A30122:224
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.
The First of these Observations I shall pass, and not meddle at all therewith; But shall briefly speak to the Second, to wit,
That there are some Professors, whose Day of Grace will end with, cut it down, with Judgment, when Christ by his means hath been used for their Salvation.
That there are some Professors, whose Day of Grace will end with, cut it down, with Judgmeut, when Christ by his means hath been used for their Salvation.
This the Apostle showeth in that third Chapter of his Epistle to the Hebrews; where he tells us, that the People of the Jews, after a forty Years patience, and endeavour to do them good by the means appointed for that purpose, their end was to be cut down, or excluded the Land of Promise, for their final incredulity, So we see they could not enter in, because of Unbelief. Wherefore saith he, I was grieved with that generation, and said, they do always err in their Hearts, and they have not known my ways: So I sware in ⟨p. 77⟩my Wrath, they shall not enter into my Rest. As who should say, I would they should have entered in, and for that purpose I brought them out of Egypt, led them through the Sea, and taught them in the Wilderness, but they did not answer my Work nor Designs in that Matter; wherefore, they shall not, I sware they shall not; I swore in my Wrath they should not enter into my Rest: Here is cutting down with Judgment. So again, Chap. 4. he saith, As I have sworn in my Wrath, if they shall enter into my Rest, although the Works were finished from the Foundation of the World, Heb. 4. 2, 3, 4. This word [if] is the same with [they shall not] in the Chapter before. And where he saith, Although the Works were finished from the Foundation of the World. He giveth us to understand, that what preparations soever are made for the Salvation of Sinners, and of how long continuance soever they are, yet the God-tempting, God-provoking, and fruitless Professor is like to go without a share therein; although the Works were finished from the Foundation of the World.