N00458:524
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.
•. They know that sinners are converted and made fruitful by the use of means. That this is the ordinary way in […] which God is wont ⟨p. 228⟩to dispense his grace to the souls of men: when therefore God intends to have a people to his praise, •e plants them into a vineyard; he sends the Gospel to them, and affords them his Ordinances. If God hath much people in Corinth, Paul must tarry and preach there; for the gathering of them in: if therefore those that have so long been unprofitable, be at last made to serve God, they must be continued under the Ordinances: if the fig-tree ever comes to bear fruit, it must be be let grow in the Vineyard, and be there manured.
•. They know that sinners are converted and made fruitful by the use of means. That this is the ordinary way in 〈…〉 which God is wont ⟨p. 228⟩to dispense his grace to the souls of men: when therefore God intends to have a people to his praise, •e plants them into a vineyard; he sends the Gospel to them, and affords them his Ordinances. If God hath much people in Corinth, Paul must tarry and preach there; for the gathering of them in: if therefore those that have so long been unprofitable, be at last made to serve God, they must be continued under the Ordinances: if the fig-tree ever comes to bear fruit, it must be be let grow in the Vineyard, and be there manured.
2. They also know that God is wont to give a blessing to his Servants industry in the use of means. Though all success depends absolutely upon God, and we cannot by all our care and endeavours bring home one soul to Jesus Christ; yet because God hath appointed the Gospel to be the instrument of Conversion and salvation; and hath required his Servants to use diligence and constancy in the dispensation of it unto men, he is therefore wont to encourage their industry, by giving good success unto it; not but that he useth his Sovereignty here, but he frequently doth so: Paul, who laboured more than all the Apostles, won more Souls unto Christ than any of them: Diligence must needs be nearest to success.