You must be, in the next place, warned of this; Destruction, Destruction comes, the Year of Destruction is come, on the Barren Tree, when the Patience of Heaven will not allow One Year more unto it. When the Barrenness of a Tree, has, as we may say, wearied out the Patience that waited on it; Then comes the Word, Cut it down! Stub it up! ⟨p. 184⟩Root it out! A Tre• is Destroyed that is thus dealt withal. Of the Unfruitful we read. Phil. III 19. Their End is Destruction The Barren Soul will find it self as much under the Aversion and Abhorrence of GOD, as a B•rren Tre• is to the Disappointed owner. How shall I Pardon thee? Saith the Lord. GOD will so deal with the Unfruitful at the last, that there shall be an End put unto all Hope, of any Fruit from them. With a Tree that is Cut down, it is so. GOD will at length use no more Dressing upon them. No Counsels, no Tenders, no Persuasives, will be used any more; or, if they be used, the Dews of Heaven will not accompany them. There is an •xe laid unto the Root of the Tree. There are Instruments used by the Vengeance of Heaven, to Cutoff the Unfruitful Sinner, and the Days of the Wicked are shortened Perhaps Mortal Sickness chops him down. GOD Thunderstrikes the Tree; The Hand of Heaven strikes it down; hews it in pieces. Or, There may be some grievous Accident, or some cruel Enemy, whereto he is delivered. It may, 'tis not at once dispatched: There are several Blows given; There is a Repetition of the Blows. One Blow comes upon another. There is a Succession of Judgments, All tending to the Ruin of the Unfruitful Sinner. 'Tis anon thrown into the Fire. There is an Hell which it is thrown into; An Hell compared unto a Fire, for the Torment of it. None of all the Fuel there, will make or feel so hot a Fire, as the Barren Fig tree. No punishment will be equal to that of those, who have had many Means to make them Fruitful unto GOD; but the Means have all proved ineffectual. Their Hell will be the worse, because ⟨p. 185⟩of what Heaven did for them. The Light against which they have sinned, will become as Oy• to the Flame of their Unquenchable Fire, They sin• the deeper into the Blackness of Darkness forever, because they were once, not far from the Kingdom of GOD. Unto them, who have been Exalted unto Heaven in the Meant of Repentance, but all the Means have been lost upon them, it has been declared; Mat. XI. 24.
You must be, in the next place, warned of this; Destruction, Destruction comes, the Year of Destruction is come, on the Barren Tree, when the Patience of Heaven will not allow One Year more unto it. When the Barrenness of a Tree, has, as we may say, wearied out the Patience that waited on it; Then comes the Word, Cut it down! Stub it up! ⟨p. 184⟩Root it out! A Tre• is Destroy'd that is thus dealt withal. Of the Unfr•itful we read. Phil. III 19. Their End is Destruction The Barren Soul will find it self as much under the Aversion and Abhorrence of GOD, as a B•rren Tre• is to the Disappointed owner. How shall I Pardon thee? Saith the Lord. GOD will so deal with the Unfruitful at the last, that there shall be an End put unto all Hope, of any Fruit from them. With a Tree that is Cut down, it is so. GOD will at length use no more Dressing upon them. No Counsils, no Tenders, no Perswasives, will be used any more; or, if they be used, the Dews of Heaven will not accompany them. There is an •xe laid unto the Root of the Tree. There are Instruments used by the Vengeance of Heaven, to Cut•ff the U•fruitful Sinner, and the Days of the Wicked are shortened Perhaps Mortal Sickness chops him down. GOD Thunderstrikes the Tree; The Hand of Heaven strikes it down; hews it in pieces. Or, There may be some grievous Accident, or some cruel Enemy, whereto he is delivered. It may, 'tis not at once dispatched: There are several Blows given; There is a Repetition of the Blows. One Blow comes upon another. There is a Succession of Judgments, All tending to the Ruine of the Unfruitful Sinner. 'Tis anon thrown into the Fire. There is an Hell which it is thrown into; An Hell compared unto a Fire, for the Torment of it. None of all the Fuel there, will make or feel so hot a Fire, as the Barren Fig tree. No punishment will be equal to that of those, who have had many Means to make them Fruitful unto GOD; but the Means have all proved ineffectual. Their Hell will be the worse, because ⟨p. 185⟩of what Heaven did for them. The Light against which they have sinn'd, will become as Oy• to the Flame of their Unquenchable Fire, They sin• the deeper into the Blackness of Darkness forever, because they were once, not far from the Kingdom of GOD. Unto them, who have been Exalted unto Heaven in the Meant of Repentance, but all the Means have been lost upon them, it has been declared;
