N00458:133
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.
4. That all the means that are used with them look directly this way. We are wont to judge of mens designs, by their actions; and by their designs we rationally judge of their expectations; for all men have a secret hope that their designs will succeed, else they would not be at cost to promove them. Now he that shall but rightly consider the nature and tendency of all that is done by God to & for his visible Church, and every one in it, must needs say that all hath a direct and proper reference to their bearing the fruits of Holiness: for what else doth the Gospel Covenant oblige men to, but to glorify God? and that is by a rightly ordered Conversation; what else do all the Gospel commands serve to, but to show man the way ho• he is thus to do? what are all the promises for, but to give them all encouragement needful, to excite and engage them hereunto? and what is the aspect of all the threatenings, but to awaken them, and ⟨p. 46⟩make them careful of their duty, and afraid to neglect it; and what are all the afflictive providences they meet with for, but to purge them that they may bear more fruit?
4. That all the means that are used with them look directly this way. We are wont to judge of mens designs, by their actions; and by their designs we rationally judge of their expectations; for all men have a secret hope that their designs will succeed, else they would not be at cost to promove them. Now he that shall but rightly consider the nature and tendency of all that is done by God to & for his visible Church, and every one in it, must needs say that all hath a direct and proper reference to their bearing the fruits of Holiness: for what else doth the Gospel Covenant oblige men to, but to glorify God? and that is by a rightly ordered Conversation; what else do all the Gospel commands serve to, but to shew man the way ho• he is thus to do? what are all the promises for, but to give them all encouragment needful, to excite and engage them hereunto? and what is the aspect of all the threatnings, but to awaken them, and ⟨p. 46⟩make them careful of their duty, and afraid to neglect it; and what are all the afflictive providences they meet with for, but to purge them that they may bear more fruit?