promise while in prison. But God's promise is never out of his thoughts ; he remembers his covenant, Psa. cv. 8 : his people and their affairs are engraven on the palms of his hands, and their walls are always before him, Isa. xlix. 16. Though the preferment at Pharaoh's court made the butler forget his promise to Joseph ; yet all the glory that Christ sees and enjoys in heaven, hath not the power to blot the remembi'ance of his promise to his people, who lie in chains of afflictions here below. And God would have his saints take notice of this to comfort themselves with while he comes. * I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the Lord, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end,' Jer. xxix. 11,
Secondly, Unfaithfulness. A promise, with some, is no more than a collar on an ape's neck ; you have them not a whit the faster by it, for they can slip oiF the obligation at their pleasure. May be they never intended performance, when they made the promise, but made use of it only as a key to lock up their intention of deceiving from your present knowledge. Others haply mean at present as they say, but soon grow sick of their engagement, upon sight of some disadvantage which their after-thoughts discover likely to befall them upon the performance : and therefore their wits are set to work to coin some handsome evasion to avoid the engagement, or at least delay the payment ; which made Lysander say of some men, that they played with oaths and promises (sicut pueri cum astragalis) as children do at nine-pins : they will keep them if they can get anything by the performance ; but if it be likely to prove a losing game, they will rather nm in debt to their consciences by breaking them, than to their purse by their performance. But no fear of God ; his name is truth and faithfidness. Now can truth itself lie, or faithfulness deceive? 'In my Father's house,' saith Christ, 'are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you ; I go to prepare a place for you ; and if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive j'ou imto myself,' Jolin xiv. 2, 3. See here the candour and nakedness of our Saviour's heart : as if he had said, This is no excuse to be gone, that so I may, by a fair tale, leave jou in hopes of that which shall never come to pass. No, did I know it otherwise than I speak, my heart is so full of love to you, that it would not have suffered me to put such a cheat upon you for a thousand worlds: you may trust me to go; for, as surely as you see me go, shall your eyes see me come again to your everlasting joy : the promises are none of them yea and nay, but yea and amen in him. He is wisdom as well as truth. As he is truth, he cannot wrong or deceive us in breaking his word ; and being wisdom, it is impossible he should promise that which should prejudice himself; and therefore he makes no blots in his purposes or promises, but what he doth in either is immutable. Repent- ance is, indeed, an act of wisdom in the creature ; but it presupposeth folly, which is incompatible with God. In a word, men too often are rash in promising, and therefore what they promise in haste, they perform at leisure ; they consider not before they vow, and therefore inquire afterward whether they can stand to it : but the all-wise God needs not this. As in the creation he looked back upon the several pieces of that goodly frame, and saw them so exact that he took not vip his pencil the second time to mend anything of the first draught; so in his promises, they are made with such infinite wisdom, that what he hath written he will stand to for ever. ' I will betroth thee unto me for ever ; yea, I will betroth thee to me in righteousness and in judgment,' Hosea ii. 19. Therefore for ever, because in righteousness and in judgment.
Thirdly, From impotency. Men's promises, alas! depend upon many contin- gencies. The man perhaps is rich whenhesealsthebond,andpoorbeforetheday of payment: a wreck at sea, a fire by land, or some other sad accident intervenes, that either quite impoverisheth him or necessitates him to beg farther time, with him in the gospel. Matt, xviii. 26 : ' Have patience with me, and I will pay thee all :' but the great God cannot be put into such sti'aits : ' The Strength of Israel will not lie,' 1 Sam. xv. 29. As there is a lie of wickedness, when one promiseth what he will not perform ; so there is a lie that proceeds from weakness, when a person cannot perform what he has promised. Thus, indeed, all men will be found liars to those that lean on them, called, therefore, lying vanities : vanities, as empty and insufficient ; lying vanities, because they promise what they have not to give : but God is propounded as a sui-e bottom for our faith to rest on :
AND TAKE THE HELMET OF SALVATION. 533