and improve the land
at his own pleasure; which is no better than oppression.
_Quest._ II. May not a landlord take as much for his land as it
is worth?
_Answ._ 1. Sometimes it is land that no man can claim an
equitable title to hold upon an easier rent, and sometimes it is
otherwise, as aforesaid, by custom and long possession, or other
reasons. 2. Sometimes the tenant is one that you are obliged to show
mercy to; and sometimes he is one that no more than commutative
justice is due to. And so I answer, 1. If it be an old tenant who by
custom or any other ground, can claim an equitable title to his old
pennyworth, you may not enhance the rent to the full worth. 2. If it
be one that you are obliged to show mercy as well as justice to, you
may not take the full worth. 3. The common case in England is, that
the landlords are of the nobility or gentry, and the tenants are poor
men, who have nothing but what they get by their hard labour out of
the land which they hold; and in this case some abatement of the full
worth is but such a necessary mercy, as may be called justice. Note
still, that by the full worth, I mean, so much as you could set it for
to a stranger who expecteth nothing but strict justice, as men buy and
sell things in a market.
But, 1. If you deal with a tenant as rich or richer than yourself, or
with one that needeth not your mercy, or is no fit object of it; 2.
And if it be land that no man can by custom claim equitably to hold on
lower terms, and so it is no injury to another, nor just scandal, then
you may lawfully raise it to the full worth. Sometimes a poor man
setteth a house or land to a rich man, where the scruple hath no
place.
_Quest._ III. May a landlord raise his rents, though he take not
the full worth?
_Answ._ He may do it when there is just reason for it, and none
against it. There is just reason for it when, 1. The land was much
underset before. 2. Or when the land is proportionably improved. 3. Or
when the plenty of money maketh a greater sum to be in effect no more
than a lesser heretofore. 4. Or when an increase of persons, or other
accident, maketh land dearer than it was. But then it must be
supposed, 1. That no contract, 2. Nor custom, 3. Nor service and
merit, do give the tenant any equitable right to his better
pennyworth. And also that mercy prohibit not the change.
_Quest._ IV. How much must a landlord set his land below the full
worth, that he may be no oppressor, or unmerciful to his tenants?
_Answ._ No one proportion can be determined of; because a great
alteration may be made in respect to the tenant's ability, his merit,
to the time and place, and other accidents. Some tenants are so rich,
as is said, that you are not bound to any abatement. Some are so bad,
that you are bound to no more than strict justice and common humanity
to them. Some years (like the last, when a longer drought than any man
alive had known, burnt up the grass) disableth a tenant to pay his
rent; some countries are so scarce of money, that a little abatement
is more than in another place; but ordinarily the common sort of
tenants in England should have so much abated of the fullest worth,
that they may comfortably live on it, and follow their labours with
cheerfulness of mind, and liberty to serve God in their families, and
to mind the matters of their salvation, and not to be necessitated to
such toil, and care, and pinching want, as shall make them liker
slaves than freemen, and make their lives uncomfortable to them, and
make them unfit to serve God in their families, and seasonably mind
eternal things.
_Quest._ V. What if the landlord be in debt, or have some present
want of money, may he not then raise the rent of those lands that were
underlet before?
_Answ._ If his pride pretend want where there is none, (as to
give extraordinary portions with his daughters, to erect sumptuous
buildings, &c.) this is no good excuse for oppression. But if he
really fall into want, then all that his tenants hold as mere free
gifts from his liberality, he may withdraw (as being no longer able to
give). But that which they had by custom an equitable title to, or by
contract also a legal title to, he may not withdraw. (And yet all this
is his sin, if he brought that poverty culpably on himself; it is his
sin in the cause, though, supposing that cause, the raising of his
rent be lawful.) But it is not every debt in a rich man, who hath
other ways of paying it, which is a true necessity in this case; and
if a present debt made it necessary only at that time, it is better
(by fine or otherwise) make a present supply, than thereupon to lay a
perpetual burden on the tenants, when the cause is ceased.
_Quest._ VI. What if there be abundance of honest people in far
greater want than my tenants are, (yea, perhaps preachers of the
gospel,) and I have no other way to relieve them unless I raise my
rents; am I not bound rather to give to the best and poorest, than to
others?
_Answ._ Yes, if it were a case that concerned mere giving; but
when you must take away from one to give to another, there is more to
be considered in it. Therefore in these two cases at least you may not
raise your tenants' rents to relieve the best or poorest whosoever: 1.
In case that he have some equitable title to your land, as upon the
easier rent. 2. Or in case that the scandal of seeming injustice or
cruelty, is like to do more hurt to the interest of religion and men's
souls, than your relieving the poor with the addition would do good
(which a prudent man by collation of probable consequents may
satisfactorily discern): but if it were not only to preserve the
comforts, but to save the lives of others in their present famine,
nature teacheth you to take that which is truly your own, both from
your tenants, and your servant, and your own mouths, to relieve men in
such extreme distress; and nature will teach all men to judge it your
duty, and no scandalous oppression. But when you cannot relieve the
ordinary wants of the poor, without such a scandalous raising of your
rents as will do more harm than your alms would do good, God doth not
then call you to give such alms; but you are to be supposed to be
unable.
_Quest._ VII. May I raise a tenant's rent, or turn him out of his
house, because he is a bad man; by a kind of penalty?
_Answ._ A bad man hath a title to his own, as well as a good man;
and therefore if he have either legal or equitable title, you may not;
nor yet if the scandal of it is like to do more hurt, than the good
can countervail which you intend. Otherwise you may either raise his
rent, or turn him out, if he be a wicked, profligate, incorrigible
person, after due admonition; yea, and you ought to do it, lest you be
a cherisher of wickedness. If the parents under Moses's law were bound
to accuse their own son to the judges in such a case, and say, "This
our son is stubborn and rebellious; he will not obey our voice; he is
a glutton and a drunkard; and all the men of the city must stone him
till he die, to put away evil from among them," Deut. xxi. 18-21; then
surely a wicked tenant is not so far to be spared, as to be cherished
by bounty in his sin. It is the magistrate's work to punish him by
governing justice; but it is your work as a prudent benefactor, to
withhold your gifts of bounty from him. And I think it is one of the
great sins of this age, that this is not done, it being one of the
noblest means imaginable to reform the land, and make it happy: if
landlords would thus punish or turn out their wicked, incorrigible
tenants it would do much more than the magistrate can do. The vulgar
are most effectually ruled by their interest, as we rule our dogs and
horses more by the government of their bellies than by force. They
will most obey those on whom they apprehend their good or hurt to have
most dependence. If landlords would regard their tenants' souls, so
much as to correct them thus for their wickedness, they would be the
greatest benefactors and reformers of the land; but alas, who shall
first reform the landlords? and when may it be hoped that many or
most great men will be such?
_Quest._ VIII. May one take a house over another's head, (as they
speak,) or take the land which he is a tenant to, before he be turned
out of possession?
_Answ._ Not out of a greedy desire to be rich, nor coveting that
which is another's; nor yet while he is any way injured by it; nor yet
when the act is like to be so scandalous, as to hurt men's souls more
than it will profit your body. If you come with the offer of a greater
rent than he can give, or than the landlord hath just cause to require
of him, to get it out of his hands by over-bidding him, this is mere
covetous oppression. But in other cases it is lawful to take the house
and land which another tenant hath possession of: as, 1. In case that
he willingly leave it, and consent. 2. Or if he unwillingly (but
justly) be put out; and another tenant must be provided against the
time that he is to be dispossessed. 3. Yea, if he be unjustly put out,
if he that succeeded him have no hand in it, nor by his taking the
house or land do promote the injury, nor scandalously countenance
injustice. For when a tenement is void, though by injury, it doth not
follow, that no man may ever live in it more: but if the title be his
that is turned out, then you may not take it of another; because you
will possess another man's habitation. But if it should go for a
standing rule, that no man may in any case take a house over another
man's head, (as country people would have it,) then every man's house
and land must be long untenanted, to please the will of every
contentious or unjust possessor; and any one that hath no title, or
will play the knave, may injure the true owner at his pleasure.
_Quest._ IX. May a rich man put out his tenants, to lay their
tenements to his own demesnes, and so lay house to house, and land to
land?
_Answ._ In two cases he may not: 1. In case he injure the tenant
that is put out, by taking that from him which he hath right to,
without his satisfaction and consent. 2. And in case it really tend to
the injury of the commonwealth, by depopulation, and diminishing the
strength of it. Otherwise it is lawful; and done in moderation by a
pious man may be very convenient; 1. By keeping the land from beggary
through the multitudes of poor families that overset it. 2. By keeping
the more servants, among whom he may keep up a better order and more
pious government in his own house, (making it as a church,) than can
be expected in poor families; and his servants will (for soul and
body) have a much better life, than if they married and had families,
and small tenements of their own; but in a country that rather wanteth
people, it is otherwise.
_Quest._ X. May one man be a tenant to divers tenements?
_Answ._ Yes, if it tend not, 1. To the wrong of any other; 2. Nor
to depopulation, or to hinder the livelihood of others, while one man
engrosseth more than is necessary or meet; for then it is unlawful.
_Quest._ XI. May one man have many trades or callings?
_Answ._ Not when he doth, in a covetous desire to grow rich,
disable his poor neighbours to live by him on the same callings,
seeking to engross all the gain to himself; nor yet when they are
callings which are inconsistent; or when he cannot manage one aright,
without the sinful neglect of the other. But otherwise it is as lawful
to have two trades as one.
_Quest._ XII. Is it lawful for one man to keep shops in several
market towns?
_Answ._ The same answer will serve as to the foregoing question.
[165] In omni certamine qui opulentior est, etiamsi accipit injuriam,
tamen quia plus potest, facere videtur. Sallust. in Jugurth.
[166] Psa. cxlv.; Matt. v.; Lam. iii.