N00458:373
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 though Gods Patience be himself, and therefore Infinite, yet it is exercised according to his Wisdom and pleasure. Attributes considered as in God, are God, for he is one individed Essence, and pure act, and therefore every virtue which we ascribe to God, must be acknowledged to be Infinite in him: but yet as they are made to shine out in his works of Efficiency, we are to account them voluntary, and managed according to the Wisdom of God: he therefore measures them out to the Creature more or less, according to his own discretion. For men therefore to argue from the Divine Nature of Gods love, mercy, forbearance, &c. to please themselves with an opinion that he must be boundless in his expressions of them to the creature, is a vain fancy, and▪ that which God warns men against, lest they should so cheat themselves into ruin, Isa. 27. 4.
1. That though Gods Patience be himself, and therefore Infinite, yet it is exercised according to his Wisdom and pleasure. Attributes considered as in God, are God, for he is one individed Essence, and pure act, and therefore every vertue which we ascribe to God, must be acknowledged to be Infinite in him: but yet as they are made to shine out in his works of Efficiency, we are to account them voluntary, and managed according to the Wisdom of God: he therefore measures them out to the Creature more or less, according to his own discretion. For men therefore to argue from the Divine Nature of Gods love, mercy, forbearance, &c. to please themselves with an opinion that he must be boundless in his expressions of them to the creature, is a vain fancy, and▪ that which God warns men against, lest they should so cheat themselves into ruine, Isa. 27. 4.
2. That God must and will be glorified in all those Attributes of his which he displays to the children of men. God doth all things for himself; his own glory is his own last end in all his works of Efficiency, and therefore he manageth the whole discovery of them, with an eye fixed on this end: he had been glorious in himself, if he had never manifested any of his Perfections to the creature; but if he do thus make himself known, he will bring about his declarative glory by