N00458:621
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.
1. That if God were not willing to accept of you returning to him, he would not continue to call you. You say, I am afraid that if I should seek unto God he will not accept of me; but every new call that is offered to you is a contradiction, to such a suspicion: What Gods servants speak to you in his name, and according to his word, that he saith, now they say to you in his name, if after all you will hearken to his invitation, and yield yourselves up to him you shall live, and not dye. And they have his warrant so to say; they received a command to make such a Proclamation unto you. God doth not dissemble with you if he saith return and they that do so shall live: if he incites you to come and you do come he will in no wise cast you out. He is in earnest; be never said to the house of Jacob, seek me in vain.
1. That if God were not willing to accept of you returning to him, he would not continue to call you. You say, I am afraid that if I should seek unto God he will not accept of me; but every new call that is offered to you is a contradiction, to such a suspicion: What Gods servants speak to you in his name, and according to his word, that he saith, now they say to you in his name, if after all you will hearken to his invitation, and yield yourselves up to him you shall live, and not dye. And they have his warrant so to say; they recieved a command to make such a Proclamation unto you. God doth not dissemble with you if he saith return and they that do so shall live: if he incites you to come and you do come he will in no wise cast you out. He is in earnest; be never said to the house of Jacob, seek me in vain.
2. That if your hearts do incline to accept of his call, it is his spirit that hath done ⟨p. 278⟩this in and for you. It therefore is an evidence that his day is not done; for as long as God strives with sinners, their day is not over. Your natural inclination was to have withstood all calls and counsels for ever: it is a great work that is wrought by God in the Soul, when it is turned so as to be willing that he should do the work for it, and to desire that he would do it. If your barrenness be your burden, and you are made to groan under it, and long to be delivered from it, it takes off all reason of doubting whether God be willing or no: for it practically saith in you, that he doth desire it, and gives you reason to believe that he is doing it for you, how else came you by this?