Chapter 10

§ 1.

This, in order that we may not, to please the flesh, reject the ingrafting of the Spirit. But thou, saith he, being a wild olive, wast graffed into the good olive tree,¹ and hast been made partaker of the fatness of the Olive. As therefore the ingraffed wild olive, if it continue to be what it was before, a wild olive, is cut off and cast into the fire: if on the other hand it have kept its ingrafting, and is changed into a good olive, it becometh a fruitful olive tree, planted as it were in the King’s garden: so also men, if by faith they have gone on towards the better, and have received the Spirit of God, and have put forth the fruitful buds formed by Him, will be spiritual, as planted in the garden of God. If on the other hand they have rejected the Spirit, and have continued in what they were before, chusing rather to be of the Flesh than of the Spirit: most justly is it said of such, that “Flesh and blood inherit not the Kingdom of God:” as if one should say, that the wild olive is not taken into the Paradise of God.

Wonderfully then doth the Apostle set forth our nature,² and the whole dispensation of God, in his discourse concerning flesh and blood, and the wild olive. For as an olive tree neglected, left for a while in the desert, and producing wild fruits, in itself becomes a wild olive; or on the other hand a wild olive receiving culture, and graffed in, returns quickly to the old fruitfulness of its nature:—so also men in a neglected condition, and bearing the desires of the flesh as a sort of wild fruits, become for their part³ unfruitful in righteousness. For while men sleep,⁴ the Enemy puts in seed which produces tares. And therefore the Lord bade His Disciples “watch.”⁵ And those on the contrary who are unfruitful in righteousness, and all wrapped as it were in briars, if they meet with attention, and receive God’s Word as an ingrafting, arrive at the old Nature of man, I mean that which was made in God’s image and likeness.

§ 2.

But as the ingraffed wild olive loses not indeed the substance of Wood, but changes the quality of its fruit, and receives another name—is declared to be no longer a wild olive, but a fruitful Olive tree;—so also man, by faith ingraffed,⁶ and receiving the Spirit of God, loseth not indeed the substance of flesh, but changeth the quality of his fruit, i.e., of his works, and receiveth another name, significative of the change for the better. He is declared to be no longer “flesh and blood,” but “a spiritual man.” And as on the other hand the wild olive, if it receive no ingraffing, continueth useless to its owner by its quality of wildness, and as unfruitful wood is cut down and cast into the fire; so also Man, if he receive not by faith the ingraffing of the Spirit, continues to be what he was before: being flesh and blood, he cannot inherit the Kingdom of God. Well therefore saith the Apostle, “Flesh and blood cannot inherit the Kingdom of God:” and, “They that are in the flesh cannot please God:” not casting away the substance of the flesh, but drawing to it the infusion of the Spirit. And therefore he saith, This mortal must put on immortality,⁷ and this corruptible must put on incorruption. And again he saith,⁸ But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God abideth in you. And yet more evidently doth he set forth that truth, saying,⁹ The Body indeed is dead, because of sin, but the Spirit is life, because of righteousness. But if the Spirit of Him Who raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, He that raised up Christ from the dead shall quicken also your mortal bodies through His Spirit that dwelleth in you. And again in the Epistle to the Romans he saith, For if ye live after the flesh,¹⁰ ye will begin to die; not driving from them altogether that mode of life which is in the flesh, since he too was in the flesh, when he so wrote unto them,—but cutting away the lusts of the flesh, which are the death of man. And therefore he hath inferred,¹¹ But if by the Spirit ye mortify the works of the flesh ye shall live. For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God¹².