N00458:75
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
Sermon 2 › Doctrine 2: DOCTRINE II. ALL visible Professors are Fig-trees planted in Gods Vineyard.
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.
A. That the people of God are in Scripture, particularly and personally compared to Trees, is observable: sometimes to the Cedar for its stateliness and perpetual greenness, Psal. 92. 12. and to the Palm Tree, for its growing the faster under weight, ibid. and often to Fruit-trees: to the Olive, for its excellent fruit, and great bearing, Psal. 52. 8. and to the Fig-tree in our Text. This is applied to Professors, not for what they always ⟨p. 21⟩always are, but for what they ought to be, and they contradict their profession if they are not so: and what God righteously expects of them, on account of the manuring which he affords them: and here let these things be observed.
1. The Fig-tree bears good and sweet fruit, thus we read, Judg. 9. 11. it is a fruit-bearing tree, and its fruit is pleasant and wholesome; it was therefore a great part of their Food in those Eastern Countries; and God expects of them that are in his Church, that they should be fruitful; he loves no barren ones there. Christ cursed the Pig-tree that had no fruit on it; and he expects that they should bear pleasant fruit, the works of Righteousness, and true Holiness; such as he himself may take pleasure in, and that may be truly comfortable to themselves, God therefore commends their Obedience by such an expression, Hos. 9. 10. I saw your Fathers as the first ripe in the Fig-tree, at her first time. Unfruitful Professors are a disgrace to their Profession; and wicked ones are worse, who bring forth such fruits as are worse than none.