A30122:294
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.
1. The Executioner, Thou, the great, the dreadful, the eternal God. These words therefore, as I have already said, signify that Christ the Mediator, through whom alone Salvation comes, and by whom alone Execution hath been deferred, Now giveth up the Soul, forbears to speak one Syllable more for him, or to do the least Act of Grace further, to try for his Recovery; but delivereth him up to that fearful Dispensation, To fall into the hand of the living God, Heb. 10. 31.
2. The Second to be considered, is, The Instrument by which this Execution is done, and that is Death, compared here to an Axe; and forasmuch as the Tree is not felled at one Blow, therefore the strokes are here continued, till all the blows be struck at it that are requisite for its felling; For now cutting-time, and cutting-work is come, cutting must be his Portion, till he be cut down. After that ⟨p. 114⟩thou shalt cut it down.] Death, I say, is the Axe, which God often useth, therewith to take the Barren Fig-tree out of the Vineyard, out of a Profession, and also out of the World at once. But this Axe is now new-ground, it cometh well-edged to the Roots of this Barren Fig-tree. It hath been whetted by Sin, by the Law, and by a formal Profession, and therefore must, and will make deep gashes, not only in the natural life, but in the Heart and Conscience also of this Professor. The wages of Sin is Death, the sting of Death is Sin, 1 Cor. 15. Wherefore Death comes not to this Man as he doth to Saints, muzzled, or without his Sting, but with open Mouth, in all his strength; yea, he sends his First born, which is guilt, to devour his strength, and to bring him to the King of Terrors, Job 18. 13, 14.
2. The Second to be considered, is, The Instrument by which this Execution is done, and that is Death, compared here to an Ax; and forasmuch as the Tree is not felled at one Blow, therefore the strokes are here continued, till all the blows be struck at it that are requisite for its felling; For now cutting-time, and cutting-work is come, cuttig must be his Portion, till he be cut down. After that