N00458:436
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: A barren fruit-tree in a vineyard is a very great disgrace to it. The credit of a vineyard, is that it yields much fruit: this ⟨p. 184⟩is it which gains it esteem, and makes it to he preferred before the wilderness. Every tree then that bears proportionably, confers its share to this credit, and consequently, any one that bears nothing diminisheth from it, and is oftentimes more taken notice of than the others that do bear; & it is certain, that there is a great deal of reproach that accrues to the Church of Christ, by the occasions of those in it that do not bring forth the fruits which God requires of them. As God expects more, so men look for more of such than of others: and as it is a shame for such who make an eminent profession, and have so many advantages for it, to do nothing for the glory of God, so the reflection is wont to be made upon the whole, and the Church of Christ which they appertain unto must have dirt cast upon them for it; and they shall suffer more reproach for one such, than get commendation from an hundred exemplary Christians, from the world, who envy the•• their reputation, and wait for matter of scandal against them. This is one argument Paul useth with the Jews to convince them, Rom. 2. 24. men are ready to measure all by that one, these are your Church-Members, these are the Children of the Church, tha• have owned the Covenant, and openly professed their subjection thereunto, and yet such they are, and so they live; and what shall ⟨p. 185⟩judge of the rest of them? Thus Christ's Vineyard gets a bad name by such as these.
1: A barren fruit-tree in a vineyard is a very great disgrace to it. The credit of a vineyard, is that it yields much fruit: this ⟨p. 184⟩is it which gains it esteem, and makes it to he preferred before the wilderness. Every tree then that bears proportionably, confers its share to this credit, and consequently, any one that bears nothing diminisheth from it, and is oftentimes more taken notice of than the others that do bear; & it is certain, that there is a great deal of reproach that accrues to the Church of Christ, by the occasions of those in it that do not bring forth the fruits which God requires of them. As God expects more, so men look for more of such than of others: and as it is a shame for such who make an eminent profession, and have so many advantages for it, to do nothing for the glory of God, so the reflexion is wont to be made upon the whole, and the Church of Christ which they appertein unto must have dirt cast upon them for it; and they shall suffer more reproach for one such, than get commendation from an hundred exemplary Christians, from the world, who envy the their reputation, and wait for matter of scandal against them. This is one argument Paul useth with the Jews to convince them,