A30122:404
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.
Tenthly, Be willing to hear, and learn, and obey those that God by his Providence hath set over you; this is a great means to preserve the Unity and Peace of Churches: but when Men (yea, and sometimes Women) shall usurp Authority, and think themselves wiser than their Teachers, no wonder if these People run into Contentions and Parties, when any shall say they are not free to hear those whom the Church thinks fit to speak to them: This is the first step ⟨p. 60⟩to Schism, and is usually attended, if not timely prevented, with a sinful Separation.
Eleventhly; If you would keep the Unity of the Spirit in the Bond of Peace, be mindful, that the God, whom you serve, is a God of Peace, and your Saviour is a Prince of Peace, and that his Ways are Ways of Pleasantness, and all his Paths are Peace; and that Christ was sent into the World, to give Light to them that sit in Darkness, and in the shadow of Death, and to guide our Feet in the Way of Peace.
Twelfthly; Consider the oneness of Spirit that is among the Enemies of Religion; though they differ about other things, yet to persecute Religion, and extirpate Religion out of the earth, here they will agree; the Devils in the Air, and the Devils in the Earth, all the Devils in Hell, and in the World, make one at this turn. Shall the Devil's Kingdom be united, and shall Christ's be divided? Shall the Devils make one shoulder to drive on the design of damning ⟨p. 61⟩Men, and shall not Christians unite to carry on the great Design of saving of them? Shall the Papists agree and unite to carry on their Interest, notwithstanding the multitudes of Orders, Degrees and Differences there are among them, and shall not those that call themselves Reformed Churches, unite, to carry on the common Interest of Christ in the World, notwithstanding some petty and disputable Differences that are among them? Quarrels about Religion (as one observes) were Sins not named among the Gentiles. What a shame is it then, for Christians to abound in them, especially considering the nature of Christian Religion, and what large provisions the Author of it hath made, to keep the Professors of it in Peace? Insomuch (as one well observes) It is next to a miracle, that ever any (especially the Professors of it) should fall out about it.