A30122:349
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.
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, Heb. 12. 23.
This outward peace of the Church (as a learned Man observes) distils into peace of Conscience, and turns writings and readings of Controversy, into Treatises of Mortification and Devotion.
This outward peace of the Church (as a learned Man observes) disti•s into peace of Conscience, and turns writings and readings of Controversy, into Treatises of Mortification and Devotion.
And the Psalmist tells us, that it is not only good, but pleasant for Brethren to dwell together in Unity, Psal. 133. 1. But where Unity and Peace is wanting, there are Storms and Troubles; where Envy and Strife is, there is confusion, and every evil Work, Jam. 3. 16. It is the outward Peace of the Church that increaseth our inward Joy; and the Peace of God's House gives us occasion to eat our meat with gladness in our own Houses,