N01536:60
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.
And now, having built a Watch-Tower upon Seven MAXIMS, as upon so many Unshaken Pillars, from whence you have dispensed unto ⟨p. 25⟩you those Warnings, which may prevent the Debts, wherein too many detain the Possessions of their Neighbours, without the Consent, & unto the Damage, of the Rightful Owners; I think, I have Purchased the Liberty to address the Creditors a little in Favour of their Debtors, and Entreat that as much Favour as can be, may be shown unto them. Sir, It may be your Poor Debtors, come to you after that manner; Matth. XVIII 29 He fell down at his Feet, & besought him, saying, Have Patience with me, & I will pay thee all. Now, if these Debtors give you any Indications of an Honest Mind, I also Pray you, to have as much Patience with them as you can. I have not a word to say, against Compelling of People to be Honest. But if you see, they would fain be Honest, & Struggle & Wrestle for it, and have any Merit in them, then, I say, use them with all the Goodness & Mercy of a Brother; Let them find all Brotherly Kindness from you. You have them in Debt unto you, for so much Money; Bring them into a further Debt, for so much Kind Usage of them; Tho' on this head, Let them stand charged for nothing, but, Love to a Benefactor.
It pleases me very much to find this prescribed in a famous Lexicon Juridicum; That before a Debtor be Sued, Adeundus est, et civiliter interpessandus, semel atque iterum, He should be civilly Addressed once again, by the Creditor, & then ⟨p. 26⟩by some of his Friends, and be Admonished of the Damage that he will bring upon himself, and especially the Wounds upon his Conscience, if he don't fairly pay what he owes. [According to, Matth. XVIII. 15, 16.] Calvin the Lawyer, observes, That this way of Admonishing a Debtor, before the Arresting of him, Certum crit, quod ex jure Divino et Humano omnibus modis sit Observanda. And that there are Places, in which a Plaintiff cannot have his Cause heard, if he can't prove that he has used the Urbanity, of these Preliminary Admonitions.