N00458:91
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.
6. Hence men, by openly owning and submitting to Gospel Terms, bring themselves under this Conditional Covenant. It is a grand mistake to think, that there are none in Covenant with God, but those who are absolutely under the Promise of Salvation: the very notion of a Covenant implies a dependent Condition, to which the Privileges of it refer. The Visible Covenant then, thus stands: God offers Christ, and Salvation by him, in the Gospel, tells men, if they believe and repent they shall be Saved; presents the Gospel Ordinances as means to work Faith and Repentance in them, and so bring them to Salvation: they accept of the offer professedly, submit to the terms, and now they are taken under the Covenant, and must stand or fall to the Conditions of it: when they have thus done, they are said to be in God's Vineyard; and on this very account it is, that a People in the Visible Covenant, have so many warnings, and cautions given them, as, Psal 50, Rom. 8. 13. Heb. 12. 24.
6. Hence men, by openly owning and submitting to Gospel Termes, bring themselves under this Conditional Covenant. It is a grand mistake to think, that there are none in Covenant with God, but those who are absolutely under the Promise of Salvation: the very notion of a Covenant implies a dependent Condition, to which the Priviledges of it referr. The Visible Covenant then, thus stands: God offers Christ, and Salvation by him, in the Gospel, tells men, if they believe and repent they shall be Saved; presents the Gospel Ordinances as means to work Faith and Repentance in them, and so bring them to Salvation: they accept of the offer professedly, submit to the termes, and now they are taken under the Covenant, and must stand or fall to the Conditions of it: when they have thus done, they are said to be in God's Vineyard; and on this very account it is, that a People in the Visible Covenant, have so many warnings, and cautions given them, as, Psal 50, Rom. 8. 13. Heb. 12. 24.