N00458:130
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.
1. That there is some worthy end of God• planting a Church in the World. God• Works are all done in Wisdom: nor Wisdom always proposeth to it self a worthy end in all that it doth. God doth nothing in vain. There is a great deal of Gods care, and singular Providence discovers it self in and about the affairs of his Church; in the raising up of Instruments, and sending them forth into the world, with a Commission to gather men out of it into his Vineyard; •n giving them his Gospel and Ordinances; in making of his Covenant known to them there is something peculiar which God doth to and for these, from what he doth for other men, he hath not dealt so by all nations. There must therefore be some peculiar and eminent design in it, or otherwise he would not have thus done: and it is worthy our enquiry after, that so we may be able to give him the honour that is due to him for it.
2. We are to distinguish between the end of the purpose and of the precept. If we speak of Gods purposes, he knows all his works concerning them, before the foundation of the World, and here he can never be at a loss or disappointed: but that is secret to us, and therefore belongs not to our curious search, ⟨p. 44⟩Deut. 29. 29. But then the precept of God is that in which he is pleased to reveal himself to us, and shows us what is his will concerning our Duty, or what he hath seen meet to make a duty incumbent upon us; now in the preceptive discovery of Gods Will to his people, he hath told them what it is they ought to propose to themselves as their end, and what are the means which they are to make use of in order to their obtaining it; and this is that which we call mans end, because he is commanded to seek it, and Gods end too, because he hath enjoined men to seek it, and which he intends also to bring about in all these whom he hath ordained to eternal life, Joh. 28. 28.