James 3:12

James 3:12. Can the fig tree, my brethren, bear olive berries? either a vine, figs? that is, no tree can bring forth fruits inconsistent with its nature. The illustration here is not, that we must not expect bad fruits from a good tree, or conversely, good fruits from a bad tree, according to our Lord's illustration: ‘Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles?'(Matthew 7:16); but only that we must not expect different fruits from the same tree figs and olives from the fig tree, or figs and grapes from the vine.

so can no fountain yield salt water and fresh; or, as other manuscripts have it, ‘so neither can salt water bring forth sweet;' the salt water referring to the cursing, and the sweet or fresh water to the blessing. That cursing and blessing should proceed from the same mouth is as great an incongruity as that salt and fresh water should flow from the same spring. In the natural world no such incongruity exists, as does in the moral world. Man is a self-contradiction, acting continually inconsistently with his nature.