A30122:74
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.
And he came and sought Fruit [thereon].
A Church then, and a Profession, are not places where the workers of Iniquity may hide themselves, and Sins, from God. Some of old thought, that because they could cry, The Temple of the Lord, the Temple of the Lord, that therefore they were delivered, or had a Dispensation to do the Abominations which they committed; as some in our days. For, who (say they) have a right to the Creatures if not Christians, if not Professors, if not Church-Members? And from this Conclusion, let go the Reigns of their inordinate Affections after Pride, Ambition, Gluttony, pampering themselves without fear, Jude 12. daubing themselves with the Lust provoking Fashions of the Times; to walk with stretched-out Necks, naked Breasts, ⟨p. 21⟩frizzled Fore-tops, wanton Gestures, in gorgeous Apparel, mixed with Gold and Pearl, and costly Array. I will not here make inspection into their Lives, their Carriages at Home, in their Corners, and secret Holes; But certainly; Persons thus spirited, thus principled, and thus inclined, have but empty Boughs, Boughs that want the Fruit that God expects, and that God will come down to seek.
A Church then, and a Profession, are not places where the workers of Iniquity may hide themselves, and Sins, from God. Some of old thought, that because they could cry, The Temple of the Lord, the Temple of the Lord, that therefore they were delivered, or had a Dispensation to do the Abominations which they committed; as some in our days. For, who (say they) have a right to the Creatures if not Christians, if not Professors, if not Church-Members? And from this Conclusion, let go the Reigns of their inordinate Affections after Pride, Ambition, Gluttony, pampering themselves without fear, Jude 12. daubing themselves with the Lust provoking Fashions of the Times; to walk with stretched-out Necks, naked Breasts, ⟨p. 21⟩