N01536:16
Fair dealing between debtor and creditor. A very brief essay upon the caution to…
Fair dealing between debtor and creditor. A very brief essay upon the caution to be used, about coming in to debt, and getting out of it. Offered at Boston-lecture; 5. d. XI. m. 1715/16. / By Cotton Mather, D.D. & F.R.S. ; [Two lines of quotation]
Boston: printed by B. Green for Samuel Gerrish, 1716
Title page typeset from the transcription.
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
The DOCTRINE, which I have a sufficient Commission to insist upon, is this.
There is a proper Caution, about coming into DEBT, and getting out of DEBT, which is a considerable Point of Christianity.
There is a proper Caution, about coming into DEBT, and getting out of DERT, which is a considerable Point of Christianity.
A Due Caution, to Owe no Man any thing, is what every Man should Labour in. 'Tis the Duty of Christians, to have as few Creditors as ever they can, and owe as little to their Creditors as ever they can, and give none of their Creditors any cause to complain, That they are not fairly dealt withal.
I suppose, There is no need of any Accurate Essay, to give a Definition of the DEBT, against which we are now to be cautioned. The Lexicons of the Lawyers are needless to be consulted on this Occasion, which will tell us, Debitor tuus est, qui tibi non reddit quod tuum est. A Debtor is One, who does not let another Man have his own; One who does not render to a Neighbour, what he has a claim unto. They will tell us, A Debt, is what a Man is under Obligation to accommodate another Man withal. Or, Quod ab Invito Exigi potest; What a Man may by Law and Right, be forced whether he will or no, to part withal. The meaning of a DEBT, is too well known, yea, on both sides too feelingly understood, for us to want any Explication of it. Every body knows, That a Man is in Debt, when he is under Obligation to deliver up any Possessions unto another Man, upon the Demand thereof. There are many Ways, in which a Man may come under such an Obligation; and particularly