N00458:405
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.
4. There is an instrument used by the Husbandman, for the cutting down of the tree withal. This is fitted and prepared for the purpose. Men use an axe in this service, and they are wont to sharpen it that it may do it effectually. Thus we read, Matth. 3. 9. The axe is laid to the root of the tree. This is the axe of Divine Vengeance, and God is usually pleased to do this by the instrumentality of second causes, fitted by him for the purpose: these are for this reason called his Instruments in Scripture; his Axe▪ his Saw, h•s Sword: He sometimes indeed makes them only rods, and then indeed it is for amendment; but at other times they are Swords, Instruments of Excision, Ezek. 21. 9, 10, 11. sometimes God sends a Sickness, and that is Commissioned to take away his life, and it doth it, and no means can save ⟨p. 169⟩him alive; it chops him down, and there is an end of him here: sometimes he delivers him up into the hands of an Enemy, and he slays him without pity: these do it but instrumentally; they are Gods Tools, and it is he who makes use of them for this purpose.
4. There is an instrument used by the Husbandman, for the cutting down of the tree withal. This is fitted and prepared for the purpose. Men use an ax in this service, and they are wont to sharpen it that it may do it effectually. Thus we read, Matth. 3. 9. The ax is laid to the root of the tree. This is the ax of Divine Vengeance, and God is usually pleased to do this by the instrumentality of second causes, fitted by him for the purpose: these are for this reason called his Instruments in Scripture; his Ax▪ his Saw, h•s Sword: He sometimes indeed makes them only rods, and then indeed it is for amendment; but at other times they are Swords, Instruments of Excision, Ezek. 21. 9, 10, 11. sometimes God sends a Sickness, and that is Commissioned to take away his life, and it doth it, and no means can save