A30122:356
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, Where Unity and Peace is wanting, there is evil surmising, and evil-speaking, to the damage and disgrace, if not to the ruining of one another; Gal. 5. 14, 15. The whole Law is fulfilled in one word, Thou shalt love thy Neighbour as thy self: but if you bite and devour one another, take heed you be not consumed one of another. No sooner the Bond of Charity is broken, which is as a Wall about Christians, but soon they begin to make havoc and spoil of one another; then there is raising evil Reports, and taking up evil Reports against each other: Hence it is that whispering and backbiting proceeds, and going from House to House to blazon the Faults and Infirmities of others; Hence it is that we watch for the haltings of one another, and do inwardly rejoice at the Miscarriages of others; saying, in our Hearts, Ah, ah, so we would have it: But now where Unity and Peace is, there is Charity; and where Charity is, there we are willing to hide the Faults, and cover the nakedness of our Brethren; ⟨p. 28⟩Charity thinketh no evil, 1 Cor. 13. 5. And therefore it cannot surmise, neither will it speak evil.
Secondly, Where Unity and Peace is wanting, there is evil surmizing, and evil-speaking, to the damage and disgrace, if not to the ruining of one another; Gal. 5. 14, 15. The whole Law is fulfilled in one word, Thou shalt love thy Neighbour as thy self: but if you bite and devour one another, take heed you be not consumed one of another. No sooner the Bond of Charity is broken, which is as a Wall about Christians, but soon they begin to make havock and spoil of one another; then there is raising evil Reports, and taking up evil Reports against each other: Hence it is that whispering and backbiting proceeds, and going from House to House to blazon the Faults and Infirmities of others; Hence it is that we watch for the haltings of one another, and do inwardly rejoice at the Miscarriages of others; saying, in our Hearts, Ah, ah, so we would have it: But now where Unity and Peace is, there is Charity; and where Charity is, there we are willing to hide the Faults, and cover the nakedness of our Brethren; ⟨p. 28⟩