N00461:13
Promise-keeping a great duty. As it was delivered in a sermon / by Samuel…
Promise-keeping a great duty. As it was delivered in a sermon / by Samuel Willard, teacher of a church in Boston. ; [Three lines from Proverbs]
Boston: printed by Benjamin Harris, 1691
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
2. The thing asserted by him, or that to which the asseveration is connected; Our word toward you, was not yea and nay. Our word; there be some who apply this to his Preaching, as if he intended that he had been steadfast in his Doctrine, and had not been off and on, as to any Article of it: but there are others who do more pertinently apply it to his word of promise, that is made mention of in the verse next foregoing. Although, because his Calumniators were ready enough to insinuate, that he who so little regarded his word of promise made unto them, would be every whit as inconsiderate in his Preaching; he therefore subjoins a vindication of that too, verse 19. By yea and nay, he intends off and on, fallacious, deceitful, speaking without any consideration or intention at ⟨p. 4⟩all, but merely in complement, and upon pretence; and he means on the other hand, that he was real, honest, and sincere in it:
2. The thing asserted by him, or that to which the asseveration is connected; Our word toward you, was not yea and nay. Our word; there be some who apply this to his Preaching, as if he intended that he had been stedfast in his Doctrine, and had not been off and on, as to any Article of it: but there are others who do more pertinently apply it to his word of promise, that is made mention of in the verse next foregoing. Although, because his Calumniators were ready enough to insinuate, that he who so little regarded his word of promise made unto them, would be every whit as inconsiderate in his Preaching; he therefore subjoyns a vindication of that too, verse 19. By yea and nay, he intends off and on, fallacious, deceitful, speaking without any consideration or intention at ⟨p. 4⟩all, but meerly in complement, and upon pretence; and he means on the other hand, that he was real, honest, and sincere in it:
We may from hence observe this, DOCTRINE. It is a great and momentous Duty, incumbent on the People of God, to be true and faithful in their Promises.