[Pryr-1.1-42] "I am the Vine, ye are the Branches." Here Christ, our second Adam, uses this metaphor to teach us, that the new Birth that we are to have from Him is real, and that there is the same Nearness of our Relationship betwixt Him and his true Disciples, as there is betwixt the Vine and its Branches. Here, he shows that all we are one: He is in us, around us and there for us, like the Vine who supports and nourishes its Branches. So unless the Life of the holy Jesus be in us, via a Birth from Him, then we are as dead to Him, and thus the Kingdom of God, as the Branch is dead to the Vine, when it is broken off and separated.
[Pryr-1.1-43] Further in that same verse, our blessed Saviour says, "Without me, ye can do Nothing."
The Question is, when, or how can Man may be said to be without Christ? Consider again the Vine and its Branches: A Branch can then only be said to be without its Vine, when the Vegetable Life of the Vine is no longer in it. This is the only Sense, in which he can be said to be without Christ; when He is no longer in us, and so we can do nothing, that is, Nothing that is good or holy, because if Christ is not in us, then it is the same Thing as that we are dead to Christ, and are like the Branch that receives no nourishment from the Vine...much like those evil Spirits, and those fallen Angels, who are indeed without Christ, receive no Benefit from Him: Nothing of the Son of God is generated, or born in them.
[Pryr-1.1-44] The Language of Scripture, is that Christ is our only Hope of Glory; that Christ forms us, living, growing, and raising his own Life and Spirit in us, and so is He our only Salvation. And indeed all of this is plain from the Nature of the Thing; for since the Serpent, Sin, Death and Hell, are all essentially within us, must not also our Redemption be an inward Growth within us?
[Pryr-1.1-45] Let no one here think to charge me with Disregard to the Holy Jesus, was born of the Virgin Mary, or setting up an inward Saviour in Opposition to the outward Christ, whose History is recorded in the Gospel. No: It is with the utmost Fullness of Faith and Assurance, that I ascribe all our Redemption to that blessed and mysterious Person, and I do truly assert that no inward Redemption can happen but what wholly proceeds from, and is effected by that Life-giving Redeemer, who died on the Cross for our Redemption.
[Pryr-1.1-46] If instead, I was to say, that a Plant or Vegetable must have the Sun within it, the Life, Light, and Virtues of the Sun incorporated in it, and it receives no Benefit from the Sun, until a Sun inwardly quickened and sparked raises up the Life within. of the Sun's Virtues in it, would this be setting up an inward Sun, in Opposition to the outward one? No, similarly I am saying that the light of the Sun ignites that seed in the plant so that it may flower and bloom.
In a like manner, an inward Christ laying dormant in the Root of the Soul, is brought forth by the Power and Light of the Blessed Christ, born of the Virgin Mary, and made Alive.
==============this concludes chapter 1 of the Spirit of Prayer =================
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