A30122:399
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.
Fifthly; If we would endeavour Peace and Unity, we must consider how God hath tempered the Body; that so the comely Parts should not separate from the uncomely, as having no need of them, 1 Cor. 12. 22, 23, 24, 25. There is in Christ's Body and House, some Members and Vessels less honourable, ⟨p. 56⟩2 Tim. 2. 20. And therefore we should not, as some now a-days do, po•• the more abundant disgrace, instead of putting the more abundant honour upon them: Did we but consider this, we should be covering the Weakness, and hiding the Miscarriages of one another, because we are all Members one of another, and the most useless Member in his place is useful.
Sixthly; If we would live in Peace, let us remember our Relations to God, as Children to a Father, and to each other as Brethren. Will not the thoughts that we have one Father, quiet us, and the thoughts that we are Brethren, unite us? It was this that made Abraham propose Terms of Peace to Lot, Gen. 13. Let there be no Strife (saith he) between us, for we are Brethren. And we read of Moses, in Acts 7. 26. using this Argument, to reconcile those that strove together, and to set them at one again; Sirs, saith he, you are Brethren, why do ye wrong one another? A deep sense of this Relation, that we are Brethren, wou•d keep us from dividing.