The Barren Fig Tree, Section 16 – Section 19
Seeking Fruit on [this] Fig-tree.
I told you before, that he keeps in remembrance the Times and Seasons that the barren Professor had wickedly misspent. Now, forasmuch as he also pointeth out the Fig-tree, This Fig-tree; it sheweth that the barren Professor, above all Professors, is a continual odium in the Eyes of God. This Fig-tree, This Man Coniah, Jer. 22. 28. This People draw nigh me with their Mouth, but have removed their Hearts far from me. God knows who they are among all the thousands of Israel, that are the barren and fruitless Professors, his Lot will fall upon the Head of Achan, though he be hid among six hundred thousand Men. And he brought his Houshold, Man by Man, and Achan, the Son of Carmi, the Son of Zabdi, the Son of Zerah, of the Tribe of Judah, was taken, Josh. 7. 17, 18. This is the Achan, this is the Fig-tree, this is the barren Professor.
There is a Man hath an hundred Trees in his vineyard, and at the time of the Season, he walketh into his Vineyard to see how the Trees flourish; and as he goes, and views, and pries, and observes how they are hanged with Fruit; behold, he comes to one where he findeth naught but Leaves. Now he makes a stand, looks upon it again and again, he looks also here and there, above and below; and if after all this seeking, he finds nothing but Leaves thereon; Then he begins to cast in his mind, how he may know this Tree next Year, what stands next it, or how far 'tis off the Hedg; but if there be nothing there that may be as a Mark to know it by; then he takes his Hook, and giveth it a private mark, (And, the Lord set a Mark upon Cain, Gen. 4.) saying, Go thy ways, fruitless Fig-tree, Thou hast spent this Season in vain.
Yet doth he not cut it down, I will try it another Year; may be this was not a hitting Season. Therefore he comes again next Year to see if now it have Fruit; but as he found it before, so he finds it now, barren, barren, every Year barren; he looks again, but finds no Fruit. Now he begins to have second thoughts: How! neither hit last Year, nor this. Surely the Barrenness is not in the Season, sure the fault is in the Tree. However ever I will spare it this Year also, but will give it a second Mark: And it may be, he toucheth it with a hot Iron, because he begins to be angry.
Well, at the third Season he comes again for Fruit, but the third Year is like the first and second, no Fruit yet; it only cumbereth the Ground. What now must be done with this Fig-tree? Why, The Lord will lop its Boughs with terror; yea, the Thickets of those Professors with Iron. I have waited, saith God, these three Years, I have missed of Fruit these three Years: It hath been a cumber-Ground these three Years, cut it down. Precept hath been upon Precept, and Line upon Line, one Year after another, for these three Years, but no Fruit can be seen, I find none, fetch out the Ax; I am sure this is the Fig-tree, I know it from the first Year, Barrenness was its sign then, barrenness is its sign now, make it fit for the Fire. Behold, the Ax is laid to the Root of the Trees; every Tree therefore that bringeth not forth good Fruit, is hewen down, and cast into the Fire, Matth. 3. 10.
Observe, my Brethren, God's Heart cannot stand towards a barren Fig-tree. You know thus it is with your selves: If you have a Tree in your Orchard, or Vineyard, that doth only cumber the Ground, you cannot look upon that Tree with pleasure, with complacency, and delight: No, if you do but go by it, if you do but cast your Eye upon it; yea, if you do but think of that Tree, you threaten it in your Heart, saying, I will hew thee down shortly; I will to the Fire with thee shortly. And it is in vain for any to think of perswading of you to shew favour to the barren Fig-tree; and if they should perswade, your Answer is irresistible, It yields me no profit, it takes up room, and doth no good, a better may grow in its room;
Cut it down.
Thus when the godly among the Jews (Jer. 14. 17.) made Prayers, that rebellious Israel might not be cast out of the Vineyard, what saith the Answer of God? Jer. 15. 1. Though Moses and Samuel stood before me, yet could not my mind be towards this People; wherefore cast them out of my presence, and let them go forth.
What a Resolution is here, Moses and Samuel could do almost any thing with God in Prayer. How many times did Moses by Prayer turn away God's Judgments from even Pharoah himself! yea, how many times did he by Prayer preserve Israel, when in the Wilderness, (Psal. 106. 23.) from the Anger and Wrath of God? Samuel is reckoned excellent this way, yea so excellent, that when Israel had done that fearful thing, as to reject the Lord, and chuse them another King, (1 Sam. 12.) he prayed, and the Lord spared, and forgave them: But yet neither Moses nor Samuel can save a barren Fig-tree. No though Moses and Samuel stood before me, that is, pleading, arguing, interceding, supplicating, and beseeching, yet could they not incline mine heart to this People;
Cut it down.
Ay, but Lord it is a Fig-tree, a Fig-tree! if it was a Thorn, or a Bramble, or a Thistle, the matter would not be much; but it is a Fig-tree, or a Vine: Well, but mark the answer of God; Ezek. 15. 2, 3. Son of Man, what is the Vine-Tree, more than any Tree, or than a Branch that is among the Trees of the Forrest? shall Wood be taken thereof to do any Work? or will Men take a Pin thereof, to hang any Vessel thereon? If Trees that are set, or planted for Fruit, bring not forth that Fruit, there is betwixt them and the Trees of the Forest, no betterment at all, unless the betterment lieth in the Trees of the Wood, for they are fit to build withal; but a Fig-tree, or a Vine, if they bring not forth Fruit, yea good Fruit, they are fit for nothing at all, but to be cut down, and prepared for the fire; and so the Prophet goes on, Behold, it is cast into the fire for fuel: if it serve not for Fruit, it will serve for fewel, and so the fire devoureth both the ends of it, and the middle of it is burnt.
Ay but, these Fig-trees and Vines are Church-Members, Inhabiters of Jerusalem. So was the Fig-tree mentioned in the Text; But what answer hath God prepared for these Objections? Why, Ver. 6, 7. Thus saith the Lord God, As the Vine-tree among the Trees of the forrest, which I have given to the fire for fuel; so will I give the Inhabitants of Jerusalem. And I will set my face against them, they shall go from one fire, and another fire shall devour them:
Cut it down.
The Woman that delighteth in her Garden, if she have a Slip there, suppose (if it was fruitful) she would not take five Pounds for it; Yet if it bear no Fruit, if it wither, and dwindle, and die, and turn cumber-ground only, it my not stand in her Garden. Gardens and Vineyards are places for Fruit, for Fruit according to the nature of the plant or flowers. Suppose such a Slip as I told you of before, should be in your Garden, and there die: Would you let it abide in your Garden? No! away with it, away with it. The Woman comes into her garden towards the Spring, where first she gives it a slight cast with her eye; then she sets to gathering out the Weeds, and Nettles, and Stones; takes a Beesom and sweeps the Walks: this done, she falls to prying into her Herbs and Slips, to see if they live, to see if they are likely to grow: Now, if she comes to one that is dead, that she is confident will not grow, up she pulls that, and makes to the heap of rubbish with it, where she despisingly casts it down, and valueth it no more than a Nettle, or a Weed, or than the dust she hath swept out of her Walks. Yea, if any that see her should say, Why do you so? The answer is ready, 'Tis dead, 'tis dead at Root: If I had let it stand, 'twould but have cumbered the ground. The strange Slips (and also the Dead ones) they must be a heap in the Day of Grief, and of desperate Sorrow; Isa. 17. 10, 11.