Usury

USURY, Usura, or Fœnus. This is what is received for the Loan of a Sum of Money, over and above the Principal. ‘Tis said Exod. xxii. 25, 26.in Exodus, If thou lend money to any of my people that is poor by thee, thou shalt not be to him as an usurer, neither shalt thou lay upon him usury. If thou at all take thy neighbour’s raiment to pledge, thou shalt deliver it unto him by that the sun goeth Levit. xxv. 35, 36, 37.down. And elsewhere, If thy brother be waxen poor, and fallen in decay with thee, then thou shalt relieve him; yea, tho’ he be a stranger, or a sojourner, that he may live with thee. Take thou no usury of him, or increase, but fear thy God, that thy brother may live with thee. Thou shalt not give him thy money upon usury, nor lend him thy victuals for increase. The Hebrew Text may be thus translated: ” When ” your Brother shall fall into Poverty and ” Misery, you shall support him; and ” as to the Stranger or Foreigner that ” shall be settled amongst you, you shall ” take no Usury of him; you shall not ” lend him your Money for Usury, &c.” So that this Passage would contain these two Precepts: First, that a Brother was to be maintained in Poverty; and, secondly, that even the Stranger was to be relieved, without paying Usury for it.

And in Deuteronomy, Thou shalt not Deut. xxiii. 19, 20.lend upon usury to thy brother, usury of money, usury of victuals, usury of any thing that is lent upon usury. Unto a stranger thou mayest lend upon usury, but unto thy

2. . 2. brother thou shalt not lend upon usury: That the Lord thy God may bless thee in all that thou settest thine hand to, in the land whither thou goest to possess it. In this Place the Lord seems to tolerate Usury towards Strangers; that is, towards the Canaanites, and the other People that were devoted to Slavery and Subjection, but not towards such Strangers with whom the Hebrews had no Quarrel, and against whom the Lord had not denounced his Judgments. To exact Usury is here, according Ambros. de Tobia. c. 25.to St. Ambrose, an Act of Hostility; ‘twas a kind of waging War with the Canaanites, and of ruining them by Means of Usury. Demand Usury from him whom you may kill without a Crime: Cui enim jure inferuntur arma, huic legitimè inducantur usuræ.----Ab hoc usuram exige, quem non sit crimen occidere. And besides, the Law does not allow Usury towards our Enemies, tho’ in a just War; it only permits us to spoil them of such things as they may make use of against us, and to our Destruction. So that the true Inference from hence is, that God did indeed tolerate, but not approve, of the Usury, which the Hebrews exercised towards the Canaanites. He allowed thus much to the Hardness of their Hearts, because it could not be entirely prevented.

But Jesus Christ, in his Gospel has entirely revoked all such Tolerations, which Luke vi. 30, 31, 32, 33.were in use under the old Law. Give to every man that asketh of thee, and of him that taketh away thy goods, ask them not again. If ye lend to them of whom you hope to receive, what thank have you? For sinners also lend to sinners, to receive as much again: But love ye your enemies, and do good, and lend, hoping for nothing again. These last Words, Lend, hoping for nothing again, Mutuum date nihil inde sperantes, may be explained three ways: 1. Lend even to the poorest, where there is no Hopes that he can be able ever to repay again. 2. Lend without expecting that the like Kindness shall be shewed to you again. 3. Lend without distrusting your Neighbour; or, lend without distrusting Providence, so that the fear of Indigence may hinder you from doing good. But we think the genuine meaning to be this: Lend to the Poor, tho’ there should be no Hopes that they can repay you again. St. August. Epist. 153.Austin would not take upon him to determine, whether that Gain be unjust that is acquired by Usury, and whether Restitution ought not to be made in this Case: What, says he, shall I say of Usury, which the Civil Laws condemn, and which the Judges oblige to Restitution? Is it more cruel to extort any thing from the Rich, than to rob the Poor of their Lives in some manner, by oppressing them with Usury? Whatever is acquired this way, is certainly ill acquired; and I am persuaded it ought to be restored; but there are no Judges to appeal to, in order to obtain Restitution: Quid dicam de usuris, quas etiam Leges & Judices reddi jubent? Hæc¹ atque ejusmodi malè utique possidentur, & vellem restituerentur; sed non est quo Judice repetantur. Probably he speaks of secret Nehem. v. 11.Usury. Nehemiah obliges the Jews, after their Return from their Captivity, to restore to their Brethren what they had unjustly extorted from them. “ Restore, I “ pray you, to them, even this Day, their “ Lands, their Vine-yards, their Olive-yards, “ and their Houses; also the hundredth “ part of the Money, and of the Corn, “ the Wine, and the Oil that ye exact of “ them.” The Hebrew says, restore, or make Restitution. But it is needless to enlarge any farther upon Usury, which is condemned by all Laws, whether Natural, Divine, or Human. See the Casuists, and the Commentators upon Exod. xxii. 25, 26.

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