eus likewise show out of Augustine,(271) that such things as are
not expedient but scandalous, and do not edify but hurt our brother,
_Fiunt ex accidenti illicita et peccata, proinde vitanda_? 7. To conform
unto inconvenient and scandalous ceremonies, in the case of deprivation,
is at the best, to do evil that good may come of it; which was the
pretence of those councillors of Pope Pius V. who advised him to suffer
stews at Rome, for preventing a greater evil of abusing chaste women and
honest matrons. So the pseudo-Nicodemites allege for their abstaining from
flesh upon the days forbidden by the church, that this they do for
shunning a greater evil, which is the scandal of Papists. Our divines
answer them,(272) that evil ought not to be done that good may come of it.
But, saith Mr Sprint,(273) this rule of the Apostle (Rom. iii. 8) must be
limited,(274) and in some cases holdeth not; for a man may, for doing of
good, do that which is evil in use, circumstance, and by accident, so it
be not simply and in nature evil. _Ans._ 1. He begs the thing in question,
for that rule is alleged against him to prove that nothing which is evil
in the use of it may be done for any good whatsoever. 2. The difference
betwixt that which is simply evil, and that which is evil in use and by
accident, is in that the one may never be done, the other is unlawful only
_pro tempore_; but in this they agree, that both are unlawful; for that
which is evil by accident,(275) whilst it is such, is unlawful to be done,
no less than that which is in nature evil. 3. Divines hold
absolutely,(276) that _Inter duo vel plura mala culpae_ (such as things
scandalous and inconvenient) _nullum est eligendum_; that though in evils
of punishment we may choose a lesser to shun a greater, yet in evils of
fault, election hath no place, neither may we do a lesser fault to shun a
greater,(277) _nec ullum admittendum malum, ut eveniat aliquod bonum, sive
per se sive per accidens_. But let us hear what Mr Sprint can say to the
contrary. He allegeth, the priests' breaking of the Sabbath, David's
eating of the shewbread, and the apostles' practising of very hurtful
ceremonies; all which things being unlawful were done lawfully, to further
greater duties.

We have answered already, that the priests' killing of the sacrifices on
the Sabbath, and David's eating of the shew-bread, were not unlawful,
because the circumstances changed the kind of the actions. Also, that the
Jewi