N00458:39
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
SERMON I. › Doctrine 1: DOCTRINE I. The Visible Church is Gods Vineyard.
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. To distinguish it from the rest of the World; which is therefore compared to a Wilderness, in Opposition to the Church: and hence all those things wherein […] is a difference between those two, and one is rendered ⟨p. 7⟩in a better state than the other, are here to be considered: we may in particular refer to Isa. 5. 1, 2. where we have the principal things taken notice of, Viz.
A. To distinguish it from the rest of the World; which is therefore compared to a Wilderness, in Opposition to the Church: and hence all those things wherein 〈…〉 is a difference between those two, and one is rendred ⟨p. 7⟩in a better state than the other, are here to be considered: we may in particular referr to Isa. 5. 1, 2. where we have the principal things taken notice of, Viz.
1. A vineyard is a Select-Plot of ground taken off from that which is common, at the Choice of the owner. It is designed for a special use, and therefore the prudence and pleasure of the Owner is employed in making choice where, and on what spot he will have it, and by this Choice it is separated from his Other Land, and devoted to such an use. Thus the Church is a particular Company of men, taken from the rest of the world, at the pleasure of God, to be to him a peculiar people. Though he is Lord of all the world yet he hath not as yet pleased to extend the bounds of his Church to all, but it is planted where and as he sees meet, Christ therefore assigns it to his mere pleasure, Math. 11. 25.
1. A vineyard is a Select-Plat of ground taken off from that which is common, at the Choice of the owner. It is designed for a special use, and therefore the prudence and pleasure of the Owner is employed in making choice where, and on what spot he will have it, and by this Choice it is separated from his Other Land, and devoted to such an use. Thus the Church is a particular Company of men, taken from the rest of the world, at the pleasure of God, to be to him a peculiar people. Though he is Lord of all the world yet he hath not as yet pleased to extend the bounds of his Church to all, but it is planted where and as he sees meet, Christ therefore assigns it to his meer pleasure,