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…

Fourthly; As there must be care used in choosing Men to rule the Church of God, so there must be a consideration ⟨p. 54⟩had, that there are many things darkly laid down in Scripture, this will temper our Spirits and make us live in Peace and Unity the more firmly in things in which we agree; this will help us to bear one another's Burden, and so fulfil the Law of Christ, in as much as all things necessary to Salvation and Church-Communion are plainly laid down in Scripture. And where things are more darkly laid down, we should consider that God intended hereby to stir up our diligence, that thereby we might increase our Knowledge, and not our Divisions, for it may be said of all Discoveries of Truth we have made in the Scriptures, as it's said of the Globe of the Earth, that though Men have made great Searches, and thereupon great Discoveries, yet there is still a terra incognita, an unknown Land; so there is in the Scriptures, for after Men have travelled over them, one Age after ano•••• yet still there is, as it were, a ••rra incognita, an unknown Tract to put us upon farther search and enquiry, and to keep us from censuring and falling out with those who have not yet ⟨p. 55⟩made the same Discoveries; that so we may say with the Psalmist, when we reflect upon our short apprehensions of the Mind of God, that we have seen an end of all Perfections, but God's Commands are exceeding broad; and as one observes, speaking of the Scriptures, that there is a Path in them leading to the Mind of God, which lieth a great distance from the Thoughts and Apprehensions of Men. And on the other hand, in many other places, God sits, as it were, on the Superficies, and the Face of the Letter, where he that runs may discern him speaking plainly, and no Parable at all. How should the consideration of this induce us to a peaceable deportment towards those that differ.

Fourthly; As there must be care used in chusing Men to rule the Church of God, so there must be a consideration ⟨p. 54⟩had, that there are many things darkly laid down in Scripture, this will temper our Spirits and make us live in Peace and Unity the more firmly in things in which we agree; this will help us to bear one another's Burden, and so fulfil the Law of Christ, in as much as all things necessary to Salvation and Church-Communion are plainly laid down in Scripture. And where things are more darkly laid down, we should consider that God intended hereby to stir up our diligence, that thereby we might increase our Knowledg, and not our Divisions, for it may be said of all Discoveries of Truth we have made in the Scriptures, as it's said of the Globe of the Earth, that though Men have made great Searches, and thereupon great Discoveries, yet there is still a terra incognita, an unknown Land; so there is in the Scriptures, for after Men have travelled over them, one Age after ano yet still there is, as it were, a rra incognita, an unknown Tract to put us upon farther search and enquiry, and to keep us from censuring and falling out with those who have not yet