A Body of Practical Divinity

1. The Lord may sometimes delay a Promise, but he will not deny. He may delay a Promise. God's Promise may lye a good while, as Seed under ground, but at last it will spring up into a Crop. God promised to deliver Israel from the Iron ⟨p. 58⟩Furnace, but this Promise was above four hundred years in travail before it brought forth. Simeon had a Promise, that he should not depart hence till he had seen the Lords Christ, Luke 2.26. but it was a long time first, but a little before his Death, that he did see Christ. But though God delay the Promise, he will not deny. Having given his Bond, in due time the Money will be paid in.

2. God may change his Promise, but he will not break his Promise. Sometimes God doth change a Temporal Promise into a Spiritual. Psal. 85.12. The Lord shall give that which is good: Perhaps this may not be fulfilled in a Temporal Sense, but a Spiritual. God may let a Christian be cut short in Temporals, but God makes it up in Spirituals. If he doth not increase the Basket and the Store, he gives increase of Faith, and inward Peace; here he changeth his Promise, but he doth not break it, he gives that which is better. If a Man promiseth to pay me in Farthings, and he pays me in a better Coin, in Gold, he doth not break his Promise; Psal. 89.33. I will not suffer my faithfulness to fail: in the Hebrew it is ve lo ashakka, to lye.

2. God may change his Promise, but he will not break his Promise. Sometimes God doth change a Temporal Promise into a Spiritual. Psal. 85.12. The Lord shall give that which is good: Perhaps this may not be fulfilled in a Temporal Sence, but a Spiritual. God may let a Christian be cut short in Temporals, but God makes it up in Spirituals. If he doth not encrease the Basket and the Store, he gives encrease of Faith, and inward Peace; here he changeth his Promise, but he doth not break it, he gives that which is better. If a Man promiseth to pay me in Farthings, and he pays me in a better Coin, in Gold, he doth not break his Promise;