Ibid.

Ibid.

procure Money at a pinch? How wretchedly muft they be hurry'd in the Sale of their Goods and Eftate? In fuch Cafes, want of Leifure is often fatal to our Circumstances. The Expedient therefore of borrowing upon Intereft, was reckon❜d a great Relief by my Lord Bacon, and yet Money went at Ten per Cent in his Time. This great Man tells us, That to talk pofitively against Ufury, is ridiculous; and that the total Suppreffion of it is fit only for an Utopian Government. 'Tis true, he would have Intereft reduced to Five per Cent. in the Coun try, and Eight in Trading-Towns, because the Merchant is beft able to give the fairest Confideration. Under this Scheme he declares, there would be nothing but Convenience in Ufury. And now, you know, Cuftom and Law has brought the Matter farther than his Regulation.

Mifoch. My Lord Bacon was a great Man; but before we part, I believe I fhall produce a better Authority against him. At prefent, methinks 'tis fomewhat grinding and unnatural to receive more than I lent: There's no Confumption of the Goods; my Money is undamnified, and return'd the fame in Quantity and Value: And when the Affeds are

thus

thus fafe, is it not an avaricious Humour
to defire an Overplus?
Alph. Have you not all
your Land a-
gain too, when your Tenant leaves your
Farm? And yet that won't fatisfy with-
out the Payment of Rent. I fay, you
have all your Land again, and in the
fame good Condition too, provided your
Leafe is well drawn, and you look after
the Covenants.

Mifoch. But the Tenant has the Profits in the mean time.

Alph. And has not the Borrower the Profits of your Money? But this I have answer'd already. As to the Avarice and Unnaturalnefs of taking a Confideration, I think there's nothing in that; for if the Borrower is to blame in not offering it, the Lender may fairly receive it.

Mifoch. Prove your firft Propofition. Alph. Thus then: Is not Gratitude part of the Law of Nature? Are we not bound to acknowledge a Benefit, and return an Obligation? And is not the lending Money a confiderable Kindnefs?

Mifoch. Granting that, how then?

Alph. Then, I would gladly know, how a Man can make his Acknowledgmént without fomething of an Overplus? For if I return'd no more than I

borrow'd,

1

25.

borrow'd, I only just stand clear of Fraud and Stealing: But the first Notion of Gratitude reaches farther, and implies fomething more than the bare Acquittal from fo coarse an Imputation: And now pray remember, that Gratitude is a Branch of Justice.

Mifoch. I'll argue upon this Head no longer, but advance to the Authority of Scripture, and there, I believe, you will be fufficiently prefs'd. And here I fhall produce my first Proof out of the Old Teftament.

Alph. Take your Method.

Mifoch. The Text then is very full and exprefs; and to put the meaning of the Law out of Queftion, the Prohibition is repeated in feveral Places. In ExoExod. 22. dus 'tis faid, If thou lend thy Money to any of my People that is poor by thee, thou shalt not be to him as an Vfurer, neither halt thou lay upon him Vfury. In Leviticus the Jews are forbidden Ufury; Take no fury of him, or Increafe, but fear the Lord thy God, that thy Brother may live with thee: Thou Shalt not give him thy Money upon Vfury, nor lend him thy Victuals for Increafe. Deuteronomy is no lefs determining than the Places already mentiDeut. 23. oned; the words are, Thou shalt not lend

Lev. 25. 36, 37.

19.

Nehem.

5. 7.

lend upon Ufury to thy Brother; Ufury of Money, Ufury of Victuals, Ufury of any thing that is lent upon Ufury. I might cite feveral other Testimonies from Nehemiah and the Pfalms, from Jeremiah and Ezekiel, to fhew, the Pro- Pfal. 15. phets expounded this Law up to the ri- Jerem.15. gour of the Mofaick Text. But- Ezek. 18. Alph. But you leave them to be con- 8. fulted at my leifure. Now to what you alledge, I answer:

First, That the Texts you mention are only part of the Judicial Law.

Mifoch. Granting your Suppofition, what do you infer?

IO.

I.

Lev. 25.

Alph. That the Obligation reaches no farther than the Jewish Common-wealth. The rest of the World are no more tied by it, than they are oblig'd to give their Deut. 15. Debtors a general Release every feventh Year, or to return a purchas'd Estate at 13. the end of fifty. Municipal Laws have regard to the Circumstances of Place and Time; to the Difpofitions of the People they are to govern; and therefore we can't expect they fhould be every where the fame.

Mifoch. That's right; but was there any thing particular in the Jewish Conftitution, that might occafion the forbidding of Ufury.

Alph,

Deut. 7.

Alph. Yes; You know the Jews were Ezra 9. caution'd against correfponding with o

ther Nations, for fear of Infection from their Manners and Idolatry: Now living, as it were, within themselves, there could be little Advantage from foreign Trade. Befides, at this time of Day, the Art of Navigation was imperfect, the Globe in a great measure undifcover'd, fo that the Business of Merchandizing must be comparatively infignificant: For these Reasons, the Jews could not fo well afford to give Intereft: I fay, not fo well as thofe who have the Benefit of vaft Difcoveries, who are unreftrain'd in their Commerce, live under great Improvements of Shipping and Trade to all Parts of the World. I obferve farther, That this Prohibition of Ufury is limited only to the Poor. The Indigence of the Borrower is expreffly Exod. 22. mentioned in Exodus and Leviticus: Lev. 25. "Tis confefs'd this Circumftance is omitted in Deuteronomy; but then Deuteronomy being no more than a Repetition, 'tis no wonder to find fome Particulars unrecited, and the Matter more briefly couched: Such Abridgments, in all equitable conftruction, are to be interpreted by the Law at large. I may add, that a Paffage in this very Place,

determines