N00458:316
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.
SERMON VIII.
DOCTRINE II. It is an high Aggravation of the guilt of sinners in the visible Church that they remain barren after long Patience, and great paint used with them.
Here lies the Emphasis of the Complaint, that he had tarried so many years, and ⟨p. 130⟩come so frequently, and the fig-tree continues barren: and he speaks it as a strange things, that calls for observation; Behold! That the sins of men do admit of aggravations, or are greatened by circumstances, is evident from Scripture. Not only are some sins in themselves more heinous and Scandalous than others; but the same sins in themselves, may be made more provoking and deeper died; and there are divers ways in which they come so to be, and among other rules by which this is to be judged of, here is one: VIZ: The greater obligations that God hath upon men, to repent of and turn from their sins to him, •he greater must the provocation needs be. This was it that made Solomons sin the more observable, because God had appeared to him twice: this aggravated Davids sin, because God had done so much for him: this made the sins of Capernaum so terrible, because Christ had done so many wonderful works among them: this put an Emphasis upon the sin of the Woman Jezebel, that God had given her a space to repent, and she repented not. Now among these obligations, the most comprehensive are these two contained in out Text, viz, Gods long patience with them, and his often coming to them; and here we may enquire, 1. When men may be said to remain barren under all?