But in all thefe things measures are to be taken by the Contract made, by the Laws and Cuftoms of the place, by the Sentence of prudent and merciful men, and by the Cautions and Remembrances given us by God; fuch as is that written by St. Paul, [as knowing that we also have a Master in Heaven.] The Mafter must not be a Lion in his house, left his power be obeyed, and his perfon hated; his eye be waited on, and his bufinefs be neglected in fecret. No fervant will do his duty, unless he make a confcience, or love his Mafter: if he does it not for God's fake or his Mafter's, he will not need to do it always for his

own.

The Duty of Guardians or Tutors.

Tutors and Guardians are in the place of Parents; and what they are in fiction of Law, they must remember as an argument to engage them to do in reality of duty. They must do all the duty of Parents, excepting those obligations which are merely natural.

The Duty of Minifters and Spiritual Guides to the People is of fo great Burthen, fo various Rules, fo intricate and bufie Caution,that it requires a diftin&t Tractate by it felf.

SE C T. III.

Of Negotiation or Civil Contracts.

THIS part of Juftice is fuch as depends upon the Laws of man directly, and upon the Laws of God only by confequence and indirect reafon; and from civil Laws or private Agreements it is to take its eftimate and measures: and although our duty is plain and eafie, requiring of us honefty in contracts, fincerity in affirming, fimplicity in bargaining, and faithfulnefs in performing; yet it may be helped by the ad dition of thefe following Rules and Confiderations.

M 3

Rules

Rules and Measures of Justice in bargaining.

1. In making Contracts ufe not many words; for all the bufinets of a bargain is fummed up in few fentences: and he that (peaks leaft, means faireft, as having fewer opportunites to deceive.

2. Lye not at all, neither in a little thing nor in a great, neither in the fubftance nor in the circumftance, neither in word nor deed: that is, pretend not what is falle, cover not what is true, and let the measure of your affirmation or denial be the understanding of your contractor: for he that deceives the buyer or the feller, by fpeaking what is true in a fence not inrended or understood by the other, is a liar and a thief. For in Bargains you are to avoid not only what is 1le, but that also which deceives.

3. In Prices of bargaining concerning uncertain Merchandices; you may buy as cheap ordinarily as you can, and fell as dear as you can, fo it be, 1. without violence: and, 2. when you contract on equal terms with perfons in all fences (as to the matter and skill of bargaining) equal to your felf, that is, Merchants with Merchants, wife men with wife men, rich with rich; and, 3. when there is no deceit, and no neceffity, and no monopoly. For in these cales, viz. when the contractors are equal, and no advan tage on either fide, both parties are voluntary, and therefore there can be no injuftice or wrong to ei ther. But then add alfo this Confideration, that the publick be not oppreffed by unreafonable and unjult rates for which the following Rules are the best

Measure.

4. Let your Prices be according to that meature of good and evil which is eftablifhed in the fame and common accounts of the wifeft and most merciful Men skilled in that manufacture or commodity; and the gain fuch which without fcandal is allowed to perfons in all the fame circumftances.

5. Let no Prices be heightned by the neceffity or unskilfulness of the Contractor: for the first is direct

uncha

uncharitableness to the person, and injuftice in the thing; (because the man's neceffity could not naturally enter into the confideration of the value of the commodity ;) and the other is deceit and oppreffion: Much leis muft any man make neceffities; as by ingroffing a commodity, by monopoly, by detaining corn, or the like indirect arts: for fuch perfons are unjuft to all fingle perfons with whom in fuch cafes they contract, and oppreffours of the publick.

6. In entercourfe with others do not do all which you may lawfully do; but keep fomething within thy power and because there is a latitude of gain in buying and felling, take not thou the utmost peny that is lawful, or which thou thinkeft to; for although it be lawful, yet it is not fafe; and he that gains all that he can gain lawfully this year, poffibly next year will be tempted to gain fomething unlawfully.

7. He that fells dearer by reafon he fells not for ready money, muft encrease his price no higher than to make himself recompence for the lofs which according to the Rules of trade he fuftained by his forbearance, according to common computation, reckoning in also the hazard, which he is prudently, warily and charitably to estimate. But although this be the measure of his Juftice, yet because it happens either to their friends, or to neceffitous and poor perfons, they are in these cafes to confider the rules of friendship and neighbourhood, and the obligations of charity, left justice turn into unmercifulnefs.

non vuol nè

8 No man is to be raised in his price or rents in Mercantia regard of any accident, advantage or difadvantage of amici nè pahis perfon. A Prince must be used confcionably as renti. well as a common perfon, and a beggar he treated justly as well as a Prince; with this only difference, that to poor perfons the utmost measure and extent of justice is unmerciful, which to a rich perfon is innocent, because it is juft, and he needs not thy mercy and remiffion.

9. Let no man for his own poverty become more oppreffing and cruel in his bargain, but quietly, mo

deftly,

deftly, diligently and patiently recommend his eftate to God, and follow its intereft, and leave the fuccefs to him for fuch courfes will more probably advance his trade, they will certainly procure him a bleffing and recompence, and if they cure not his poverty, they will take away the evil of it; and there is nothing elle in it that can trouble him.

10. Detain not the wages of the hireling; for every degree of detention of it beyond the time is injuftice and uncharitableness, and grinds his face till tears and bloud come out: but pay him exactly according to Covenant, or according to his needs.

11. Religiously keep all Promifes and Covenants, though made to your disadvantage, though afterwards you perceive you might have done better: and let not any precedent act of yours be altered by any after accident. Let nothing make you break your promife, unless it be unlawful or impoffible: that is, either out of your natural, or out of your civil power, felf being under the power of another; or that it be intolerably inconvenient to your felf, and of no (a) advantage to another; or that you have leave exprefled, or reasonably presumed.

your

(4) Surgam ad fponfalia quia promifi, quamvis non concoxerim, fed non fi febricitavero fubeft enim tacita exceptio, Si potero, fi debebo. Senec.

Effice ut idem ftatus fit cùm exigitur, qui fuit cum promitterem. Deftituere levitas mon eri, fi aliquid intervenerit novi. Eadem mihi omnia præfta, & idem fum. 1. 4. C. 39. de Benetic.

t

12. Let no man take wages or fees for a work that he cannot do, or cannot with probability undertake, or in fome fence profitably, and with eafe, or with advantage manage. Phyficians must not meddle with defperate difeafes, and known to be incurable, without declaring their fence before-hand; that if the Patient please he may entertain him at adventure, or to do him fome little eafe, Advocates muft deal plainly with their Clients, and tell them the true ftate and danger of their cafe ; and must not pretend confidence in an evil caufe: but when he bath fo cleared his own' Innocence, if the Client will have collateral and legal

advantages obtained by his induftry, he may engage his endeavour, provided he do no injury to the right caufe, or any man's person.

Braffavol. in exam. fimpl.

13. Let no man appropriate to his own use what God by a ípecial mercy, or theRepublick, hath made common; for that is both against Juftice and Charity too: and by miraculous accidents God hath declared his displeasure against fuch inclosure. When the Kings of Naples enclofed the Gardens of Oenotria,where the beft Manna of Calabria defcends, that no man might gather it without paying tribute, the Manna ceafed, till the tribute was taken off; and then it came again: and fo, when after the third trial, the Princes found they could not have that in proper which God made to be common, they left it as free as God gave it. The like happened in Epire, when Lyfimachus laid an Caelius Rhod. impoft upon the Tragafaan Salt, it vanished, till Lyfimachus left it publick. And when the Procurators of King Antigonus impofed a rate upon the fick People that came to Edepfum to drink the waters, which were lately sprung, and were very healthful, inftantly the waters dried up, and the hope of gain perifhed.

1. 9. c. 12. Athena.

Deipnos. 1. 3.

1 Theff. 4.6.

I Cor. 6. 8.

The fum of all is in these words of St. Paul, [Let no man go beyond and defraud his brother in any matter, because the Lord is the avenger of all fuch.] And our Bleffed Saviour in the enumerating the Duties of Juftice, befides the Commandment of [Do not steal] Lev. 19. 13. adds [Defrand not] forbidding (as a diftinct explica- Matt 10.19tion of the Old Law) the tacit and fecret theft of abufing our Brother in Civil Contracts. And it needs no other arguments to enforce this caution, but only that the Lord hath undertaken to avenge all fuch perfons. And as he always does it in the great day of recompences; fo very often he does it here, by making the unclean portion of injuftice to be as a Canker-worm, eating up all the other increase it procures beggary, and a declining estate, or a caitiff curfed fpirit, an ill name, the curfe of the injured and oppreffed perfon, and a fool or a prodigal to be his heir.

SECT