1. By engrossing those goods which are necessary for food or clothing, thereby to enhance the price thereof, whereby the poor are brought into great extremities.
2. When persons enrich themselves out of the unmerciful labour exacted of their servants, whom they will hardly suffer to live, to eat the just reward of their service. Such a master was Laban to Jacob, Gen. xxxi. 41, 42.
3. When landlords turn their tenants out of their houses or farms, when they find that they get a comfortable subsistence by their industry, taking occasion from thence, to raise their rent, in proportion to the success God gives them therein.
4. When the rich make the poor suffer by long delays, to pay their debts, that they may gain advantage by the improvement of that money which they ought to have paid them.
V. A person may be said to break this Commandment, by engaging in unjust and vexatious law-suits. However, it is to be owned, that going to law is not, at all times, unjust; for it is sometimes a relief against oppression; and it is agreeable to the law of nature for every one to defend his just rights; and for this reason God appointed judges, (to determine such-like causes) to whom the people were to have recourse, that they might shew them the sentence of judgment, Deut. xvii. 8, 9. Nevertheless, we must sometimes conclude law-suits to be oppressive; as,
1. When the rich make use of the law, to prevent, or prolong the payment of their debts, or to take away the rights of the poor, who, as they suppose, will rather suffer injuries than attempt to defend themselves.
2. When bribes are either given or taken, with a design to pervert justice, 1 Sam. viii. 2. And to this we may add, that the person who pleads an unrighteous cause, concealing the known truth, perverting the sense of the law, or alleging that for law or fact, which he knows not to be so; and the judge who passes sentence against his conscience, respecting the person of the rich, and brow-beating the poor; these are all confederates in oppression; and such methods of proceeding, are beyond dispute, a breach of this Commandment.
Obj. Our Saviour forbids going to law, though it were to recover our just rights; when he says, If any man will sue thee at the law, and take away thy coat, let him have thy cloke also, Matt. v. 40.
Answ. To this it may be replied; that some things may be omitted for prudential reasons, which would not otherwise be unlawful to be done. Our Saviour does not forbid using our endeavours, in a legal way, to recover our right in all cases; but more especially at that time, when his followers could hardly expect to meet with justice. And, it may be, they were oppressed by fines, or distress, laid on them, for their embracing Christianity; in this case he advises them, patiently to bear injuries, when they could hardly expect relief from their unjust judges.
VI. This Commandment is broken by extortion, or oppressive usury. Thus it is said of the righteous man, He putteth not out his money to usury, Psal. xv. 5. The word[[4]] signifies biting usury; which is, beyond dispute, unlawful. We have elsewhere considered in what cases the Israelites might take usury, and when not[[5]]. And, upon the whole, it is certainly unlawful, to exact more than the legal rate or worth of the loan of money; or to exact any usury of the poor; especially for that which was borrowed to supply them with the necessaries of life.