N00458:486
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.
8. They must needs be exceeding loth that all the labour which they have laid out upon these should thus be lost. Gods Servants, that have obtained the grace to be faithful, have been spending themselves in solicitous endeavours after the salvation of all those that are under their watch; they have laboured with God and with them; and the joy they have looked for, hath been to see them saved: In hope of this they have been cheerful under all; and must they perish at last, and so all be thrown away? this, in this life, is exceeding bitter to them; Paul speaks it with grief, Gal. 4. 11. and such a thought puts a peculiar impression upon this affection, and raiseth them to the more earnestness in their pleadings with God.
8. They must needs be exceeding loth that all the labour which they have laid out upon these should thus be lost. Gods Servants, that have obtained the grace to be faithful, have been spending themselves in solicitous endeavours after the salvation of all those that are under their watch; they have laboured with God and with them; and the joy they have looked for, hath been to see them saved: In hope of this they have been chearful under all; and must they perish at last, and so all be thrown away? this, in this life, is exceeding bitter to them; Paul speaks it with grief, Gal. 4. 11. and such a thought puts a peculiar impression upon this affection, and raiseth them to the more earnestness in their pleadings with God.
9. And they truly design the glory of God in all this. All believers are set for God's glory; his Ministers are specially advantaged for the promoving of it: now it is the glory of Gods grace which they are nextly and directly to aim at the furtherance of; for they are a Gospel Ministry; and that is then most gloriously advanced, when men are made the monuments of this Attribute. When therefore they see such to whom this grace hath been offered, now ready to be made a Sacrifice unto Justice for their contempt of it, they, not being hopeless but that Grace may still be advanced by them, put in for a