The Barren Fig Tree, Title page – Dedication
The Barren Fig-tree: OR, The Doom & Downfal of the Fruitless Professor.
Shewing, That the Day of Grace may be past with him long before his Life is ended.
The Signs also by which such miserable Mortals my be known.
By JOHN BVNYAN. —who being dead, yet speaketh, Heb. 11. 4.
To which is added, His Exhortation to Peace and Unity among all that fear God.
LONDON; Printed for J. Robinson, at the Golden Lion in St. Paul's Church-yard, 1688.
To the Reader.
Courteous Reader,
I Have written to thee now about the Barren Fig-tree, or how it will fare with the Fruitless Professor that standeth in the Vineyard of God.
Of what Complexion thou art, I cannot certainly divine, but the Parable tells thee, that the Cumber-ground must be cut down.
A Cumber-ground Professor, is not only a provocation to God, a stumbling-block to the World, and a blemish to Religion, but a snare to his own Soul also. Though his Excellency mount up to the Heavens, and his Head reach unto the Clouds, yet he shall perish for ever, like his own dung, they that have seen him, shall say, Where is he? Job 20. 6.
Now they count it pleasure to riot in the day-time, 2 Pet. 2. 13, 14. but what will they do when the Ax is fetcht out?
The Tree whose Fruit withereth, is reckoned a Tree without Fruit, a Tree twice dead, one that must be pluck'd up by the Roots, Jude 12.
O thou Cumber-ground, God expects Fruit, God will come seeking Fruit shortly.
My Exhortation therefore is to Professors, that they look to it, that they take heed.
The Barren Fig-tree in the Vineyard, and the Bramble in the Wood, are both prepared for the Fire.
Profession is not a Covert to hide from the Eye of God; nor will it palliate the revengeful Threatning of his Justice, he will command to cut it down shortly.
The Church and a Profession, are the best of places for the Upright, but the worst in the World for the Cumber-ground: He must be cast, as profane, out of the Mount of God; Cast, I say, over the Wall of the Vineyard, there to wither; thence to be gathered and burned. It had been better for them that they had not known the Way of Righteousness, 2 Pet. 2. 21. And yet if they had not, they had been damned; but it is better to go to Hell without, than in, or from under a Profession: These shall receive greater Damnation, Luke 20. 47.
If thou be a Professor, read and tremble; If thou be Profane, do so likewise. For if the righteous scarcely be saved, where shall the Ungodly and Sinners appear? Cumber-ground, Take heed of the Ax; Barren Fig-tree, beware of the Fire.
But I will keep thee no longer out of the Book; Christ Jesus, the Dresser of the Vine-yard, take care of thee, dig about thee, and dung thee, that thou maist bear Fruit: That when the Lord of the Vineyard cometh with his Ax to seek for Fruit, or pronounce the Sentence of Damnation on the Barren Fig-tree, thou mayest escape that judgment. The Cumber-ground must to the Wood-pile, and thence to the Fire.
Farewel. Grace be with all them that love our Lord Jesus in Sincerity. Amen. J. Bunyan.
The Barren Fig-tree: OR, The Doom and Downfal of the fruitless Professor.
Luke 13. 6, 7, 8, 9.
A certain Man had a Fig-tree planted in his Vineyard, and he came and sought Fruit thereon, and found none. Then said he to the Dresser of his Vineyard, Behold, these three Years I come seeking Fruit on this Fig-tree, and find none: cut it down, why cumbereth it the ground? And he answering, said, Lord, let it alone this Year also, until I shall dig about it, and dung it: and if it bear Fruit, well: and if not, then after that thou shalt cut it down.
AT the beginning of this Chapter we read, how some of the Jews came to Jesus Christ, to tell him of the cruelty of Pontius Pilate, in mingling the Blood of the Galileans with their Sacrifices. An heathenish and prodigious Act: for therein he shewed, not only his Malice against the Jewish Nation, but also against their Worship, and consequently their God. An Action, I say, not only Heathenish, but prodigious also; for the Lord Jesus paraphrasing upon this Fact of his, teacheth the Jews, that without Repentance, they should all Likewise perish. Likewise, that is, by the Hand and Rage of the Roman Empire: Neither should they be more able to avoid the Stroke, than were those eighteen upon whom the Tower of Siloam fell, and slew them, Luke 19. 42, 43, 44. The fulfilling of which Prophecy, for their hardness of Heart, and Impenitency, was in the days of Titus Son of Vespasian, about forty Years after the Death of Christ. Then, I say, were these Jews, and their City both, environed round on every side, wherein both they and it, to amazement, were miserably overthrown. God gave them Sword, and Famine, Pestilence, and Blood, for their outrage against the Son of his Love: So Wrath came on them to the uttermost, 1 Thess. 2. 16.
Now to prevent their old and foolish Salvo, which they always had in readiness against such Prophecies and Denunciations of Judgment, the Lord Jesus presents them with this Parable, in which he emphatically shews them, that their cry of being the Temple of the Lord, and of their being the Children of Abraham, &c. and their being the Church of God, would not stand them in any stead. As who should say, It may be you think to help your selves against this my Prophecy, of your utter and unavoidable overthrow, by the Interest which you have in your outward Priviledges: But all these will fail you; for what think you, A certain Man had a Fig-tree planted in his Vineyard, and he came and sought Fruit thereon, and found none. This is your Case, The Jewish Land is God's Vineyard, I know it; and I know also, that you are the Fig-trees. But behold, there wanteth the main thing, Fruit; for the sake, and in expectation of which, he set this Vineyard with Trees. Now, seeing the Fruit is not found amongst you; the Fruit, I say, for the sake of which he did at first plant this Vineyard; what remains, but that in Justice he command to cut you down, as those that cumber the Ground, that he may plant himself another Vineyard. Then said he to the Dresser of his Vineyard, Behold, these three Years I come seeking Fruit on this Fig-tree, and find none; cut it down, why cumbreth it the Ground? This therefore must be your End, altho you are planted in the Garden of God, for the barrenness and unfruitfulness of your Hearts and Lives, you must be cut off, yea, rooted up, and cast out of the Vineyard.
In Parables there are two Things to be taken notice of, and to be enquired into of them that read.
First, The Metaphors made use of.
Secondly, The Doctrine, or Mysteries couched under such Metaphors.
The Metaphors in this Parable are; (1.) A certain Man. (2.) A Vineyard. (3.) A Fig-tree, barren or fruitless. (4.) A Dresser. (5.) Three Years. (6.) Digging and Dunging, &c.
The Doctrine, or Mystery, couched under these words, is to shew us, What is like to become of a fruitless or formal Professor. For,
1. By the Man in the Parable, (Luk. 15. 11.) is meant God the Father.
2. By the Vineyard, (Isa. 5. 7.) his Church.
3. By the Fig-tree, a Professor.
4. By the Dresser, the Lord Jesus.
5. By the Fig-tree's barrenness, the Professor's fruitlesness.
6. By the three Years, the Patience of God, that for a time he extendeth to barren Professors.
7. This calling to the Dresser of the Vineyard to cut it down, is to shew, the outcries of Justice against fruitless Professors.
8. The Dresser's interceding, is to shew, how the Lord Jesus steps in, and takes hold of the Head of his Father's Ax, to stop, or at least to defer present execution a barren Fig-tree.
9. The Dresser's desire to try to make the Fig-tree fruitful, is to shew you, How unwilling he is that ever a barren Fig-tree, should yet be barren, and perish.
10. His digging about it, and dunging of it, is to shew his willingness to apply Gospel-helps to this barren Professor, if happily he may be fruitful.
11. The Supposition that the Fig-tree may yet continue fruitless, is to shew, that when Christ Jesus hath done all, There are some Professors will abide barren and fruitless.
12. The Determination upon this Supposition, at last to cut it down, is a certain prediction of such Professors unavoidable and eternal Damnation.
But to take this Parable into pieces, and to discourse more particularly, tho with all brevity, upon all the parts thereof.
A certain Man had a Fig-tree planted in his Vineyard.]
The Man, I told you, is to present us with God the Father, by which Similitude He is often set out in the New-Testament.
Observe then, That it is no new thing, if you find in God's Church, barren Fig-trees, fruitless Professors; even as here you see is a Tree, a fruitless Tree, a fruitless Fig-tree in the Vineyard. Fruit is not so easily brought forth, as a Profession is got into; 'tis easy for a Man to cloath himself with a fair show in the flesh, to word it, and say, Be thou warmed and filled with the best. 'Tis no hard thing to do these with other things; but to be fruitful, to bring forth fruit to God, this doth not every tree; No not every Fig-tree, that stands in the Vineyard of God. Them words also, Joh. 15. 2. [Every branch in me that beareth not fruit, he taketh away,] assert the same thing. There are branches in Christ, in Christ's Body mystical, (which is his Church, his Vineyard) that bear not Fruit, wherefore the Hand of God is to take them away. I looked for Grapes, and it brought forth wild grapes, Isa. 5. 4. that is, no fruit at all that was acceptable with God. Again, Hos. 10. 1. Israel is an empty Vine, he bringeth forth fruit unto himself, none to God; he is without Fruit to God. All these, with many more, shew us the truth of the Observation, and that God's Church may be cumbered with fruitless Fig-trees, with barren Professors.