N00458:129
The barren fig trees doom. Or, A brief discourse wherein is set forth the…
The barren fig trees doom. Or, A brief discourse wherein is set forth the woeful danger of all who abide unfruitful under Gospel privileges, and Gods husbandry. Being the substance of sixteen sermons preached on Christ's parable of the fig-tree. / By Samuel Willard, teacher of a church in Boston. ; [Four lines from Matthew]The barren fig trees doom. Or, A brief discourse wherein is set forth the woful danger of all who abide unfruitful under Gospel priviledges, and Gods husbandry. Being the substance of sixteen sermons preached on Christ's parable of the fig-tree. / By Samuel Willard, teacher of a church in Boston. ; [Four lines from Matthew]
Boston: printed by Benjamin Harris, 1691
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.
A. Though God condescends to speak to us in our language, yet it becomes us always to interpret him so as is becoming his Sacred Majesty. All things therefore that imply any infirmity in men, are to be removed from our thoughts in our interpretation of him, in what he declares to us. Here then let us observe that when men are said to expect a thing, it implies, 1. That they are at some loss about it before hand. 2. That they entertain it in an hope. 3. That this hope depends upon probabilities that may be frustrated & so they may miss. We are not to suppose any such thing concerning the great God, for, what he desires, he doth: he knows all things a forehand, for they depend upon his All Efficiency, he cannot therefore be disappointed, or lose his hope. This expectation therefore is not to be attributed to him in respect of his secret will, decrees, or purposes; as if he had left any of them dubious or uncertain, or depending on the creature, on which he must wait before he can determine what will be, this is altogether incompatible to the Divine nature: But it must be interpreted of his revealed will, in respect of the transactions that have past between God and his People: for, as he treats with them as men, so he is said to look for this or that from them, after the manner of men. It notes the connection between the end and ⟨p. 43⟩the suitableness of the means for the advancing of the end; here then observe in particular.
A. Though God condescends to speak to us in our language, yet it becomes us always to interpret him so as is becoming his Sacred Majesty. All things therefore that imply any infirmity in men, are to be removed from our thoughts in our interpretation of him, in what he declares to us. Here then let us observe that when men are said to expect a thing, it implies, 1. That they are at some loss about it before hand. 2. That they entertain it in an hope. 3. That this hope depends upon probabilites that may be frustrated & so they may miss. We are not to suppose any such thing concerning the great God, for, what he desires, he doth: he knows all things a forehand, for they depend upon his All Efficiency, he cannot therefore be disappointed, or lose his hope. This expectation therefore is not to be attributed to him in respect of his secret will, decrees, or purposes; as if he had left any of them dubious or uncertain, or depending on the creature, on which he must wait before he can determine what will be, this is altogether incompatible to the Divine nature: But it must be interpreted of his revealed will, in respect of the transactions that have past between God and his People: for, as he treats with them as men, so he is said to look for this or that from them, after the manner of men. It notes the connexion between the end and