A30122:344
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.
But here's our misery, that we no sooner receive any thing for Truth, but we presently ascend the Chair of Infallibility with it, as though in this we could not err: Hence it is we are impatient of contradiction, and become uncharitable to those that are not of the same Mind; but now a consciousness that we may mistake, or that if my Brother err in one thing, I may err in another, this will unite us in Affection, and engage us to press after Perfection, according to that of the Apostle, Phil. 3. 13, 14, 15. Brethren, I count not my self to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things that are behind, and reaching forth to those things which are before, I press towards the Mark, for the prize of the •igh Calling of God in Christ Jesus. And if in any thing ye be otherwise minded, God shall reveal even this unto you. O then that we could but unite and agree to go to God for one another, in confidence that he will teach us; and that if any ⟨p. 20⟩of us want Wisdom (as who of us does not) we might agree to ask of God, who giveth to all Men liberally, and upbraideth no Man. Let us, like those people spoken of in the second of Isaiah, say one to another, Come, let us go to the Lord, for he will teach us of his Ways, and we will walk in his Paths.
Fifthly; This Unity and Peace mainly consists in Unity of Love and Affection; this is the great and indispensable Duty of all Christians, by this they are declared Christ's Disciples: And hence it is that Love is called the Great Commandment, the Old Commandment, and the New Commandment; that which was commanded in the beginning, and will remain to the end, yea and after the end. 1 Cor. 13. 8. Charity never fails; but whether there be Tongues, they shall cease; or whether there be Knowledge, it shall vanish away. And, verse 13. And now abideth Faith, Hope and Charity; but the greatest of these is Charity. And▪