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that Anna, the mother of the blessed virgin-mother of God, had been married to three husbands successively, and that the blessed virgin was the second wife of Joseph; they who think that the second and third marriages are less perfect than the first, think it more pious to embrace the other opinions, viz. that Anna was married to none but Joachim, and that Joseph was only married to the holy Virgin Mary : but because this is to take measures of things which God hath not given us, and to reckon purities and impurities by their own fancies, not by reason and revelation from God, therefore this fantastic relation to piety is not weight enough to carry the question along with it.

In other cases the rule holds: and by these measures our conscience can be supported in a storm, and be nourished and feasted every day, viz. if we take care :

1. That we avoid every thing that we know to be a sin, whether it be reproached by its natural impurity and unreasonableness, or, without any note of turpitude, it be directly restrained by a law.

sin.b

2. That we fly every appearance of evil, or likeness of

3. That we fly every occasion or danger of sin.

4. That we avoid all society or communication with sin, or giving countenance and maintenance to it. By these measures and analogies, if we limit our cases of conscience, we cannot be abused into danger and dishonour.

RULE VII.

It is not lawful to change our practical Sentence about the same Object while the same Probability remains.

A MAN may change his opinion as he sees cause, or alter the practice upon a new emergent reason; but when all things are equal without and within, a change is not to be made by the man, except it be in such cases in which no law, or vow, or duty, or the interest of a third, is concerned; that is, unless the actions be indifferent in themselves, or

b 1 Thess. v. 22.

innocent in their circumstances, and so not properly considerable in the fears of conscience, in which cases a man's liberty is not to be prejudiced.

This stating of the rule does intimate the proper reasons of it, as appears in the following instances: Juan, a priest of Messina, having fasted upon the vespers of a holy day, towards the middle of the night hath a great desire to eat flesh; he, dwelling by the great church, observed that the clocks in the neighbourhood differed half an hour: he watches the first clock that struck midnight: and as soon as it had sounded, he ate his meat, because then he concluded that the ecclesiastical fasting-day was expired, and that, therefore, it was then lawful, by the laws of his church, to eat flesh. But being to consecrate the blessed eucharist the next morning, and obliged to a natural fast before the celebration of the holy sacrament, he changed his computation, and reckoned the day to begin by the later clock; so that the first day ended half an hour before the next day began, and he broke his fast because the eve was past, and yet he accounted that he was fasting, because the holy day was not begun. This was to cozen the law, and if it be translated to more material instances, the evil of it will be more apparent; but in this the unreasonableness is as visible. The like is the case of a gentleman living in the neighbourhood of Rome. Baptista Colonna happened to be in Rome on the three and twentieth of August, which is usually the eve of St. Bartholomew, but there it is kept on the twenty-fourth day he refused to fast on the ordinary day of the vigils, as he used to do, because in Rome, where he then was, the custom was otherwise; he ate his meals, and resolved to keep it the next day but on the morrow, being very hungry and desirous of flesh, he changed his sentence, and went out of Rome to the neighbourhood, and kept the feast of St. Bartholomew without the eves. This is to elude the duty, and to run away from the severity, of the law, by trifling with the letter.

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If the case be not complicated with a law, yet it is often infolded with the interest of a third person, and then is not to be changed, but remains invariable. Mævius promised to Sertorius to give him a servant, either Ephodius or Taranta, but resolves to give him Taranta; immediately after the

resolution, Ephodius dies, and Mævius tells his friend he is disobliged, because he hath but one, and resolves not to part with Taranta, and it was in his liberty to give him either, and because he will not assign his part in this, it is wholly lost in the other; but this is unfriendly and unjust. To this sort of instance is to be reduced a caution against fraudulence in the matter of vows.

Vitellescus vows to fast upon the last of February: but, changing his mind, believes he may commute his fasting for alms; he resolves to break his fast, and to give a ducat to the poor. But when he had new dined, he discourses the question again, and thinks it unlawful to commute, and that he is bound to pay his vow in kind; but the fast is broken; and yet if he refuses, upon this new inquest, to pay his commutation, he is a deceiver of his own soul. For in the present case, if to commute were not lawful, yet it is certain he is not disobliged; and, therefore, he is to pay his commutation, because it was decreed in the time of a probable conscience; and not being in itself unlawful, though it be now supposed to be insufficient, yet it is to be accounted for, upon the stock of the first resolution of the conscience, because the state of things is not entire; and advantages are not to be taken against religion from the account and stock of our errors or delusions; and if, after this, the conscience be not at rest, it is to be quieted by other actions of repentance and amends.

Quest. But here also is to be inquired, whether a man may, to several persons, to serve distinct ends, in themselves lawful and honest, discourse of and persuade both the parts of a probability respectively? Titius woos Orestilla for his wife; she being sickly, and fearful lest she shall have no children, declines it; he to persuade her, tells her it is very likely she will, and that it will cure her indisposition. But the interest of Titius is to have no children, as being already well stored, and therefore is dissuaded, by them that have power over him, not to marry Orestilla. He, to answer their importunity, tells them, it is very likely Orestilla will be barren, and upon that account he marries her because she is sickly, and unlikely to become a mother. The question is, whether this be lawful?

I answer, 1. If he be actually persuaded of that part of

the probability when he urges it, and be changed into the other when he persuades the other, there is no question but it is as lawful to say both as one; for they are single affirmatives or negatives, and the time is but accidental to his persuasion; yesterday this, and to-morrow its contrary are alike, while in both, or each of them, his persuasion is hearty and sincere.

2. If Titius urges both parts severally, and yet remains actually persuaded but of one of them, he may urge them as probable in themselves, disputable, and of indifferent argument and inducement, for so they are.

But,

3. He must not imprint them by the efficacy of his own authority and opinion, nor speak that as certain which is at most but probable, and to him seems false; for so to do is against ingenuity and Christian sincerity; it is to make a lie put on the face of truth and become a craft; it is not honest nor noble, nor agreeing to the spirit of a Christian, and is a direct deception on one side, and an indirect prosecution of a lawful end.

RULE VIII.

An Opinion relying upon very slender Probability is not to be followed, except in the Cases of great Necessity, or great Charity.

THAT it is not ordinarily to be followed is therefore certain, because it cannot be supposed but that its contradictory hath greater probability; and either he that follows this trifle, is light of belief, or unreasonable in his choice, or his reason is to him, but as eyes to an owl or bat, half-sighted and imperfect; and, at the best, not fit motive to the will. And if it could be lawful to follow every degree of probability, it were perfectly in any man's choice to do almost what he pleased, especially if he meets with an ill counsellor and a witty advocate. For, at this rate, all marriages may be dissolved, all vices excused, upon pretence of some little probable necessity; and drunkenness will be entertained as physic, and fornication as a thing allowed by some vicious persons whose wit is better than their manners; and all

books of conscience shall become patrons or indices' of sins, and teach men what they pretend against, and there shall be no such thing as checks of conscience, because few men sin without some excuse, and it were no excuse unless it were mingled with some little probabilities; and there were, in very many cases, no rule for conscience but a witty inventor of pretty little inducements, which rather than a man shall want, his enemy will supply to him out of his magazine of fallacies.

But that there are some cases, in which it is to be permitted, is therefore certain, because it may be necessary in some circumstances to do so, and in these cases the former impediments cannot intervene, because the causes of necessity or great charity, occurring but seldom, destroy all power or pretence of an easy deception. Anna Murrana was married to her near kinsman, Thomas Grillo, but supposed him not to be so near. It was afterwards discovered to her, that the propinquity was so great, that the marriage was null and invalid: while this trouble was upon her, there happily comes a discreet old woman, who tells her, that, though it be true that Grillo's father was supposed to have lain with her mother, and that herself was born of that conjunction, yet she herself, being private to the transaction, did put another woman into the place of Murrana's mother, and that her mother was also deceived in the same manner; and though they thought they enjoyed each other, yet they were both cozened into more chaste embraces. Now upon this the question arises, whether or no Murrana may safely rely upon so slight a testimony as the saying of this woman, in a matter of so great difficulty and concernment. Here the case is favourable. Murrana is passionately endeared to Grillo, and, besides her love, hath a tender conscience, and if her marriage be separated, dies at both ends of the evil, both for the evil conjunction, and for the sad separation. This, therefore, is to be presumed security enough for her to continue in her state.

Like to this is that of a woman in Brescia. Her husband

had been contracted to a woman of Panormo, 66 per verba de præsenti;" she taking her pleasure upon the sea, is, with her company, surprised by a Turk's man-of-war, and is reported, first to have been deflowered, and then killed. When the

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