N00458:442
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.
2. Their example is pernicious to many, and especially the example of those who talk much, and speak high of Religion, and have made a more open profession of the Covenant of God: and this more principally in reference to such as have a peculiar relation to or dependence upon them; such are Parents in respect to their Children, Family Governors relating to them that are under their watch; when possibly they keep up a form of Godliness, as to matters of external worship; they read the Word, and pray in their families, and Catechise their Children; are constant in frequenting Ordinances; and in the mean while, they are careless in their conversation, are vain and ⟨p. 190⟩frothy in their communication, quarrelsome and give ill language in their passion, deceitful in their dealings with men, loose in their ordinary carriage, and too excessive in their allowances of themselves in the using, or rather abusing the things of this life: oh what an influence have such examples upon others? how can they draw them down into self-Justification? and plead, that if such things were not consistent with Christianity, these would not so do: such persons are the Devils Decoys with which he draws men into the snare, and keeps them from devoting themselves wholly to the Service of God, and doing the works of Righteousness, see how Paul acquits himself from any such things as this, 1 Thes. 2. 10. Ye are Witnesses, and God also, how holily and justly, and unblameably we behaved our selves among you that believe.
2. Their example is pernicious to many, and especially the example of those who talk much, and speak high of Religion, and have made a more open profession of the Covenant of God: and this more principally in reference to such as have a peculiar relation to or dependance upon them; such are Parents in respect to their Children, Family Governours relating to them that are under their watch; when possibly they keep up a form of Godliness, as to matters of external worship; they read the Word, and pray in their families, and Catechise their Children; are constant in frequenting Ordinances; and in the mean while, they are careless in their conversation, are vain and ⟨p. 190⟩frothy in their communication, quarrelsome and give ill language in their passion, deceitful in their dealings with men, loose in their ordinary carriage, and too excessive in their allowances of themselves in the using, or rather abusing the things of this life: oh what an influence have such examples upon others? how can they draw them down into self-Justification? and plead, that if such things were not consistant with Christianity, these would not so do: such persons are the Devils Decoys with which he draws men into the snare, and keeps them from devoting themselves wholly to the Service of God, and doing the works of Righteousness, see how Paul acquits himself from any such things as this,