and was changed into immortality. He said: "I am the vine"-He was put to death, but said "I will not drink henceforth of this fruit of the vine, until that day when I drink it new with you in my Father's Kingdom."-The new wine took the natural body of Jesus out of the grave, and showed that He was the vine. It was impossible for Adam to take of the vine, because of the flaming sword placed before them after eating the fruit of evil. This flaming sword will be removed when Israel is gathered. When the ten tribes are hungry through the great famine in the land which has already commenced and which will increase, they will no more eat the husk, but the kernel. Every tree must bear of its own kind and every graft likewise, for though a graft of a cherry tree be grafted into a thorn will it not bear cherries?-Now the Jews bear of their own kind, being the natural olive; but the Gentiles being wild, do not, but are grafted into the top of the natural olive, and the vine into the natural olive, or Christ into Jesus; so that the Gentiles bear that which was promised to the Jews. But Jesus being the root was immortal, He lived after He had overcome death; but did either the Jew or Gentile ?-Have they not both died bearing of their own kind?-But if the house of Israel take the root into the vine topmost, will they not abide in Him, and bear immortal fruit, the vine being grafted into them. But the Gentiles being grafted into the root stand still;-and the Jews being the natural olive, stand still also, both bearing the death of the body, or fruit growing downwards, but the Jews that believe are they not grafted into the vine ?-But the vine is not the topmost of them. All believe, but they take not the vine, which thou art grafted to, which is the top of Christ, the root, until man is grafted into the Spirit, he is but clothed with the Spirit.-The Jews say they had it, but they were only overshadowed by it.-Here are two trees, the one a wild olive and the other a natural olive,—now the natural olive objects to what the wild olive has. Then suppose we take another olive of a better kind and graft it into a vine. Before the wild olive was grafted, it bare death,—but we now graft them both into this better olive, and it into the vine, will they

not bear of the olive ?-Then after that the vine ascends, and the Jew is grafted with the Gentile. The Jews being the natural olive, if they are grafted into the pure olive, and the vine into it, will claim both soul and body.-Behold O man! the iron rod" (the Spirit) which is to bear rule in all nations, for there will be but twelve nations. It will rule over and bruise the evil in man's heart, till he be born of the Spirit, then it will be within him, for it is that spiritual child which ascended up unto God, and its bruising of the evil in man is as the bruising of a potter's vessel. Of Jesus it is written: "I am the root and the offspring of David, and the Bright and Morning Star." Christ is the root and the Branch;-but when was Jesus the offspring of David's body?-and when were these words of Isaiah fulfilled: "And there shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse, and a Branch shall grow out of His roots?"Was the body then in Christ or out of Christ ?—He was then out of Christ, but when this was fulfilled and Jesus came in the body-He was then in Christ. The body was prepared in Christ. By the root we understand the beginning of a thing, and no branch can come forth without a root.-According to the flesh, He was the offspring of David. It was so recorded in the volume of the Book of the eternal councils of the Deity, that a body should be prepared of the flesh of David, a man after God's own heart, an earthly king, who would come and do the will and so fulfil the will of God,-as a pattern and an example for Israel to walk by; that Israel might be grafted into His immortal body and He grafted into Israel, that the words spoken to Pharaoh in Egypt might be fulfilled :"Israel is my son, even my firstborn"-and all the firstborn of the children of Israel who opened the womb were sanctified unto the Lord, both of man and beast. "It is mine" saith the Lord and so it is written: "all the firstborn are mine; for on the day that I smote all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, I hallowed unto me all the firstborn in Israel, both man and beast: mine shall they be, I am the Lord."-" For I a Father to Israel, and Ephraim is my firstborn."— When He came to be in Christ, then Jesus said: Before

am

66

Abraham was, I am."-He was then in Christ, and Christ 18 God, and God is Christ, and is the root of all things, though His body was of the flesh and bone of David, yet not begotten by man, but of the flesh and bone of Mary. When Adam was with God he was called the vine, being in heaven, his spirit was then in God before He had formed the body; but when his spirit had taken a body, he became the olive. Man was good olive before he fell, even as Jesus was. -When God had given man a spirit, he was called a good olive plant, and he abode in the vine, and was an olive plant, yet of the vine. Did not Jesus fulfil this when He died, and the vine withdrew when He fell into the hands of the Jews? He was slain by the adversary, yet was without sin, but the sin of the world being laid on Him, He shewed the fall and the rising again of man. The vine left Him, and then He gave His blood a sacrifice for the soul, fulfilling the words of our text "Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?"-He took upon Him the nature of him who had transgressed. He shewed to all the planets what mortal man should have been,-He shewed the good and wild olive. He shewed Himself after He had risen, after He had been on the cross and given the blood of Jesus for the redemption of the soul, and His body for the living when He had come out of the sepulchre. He shewed life for the living, that they should overcome that by which they had once fallen. Then you see, that the fall of man was not for glory at the first, but for the last-" So the last shall be first and the first last."—Jesus was the first, but came last.—The natural body of Adam was the vine, also the olive plant, so there are two olives and two vines:—the first Adam and the latter Adam. Wherefore, Jesus said: "I am the true vine."-The seed of the first Adam was for the mortal, but Jesus did not sow any seed for the mortal. Then what is the seed He will sow, and what is that other seed, for it is written in Jeremiah that He will sow the seed of man and beast ?—it is the vine; and when evil is removed, the body of man is set upon his own beast; when evil is removed, it will be sown with the other Spirit—there are the three Spirits of God, and man

66

is the fourth.-The first man was clothed with the vine, and fell into sin, and the latter man, Jesus, was clothed with the vine and without sin, yet both were of the mortal seed, and came of the unclean beast, the body.-Jesus was man, and yet man and God. Then if thou put on immortality will not God have done more for thee than He did for Jesus?—Yeagreater works than these shall he do, because I go unto my Father." When Adam fell, he became mortal when he took the body, but before that, his spirit was with the Father. The Spirit of Jesus was the life of the body of Jesus. They were both in one vine. Jesus spoke of that which was in the beginning and being in Christ said: "A certain man had two sons" (the two Adams, first and last). Now the younger said :—“ Give me the portion of goods that falleth to me;" the first Adam then sought for the inheritance to be divided. When the second Adam came in the fulness of time with a body, He shewed the dividing of the inheritance between him who chose an incorruptible life and Him who chose the immortal life of the natural body.-So the eldest son and the youngest at first had a body without sin. The youngest or first Adam has more work to do, because he sought for the inheritance to be divided, and He divided unto them his inheritance, and when the younger had transgressed,—the elder came and suffered for the younger. Jesus was the youngest according to the flesh but the elder according to the spirit, and the first Adam was the eldest according to the flesh but the youngest in spirit. The first Adam was clothed with the vine, but he did not seek the vine, but sought for the inheritance to be divided. Jesus was clothed with it, and gave His body for that seed which had transgressed, and the fatted calf was killed and they made merry and rejoiced at the return of the younger son. The lost was now found—the dead had suddenly come to life, through the atonement.-The body of Jesus is the pure olive, and Christ is the branch which was grafted into the body of Jesus at the river Jordan.-Hence, if the root be holy, so is the branch.-Christ, the branch, withdrew from the body of Jesus that the blood of Jesus might be shed, which is the mortal life, called the New Testament, that all those who believed in Him

and were dead, their souls and spirits might live at the first resurrection-incorruptible, and of the incorruptible Bride, and be made as the angels of God in heaven. So all men who are dead, and are yet to die, must believe and be grafted into Him before they can receive the salvation of their souls at the first resurrection.-So Christ was withdrawn that the mortal life might be cut off from Jesus, that both Jew and Gentile might be grafted in; for His blood, which was the New Testament was shed for "all men," and especially for those which were grafted into the pure olive, they bearing of the fatness of the root, which is the salvation of their souls; for without the shedding of the blood of the olive, no flesh could be saved.-So Christ being withdrawn, offers the blood of Jesus to be the saviour of the whole world at the first or final resurrection; every one that is grafted into the pure olive is buried in baptism with the blood of Jesus and is justified with Him, either at the first or second resurrection.Those who are found worthy to receive Christ, the branch is to be grafted into them. He keeping both law and gospel in them, and fulfilling the law in them as He did in Jesus; then as the root is holy so are the branches. They abide between the root and the branch and by the comforter (not of themselves) will keep both law and gospel as Jesusand-Christ kept both law and Gospel before He withdrew.Jesus was the pure olive plant.-Adam was a pure plant, but he became the prodigal, for Jesus and Adam were the first two sons of God,-Adam of the old world, Jesus of the new world. And Jesus the Son of the living God, had to be slain for Adam, that he might be saved. But though the mortal life was slain, the body was not; for it is alive now. The Kingdom withdrew from Jesus that He might shew His manhood, yet He was not liable to fall, for He said: "No man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself, and I have power to take it again. This command have I received of my Father."-When Christ left His body, He then bore the iniquity of His Father, and of His brother Adam's transgression, for He then had mortal flesh and bone, and bore the iniquity of the sowing of the seed in the evil state, then He bore for that seed