N00458:205
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. In general, all those that do not bear the right and proper fruit, will come under this denomination; and those are only the fruits of Righteousness and Holiness; all others are in Gods esteem barren: whatsoever fruits they bear to themselves, if they bring forth none to God, they are Empty Hos. 10. 1. The fruits that God looks for in his Church are good works, acts of true Obedience to his revealed will; and to the making of such fruit there is a great deal required. It is necessary that the tree be good before the fruit can be so. Besides the matter of the action, that it be conformable to the Rule of Gods word, there must be a principle of grace within from whence it must proceed, and saving Faith in the Soul to purify the heart, and to work by love, without which it is impossible to please God, Hebr, 11. 6. and it must be in conjunction with a sincere aim ⟨p. 77⟩at the Glory of God, as the ultimate scope of the action. It must be a work of the Sanctifying Spirit, and that it cannot be, if it fa•l of any of these ingredients; and hence in particular we may conclude, such as these to bear none; viz.
A. In general, all those that doe not bear the right and proper fruit, will come under this denomination; and those are only the fruits of Righteousness and Holiness; all others are in Gods esteem barren: whatsoever fruits they bear to themselves, if they bring forth none to God, they are Empty Hos. 10. 1. The fruits that God looks for in his Church are good works, acts of true Obedience to his revealed will; and to the making of such fruit there is a great deal required. It is necessary that the tree be good before the fruit can be so. Besides the matter of the action, that it be conformable to the Rule of Gods word, there must be a principle of grace within from whence it must proceed, and saving Faith in the Soul to purify the heart, and to work by love, without which it is impossible to please God, H•br, 11. 6. and it must be in conjunction with a sincere aim ⟨p. 77⟩at the Glory of God, as the ultimate scope of the action. It must be a work of the Sanctifying Spirit, and that it cannot be, if it fal of any of these ingredients; and hence in particular we may conclude, such as these to bear none; viz.