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mach before the reception of the holy sacrament, disputes whether he may take a cordial or a glass of wine. Upon inquiry, he is told, that to receive the holy sacrament virgine saliva,' 'fasting,' is a custom of the church later than the times of the apostles, as appears by the Corinthian usages mentioned by St. Paul; that it having no authority but custom, no sanction but a pious fancy, and a little proportion and analogy of reverence, it ought to yield to the elicit acts of charity: upon this account he being satisfied drinks a little, is well, and communicates with health, and joy, and holiness. But afterwards reflecting upon what he had done, he begins to fear he had not done well; that he had done against the customs of the church, that it was at least infirmity in him, and upon what account with God that should be, which, in his own most gentle sentence, was, at least, infirmity, he knew not; and twenty other little things he thought of, which signified nothing, but did something,-they meant no good, but did great evil: and finding himself got into a net, he calls for help, but is told that he must get out of it by the same way that he came in, and that which was the sufficient cause of his doing the action, was sufficient also for the justification of it, and let him confront the reasons which introduced the action against these flies and little pretensions which disturb his mind, and he shall find that he hath reason to be ashamed of debauching and prostituting his understanding to such trifles and images of argument: for let a man look to his grounds when he begins to act, and when he hath acted, let him remember that he did his duty, and give God thanks. For if any just cause appear, for which he ought to reprove his former determination, that just cause can have no influence upon what is past, if the first proceeding was probable, and reasonable, and disinterest. He knows something which he did not know before; and, for the time to come, is to walk by this newly kindled taper; but if he, in the first instance, walked by all the light he had, he is not tied to walk it over again: for as God will not, of a child, exact the prudence and cautions of a man, but in every age expects a duty answerable to the abilities of it; so it is in all the stages of our reason and growing understanding. According to what we have, and not according to what we have not, we shall give accounts. This is intended to prove, that, if we proceed probably, we are not tied to sorrow and repent

ance, though afterwards we find a greater reason to the contrary; but this concludes more in the present question of scruple, in which the greater probability goes before, and the less comes after.

But the rule is to be managed with these cautions:

1. Take heed, that, in the beginning, we do not mistake our desires to have it done, for a sufficient warrant that it may. For if we enter in at a wrong door, or at the windows, we must go back, and cannot own that entrance, which was like a thief, or that action which was done with more craft than prudence.

2. Be not too easy in the arguments of probation. For although in actions concerning our eternal interest, God expects no more of us but that we should talk by the measures of a man; yet we do not perform our duty if we act by the measures of a child or a fool. If we could do no better, the action might be more reprovable than the man; but if we could consider better and wiser than when we reflect afterwards upon what we did before, and find a fault or a sin, a negligence or an avoidable error in the principle, we cannot from thence bring rest and confidence to our consciences.

3. Separate your question, as much as you can, from interest,—that your determination and inquiry be pure; and if more arguments occur afterwards than did in the first inquiry, remember that it was well enough at first, if it was probable enough; and for the rest, pray to God to accept you, if you did well and wisely,—and to pardon you in what was done amiss, or negligently, or imperfectly.

RULE V.

A scrupulous Conscience is to be cured by Remedies proper to the Disease, and Remedies proper to the Man.

THAT is, there are some advices, which are directly intended for the lessening the scruple,-and some others, which take away the scruple by curing the man, and taking off his dis

temperature. Those which are directly intended against the scruple, besides the rules before described, are these:

Remedies against the Scruple.

1. Let the afflicted and disquiet man often meditate of the infinite goodness of God, and how his justice is equity, and his judgments are in mercy; that he judges us by what we heartily endeavour, but does not put our infelicities into our accounts of sins.

2. Let him be instructed, that all laws, Divine and human, are desirous of sweet and merciful interpretations, and that of themselves they love to yield to necessity and to charity; and that severity and exactness of measures is not only contrary to the goodness, but to the justice of God, who therefore will pity us because we are made of dust, and are a lump of folly and unavoidable infirmities; and by the same justice by which God is eternally angry with the fallen angels, by the same justice he is not finally angry with man for his first follies, and pities all his unavoidable evils.

3. Let it be remembered, that charity is the fulfilling the law, and by the degrees of it a man tends to perfection, and not by forms and tittles of the letter, and apices' of handwriting or ordinances. And that if he loves God and does his best, and concerning the doing his best makes the same judgments real and material, that he does of the other actions of his life, he certainly does all that can belong to him, and all that which can be wise and safe. He that acts according to the reason of a man, ought to have the confidences of a man; for no other confidence can be reasonable. That is charity, that we do carefully and wisely, and follow the best we can.

4. Let it be considered that to incline to the scruple, and neglect the stronger reason that stands against it, is to take the worse end, it is to do that which must seem worse; and then it may be remembered, that if the man is afraid and troubled with the trifle, with the scruple, when he hath stronger reason to secure him, if he yields to the scruple and neglects the stronger reason, the neglect of that will run upon him like a torrent and a whirlwind,—and the scruple, or the bulrush will not support his building.

5. Since the very design of the evangelical covenant is, that our duty be demanded, and our sins accounted for, according to the measures of a man, and not by the proportions of an angel; and that all our infirmities and ignorances, and unavoidable prejudices, are taken into account, beside the infinite remissions on God's part,-it will follow, that, by this goodness of God and a moral diligence, and a good heart, we are secured, but we can never be secured by our own measures. For let us weigh never so exactly, we may miss grains or scruples; but to snatch greedily at the little overrunning dust of the balance, and to throw away the massive ingots that sunk the scales down, is the greatest folly in the world.

6. The lines of duty are set down so clear and legible, are so agreeable to reason, so demonstrable upon their proper principles, are so easy and plain, that we need not run into corners, and sneaking by-lanes to find it out: if, by little undiscerned minutes, we were to stand or fall, though now there are but few that shall be saved, yet but a few of those few should escape eternal death. The counsels of God are not like the oracles of Apollo, double in their sense, intricate in their expression, secret in their meaning, deceitful in their measures, and otherwise in the event than they could be in their expectation. But the word of God, in the lines of duty, is open as the face of heaven, bright as the moon, healthful as the sun's influence; and this is certainly true, that when a thing becomes obscure, though it may oblige us to a prudent search, yet it binds us not under a guilt, but only so far as it is or may be plainly understood.

But in the case of a scrupulous conscience, it is not the thing so much that troubles the mind, as the indisposition of the part; the man hath a vicious tenderness; it is melancholy and fear and as every accident can trouble the miserable, so every fancy can affright the timorous; the chiefest remedies, therefore, must be by applications to the man, to cure his distemper; and then the scruple will work no more than its own activity will enable it, and that is but little and inconsiderable.

Advices to the scrupulous Man.

1. The case of the scrupulous man is full of variety, or uncertainty: so that it is as easy to govern chance, and to give rules to contingency, as to him. In all other cases there is a measure and a limit, and therefore a remedy can be proportioned to it; but in this, fear is the disease, and that alone is infinite; and as it commences oftentimes without cause, so it proceeds without limit. For by what reason it entered in, by the same it may grow; that is, without any cause at all it may increase for ever. But for the remedy, this is considerable; that the worse it is, the better it may be remedied, if we could consider. For when fear is grown so big that it is unreasonable, the cure is ready and plain, that it must be laid aside because it is intolerable, and it may because it is unreasonable. When it comes from a just cause, that just cause is usually the limit of it: but when it is vast and infinite it hath no cause, but weakness, and it appears enough in the instances; for the scrupulous man fears concerning those things, where he ought to be most confident; he fears that God is angry with him for not doing his duty, and yet he does whatsoever he can learn to be his duty. This is a complication of evils, as melancholy is of diseases. The scrupulous man is timorous, and sad, and uneasy, and he knows not why. As the melancholy man muses long, and to no purpose, he thinks much, but thinks of nothing so the scrupulous man fears exceedingly, but he knows not what nor why. It is a religious melancholy; and when it appears to be a disease and a temptation, there need no more argument against its entertainment. We must rudely throw it

away.

2. He that is vexed with scruples, must fly to God by prayer and fasting, that this lunacy and spirit of illusion, which sometimes throws him into the fire and sometimes into the water, may be ejected; and the Spirit of God, and the Spirit of wisdom', may come in substitution according to the promise so often recorded in the holy Scriptures.