A Christian Directory, Part 4: Christian Politics

Quest. II. If another be bound to relieve me and do not, may I not take it, though it be not for the immediate saving of my life?

Answ. If he be bound only by God's law to relieve you, you must complain to God, and stay till he do you right, and not break his law and order, by righting yourself, in case you are not in the necessity aforesaid. If he be bound also by the law of man to relieve you, you may complain to the rulers, and seek your right by their assistance; but not by stealth.

Quest. III. If another borrow or possess my goods or money, and refuse to pay me, and I cannot have law and justice against him, or am not rich enough to sue him, may I not take them if I have an opportunity?

Answ. If he turn your enemy in a time of war, or live under another prince, with whom you are at war, or where your prince alloweth you to take it; there it seemeth undoubtedly lawful to take your own by that law of arms, which then is uppermost. But when the law that you are under forbiddeth you, the case is harder. But it is certain that propriety is in communities, and is in order of nature antecedent to human government in republics; and the preservation of it is one of the ends of government. Therefore I conceive that in case you could take your own so secretly, or in such a manner as might no way hinder the ends of government as to others, by encouraging thievery or unjust violence, it is not unlawful before God, the end of the law being the chief part of the law; but when you cannot take your own without either encouraging theft or violence in others, or weakening the power of the laws and government by your disobedience, (which is the ordinary case,) it is unlawful: because the preservation of order and of the honour of the government and laws, and the suppression of theft and violence, is much more necessary than the righting of yourself, and recovering your own.

Quest. IV. If another take by theft or force from me, may I not take my own again from him, by force or secretly, when I have no other way?

Answ. Not when you do more hurt to the commonwealth by breaking law and order, than your own benefit can recompense; for you must rather suffer than the commonwealth should suffer; but you may when no such evils follow it.

Quest. V. If I be in no necessity myself, may I not take from rich men to give to the poor who are in extreme necessity?

Answ. The answer to the first case may suffice for this; in such cases wherein a poor man may not take it for himself, you may not take it for him. But in such cases as he may take it for himself, and no one else is fit to do it, he himself being unable, you may do it (when no accidental consequents forbid you).

Quest. VI. If he have so much as that he will not miss it, and I be in great want, though not like to die of famine, may I not take a little to supply my want?

Answ. No: because God hath appointed the means of just propriety; and what is not gotten by those means, is none of yours by his approbation. He is the giver of riches; and he intendeth not to give to all alike: if he give more to others he will require more of them. And if he give less to you, it is the measure which he seeth to be meetest for you; and the condition in which your obedience and patience must be tried; and he will not take it well, if you will alter your measure by forbidden means, and be carvers for yourselves, or level others.

Quest. VII. There are certain measures which humanity obligeth a man to grant to those in want, and therefore men take without asking: as to pluck an apple from a tree, or as Christ's disciples, to rub the ears of corn to eat; if a Nabal deny me such a thing, may I not take it?

Answ. If the laws of the land allow it you, you may; because men's propriety is subjected to the law for the common good. But if the law forbid it you, you may not; except when it is necessary to save your life, upon the terms expressed under the first question.

Quest. VIII. May not a wife, or child, or servant take more than a cruel husband, or parent, or master doth allow? suppose it be better meat or drink?

Answ. How far the wife hath a true propriety herself, and therefore may take it, dependeth on the contract and the laws of the land; which I shall not now meddle with. But for children and servants, they may take no more than the most cruel and unrighteous parents or masters do allow them; except to save their lives upon the conditions in the first case: but the servant may seek relief of the magistrate; and he may leave such an unrighteous master: and the child must bear it patiently as the cross by which it pleaseth God to try him; unless that the government of the parent be so bad, as to tend to his undoing; and then I think he may leave his parents for a better condition (except it be when their own necessity obligeth him to stay and suffer for their help and benefit). For it is true that a child oweth as much to his parents as he can perform, by way of gratitude, for their good: but it is true also, that a parent hath no full and absolute propriety in his child, as men have in their cattle, but is made by nature their guardian for their benefit; and therefore when parents would undo their children's souls or bodies, the children may forsake them, as being forsaken by them; further than as they are obliged in gratitude to help them, as is aforesaid.

Quest. IX. If a man do deserve to lose somewhat which he hath by way of punishment, may I not take it from him?

Answ. Not unless the law either make you a magistrate or officer to do it, or allow and permit it at the least; because it is not to you that the forfeiture is made: or if it be, you must execute the law according to the law, and not against it; for else you will offend in punishing offences.

Quest. X. But what if I fully resolve, when I take a thing in my necessity, to repay the owner, or make him satisfaction if ever I be able?

Answ. That is some extenuation of the sin, but no justification of the fact; which is otherwise unjustifiable, because it is still without his consent.

Quest. XI. What if I know not whether the owner would consent or not?

Answ. In a case where common custom and humanity alloweth you to take it for granted that he would not deny it you, (as to pluck an ear of corn, or gather an herb for medicine in his field,) you need not scruple it; unless you conjecture that he is a Nabal and would deny you. But otherwise if you doubt of his consent, you must ask it, and not presume of it without just cause.

Quest. XII. What if I take a thing from a friend but in a way of jest, intending to restore it?

Answ. If you have just grounds to think that your friend would consent if he knew it, you will not be blamable: but if otherwise, either you take it for your own benefit and use, or you take it only to make sport by; the former is theft, for all your jest; the latter is but an unlawful way of jesting.

Quest. XIII. What if I take it from him, but to save him from hurting his body with it: as if I steal poison from one that intended to kill himself by it; or take a sword from a drunken man that would hurt himself; or a knife from a melancholy man? Or what if it be to save another; as to take a madman's sword from him who would kill such as are in his way, or any angry man's that will kill another?

Answ. This is your duty according to the sixth commandment, which bindeth you to preserve your neighbour's life; so be it these conditions be observed: 1. That you keep not his sword for your benefit and advantage, nor claim a property in it; but give it his friends, or deliver it to the magistrate. 2. That you do nothing without the magistrate, in which you may safely stay for his authority and help: but if two be fighting, or thieves be robbing or murdering a man, or another's life be in present danger, you must help them without staying for the magistrate's authority. 3. That you make not this a pretence for the usurping of authority, or for resisting or deposing your lawful prince, or magistrate, or parent, or master, or of exercising your own will and passions against your superiors; pretending that you take away their swords to save themselves or others from their rage, when it is indeed but to hinder justice.

Quest. XIV. May I not then much more take away that by which he would destroy his own or other men's souls: as to take away cards or dice from gamesters; or heretical or seditious books, or play-books and romances; or to pull down idols which the idolators do adore, or are instruments of idolatry?

Answ. There is much difference in the cases, though the soul be more precious than the body: for, 1. Here there is supposed to be so much leisure and space as that you may have time to tell the magistrate of it, whose duty primarily it is: whereas in the other case it is supposed that so much delay would be a man's death. Therefore your duty is to acquaint the magistrate with the sin and danger, and not to anticipate him, and play the magistrate yourself. Or in the case of cards, and dice, and hurtful books, you may acquaint the persons with the sin, and persuade them to cast them away themselves. 2. Your taking away these instruments is not like to save them: for the love of the sin, and the will to do it, remain still; and the sinner will but be hardened by his indignation against your irregular course of charity. 3. Men are bound to save men's bodies whether they will or not, because it may be so done; but no man can save another's soul against his will! And it is God's will that their salvation or damnation shall be more the fruit of their own wills, than of any other's. Therefore, though it is possible to devise an instance, in which it is lawful to steal a poisonous book or idol from another, (when it is done so secretly as will encourage no disobedience or disorder; nor is like to harden the sinner, but indeed to do him good, &c.) yet ordinarily all this is unlawful for private men, that have no government of others, or extraordinary interest in them.155

Quest. XV. May not a magistrate take the subjects' goods, when it is necessary for their own preservation?

Answ. I answered this question once heretofore in my "Political Aphorisms: " and because I repent of meddling with such subjects, and of writing that book, I will leave such cases hereafter for fitter persons to resolve.

Quest. XVI. But may I not take from another for a holy use; as to give to the church or maintain the bishops? If David took the hallowed bread in his necessity, may not hallowed persons take common bread?

Answ. If holy persons be in present danger of death, their lives may be saved as other men's on the terms mentioned in the first case. Otherwise God hath no need of theft or violence; nor must you rob the laity to clothe the clergy; but to do such evil on pretence of piety and good, is an aggravation of the sin.

CHAPTER XIX.

GENERAL DIRECTIONS AND PARTICULAR CASES OF CONSCIENCE, ABOUT CONTRACTS IN GENERAL, AND ABOUT BUYING AND SELLING, BORROWING AND LENDING, USURY, &c. IN PARTICULAR

Tit. 1. General Directions against injurious Bargaining and Contracts

Besides the last directions, chap. xviii., take these as more nearly pertinent to this case.

Direct. I. See that your hearts have the two great principles of justice deeply and habitually innaturalized or radicated in them, viz. The true love of your neighbour, and the denial of yourself; which in one precept are called, The loving of your neighbour as yourself. For then you will be freed from the inclination to injuries and fraud, and from the power of those temptations which carry men to these sins. They will be contrary to your habitual will or inclination; and you will be more studious to help your neighbour, than to get from him.

Direct. II. Yet do not content yourself with these habits, but be sure to call them up to act, whenever you have any bargaining with others; and let a faithful conscience be to you as a cryer to proclaim God's law, and say to you, Now remember love and self-denial, and do as you would be done by. If Alexander Severus so highly valued this saying, Quod tibi fieri non vis, alteri ne feceris, as to make it his motto, and write and engrave it on his doors and buildings (having learned it of some christians or Jews, saith Lampridius); what a crime and shame is it for Christ's own professed disciples neither to learn nor love it! Put home the question when you have any bargaining with others, How would I be dealt with myself, if my case were the same with his?

Direct. III. When the tempter draweth you to think only of your own commodity and gain, remember how much more you will lose by sin, than your gain can any way amount to. If Achan, Gehazi, Ahab, Judas, &c. had foreseen the end, and the greatness of their loss, it would have curbed their covetous desires. Believe God's word from the bottom of your heart, that you shall lose things eternal if you sinfully get things temporal, and then you will not make haste to such a bargain, to win the world and lose your souls.

Direct. IV. Understand your neighbour's case aright, and meditate on his wants and interest. You think what you want yourself; but you think not whether his wants with whom you deal, may not be as great as yours: consider what his commodity costeth him; or what the toil of the workman's labour is; what house rent he hath to pay, and what a family to maintain; and whether all this can be well done upon the rates that you desire to trade with him. And do not believe every common report of his riches, or of the price of his commodity; for fame in such cases is frequently false.

Direct. V. Regard the public good above your own commodity. It is not lawful to take up or keep up any oppressing monopoly or trade, which tendeth to enrich you by the loss of the commonwealth or of many.

Direct. VI. Therefore have a special regard to the laws of the country where you live; both as to your trade itself, and as to the price of what you sell or buy. For the law is made for the public benefit, which is to be preferred before any private man's. And when the law doth directly or indirectly set rates upon labours or commodities, ordinarily they must be observed; or else you will commit two sins at once, injury and disobedience.

Direct. VII. Also have special respect to the common estimate, and to the market price. Though it be not always to be our rule, yet ordinarily it must be a considerable part of it, and of great regard.

Direct. VIII. Let not imprudent thinking make you seem more covetous than you are. Some imprudent persons cannot tell how to make their markets without so many words, even about a penny or a trifle, that it maketh others think them covetous, when it is rather want of wit. The appearance of evil must be avoided. I know some that are ready to give a pound to a charitable use at a word, who will yet use so many words for a penny in their bargaining as maketh them deeply censured and misunderstood. If you see cause to break for a penny or a small matter, do it more handsomely in fewer words, and be gone: and do not tempt the seller to multiply words, because you do so.

Direct. IX. Have no more to do in bargaining with others, especially with censorious persons, than you needs must; for in much dealing usually there will be much misunderstanding, offence, censure, and complaint.

Direct. X. In doubtful cases, when you are uncertain what is lawful, choose that side which is safest to the peace of your consciences hereafter; though it be against your commodity, and may prove the losing of your right.

Tit. 2. Cases of Conscience about Justice in Contracts

Quest. I. Must I always do as I would be done by? Or hath this rule any exceptions?

Answ. The rule intendeth no more but that your just self-denial and love to others, be duly exercised in your dealings with all. And, 1. It supposeth that your own will or desires be honest and just, and that God's law be their rule. For a sinful will may not be made the rule of your own actions or of other men's. He that would have another make him drunk, may not therefore make another drunk: and he that would abuse another man's wife, may not therefore desire that another man would lust after or abuse his wife. He that would not be instructed, reproved, or reformed, may not therefore forbear the instructing or reproving others. And he that would kill himself, may not therefore kill another. But he that would have no hurt done to himself injuriously, should do none to others: and he that would have others do him good, should be as willing to do good to them.

2. It supposeth that the matter be to be varied according to your various conditions. A parent that justly desireth his child to obey him, is not bound therefore to obey his child; nor the prince to obey his subjects; nor the master to do all the work for his servants, which he would have his servants do for him. But you must deal by another as you would (regularly) have them deal by you, if you were in their case, and they in yours. And on these terms it is a rule of righteousness.

Quest. II. Is a son bound by the contract which his parents or guardians made for him in his infancy?

Answ. To some things he is bound, and to some things not. The infant is capable of being obliged by another upon four accounts: 1. As he is the parents' own (or a master's to whom he is in absolute servitude). 2. As he is to be ruled by the parents. 3. As he is a debtor to his parents for benefits received. 4. As he is an expectant, or capable of future benefits to be enjoyed upon conditions to be performed by him. 1. No parents or lord have an absolute propriety in any rational creature; but they have a propriety secundum quid, et ad hoc: and a parent's propriety doth in part expire or abate, as the son groweth up to the full use of reason, and so hath a greater propriety in himself. Therefore he may oblige his son only so far as his propriety extendeth, and to such acts, and to no other; for in those his will is reputatively his son's will. As if a parent sell his son to servitude, he is bound to such service as beseemeth one man to put another to. 2. As he is rector to his child, he may by contract with a third person promise that his child shall do such acts, as he hath power to command and cause him to do: as to read, to hear God's word, to labour as he is able; but this no longer than while he is under his parent's government: and so long obedience requireth him to perform their contracts, in performing their commands. 3. The child having received his being and maintenance from them, remains obliged to them as his benefactors in the debt of gratitude as long as he liveth: and that so deeply that some have questioned whether ever he can requite them (which quoad valorem beneficii he can do only by furthering their salvation; as many a child hath been the cause of the parent's conversion). And so far as the son is thus a debtor to his parents, he is obliged to do that which the parents by contract with a third person shall impose upon him. As if the parents could not be delivered out of captivity, but by obliging the son to pay a great sum of money, or to live in servitude for their release: though they never gave him any money, yet is he bound to pay the sum, if he can get it, or to perform the servitude; because he hath received more from them, even his being. 4. As the parents are both owners, (secundum quid,) and rulers, and benefactors to their child, in all three respects conjunct, they may oblige him to a third person who is willing to be his benefactor, by a conditional obligation to perform such conditions that he may possess such or such benefits: and thus a guardian or any friend who is fit to interpose for him, may oblige him. As to take a lease in his name, in which he shall be bound to pay such a rent, or do such a service, that he may receive such a commodity which is greater. Thus parents oblige their children under civil governments to the laws of the society or kingdom, that they may have the protection and benefits of subjects. In these cases the child can complain of no injury; for it is for his benefit that he is obliged: and the parent (in this respect) cannot oblige him to his hurt: for if he will quit the benefit, he may be freed when he will from his obligation, and may refuse to stand to the covenant if he dislike it. If he will give up his lease, he may be disobliged from the rent and service.

In all this you may see that no man can oblige another against God or his salvation: and therefore a parent cannot oblige a child to sin, nor to forbear hearing or reading the word of God, or praying, or any thing necessary to his salvation: nor can he oblige him to hear an heretical pastor; nor to marry an infidel or wicked wife, &c.

And here also you may perceive on what grounds it is that God hath appointed parents to oblige their children in the covenant of baptism, to be the servants of God and to live in holiness all their days.

And hence it is apparent, that no parents can oblige their children to be miserable, or to any such condition which is worse than to have no being.

Also that when parents do (as commonly they do) profess to oblige their children as benefactors for their good, the obligation is then to be interpreted accordingly: and the child is then obliged to nothing which is really his hurt.

Yea, all the propriety and government of parents, cannot authorize them to oblige the child to his hurt, but in order to some greater good, either to the parents themselves, or to the commonwealth, or others; at least that which the parents apprehend to be a greater good: but if they err through ignorance or partiality, and bind the child to a greater hurt for their lesser good, (as to pay two hundred pounds to save them from paying one hundred pounds,) whether their injury and sin do excuse the child from being obliged to any more than the proportion of the benefit required, I leave undetermined.

Quest. III. But what if the parents disagree, and one of them will oblige the child, and the other will not?

Answ. 1. If it be an act of the parents as mere proprietors for their own good, either of them may oblige him in a just degree; because they have severally a propriety. 2. If it be an act of government, (as if they oblige him to do this or that act of service at their command in his minority,) the father may oblige him against the mother's consent, because he is the chief ruler; but not the mother against the father's will, though she may without it.

Quest. IV. Is a man obliged by a contract which he made in ignorance or mistake of the matter?

Answ. I have answered this before in the case of marriage, part iii. chap. i.: I add here,

1. We must distinguish between culpable and inculpable error. 2. Between an error about the principal matter, and about some smaller accidents or circumstances. 3. Between a case where the law of the land or the common good interposeth, and where it doth not.

1. If it be your own fault that you are mistaken you are not wholly freed from the obligation; but if it was your gross fault, by negligence or vice, you are not at all freed; but if it were but such a frailty as almost all men are liable to, so that none but a person of extraordinary virtue or diligence could have avoided the mistake, then equity will proportionably make you an abatement or free you from the obligation. So far as you were obliged to understand the matter, so far you are obliged by the contract; especially when another is a loser by your error.

2. An inculpable error about the circumstances, or smaller parts, will not free you from an obligation in the principal matter; but an inculpable error in the essentials will.

3. Except when the law of the land or the common good, doth otherwise overrule the case; for then you may be obliged by that accident. In divers cases the rulers may judge it necessary, that the effect of the contract shall depend upon the bare words, or writings, or actions; lest false pretences of misunderstanding should exempt deceitful persons from their obligations, and nothing should be a security to contractors. And then men's private commodity must give place to the law and to the public good.