of Use or of Service, by which it is indebted to other. The Sun by his Splendor to lighten all the World; by his Warmth and Heat, to cherish and comfort each living and vegetable Thing. Yea, Man himself is fo framed of God, that not only his Country, his Parents and his Friends claim a share in him, but he is alfo indebted to his Dog, and to his Ox, to teach the one to hunt for his Pleasure, the other to labour for his Profit: fo that Quicquid babet genii, ingenii, moris, amoris, the Abilities of his Spirit, the Affections of his Mind, he hath them for others, as much as for himself; nay, the more for others, by how much he defireth to be the greater Lord over others. Let him but look into himself, and fee how his conftitutive Parts are Debtors each to other, the Soul doth quicken and give Life to the Body, the Body, like an Automaton, doth move and carry itself and the Soul. Survey him in his Parts, the Eye feeth for the Foot, the Foot ftandeth for the Hand, the Hand toucheth for the Mouth, the Mouth tafteth for the Stomach, the Stomach eateth for the whole Body, the Body repayeth back again that Nutriment which it hath received, to all the Parts, difcharging the Retriments by the Port Efquiline; and all this in fo comely an Order, and by a Law so certain, and in fo due a Time, as if Nature had rather Man should not have been at all, than not to be a Debtor in every Part of him; which hath made me refolve, that to whomsoever I mean to be a Friend, I will ftrive to be in his Debt: and what can I do lefs? for to him that doth me a good Turn, I am bound to return him the greatest Pleasure; which I can no way do, but by being in his Debt: for what Contentment will it be unto him, when I fhall repay him his own again? The Alchymifts, who promife to themselves to turn Tin into Silver, and Copper into Gold, how will they be tranfported out of

them

themselves with Joy, if they should but see a happy Iffue of their Attempt? How much more a Creditor, when he fhall recover a desperate Debt? It is like the Joy of a Father that receives his loft Child.

Again, he that is in Debt hath this great Privilege above other Men, that his Creditors pour out hearty Prayers for him, they wish that he may live, and thrive, and profper, and grow rich, and all. for their own Advantage. They feem to be careful for their Debtors, that they may not lose their Principal with the Intereft, for their Money is their Life, witness those Ufurers of France, who, when they heard that the Price of Corn was fallen, went and hanged themselves for Grief.

What a Command doth the Debtor gain over his Creditors? He becometh in a manner their Landlord, to whom they cap, crouch, and kneel, as if they did owe him all Suits and Services, and are as ambitious of their Favours, as they who in Rome did canvas the People for their Voices to attain the greatest Offices: but here is their Cunning; Laudant ut Ledant, they praise them, that they may prey upon. And therefore you brave Gallants and Spend-thrifts, who find by your woeful Experience, that no Whip gives a fhrewder Lash than the Labels of a Bond or Obligation, with a Noverint univerfi Skinner and Lacy. Whenfoever fall into the Mercers Books, never take Care, you or make Conscience of paying your Debts, for by that means you fhall keep your Creditor in Awe, and fhall have him wonderful courteous and officious, and obfequious towards you, and a great Mint-mafter of fair Words.

Without Debt and Loan the Fabrick of the World will be disjointed, and fall afunder into its firft Chaos. The Beauty of the Stars, what would it be but Vaftness and Deformity, if the Sun did

not

not lend them Lights? The Earth would remain. unfruitful, if she did not borrow refreshing Dews from the watery Signs and Planets. The Summer is pleasant, and promiseth great Hopes of Plenty, but it is, because it taketh up much upon Truft from the friendly and feasonable Temperament of the Elements. And to fay the Truth, there is nothing Good or Great in the World, but that it borroweth Something from others to make it Great, or lendeth to another to make it Good: And therefore I marvel why Antiquity, who made * Mildew, Fever, and Scurvynefs, Goddeffes, did not matriculate Loan and Debt among the reft.

The Elements who are linked together by a League of Affociation, and by their fymbolizing Qualities do barter and truck, borrow and lend one to another, as being the Burse and Royal Exchange of Nature: They are by this Traffick and Intercourse the very Life and Nourishment of all sublunary Bodies, and therefore are called Elimenta quafi alimenta, whofe happy Concord and Conjunction hath brought forth thofe, whom the World, for the Good done to Mankind, hath efteemed Gods, as Bacchus the great Vintner, Ceres the Meal-mother, Fiora the Tutty-maker, Vertumnus and Pmona Coftard-mongers.

Now, if every Man would render and repay in full Weight that which by due Debt he oweth and hath borrowed from others, Saturn's golden Age would return again, in which there was no Difference of Metals, but Gold and Silver were all one Oar, and made the Yolk of the Earth, Nature's great Egg: Neither did Meum and Tuum bound out and apportionate Lands and Loreth ps by MeerStones, and Diversity of Tenure of Sockage and Focage; fince when Qui babet Terras habet Guerras,

Brugo, Febris, Pfora.

and

and the King of Heaven's Peace hath been difturb'd amongst Men: But then all Things were all Men's, as Neceffity did allot and award, who was then the only Judge and Arbitrator, competently allowing to every Man that which he stood in Need of.

With what Dearness have both Gods and good Men countenanced and graced Debtors? To whom Diana the great Goddefs of Ephesus granted her Temple for a Sanctuary, to keep them out of Bagwell Pigeon-houses. Or if they were caught, Solon by a folemn Law enacted, would not have their Bodies to be fettered or manacled amongst Malefactors, but that they should enjoy their Liberty throughout all the Parks and Purlieus of the Prifon, or to speak more mildly, of their Restraint and Indurance: For the Prifon is built Purgatory-wise, after the Architecture of Rome, with a Limbus and Tullianum. The Dungeon is the Devil's Pinfold, and the very Suburbs of Hell, where Varlets, Roarers, and Stiletto Stabbers are let down, as the proper Food that ftuffs that great greedy Maw. The next Room is the Lollard of trunk-hofed Familifts and Separatists, who after they have been rowelled in the Neck, to cure them of the Megrim of the Head, are by the gentle Flame of this Stove, and the Heat of their own Zeal, made to sweat out their Contumacy and other peccant Humours, The upper Skirt and Stage of this Building is the Garret of expenceful Wafters, Gamefters, and unthrifty Debtors, where tho' they live robbed of their Liberty, as they rifled others of their Money, yet it is their great Happiness, that being glutted as it were with an apolauftick voluptuary Life, they have an eafy Overture made to the contemplative and practick Life of Virtue. Whoever lived more like a fouced-gurn-head amongst Men than Diagenes the Cynick, barrelling himself up in his Tub

H

like

like a Keg of Sturgeon? Yet was the Happiness of his contented Life envied by the greatest Monarchs, who having made their Throats the Thorough-fare and the Cullenders of Meats and Drinks, found an overgorged Belly to be Wit's Clog, Reafon's Sepulchre, Luft's Arfenal, the Magazine of lewd Practices, and the Nursery of all Vices: All which Provocations are defaulted by Debts, Wants, and Indigency.

And lastly, the Lumbards, Ufurers, and Scriveners, who are the Beadles of Beggars, and are accounted the Tetters upon the Body Politick of the Common-weal, who turn the Calends and new Moons, and the Feftival Days of Quarter-gaudies, into the Octaves of Difafter and Dooms-day Reckonings; when any of these come to Heaven there is a Wonderment amongst the Angels, and they cry out with Sir Guzman of Alfarache, Frueta nueva, frueta nueva, here is a new kind of Fruit ftarted up, a Pumparadife upon a Crab-ftock, Lumbards and Scriveners are become the Pope's canonized and beatified Saints.

Farewel then Ulpianus, Modeftinus, and other Pettifoggers of the Law, Solicitors, and Molefters of Caufes, who account being in Debt a Kind of Bondage and Servitude. I pity Seneca's Weakness, who blushed to borrow; Miferum verbum & dimiffa vultu proferendum, Rogo: That Poet Laureat forfeited his Wreath of Bays and Ivy Twine, whọ made his Prayers to his Purfe to keep him out of Debt, in this Manner;

To you my Purfe, and to none other Wight
Complain I, for you be my Lady deere:
I am forry now that you be light,
For certes yee now make me heauie Cheere,
Mee were as lefe layd vpon a Beere.

Tb. Ocleve, in Chaucer.

For

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