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1. This passage of the Gospel, brethren, where the Lord calls
Himself the vine, and His disciples the branches, declares in so
many words that the Mediator between God and men, the man Christ
Jesus, is the head of the Church, and that we are His members.
For as the vine and its branches are of one nature, therefore, His
own nature as God being different from ours, He became man, that in
Him human nature might be the vine, and we who also are men might
become branches thereof. What mean, then, the words, "I am the
true vine"? Was it to the literal vine, from which that metaphor was
drawn, that He intended to point them by the addition of "true"?
For it is by similitude, and not by any personal propriety, that He
is thus called a vine; just as He is also termed a sheep, a lamb, a
lion, a rock, a corner-stone, and other names of a like kind, which
are themselves rather the true ones, from which these are drawn as
similitudes, not as realities. But when He says, "I am the true
vine," it is to distinguish Himself, doubtless, from that vine] to
which the words are addressed: "How art thou turned into sourness,
as a strange vine?" For how could that be a true vine which was
expected to bring forth grapes and brought forth thorns?
2. "I am," He says, "the true vine, and my Father is the
husbandman. Every branch in me that beareth not fruit, He taketh
away; and every one that beareth fruit, He purgeth it, that it may
bring forth more fruit." Are, then, the husbandman and the vine
one? Christ is the vine in the same sense as when He said, "The
Father is greater than I;" but in that sense wherein He said, "I
and my Father are one," He is also the husbandman. And yet not
such a one as those, whose whole service is confined to external
labor; but such, that He also supplies the increase from within.
"For neither is he that planteth anything, neither he that watereth;
but God that giveth the increase." But Christ is certainly God,
for the Word was God; and so He and the Father are one: and if the
Word was made flesh, that which He was not before, He nevertheless
still remains what He was. And still more, after saying of the
Father, as of the husbandman, that He taketh away the fruitless
branches, and pruneth the fruitful, that they may bring forth more
fruit, He straightway points to Himself as also the purger of the
branches, when He says, "Now ye are clean through the word which I
have spoken unto you." Here, you see, He is also the pruner of the
branches a work which belongs to the husbandman, and not to the vine;
and more than that, He maketh the branches His workmen. For
although they give not the increase, they afford some help; but not of
themselves: "For without me," He says, "ye can do nothing."'
And listen, also, to their own confession: "What, then, is
Apollos? and what is Paul? but ministers by whom ye believed, even
as the Lord gave to every man. I have planted, Apollos watered."
And this, too, "as the Lord gave to every man;" and so not of
themselves. In that, however, which follows, "but God gave the
increase," He works not by them, but by Himself; for work like
that exceeds the lowly capacity of man, transcends the lofty powers of
angels, and rests solely and entirely in the hands of the Triune
Husbandman. "Now ye are clean," that is, clean, and yet still
further to be cleansed. For, had they not been clean, they could not
have borne fruit; and yet every one that beareth fruit is purged by the
husbandman, that he may bring forth more fruit. He bears fruit
because he is clean; and to bear more, he is cleansed still further.
For who in this life is so clean as not to be in need of still further
and further cleansing? seeing that, "if we say that we have no sin,
we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us; but if we confess
our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to
cleanse us from all unrighteousness;" to cleanse in very deed the
clean, that is, the fruitful, that they may be so much the more
fruitful, as they have been made the cleaner.
3. "Now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto
you. Why does He not say, Ye are clean through the baptism
wherewith ye have been washed, but "through the word which I have
spoken unto you," save only that in the water also it is the word that
cleanseth? Take away the word, and the water is neither more nor less
than water. The word is added to the element, and there results the
Sacrament, as if itself also a kind of visible word. For He had
said also to the same effect, when washing the disciples' feet, "He
that is washed needeth not, save to wash his feet, but is clean every
whit." And whence has water so great an efficacy, as in touching the
body to cleanse the soul, save by the operation of the word; and that
not because it is uttered, but because it is believed? For even in
the word itself the passing sound is one thing, the abiding efficacy
another. "This is the word of faith which we preach," says the
apostle, "that if thou shalt confess with thy mouth that Jesus is the
Lord, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised Him from
the dead, thou shall be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto
righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation."
Accordingly, we read in the Acts of the Apostles, "Purifying
their hearts by faith;" and, says the blessed Peter in his epistle,
"Even as baptism doth also now save us, not the putting away of the
filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience." "This is
the word of faith which we preach," whereby baptism, doubtless, is
also consecrated, in order to its possession of the power to cleanse.
For Christ, who is the vine with us, and the husbandman with the
Father, "loved the Church, and gave Himself for it." And then
read the apostle, and see what he adds: "That He might sanctify
it, cleansing it with the washing of water by the word." The
cleansing, therefore, would on no account be attributed to the
fleeting and perishable element, were it not for that which is added,
"by the word." This word of faith possesses such virtue in the
Church of God, that through the medium of him who in faith presents,
and blesses, and sprinkles it, He cleanseth even the tiny infant,
although itself unable as yet with the heart to believe unto
righteousness, and to make confession with the mouth unto salvation.
All this is done by means of the word, whereof the Lord saith,
"Now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you."
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