A30122:348
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.
First, Unity and Peace is a Duty well-pleasing to God, who is styled the Author of Peace, and not of Confusion in all the Churches, God's Spirit rejoiceth in the Unity of our Spirits; but on the other hand, where Strife and Divisions ⟨p. 22⟩are, there the Spirit of God is grieved. Hence it is that the Apostle no sooner calls upon the Ephesians, not to grieve the Spirit of God, but he presently subjoins us a Remedy against that evil, That they put away bitterness and evil-speaking. And be kind one to another, and tender-hearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christs sake hath forgiven them, Eph. 4. 30, 32.
First, Unity and Peace is a Duty well-pleasing to God, who is stiled the Author of Peace, and not of Confusion in all the Churches, God's Spirit rejoyceth in the Unity of our Spirits; but on the other hand, where Strife and Divisions ⟨p. 22⟩are, there the Spirit of God is grieved. Hence it is that the Apostle no sooner calls upon the Ephesians, not to grieve the Spirit of God, but he presently subjoins us a Remedy against that evil, That they put away bitterness and evil-speaking. And be kind one to another, and tender-hearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christs sake hath forgiven them, Eph. 4. 30, 32.
Secondly, As Unity and Peace is pleasing to God, and rejoiceth his Spirit, so it rejoiceth the Hearts and Spirits of God's People; Unity and Peace brings Heaven down upon Earth among us: Hence it is that the Apostle tells us, Rom. 4. 17. That the Kingdom of God is not Meat and Drink, but Righteousness and Peace, and Joy in the Holy Ghost. Where Unity and Peace is, there is Heaven upon Earth; by this we taste the first Fruits of that blessed Estate we shall one day live in the fruition of; when we shall come to the general Assembly and Church of the First-born, whose Names are written in Heaven, and to God the Judg of all, and to the Spirits of just Men made perfect,