beast was his, yet retained the hope of returning to his senses, and to his royal dignity as well, as soon as he acknowledged that heaven was his superior (Daniel iv. 25), so to us, who are trees rooted out of God’s Paradise, the roots are left, and these can germinate afresh when the rain and the sun of God’s grace are shed upon them. Did not God, soon after the Fall, and after the exile threatened to us (the penalty of death), sow in our hearts the seeds of fresh grace (by the promise of His blessed offspring)? Did He not send His Son to restore us to our former estate?
23. It is base, wicked, and an evident sign of ingratitude, that we continually complain of our corrupt state, but make no effort to reform it; that we bring forward what the old Adam can work in us, but never experience what the new Adam, Christ, can do. The Apostle says in his own name and in that of his Redeemer: “I can do all things through him that strengtheneth me” (Phil. iv. 13). If it be possible for a shoot grafted on a willow, on a thorn, or on any other shrub, to germinate and bear fruit, what would it not do if grafted on a stock similar to itself? See the argument of the Apostle (Romans xi. 24). In addition, if God is able from these stones to raise up children unto Abraham (Matthew iii. 9), why should He not be able to excite to good works man, the son of God from the first creation, adopted anew through Christ, and born again through the Spirit of grace?
24. Ah! let us beware lest we neglect the grace of God, which He is prepared to pour most liberally upon us. For if we, who are made one with Christ through faith, and dedicated to Him through the spirit of adoption, if we, I say, deny that we, with our offspring, are fit for those things which are of the kingdom of God, how was it that Christ said of children that theirs was the kingdom of heaven? or how can He refer us to them, bidding us to become as little children, if we wish to enter into the kingdom of heaven? (Matthew xviii. 3).
How is it that the Apostle pronounces the children of Christians to be sacred (even where one only of the
