N00458:42
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.
3. A Vineyard is wont to be fenced in for its preservation, and safety from damage: The barren Wilderness useth to be left open and common, for all manner of wild Beasts to range in, and feed upon; but a Vineyard is Fenced, verse 2. And as a Fence is to divide between that and the other ground, so to be a security to it, that Beasts may not come in and devour it; because so all the Industry and Cost of the Owner would be lost, and the Plants exp•••d to be trodden down and wasted. Thus hath God made a Fence between his visible Church and the rest of the World; he hath set up a Wall or Hedge about it, to keep out such as are Enemies to him and his people; and carefully preserves is from mischief: this respects the special Providence of God, or that care which he takes in looking after it, in being a Wall of Fire round about it.
3. A Vineyard is wont to be ••enced in for its preservation, and safety from damage: The barren Wilderness useth to be left open and common, for all manner of wild Beasts to range in, and feed upon; but a Vineyard is Fenced, verse 2. And as a Fence is to divide between that and the other ground, so to be a security to it, that Beasts may not come in and devour it; because so all the Industry and Cost of the Owner would be lost, and the Plants exp•••d to be trodden down and wasted. Thus hath God made a Fence between his visible Church and the rest of the World; he hath set up a Wall or Hedg about it, to keep out such as are Enemies to him and his people; and carefully preserves is from mischief: this respects the special Providence of God, or that care which he takes in looking after it, in being a Wall of Fire round about it.
4. A Vineyard is wont to be planted with Select-Plants. In the Wilderness Plants grow of themselves; but in a Vineyard none are suffered, but such as are set by the Keeper at the pleasure of the Owner, and he is wont to make choice of such as are most likely and ⟨p. 9⟩