N00458:89
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.
4. That the Gospel, when it comes, is not Preached to these only, but to many others. God is pleased to make use of the Ministry of men, in the dispensation of his Gospel; and he doth not tell them, (how then should they know?) who in particular belong to the Election of his Grace; but he hath bidden them to Preach it to every Creature, Mark 16. 15. They are to cast their Net into the Sea, and take whom they can catch, to offer Christ and Life by him, unto all, to invite every one that hears them to come to him for life: the offers are to be general, Isai. 55. 1. Rev. 22. 17.
5. The Gospel offers a Conditional Covenant to men. In all Treaties and Transactions between God and Men, Precepts and Privileges are put together, and there is a close connection made between them, there is a certain dependence of the one upon the other, Mark 16. 16. God reveals a new Covenant in the Gospel to men, he opens to them the terms of it, and requires that if they will be related to him in it, they must put themselves under these conditions: and in the visible Covenant, he accepts men on such conditions: they promise so to do, and he promiseth that if they fulfil according to their engagement, he will do so for them.
5. The Gospel offers a Conditional Covenant to men. In all Treaties and Transactions between God and Men, Prec•pts and Priviledges are put together, and there is a close connexion made between them, there is a certain dependence of the one upon the other, Mark 16. 16. God reveals a new Covenant in the Gospel to men, he opens to them the terms of it, and requires that if they will be related to him in it, they must put themselves under these conditions: and in the visible Covenant, he accepts men on such conditions: they promise so to do, and he promiseth that if they fullfil according to their engagement, he will do so for them.