choice of one very well fitted for conveying, with clearness and impression, the truth of which he meant it to be the embodiment.

§ 1. The Vine and its branches.

Let us proceed, then, to inquire into the only points that are of real importance here,-What does our Lord mean when he says, "I am the vine?" What does he mean when he says, "I am the TRUE vine?"

1

And, first, What does our Lord mean when he says, "I am the vine?" To answer that question satisfactorily, it is necessary to moot some others. Does our Lord, in using the word I, use it exclusively of himself as a personal individual, or does he use it of himself as the head of his body, the church-use it as including them as well as himself? and is the vine here, as it obviously is at the fifth verse, the rooted stock, as distinguished from the branches; or, is it the vine, with all its branches, and leaves, and fruits?? Were we to take the first of these views, we should say, that whatever similarities an ingenious fancy may find between our Lord and a vine, such as that it is the produce of the earth-that it is weak and slender—that it is full of sap-that it has a refreshing odour-that it is widespreading that it is very fruitful, one vine having been known to produce thousands of clusters of grapes-and that it produces delicious and useful fruit-it is obvious, from the context, that the great truths which he means to shadow forth by this figurative representation are, that he is the centre

"Hic ut in omnibus parabolis tenenda est regula:- Non excutiendas esse singulas proprietates vitis sed tantum summatim spectandum esse, quem in finem, Christus simile istud accommodet.'"-CALVIN. Athanasius overlooks this rule when he fancifully finds a resemblance to the cross in the stake to which the vine is attached: “ κατέπηξαν αὐτὸν Χριστὸν, ως ἐπὶ χάρακι ăμmedov, izì Toũ ☛ravgou.”—Athan. Cont. Ar. Opp. i. 138. Cornelius a Lapide gives us twelve reasons from the fathers why Christ is compared to the vine rather than to any other tree, some of them fanciful enough.

* If the vine here be the rooted stock, as distinguished from the branches, then the sense would be, ' I am truly the vine; you are but the branches-you are entirely dependent on me.'

of union, and the source of influence to his disciples-that he and they are mutually, intimately, related-and that all their capacity of being or doing what they are designed to be or do, is derived from him; and this, we have no doubt, is the force of the fifth verse, "I am the vine, ye are the branches." I cannot help thinking, however, that the second view I have mentioned, of the reference, both of the word "I" and the word "the vine," here, is the true one. It is the annunciation of the complete parable, opened up in the following context; and it is not in reference merely, nor, I apprehend, chiefly, to our Lord, individually considered, but in reference to his church, and to him as united to that church, that the Father is represented as the husbandman, or rather the cultivator; for you will observe, that immediately after announcing this truth, our Lord goes on to show, not what the Father, as the cultivator, does to him, the rooted stock, but to his disciples, the branches. "Every branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away, and every branch that beareth fruit, he purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit."

Viewed in this, which I cannot help thinking the true light, the idea is, my church,—i. e., I and my people—is like the vine, a living, wide-spreading, fruit-bearing thing; and all its life, all its capacity to diffuse itself, all its fruitfulness, is derived from me. The society Christ had formed seemed as if it were about to be extinguished. He was going away, and how could they, who were connected with each other entirely in consequence of being connected with him, continue as a society? The bond which united them was about to be loosed, and they would become what they were before they had attached themselves to him-unconnected individuals. But, says our Lord, the connection between me and you is not dissolved-the connection between you and each other is not dissolved-neither your common connection, nor your mutual connection, which grows out of it, shall be dissolved. 'The living, spreading, fruit-bearing vine,

is the emblem of my church-of me, and my people.' Such, if I mistake not, is the import of these words in the first verse,- "I am the vine."

1

Let us now inquire what is the import of the words, “I am the true vine." Those who consider the words as referring to our Lord personally, as an individual, have found some difficulty in giving a satisfactory account of the origin and meaning of the epithet "true." Some have supposed that our Lord refers to the difference between the wild and poisonous vine, of which we read at 2 Kings iv. 39, and the cultivated and wholesome fruit-bearing vine,-q. d., My emblem is not the wild vine, which is a false vine. My emblem is the true vine-the vine which alone deserves the name. I bear fruit, and good fruit.' This, though ingenious, is plainly not satisfactory. It is, indeed, too ingenious. Others consider the word as employed in the same way, as when Christ is called "the true light," and "the true bread." He has in him that which really answers to the idea which these words figuratively represent. He has in the highest degree all the spiritual excellencies, of which their natural qualities are figures; in the one case, truly enlightening and beautifying-in the other, truly sustaining and strengthening man, in the highest aspect of his nature, as an intelligent moral immortal. He is the true vine. The natural vine is but a type or shadow of the reality which finds place in the spiritual life. He is, and does all, and more than all, that the vine, however full of life and sap-however expansive and fruitful it may becan represent. Even this is not very distinct or satisfactory.

2

It is an additional recommendation to the mode of exposition which I have followed above, in reference to the vine

1 The LXX. render what our translators call "a noble vine,” äμxidos àλndwń. -Jer. ii. 21.

2" nóv. Græcis sæpe dicitur quod nomini suo respondet et vere tale est quale esse perhibetur. 'Andivèv ☛ręάтsvμa vocat Xenophon (Exped. Cyr. lib. i.), qui vere dici exercitus meretur, id est, præstantissimus."—RAPHELIUS.

of Egypt; thou Thou preparedst deep root, and it

3

here being the type, not of Christ, personally considered, but of him and his church as one body, that it leads to a natural and satisfactory interpretation of the epithet true— “I am the TRUE vine." The Jewish church is not only often spoken of as a vineyard—as in the beautiful allegories of Isaiah 1—but also as a vine. Thus, in the eightieth psalm, "Thou hast brought a vine out hast cast out the heathen, and planted it. room before it, and didst cause it to take filled the land. The hills were covered with the shadow of it, and the boughs thereof were like the goodly cedars. She sent out her boughs into the sea, and her branches to the river." Everything under the Old Testament economy was "a shadow," and "the body is of Christ." The law, which was a shadow of good things, came by Moses; the truth, as well as the grace, came by-in-Christ Jesus. He is, personally, the true bread from heaven, in contradistinction to the manna. He is the true priest, the true sacrifice. He, as the head of the church-or, in other words, his church with him as their head-is the true mystical vine, of which the figurative vine of the Jewish church was but a type, just as they are the true "circumcision "—the true "chosen nation"-" the true "peculiar people "-the true "royal priesthood "the true "sons of God." The church of Christ, with him at its head, fully realises, in vitality, in expansion, in fruitfulness, all that the Jewish church, as the vine of God's planting, figuratively represented. Such, then, is, I apprehend, the import of these words, spoken by our Lord, as the head of his body the church-"I am the true vine." 'My church, united to me, and in consequence of being united to me, shall completely verify the ancient emblem under which the Jewish church, itself an emblem, was represented.'

1 Isa. v. and xxvii.

2 Psal. lxxx. 8-11.

⚫ John i. 17,

§ 2. Its cultivator, and his work.

It is now time that we turn to the consideration of the second clause of this very remarkable verse-" My Father is the husbandman" 1—the cultivator. He stands in a relation to me and my church-to my church as united to me,-analogous to that in which the proprietor-cultivator' -for that plainly is the idea,- stands to the fruit-bearing vine-tree.' The whole system is divine; all things in this economy are of God. It originates in the Divine will; it is accomplished by the Divine power; it is regulated by the Divine wisdom. It is entirely owing to the will of the Divine cultivator that there is such a vine at all, and that it is planted, and grows, and spreads, and brings forth fruit as it does. Whether, by the planting of the vine, you refer to the eternal decree of mercy, in which the saved and the Saviour were equally appointed-in which that was done of which all that has taken place-all that ever will take place, in reference to the true vine, is only the development, or to the union of the two natures in the Son of God, fitting him to be the root and stock of the true vine,-it is equally the work of God. Under the influences of his Spirit, He grew up before him; and the Spirit, without measure conferred on him by the Father, fitted him to send forth fruit-bearing branches. The Father gave him to have or hold life in himself, that he might quicken whom he willed-give life to all whom the Father had given him. It was by the appointment, and through the agency, of the Father, that the axe of divine justice was laid to the root of the young vine; but it was not to destroy it, but to give it new power to send forth strong and fruit-bearing branches. And still more completely to gain the end, he transplanted the vine, root and stock, to a richer soil and more congenial climate; and the ancient oracle respecting Joseph is verified in

gys pro aμhougyos consueta Græcis dicendi ratione."-PALAIRET.