N00458:491
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. God hath therefore in the Scripture made i• their duty thus to put in and plead, when they ⟨p. 211⟩see his Judgments coming upon his people. When they apprehend that God is angry, and discover him as if he were coming to cut Sinners down in his wrath, now God ••uld have these step in: for this reason; when God had threatened a terrible Calamity upon his people Israel, we find this to be urged as a precept at such a time, Joel. 2. 17. and Moses by Gods Appointment, sends Aaron with his Censer, when the plague is begun. These are some of those that are appointed to stand in the gap, and if when God comes in Displeasure, and finds them not there, it fares ill with his people.
2. God hath therefore in the Scripture made i• their duty thus to put in and plead, when they ⟨p. 211⟩see his Judgments coming upon his people. When they apprehend that God is angry, and discover him as if he were coming to cut Sinners down in his wrath, now God ••uld have these step in: for this reason; when God had threatned a terrible Calamity upon his people Israel, we find this to be urged as a precept at such a time, Joel. 2. 17. and Moses by Gods Appointment, sends Aaron with his Censer, when the plague is begun. These are some of those that are appointed to stand in the gap, and if when God comes in Displeasure, and finds them not there, it fares ill with his people.
3. God hath oftentimes a purpose to delay the execution of the sentence; and he honours these his Servants to be the instruments in it. God sometimes intends to give peculiar instances of his long-sufferance; and therefore when Sinners may be thought ripe for ruin, ready for cutting down, and the sentence is past in the threatening; he will yet give them a farther trial; now when it is so, he is wont to stir up the hearts of his servants to put in, and beg with greatest and undeniable importunity for it, whereupon he grants it to their requests; and it is for their sakes that he doth it. Thus we find, that God had certainly destroyed Israel, but that Moses interposed, and stood between him and them, and turned his wrath away,