_Rule_ XIV. There is usually much more matter for fear and suspicion, _cæteris paribus_, of sins to be committed, than of duties to be omitted, when the commission is made necessary to the doing of the duty. Both because it is there that the fear beginneth: for I am certain that the good work is no duty to me, if the act be a sin which is its necessary condition. Therefore, so far as I suspect the act to be sinful, I must needs suspect the duty to be no duty to me at that time: it is not possible I should be rationally more persuaded that the duty is my duty, than that the condition is no sin. If it were the saving of the lives of all men in the country, I could no further take it to be my duty, than I take that to be no sin by which it must be done, it being a thing past controversy, that we must not sin for the accomplishment of any good whatsoever. And also because the sin is supposed to be always sin, but few duties are at all times duties: and the sin is a sin to every man, but the duty may be another man's duty, and not mine. For instance: Charles V. imposeth the Interim upon Germany: some pastors yielded to it; others refused it, and were cast out. Those that yielded pleaded the good of the churches, and the prevention of their utter desolation, but yet confessed that if the thing imposed were sinful, it was not their duty to do it for any good whatsoever, but to seek the good of the church as well as they could without it. The other that were cast out argued, that so far as they were confident the Interim was sinful, they must be confident that nothing was their duty that could not be done without it, and that God knew best what is good for his church, and there is no accomplishing its good by sin and God's displeasure; and that they did not therefore forsake their ministry, but only lose the ruler's licence; for they resolved to preach in one place or other till they were imprisoned, and God can serve himself by their imprisonment or death, as well as by their preaching. And while others took their places that thought the Interim lawful, the churches were not wholly destitute; and if God saw it meet, he could restore their fuller liberties again: in the mean time, to serve him, as all pastors did for three hundred years after Christ, without the licence of the civil magistrate, was not to cast away their office. Another instance: the zealous papists in the reign of Henry III. in France, thought that there was a necessity of entering the League, and warring against the king, because religion was in danger, the preservation whereof is an unquestionable duty. The learned and moderate lawyers that were against them said, that there being no question but the king had the total sovereignty over them, they were sure it was a sin to resist the higher powers, and therefore no preservation of religion could be a duty or lawful to them which must be done by such a certain sin: sin is not the means to save religion or the commonwealth.
_Rule_ XV. When a thing is not prohibited and sinful simply in itself, but because of some accidental or consequential evil that it tendeth to, there a greater accidental or consequential good may preponderate the evil, and make the thing become no sin, but a duty. It is a matter of exceeding difficulty to discern ofttimes whether a thing be simply and absolutely forbidden, or only by accident and alterably, and to discern which accident doth preponderate. There are so many observations that should here be taken in, and so much of a man's life and peace is concerned in it, that it deserveth a treatise by itself. And therefore I shall not meddle with it any further here, lest an insufficient tractate be worse than none, in a case where error is so easy and perilous.
_Rule_ XVI. As to the danger of the sinner himself, there is a great deal of difference between an error and sin of human frailty, when the service of God, and true obedience, and the common good, is sincerely intended, and an error and sin of false-heartedness and sloth, when selfishness is the secret spring of the error, and carnal interest the real end, though God and his service be pretended. And usually the concomitants will show something of this to others. For instance; two magistrates and two ministers submit to some questioned imposition, all pretend that the glory of God, and his service, is it that prevaileth with them to submit. The one of the magistrates faithfully serves God afterward with his authority, and showeth thereby that he meant sincerely: the other doth no good in his place, and showeth his hypocrisy. One of the ministers preacheth zealously, and privately laboureth as one that thirsteth for the saving of souls: the other preacheth formally, and coldly, and heartlessly, and never converteth a soul, and neglecteth the work which he pretended was his end.
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[Sidenote: For loving God as our Father, our Benefactor, and our end.]