"As Samuel sayd to Saul, so may we say to the usurer, Thou hast devised cases and colours to hide thy shame, but what regard hath God to thy cases? What careth He for thy reasons? the Lord would have more pleasure, if when thou heareth His voyce thou wouldest obey Him. For what is thy device against the counsell, and ordinance of God? What bold presumption is it for a mortall man to controule the commandments of immortall God? And to weigh his heavenly wisdome in the ballance of humane foolishnesse? When God sayth, Thou shalt not take usury, what creature of God art thou which canst take usury? When God maketh it unlawfull, what art thou, oh man, that sayst, it is lawfull? This is a token of a desperate mind. It is found true in thee, that Paul sayd, the love of money is the root of all ill. Thou art so given over unto the wicked Mammon, that thou carest not to doe the will of God." Thus far, the theology of Old England. Let it close with the calm law, spoken four hundred years before Christ, [Greek: a me katethou, me anele]. FOOTNOTES: [Footnote 124: _Contemporary Review_, February 1880.] [Footnote 125: See below (p. 393, Sec. 236), in the eighth letter on the Lord's Prayer.--ED.] [Footnote 126: In Proverbs xxviii. 8, "usury" is coupled with "unjust gain," and a pitiless spirit towards the poor, which shows in what sense the word is to be understood there, and in such other passages as Ps. xv. 5 and Ezek. xviii. 8, 9.] [Footnote 127: See post, p. 394, Sec. 237.--ED.] [Footnote 128: Speech of Mr. J. C. Hubbard, M.P. for London, reported in _Standard_ of 26th July, 1879.] [Footnote 129: See the Articles of Association of the East Surrey Hall, Museum, and Library Company. (_Fors Clavigera_, Letter lxx.)] [Footnote 130: "The Polar World," p. 342, Longmans, 1874.] [Footnote 131: "The dearest friend to me, the kindest man, The best conditioned and unwearied spirit, In doing courtesies; and one in whom _The ancient Roman honor more appears, Than any that draws breath in Italy._" This is the Shakespearian description of that Anthony, whom the modern British public, with its new critical lights, calls a "sentimentalist and speculator!"--holding Shylock to be the real hero, and innocent victim of the drama.] USURY.[132] A PREFACE. 176. In the wise, practical, and affectionate sermon, given from St. Mary's pulpit last autumn to the youth of Oxford, by the good Bishop of Carlisle, his Lordship took occasion to warn his eagerly attentive audience, with deep earnestness, against the crime of debt; dwelling with powerful invective on the cruelty and selfishness with which, too often, the son wasted in his follies the fruits of his father's labor, or the means of his family's subsistence; and involved himself in embarrassments which, said the Bishop, "I have again and again known to cause the misery of all subsequent life."