A30122:142
The barren fig tree, or, The doom and downfall of the fruitless professor showing…The barren fig tree, or, The doom and downfall of the fruitless professor shewing…
The barren fig tree, or, The doom and downfall of the fruitless professor showing that the day of grace may be past with him long before his life is ended : the signs also by which such miserable mortals may be known / by John Bunyan ; to which is added his Exhortation to peace and unity among all that fear God.The barren fig tree, or, The doom and downfall of the fruitless professor shewing that the day of grace may be past with him long before his life is ended : the signs also by which such miserable mortals may be known / by John Bunyan ; to which is added his Exhortation to peace and unity among all that fear God.
London: printed for J. Robinson, 1688
Title page typeset from the transcription.
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.
There is a Man hath an hundred Trees in his vineyard, and at the time of the Season, he walketh into his Vineyard to see how the Trees flourish; and as he ⟨p. 48⟩goes, and views, and pries, and observes how they are hanged with Fruit; behold, he comes to one where he findeth naught but Leaves. Now he makes a stand, looks upon it again and again, he looks also here and there, above and below; and if after all this seeking, he finds nothing but Leaves thereon; Then he begins to cast in his mind, how he may know this Tree next Year, what stands next it, or how far 'tis off the Hedge; but if there be nothing there that may be as a Mark to know it by; then he takes his Hook, and giveth it a private mark, (And, the Lord set a Mark upon Cain, Gen. 4.) saying, Go thy ways, fruitless Fig-tree, Thou hast spent this Season in vain.
There is a Man hath an hundred Trees in his vineyard, and at the time of the Season, he walketh into his Vineyard to see how the Trees flourish; and as he ⟨p. 48⟩goes, and views, and pries, and observes how they are hanged with Fruit; behold, he comes to one where he findeth naught but Leaves. Now he makes a stand, looks upon it again and again, he looks also here and there, above and below; and if after all this seeking, he finds nothing but Leaves thereon; Then he begins to cast in his mind, how he may know this Tree next Year, what stands next it, or how far 'tis off the Hedg; but if there be nothing there that may be as a Mark to know it by; then he takes his Hook, and giveth it a private mark, (And, the Lord set a Mark upon Cain, Gen. 4.) saying, Go thy ways, fruitless Fig-tree, Thou hast spent this Season in vain.
Yet doth he not cut it down, I will try it another Year; may be this was not a hitting Season. Therefore he comes again next Year to see if now it have Fruit; but as he found it before, so he finds it now, barren, barren, every Year barren; he looks again, but finds no Fruit. Now he begins to have second thoughts: How! neither hit last Year, nor this. Surely the Barrenness is not in the Season, sure the fault is in the Tree. However