N00458:578
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.
USE III.
This truth also affords us a word of warning, to beware of negligence and boasting. Both of these we are too prone to, and either of them will certainly do us damage.
1. Take heed of negligence. How many are there who indulge in themselves sloth and neglect of duty, by this very argument, ⟨p. 256⟩Viz. that all the pains that men can take will do nothing, except God hath appointed such an one to salvation; and if he hath, then he will bring him home to himself, whether I take pains with him or no: thus are we apt to abuse the Decrees of God for the indulgence of our our own sinfulness and •loth. Nay the inference it self which is thus […] is false; and savours of ignorance; […] who hath appointed the end; hath […] the means too; and it is accor••• […] Scripture to say, it this had not been […] had not fallen out: yea, it is awful to consider, that sometimes God appoints our neglect to be the occasion of their perdition, when we do so neglect, what saith the Scripture? I Sam. 3. 13. I will judge his house for ever, for the iniquity which he knoweth; because his sons made themselves vile, and he restrained them not; and when it is thus, our sin is nothing the less, yea, we become Accessories. God had appointed the sinner to perish; and yet see what God saith to the Prophet,