(6.) the process of inoculating fruit-trees (Ro 11:17-24). It is peculiarly appropriate to olive-trees. The union thus of branches to a stem is used to illustrate the union of true believers to the true Church.
And if some of the branches have been broken off, and thou, a wild olive, hast been grafted in among them, and become a partaker with them of the root and fatness of the olivetree, boast not over the branches; for if thou boast, thou dost not bear the root, but the root thee. read more. Thou wilt say then, The branches were broken off, that I might be grafted in. Be it so. It was for their unbelief that they were broken off, and thou standest through thy faith; be not highminded, but fear. For if God spared the natural branches, take care lest he spare not thee. Behold then the goodness and the severity of God; toward those who fell, severity; but toward thee Gods goodness, if thou continue in his goodness; otherwise thou also wilt be cut off. And they also, if they do not continue in their unbelief, will be grafted in; for God is able to graft them in again. For if thou hast been cut off from an olivetree wild by nature, and hast against thy nature been ingrafted into a good olivetree, how much more shall these, the natural branches, be ingrafted into their own olivestock?