_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 culpæ_ (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.