N00458:259
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.
USE I.
Hence it is a hard measure to judge of a Ministers fidelity by his success. There is a Sovereign over-ruling hand of God in these affairs, and it is to be adored by us: to have nothing else to allege against any of Gods Servants, but that there is little good done by all his labour, and possibly a people do grow worse under it, and therefore he is not true to his trust, and there be nothing else that appears against him, is an Harsh censure, •s if they by their own virtue and good ⟨p. 104⟩will could make men good when they please. It may be their affliction and sore grief, when it is not their sin; and calls for pity rather then Censure; to see them casting out the Gospel not so often, and toiling all night and catching little or nothing: their hearts have Sorrow enough already, for this they need not to be loaded with more: thus might Isaiah, Jeremiah Ezekiel, yea and Christ himself have been censured.
Hence it is a hard measure to judge of a Ministers fidelity by his success. There is a Soveraign over-ruling hand of God in these affairs, and it is to be adored by us: to have nothing else to alled•e against any of Gods Servants, but that there is little good done by all his labour, and possibly a people do grow worse under it, and therefore he is not true to his trust, and there be nothing else that appears against him, is an Harsh censure, •s if they by their own vertue and good ⟨p. 104⟩will could make men good when they please. It may be their affliction and sore grief, when it is not their sin; and calls for pity rather then Censure; to see them casting out the Gospel not so often, and toyling all night and catching little or nothing: their hearts have Sorrow enough already, for this they need not to be loaded with more: thus might Isaiah, Jeremiah Ezekiel, yea and Christ himself have been censured.