(1) I AM the true vine, and my Father is the husbandman. 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. Now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you.

(15) Every plant which my heavenly Father hath not planted, shall be rooted up. Let them alone: they be blind leaders of the blind. And if the blind lead the blind, both shall fall into the ditch.

(49) Verily I say unto you, I will drink henceforth no more of this fruit of the vine, until that day when I drink it new with you in the kingdom of God, my Father's kingdom.

(2) Mary answered and said: "My Lord, I have understood the mysteries of the things which have fallen to this woman's lot. Concerning the things then which have fallen to her lot, thou hast spoken unto us aforetime in similitude, saying: 'A man owned a fig-tree in his vineyard; and he came to look for its fruit, and he found not a single one on it. He said to the vine-dresser: Lo, three years do I come to look for fruit on this fig-tree, and I have not any produce at all from it. Cut it down then; why doth it make the ground also good for nothing? But he answered and said unto him: My lord, have patience with it still this year, until I dig round it and give it dung; and if it beareth in another year, thou hast let it, but if thou dost not find any [fruit] at all, then hast thou [to] cut it down.' Lo, my Lord, this is the solution of the word." The Saviour answered and said unto Mary: "Well said, spiritual [one]. This is [the solution of] the word."

(3) It is said to thee, that the Wood [or Fuel] of thy Soul shall burn in the last Fire, and that thy Soul shall remain to be Ashes in the Fire, and thy Body shall appear like black Soot. Why wilt thou then stand in a Wilderness, yea in a Rock where there is no Water? How then will thy Tree grow again? O! Or Saints and holy People. what great Misery it is that we are ignorant in what P Soil we grow, and what Kind of Essences we draw to us, seeing our Fruit shall appear and be tasted, and that which is pleasant shall stand upon God's Table; and the other shall be cast to the Devil's Swine. Therefore let it move you; to look that you grow in the Ground or Soil of Christ, and bring forth Fruit that may be set upon God's Table, which Fruit never perishes, but continually springs, and the more it is eaten of, the pleasanter it is. How wilt thou rejoice in the Lord!

(27) For thou seest plainly how all the fruits of the earth, whatsoever it bringeth forth, must putrefy and rot; also that they are a death.

(2) Let no fruit grow on thee henceforward. No man eat fruit of thee hereafter for ever.

(1) Some, who think themselves naturally gifted, do not wish to touch either philosophy or logic; nay more, they do not wish to learn natural science. They demand bare faith alone, as if they wished, without bestowing any care on the vine, straightway to gather clusters from the first. Now the Lord is figuratively described as the vine, from which, with pains and the art of husbandry, according to the word, the fruit is to be gathered.

(30) Now when I write of trees, plants and fruits, you must not understand them to be earthly, like those that are in this world; for it is not my meaning that there shall grow in heaven such dead, hard trees of wood, or such stones as consist of an earthly quality.

(24) For this World is like a Field, wherein good Seed is sown, into which the Enemy calls Weeds [or Tares,] and goes his Way, which grow together until the Time of the Harvest, when all the [Fruit] shall be gathered, and brought into the Barn; of which Christ also saith, That the Tares [or Weeds] shall be tied up in Bundles, and cast into the Fire, and the Wheat shall be brought into the Barn. The holy Gate.

(2) Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me. I am the vine, ye are the branches; he that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit; for without me ye can do nothing.

(15) Take this, and divide it among yourselves: for I say unto you, I will not drink of the fruit of the vine, until the kingdom of God shall come.

(21) But seeing the eternal word must qualify, mix or unite with the corruption in the wrath, thereupon the bodies of the fruits were evil and good. For the outward birth or geniture of the fruits must be out of or from the earth which is in death; and the spirit of life must be out of the astral birth which stands in love and wrath.

(46) That which thou hast sown in the ground, that will spring up, be it rye, wheat, barley, tares or thorns; that which is not combustible or capable of the final or last fire, that will not burn at all: But God will not himself corrupt or spoil his good seed, but will husband, till and manure it, that it may bear fruit in the eternal life.

(84) And now, my Lord, destroy from the earth the flesh which has aroused Thy wrath, But the flesh of righteousness and uprightness establish as a plant of the eternal seed, And hide not Thy face from the prayer of Thy servant, O Lord.'

(38) So is the kingdom of God, as if a man should cast seed into the ground; and should sleep, and rise night and day, and the seed should spring and grow up, he knoweth not how. For the earth bringeth forth fruit of herself; first the blade, then the ear, after that the full corn in the ear. But when the fruit is brought forth, immediately he putteth in the sickle, because the harvest is come.

(30) If now you desire to know the Difference, and which is a false Seed or Herb, understand a false Spirit, in which the Pearl or the Spirit of God is not; consider it in its Fruit, Smell, and Taste; if he be vain-glorious, a Seeker of his own Honour, covetous, a Blasphemer, a Slanderer, and Despiser of the Children of God, which casts down all under his Feet, and would be Lord of all, then know, that such a one is a naughty Seed; and he is a Thistle, and shall be sifted out from the Seed of God. Go out from such [a Spirit] for he is a confounded Wheel, and has no Foundation, nor any Sap or Virtue from God, for the Growing of his Fruit; but he grows as a Thistle, which pricks only, and bears no good Seed.

(38) Among some cults the state of intoxication was viewed as a condition somewhat akin to ecstasy, for the individual was believed to be possessed by the Universal Spirit of Life, whose chosen vehicle was the vine. In the Mysteries, the grape was often used to symbolize lust and debauchery because of its demoralizing effect upon the emotional nature. The fact was recognized, however, that fermentation was the certain evidence of the presence of the solar fire, hence the grape was accepted as the proper symbol of the Solar Spirit--the giver of divine enthusiasm. In a somewhat similar manner, Christians have accepted wine as the emblem of the blood of Christ, partaking of it in Holy Communion. Christ, the exoteric emblem of the Solar Spirit, said, "I am the vine." He was therefore worshiped with the wine of ecstasy in the same manner as were his pagan prototypes--Bacchus, Dionysos, Arys, and Adonis.

(3) And she said to it, " Of all the fruit of the trees of the garden God hath said unto us, Eat ; but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden God hath said unto us, Ye shall not eat thereof, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die."

(39) 1 have told you before, out of what Power the Tree is grown; viz. that it grew out of the Earth, and has wholly had Might. the Nature of the Earth in it, as at this Day all earthly Trees are [so,] (and no otherwise, neither better nor worse,) wherein Corruptibility stands, as the Earth is corruptible, and shall pass away in the End, when all shall go into its Ether, and nothing else shall remain of it besides the Figure. Now this was the Tree which stood in the Midst of the Garden in Eden, whereby Adam must be tempted in all Essences; for this Spirit should rule powerfully over all Essences, as the holy Angels, and God himself does.