A30122:330
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. As this Unity and Peace may consist in the ignorance of many Truths, and in the holding some Errors, so it must consist with (and it cannot consist without) the believing and practising those things which are necessary to Salvation and Church-Communion; and they are, First, Believing that Christ the Son of God died for the Sins of Men. Secondly, That whoever believed, ought to be baptized: The third thing essential to this Communion, is a holy and a blameless Conversation.
First, That believing that the Son of God died for the Sins of Men, is necessary to Salvation, I prove by these Texts, which tell us, that he that doth not believe, shall be damned, Mark 16. 16. John 3. 36. Rom. 10. 19.
That it is also necessary to Church-Communion, appears from Mat. 16. 16, 17, 18. Peter having confessed that Christ was the Son of the Living God, Christ thereupon assures Peter, that upon this Rock, viz. this Profession of Faith, or ⟨p. 9⟩this Christ which Peter had confessed, he would Build his Church, and the Gates of Hell should not prevail against it. And 1 Cor. 3. 11. The Apostle having told the Corinthians they were God's Building, presently adds, that they could not be built upon any Foundation but upon that which was laid, which was Jesus Christ. All which proves, that Christian Society is founded upon the profession of Christ; and not only Scripture, but the Laws of Right-reason dictate this, that some Rules and Orders must be observed for the founding all Society, which must be consented to by all that will be of it. Hence it comes to pass, that to own Christ as the Lord and Head of Christians, is essential to the founding Christian Society.