t all, and yet in those Days there was no
auricular Confession.

_Eu._ It is now become lawful for all Persons to drink Wine, but how
expedient it is I know not. What Book is that, _Eulalius_, you take out
of your Pocket? It seems to be a very neat one, it is all over gilded.

_Eulal._ It is more valuable for the Inside than the Out. It is St.
_Paul's_ Epistles, that I always carry about me, as my beloved
Entertainment, which I take out now upon the Occasion of something you
said, which minds me of a Place that I have beat my Brains about a long
Time, and I am not come to a full Satisfaction in yet. It is in the 6th
Chapter of the first Epistle to the _Corinthians_, _All Things are
lawful for me, but all Things are not expedient; all Things are lawful
for me, but I will not be brought under the Power of any_. In the first
Place (if we will believe the Stoicks) nothing can be profitable to us,
that is not honest: How comes _Paul_ then to distinguish betwixt that
which is lawful, and that which is expedient? It is not lawful to whore,
or get drunk, how then are all Things lawful? But if _Paul_ speaks of
some particular Things only, which he would have to be lawful, I can't
guess by the Tenor of the Place, which those particular Things are.
From that which follows, it may be gather'd, that he there speaks of the
Choice of Meats. For some abstain from Things offer'd to Idols, and
others from Meats forbidden by _Moses_'s Law. In the 8th Chapter he
treats of Things offer'd to Idols, and in the 10th Chapter explaining
the Meaning of this Place, says, _All Things are lawful for me, but all
Things are not expedient; all Things are lawful for me, but all Things
edify not. Let no Man seek his own, but every Man the Things of another.
Whatsoever is sold in the Shambles, eat ye_. And that which St. _Paul_
subjoins, agrees with what he said before: _Meats for the Belly, and the
Belly for Meats; but God shall destroy both it and them_. Now that which
has Respect to the _Judaical_ Choice of Meats, is in the Close of the
10th Chapter. _Give none Offence, neither to the Jews nor the Gentiles,
nor to the Church of God; even as I please all Men in all Things, not
seeking my own Profit, but the Profit of many, that they may be sav'd_.
Where in that he saith to the _Gentiles_, he seems to have Respect to
Things offer'd to Idols; and where he speaketh to the _Jews_ he seems to
refer to the Choice of Meats; what he says to the Church of God
a