N00458:603
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.
4. The sinner is now brought under the promises which a faithful God cannot sail of performing. The Gospel promises are propounded unto men upon condition, if that be fulfilled in and by the man. God is under the obligation, his word is past for it; pardon, and peace, and glory are now the mans by Covenant: and whensoever any are made fruitful Christians, when they bring forth unto God according to his will, the condition is fulfilled in them; they are the men of and to whom God hath said that he will do them good. There must be faith and holiness put into the man, before he can bear spiritual fruits, and to them the blessing is assured; and God is as good as his word; it is impossible for him to lie: such a soul therefore must needs be in a safe state, if all the blessings ⟨p. 267⟩that are laid up in the promise, and purchased by the Blood of Christ can make him so.
4. The sinner is now brought under the promises which a faithful God cannot sail of performing. The Gospel promises are propounded unto men upon condition, if that be fulfilled in and by the man. God is under the obligation, his word is past for it; pardon, and peace, and glory are now the mans by Covenant: and whensoever any are made fruitful Christians, when they bring forth unto God according to his will, the condition is fulfilled in them; they are the men of and to whom God hath said that he will do them good. There must be faith and holiness put into the man, before he can bear spiritual fruits, and to them the blessing is assured; and God is as good as his word; it is impossible for him to ly: such a soul therefore must needs be in a safe state, if all the blessings ⟨p. 267⟩that are laid up in the promise, and purchased by the Blood of Christ can make him so.
5. Nay this fruitfulness is a declaration of God's everlasting love to him. It is an evidence that God hath chosen him in Christ before the foundation of the world. Electing love is he first grace, on which all the rest dend: the sinner cannot remove his own barrenness, or impower himself to serve God; if ever he be made fruitful, it is God […] do it in him: he only can take away […] natural unprofitableness of his, and in […] the principle of a new life into him, the […] birth is the spirits work; the man is old under spiritual death till he comes […] breathes life into him: and this is done according unto his pleasure; he shows this mercy to whom he will; and the only motive ch he hath before him to do it in time, s because he purposed it from eternity: Now therefore the secret of God breaks into light; and though before none knew of it, and thesinner might seem to be without hope; now he comes to know that God had appointed him to be an heir of eternal life before the world was: his condition it therefore as lafe as Unchangeable Love can make it.