A30122:199
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.
2. A want of warmer Means, of fatter Means.
Wherefore accordingly he propoundeth;
First, To looser the Earth, to dig about it.
Secondly, And then to supply it with Dung; to dig about it, and dung it. Lord, let it alone this Year also, until I shall dig about it. I doubt it is too much ground-bound, The Love of this World, and the deceitfulness of Riches (Luke 14.) lie too close to the Roots of the Heart of this Professor. The love of Riches, the Love of Honours, the Love of Pleasures, are the Thorns that choke the Word; 1 Joh. 2. 15, 16. For all that is in the World, the Lusts of the Flesh, the Lusts of the Eyes, and the Pride ⟨p. 67⟩of Life, are not of the Father, but enmity to God); how then (where these things bind up the Heart) can there be Fruit brought forth to God? Barren Fig-tree, see how the Lord Jesus, by these very words, suggesteth the cause of thy fruitlessness of Soul. The things of this World lie too close to thy Heart; the Earth with its things have bound up thy Roots. Thou art an Earth-bound Soul, thou art wrapped up in thick Clay. If any Man love the World, the Love of the Father is not in him: how then can he be fruitful in the Vineyard? This kept Judas from the Fruit of caring for the poor,