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1. Jesus called Himself the vine, and His disciples the branches,
and His Father the husbandman; whereon we have already discoursed as
we were able. But in the present passage, while still speaking of
Himself as the vine, and of His branches, or, in other words, of
the disciples, He said, "Abide in me, and I in you." They are
not in Him in the same kind of way that He is in them. And yet both
ways tend to their advantage, and not to His. For the relation of
the branches to the vine is such that they contribute nothing to the
vine, but from it derive their own means of life; while that of the
vine to the branches is such that it supplies their vital nourishment,
and receives nothing from them. And so their having Christ abiding in
them, and abiding themselves in Christ, are in both respects
advantageous, not to Christ, but to the disciples. For when the
branch is cut off, another may spring up from the living root; but
that which is cut off cannot live apart from the root.
2. And then He proceeds to say: "As the branch cannot bear fruit
of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye
abide in me." A great encomium on grace, my brethren, one that will
instruct the souls of the humble, and stop the mouths of the proud.
Let those now answer it, if they dare, who, ignorant of God's
righteousness, and going about to establish their own, have not
submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God. Let the
self-complacent answer it, who think they have no need of God for the
performance of good works. Fight they not against such a truth, those
men of corrupt mind, reprobate concerning the faith, whose reply is
only full of impious talk, when they say: It is of God that we have
our existence as men, but it is of ourselves that we are righteous?
What is it you say, you who deceive yourselves, and, instead of
establishing freewill, cast it headlong down from the heights of its
self-elevation through the empty regions of presumption into the depths
of an ocean grave? Why, your assertion that man of himself worketh
righteousness, that is the height of your self-elation. But the
Truth contradicts you, and declares, "The branch cannot bear fruit
of itself, except it abide in the vine." Away with you now over your
giddy precipices, and, without a spot whereon to take your stand,
vapor away at your windy talk. These are the empty regions of your
presumption. But look well at what is tracking your steps, and, if
you have any sense remaining, let your hair stand on end. For whoever
imagines that he is bearing fruit of himself is not in the vine, and he
that is not in the vine is not in Christ, and he that is not in
Christ is not a Christian. Such are the ocean depths into which you
have plunged.
3. Ponder again and again what the Truth has still further to say:
"I am the vine," He adds, "ye are the branches: he that abideth
in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit; for without
me ye can do nothing." For just to keep any from supposing that the
branch can bear at least some little fruit of itself, after saying,
"the same bringeth forth much fruit," His next words are not,
Without me ye can do but little, but "ye can do nothing." Whether
then it be little or much, without Him it is impracticable; for
without Him nothing can be done. For although, when the branch
beareth little fruit, the husbandman purgeth it that it may bring forth
more; yet if it abide not in the vine, and draw its life from the
root, it can bear no fruit whatever of itself. And although Christ
would not have been the vine had He not been man, yet He could not
have supplied such grace to the branches had He not also been God.
And just because such grace is so essential to life, that even death
itself ceases to be at the disposal of free-will, He adds, "If any
one abide not in me, he shall be cast forth as a branch, and wither;
and they shall gather him, and cast him into the fire, and he is
burned." The wood of the vine, therefore, is in the same proportion
the more contemptible if it abide not in the vine, as it is glorious
while so abiding; in fine, as the Lord likewise says of them in the
prophet Ezekiel, when cut off, they are of no use for any purpose of
the husbandman, and can be applied to no labor of the mechanic. The
branch is suitable only for one of two things, either the vine or the
fire: if it is not in the vine, its place will be in the fire; and
that it may escape the latter, may it have its place in the vine.
4. "If ye abide in me," He says, "and my words abide in you,
ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you." For
abiding thus in Christ, is there aught they can wish but what will be
agreeable to Christ? So abiding in the Saviour, can they wish
anything that is inconsistent with salvation? Some things, indeed,
we wish because we are in Christ, and other things we desire because
still in this world. For at times, in connection with this our
present abode, we are inwardly prompted to ask what we know not it
would be inexpedient for us to receive. But God forbid that such
should be given us if we abide in Christ, who, when we ask, only
does what will be for our advantage. Abiding, therefore, ourselves
in Him, when His words abide in us we shall ask what we will, and it
shall be done unto us. For if we ask, and the doing follows not,
what we ask is not connected with our abiding in Him, nor with His
words which abide in us, but with that craving and infirmity of the
flesh which are not in Him, and have not His words abiding in them.
For to His words, at all events, belongs that prayer which He
taught, and in which we say, "Our Father, who art in heaven."
Let us only not fall away from the words and meaning of this prayer in
our petitions, and whatever we ask, it shall be done unto us. For
then only may His words be said to abide in us, when we do what He
has commanded us, and love what He has promised. But when His words
abide only in the memory, and have no place in the life, the branch is
not to be accounted as in the vine, because it draws not its life from
the root. It is to this distinction that the word of Scripture has
respect, "and to those that remember His commandments to do them."
For many retain them in their memory only to treat them with contempt,
or even to mock at and assail them. It is not in such as have only
some kind of contact, but no connection, that the words of Christ
abide; and to them, therefore, they will not be a blessing, but a
testimony against them; and because they are present in them without
abiding in them, they are held fast by them for the very purpose of
being judged according to them at last.
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