, .. Rom. 6.t6. 1\cm 7.so, zr,u,a.J. i What Lying (or other jin) will ftaird with Grace, and what is Mortal! and be tbal /jJtaf~Jtb lyrs fhaU n•t cfcope (JhaU pcrijh. !J·) )'rov. 29· 12· If a R•lrr heark,.tn '' lyer aUhu fervantJarewiciiJd. So Pfal. JI.I8. & 52·3· Pbl.JI9·_16J. I lpte and abhor lying, but thy Law do I love. Prov. IJ· 5· A r~ghteouJ man hateth lymg. E.phtf. 4· 25• Wherefore p1111ing away lyi>tg JPtak., £vtry man trtttb rvith hU neighbour, for we are members one oj' a1tpther: q. d. A man would 110~ lye to deceive his own members: no more lhould w.e tG deceive one another. In a word, where the Love of Godandm,m prcvailcth, there truth prevaileth; ·but where ftlflovt, par.ti"'lity and carnal filf intc'rtft prevail, there lying is a hou.fhold fervant, a,nd thought a nece!fa,ry me.ans to thcfe ends. Eut becaufe Lying is {b common and fo great a fin, and many cafes occur about it daily, thOugh 1 think what is faid offereth mattt:r enough to anfwer them, I !hall mention foro~ more of rhem difiinClly, to help their fatisfaClion who cannot accommodate general a9fw-ers to all their particular cafes. Q;Idl. I· It frcquc~t k,.no"'n lying a ccrtJiN fig• of a g"ctlefs }late, ~~,~ jl, q mortal frn, pr,vi~g tbc Jinncr to be in ajtateqf cfamnation ? · • Anfw. The difficulty of this cafe doth no more concern Lying, than ;my other f~1 of equal ma· lignity. There.fore I mufl refer you to thofc placts where 1 have opened the difference bet\\(Cen Mor· tal reigning fins and lnfirrJ)iries. At prefeilt take th"1s b,rief folurioq. 1. It is a thing of too c,re~t difficulty to determine jufi: how many aCts of a great fin, m,ay co.n.fi~\. rwith a pref~nt ..!late of grace, (that is, of right by Covenant to Heaven. ) 2. All !in which conri~cth with an habitual prcdomi. nant Love of God and Holinefs, confifleth with a flate of Life, and no other. 3. He that (cldom Qr never co.rnmitteth fuch ex~erual Climes, and yer Loveth not God and fleaven and Holinefs above all the pleafures and interef\s of the fldh, is in a fiate.of death. +· le js ceru.in that his Love tQ. G~ and Holincfs is not predomi,nant, whofe c.trnallntcrdl and lu!l l1ath or.dinarily in ch,e ,..drjtj: and tenor of his life, more power ro draw him to the wilful! committing of kn,own fin, than ~h.c bid Love of God and Heaven and Holincfs have to keep him from it. for his fer.vants m.en are whom tJwy obey, whether it be liu unto death~ or obedience unto rightequfncfs. 5· Therdorc the way to know whether tin be mortifiedor mor;al is, r. By feeling the true bent ,of the wiU. whether we Love or hate it. 2· By obfc:rving the true bent and tenor of our lives, whether Gods lnterefi in us, O'! th.e conuary, be predominar;~t when we are our fdves, and are temp~ed to fu~h tins. 6, He that will fin thus as oft as will (\and with faviog grace, !h:dl never h~ve the affurance of his finc~dty, or the peace or comfort of afound believer. till he repent and lea.d abett,er life. 7· He that in his fin re· taineth the fpirit of Adoption, or the Image of God, or habitual divine Love, harh altO HJbituJ.l and Virtual Repentance for that very fin, before he act.ually Repcnteth : Becau[c he hath that Habitual Hatred of it, which will caufe aGtual Repentance, when he is compofe.d to aGt according to his pre. dominant habits. 8. Jn the mtan rime the fiate· of fqch a fioncr is, neither to be unregenerate, Carnal, unholy as he was before Converfion, and fo to lofe all his Right to Life; nor yet to haye fo full aRight as if he had not finned : But a bar is put in againtl his claim, which mull be removed before his Right be full, and fuch as is ripe for prefcnt polfdlion. 9· There are fame lins which all men continue in while they Jive. As detCd in the dcgr_ecs of faith, hope, lov~, &c. vain t.houghtsJ words, diforder, paffions, &c•.And thefc: fins are not totally mvolunrary: Orhenv)ft t~ey were no fins. Yea the Evil is prevalent in the will againfi the Good, fo far as ro commit thofc fins, thqugh not fo far as to vitiate the bent of heart or life. ro. There are fome fins whieh none pn earth do actuJlly Repent of, viz, Thofe that they know not to be fins; and thofe that they utterly forg<t, and thofe faults which they arc guilty of jufl at the time of dying. 11. In thefe cafes Virtual or lmplicite or fl•bi, tual Repentance doth fu!licc to the preventing of damnation. As allo a WiU 10 have livtd P'~fe[!ly fufliceth in the cafe (of continued imperfections). 12· Things work not on the TViU as they are in rhemfelves, but as they are apprthtndtdby the underllanding: And that which is apprehended to be <ither of dcubtful tvil, or but a little fin and of little da>tgtr, will be much lejl refifled, and ofw com– mitttd, than fins that are clearly apprehended to be grear. Therefore wf\ere any fort of Lye is appre.. hended thusasof fmaUor doubtful tvil, it will be the oflnerCJmmitted. IJ• If this apprehenfion be wrongand come from the preC:ominancy of a catn.Jl or ttnj!,odly hrurt, which will not fi1ffer the un– derfianding to do its office, nor to take that to be evil which he would not leave, then both the JJtdgemtnt and the Lye are mortal and not mortified p.ud~,nrd fins. I 4· But if this mifapprehcnlion of the undeifianding do come from natural impotency, or unav id:zblc want of btller infi,rm.zrirm, or only from the fault of ~ vi~ioru i1!clinati1Jn> ~hich yet is nut predominant, bu.r is ~he rt:mn.mt of a vice which is mortified m the mam ; then ne1ther the c:rrour nor the of,~n ly1ng, ts a mortal bur a. mortified fin. As for infiance, If falfe Teachers (as the Jefuits ) £hould perfwade a jujlijied perfo>i, that a lye that hurteth no man, but is officious is hut a venial or no fin, it is pollible for (Uch a perfon ofun to commit it, though he er·r not altogether innocently. 15· Though it is tJue_ that all good Chriflians £hould not indulge the fmallefl fio, and that true Grace will mai<O a man w1lhng to forfake the leafi, yet certain experience relleth us, that fame contlam finning (aforenamed) doth coofili with grace in all that have it upon earth; And.therefore that Ltfftt fim (as tboughtl. P·"ffioJrJ) are not re– filled fo much as J!..rtattr be; and therefore that they are more ind~tlg,r.d and fuJoHrcd> or e!~e they would not be committtd. No good men rife up with fo great and con{hnt warchfulnefs, agamfi an idle thought or word, or adiford<r in prayer, &c. a1 th~y do agaipll a hcynous fin. . He that would have this and and all fuch Cafes refolved in a 1vorti, and nHt be put on trymg the Cafe by all thefediftinmom, mull take another Cafuifl, or rather a D<ceiver in!lead of aRcfolvcr ; for I cannot otherwife rcfolvc him.
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