of the present question. Eratosthenes coming among the Persian magi, and observing their looser customs of marrying their sisters and their mothers, falls in love with his half-sister Lampra, and marries her. A while after, perceiving that he entered upon this action upon no other account but lust and fancy, and compliance with the impurer magi, he began to hate his act for the evil inducement, and threw away her and his folly together. This he might do without any further reasonings about the indecency of the mixture, by perceiving that a crime or a folly stood at the entrance, and invited him to an evil lodging. He that begins without reason, hath reason enough to leave off, by perceiving he had no reason to begin: and in this case the will is the great agent, which therefore here is no ill principle, because it leaves the error upon the stock of grace and repentance *. * 5. If the will entertained the error without any reason at all, as oftentimes it does, it knows not why, she may also de pose it honestly without any reason relating to the particular, upon this general, that it could not make the action to be conscientious to have it done without any inducement. But then the taking up the contrary truth upon as little reason, is innocent, because it happens to be on the right side; but it is not virtue nor conscience till it be persuaded by something, that is a fit inducement either in the general or in the particular. RULE VIII. The Error of a Conscience is not always to be opened to the erring Person by the Guides of Souls, or any other charitable Adviser. Ir the error began with a sin, and still dwells there upon the same stock, or if it be productive of a sin, it is always to be discovered, though the greatest temporal inconvenience were certainly consequent to the discovery. Because a man must not be suffered to lie in sin, no, not a minute, if he can be recovered or rescued from it; and no temporal advantage or disadvantage can be considerable in this case, which is the case of a soul; an error that is vincible, is all the way crimi. nal, and must not be permitted. " 2. If the error be invincible, and innocent or pitiable in the cause, and yet ends in an intolerable event, and the effect be a crime or a great danger to souls, the error must be discovered by them that can. The Novatians erred in the matter of repentance: the inducing cause of their error was an over-active zeal, and too wary a tenderness in avoiding scandal and judging concerning it. God served the ends of his glory by the occasion of that error, for he uses to bring good out of every evil; and the church, under a better article, grew as wary as the Novatians, as watchful against scandal, as severe against lapsed persons. Now, although in this case the error was from an innocent cause, yet because it landed them upon a course of discipline and persuasion that was not innocent, they were not to be permitted in their error, though the dissolution of the error might or would have occasioned the remission of discipline. For their doctrine of repentance was dishonourable to the mercies of God, an instrument of despair, a rendering the power of the keys and the ministry of the order ecclesiastical in a manner wholly useless, and would, if it were pursued to its just consequents, have hindered repenting sinners to revert to the folds of the church; and therefore, for the accidental good which God brought, or which was likely to have come from that error or the innocence of its principle, it was not to be concealed, but reproved and destroyed because it dwelt in sin... He that believes that repentance to be sufficient, which hath in it nothing but sorrow for what is past, and a present purpose without amendment really in the future, upon no pretence is to be complied withal in the palliation of his error, because the consequence of his error is such a danger, or such a state of sin, for which nothing can make amends. 3. If the error be invincible, and the consequent of the persuasion be consistent with the state of grace, the error must be opened or not opened, according to prudent considerations relating to the person and his state of affairs. So that the error must rather be suffered than a grievous scan dal, or an intolerable, or a very great inconvenience. To this purpose Comitolus says, it was determined by a congre gation of learned and prudent persons in answer to a strange and a rare case happening in Venice: a gentleman ignorantly did lie with his mother; she knew it, but intended it not, till for her curiosity and in her search whether her son intended it to her maid, she was surprised and gotten with child : she perceiving her shame and sorrow hasten, sent her son to travel for many years; and he returned not till his mother's female birth was grown to be a handsome pretty maiden. At his return he espies a sweet faced girl in the house, likes her, loves her, and intends to marry her. His mother conjured him by all that was sacred and profane that he should not, saying, 'she was a beggar's child, whom for pity's sake she rescued from the streets and beggary, and that he should not by dishonouring his family make her to die with sorrow! The gentleman's affections were strong, and not to be mastered, and he married his own sister and his own daughter. But now the bitings of the mother's conscience were into lerable, and to her confessor she discovered the whole business within a year or two after this prodigious marriage, and asked whether she were bound to reveal the case to her son and daughter, who now lived in love and sweetness of society, innocently, though with secret misfortune, which they felt not. It was concluded negatively, she was not to reveal it, lest she bring an intolerable misery in the place of that which to them was no sin; or lest upon notice of the error they might be tempted, by their mutual endearment and their common children, to cohabit in despite of the case, and so change that into a known sin, which before was an unknown. calamity; and by this state of the answer, they were permitted to their innocence, and the children to their inheritance, and all under the protection of a harmless, though erring and mistaken conscience. 4. If it be doubtful whether more good or hurt may be consequent to the discovery, it is better to conceal it. Because it is more tolerable to have a good omitted, than to have an evil done. That may sometimes be lawful, this can never; and a known evil' that is not a sin, is rather to be admitted than an unknown, which no man can tell whether it will arrive. But in this, the prudence of a good and a wise man is to be his only guide, and God's glory his only measure and the public good, and the greater concernments of the interested be chiefly regarded. A probable Conscience is an imperfect Assent to an uncertain Proposition, in which one Part is indeed clearly and fully chosen, but with an explicit, or implicit Notice that the contrary is also fairly eligible. A PROBABLE conscience dwells so between the sure and the doubtful that it partakes something of both. For a sure conscience may begin upon a probable inducement, but is made sure either by an assent to the conclusion, stronger than the premises will infer, or by a reflex act, or some other collateral hardness and adventitious confidence, and therefore the probable is distinguished from that by the imperfection of the assent. But because in that respect it approaches to the doubtful, and in that is alike, it is differenced from this by the determination. For a doubtful conscience considers the probabilities on each side, and dares not choose, and cannot. But the probable does choose, though it considers that in the thing itself there can be no certainty. And from them both it is distinguished by the intervening of the will. For in the sure conscience the will works not at all; because it is wholly conducted by the understanding, and its proper motives. In the doubtful the will cannot interpose by reason of fear and an uncertain spirit; but in the probable it can intervene, not directly, but collaterally and indirectly, because the motives of the probable conscience are not always sufficient to make the conclusion without something of the will applied to extrinsical motives, which reflect also upon the understanding; and yet in this conscience there is no fear, and therefore the will can here be obeyed, which in the first needs not, in the last it cannot. For it is remark able, that a probablé conscience though it be in speculation uncertain, yet it may be practically certain, that is, he that believes his opinion to be probable, cannot but think that it is possible he may be in an actual error, but yet he may know that it is innocent to do that for which he hath a probable reason; for though in all these cases he may choose that which is the wrong part, yet he proceeds as safely as if he had chosen right: for if it were not safe to do that which is only probable, then nothing could be done till something were demonstrated; and then in moral theology we should often stand still and suspend our act, but seldom do any thing; nay, sometimes we should neither act nor suspend, it being but probable that either is to be chosen. Yea, sometimes it happens what Aristotle said, that 'false things are made more probable than true,' as it is to all them who are innocently and invincibly abused; and in this case, if probability were not a sufficient conviction of conscience, such persons could not honestly consent to truth. For even wise men disagree in their sentences of truth and error, and after a great search, scarcely do they discover one single truth unto just measures of confidence; and, therefore, no other law could be exacted for human actions, than an opinion honestly entered into, and a probable conscience. And it is remarkable that Cicero saith, that the word “arbitror” is "verbum consideratissimum ;" and the old Romans were reserved and cautious in the decrees of judges, and the forms of their oath began with arbitror,' although they gave testimony of things whereof they were eye-witnesses; and the words, which their prætors did use in their sentences, was "fecisse videtur," or "non videtur."-" He that observeth the winds, shall not sow; and he that watcheth the clouds, shall never reap"," which means, that if we start at every objection, and think nothing safe but what is certain, and nothing certain but what can be demonstrated, that man is over wise and over just, and by his too curious search misses what he inquires for. Λέγοιτο δ ̓ ἂν ἱκανῶς, εἰ κατὰ τὴν ὑποκειμένην "any diacapndein, "That is well enough proved, that is proved according to the subject matter."-For there is not the same exactness to be looked for in all disciplines, any more than a |