Chapter 21 [XIX.]—Thus Sinners are Born of Righteous Parents, Even as Wild Olives Spring from the Olive.

That, therefore, which is born of the lust of the flesh is really born of the world, and not of God; but it is born of God, when it is born again of water and of the Spirit. The guilt of this concupiscence, regeneration alone remits, even as natural generation contracts it. What, then, is generated must be regenerated, in order that likewise since it cannot be otherwise, what has been contracted may be remitted. It is, no doubt, very wonderful that what has been remitted in the parent should still be contracted in the offspring; but nevertheless such is the case. That this mysterious verity, which unbelievers neither see nor believe, might get some palpable evidence in its support, God in His providence has secured in the example of certain trees. For why should we not suppose that for this very purpose the wild olive springs from the olive? Is it not indeed credible that, in a thing which has been created for the use of mankind, the Creator provided and appointed what should afford an instructive example, applicable to the human race? It is a wonderful thing, then, how those who have been themselves delivered by grace from the bondage of sin, should still beget those who are tied and bound by the self-same chain, and who require the same process of loosening? Yes; and we admit the wonderful fact. But that the embryo of wild olive trees should latently exist in the germs of true olives, who would deem credible, if it were not proved true by experiment and observation? In the same manner, therefore, as a wild olive grows out of the seed of the wild olive, and from the seed of the true olive springs also nothing but a wild olive, notwithstanding the very great difference there is between the wild olive and the olive; so what is born in the flesh, either of a sinner or of a just man, is in both instances a sinner, notwithstanding the vast distinction which exists between the sinner and the righteous man. He that is begotten is no sinner as yet in act, and is still new from his birth; but in guilt he is old. Human from the Creator, he is a captive of the destroyer, and needs a redeemer. The difficulty, however, is how a state of captivity can possibly befall the offspring, when the parents have been themselves previously redeemed from it. Now it is no easy matter to unravel this intricate point, or to explain it in a set discourse; therefore unbelievers refuse to accept it as true; just as if in that other point about the wild olive and the olive, which we gave in illustration, any reason could be easily found, or explanation clearly given, why the self-same shoot should sprout out of so dissimilar a stock. The truth, however, of this can be discovered by any one who is willing to make the experiment. Let it then serve for a good example for suggesting belief of what admits not of ocular demonstration.

CAPUT XIX.

21. Ita ex justis nascuntur peccatores, ut oleastri ex oleis. Ex hac igitur concupiscentia carnis quod nascitur, utique mundo, non Deo nascitur: 0426 Deo autem nascitur, cum ex aqua et Spiritu renascitur. Hujus concupiscentiae reatum regeneratio sola dimittit: ac per hoc generatio trahit . Ergo quod generatum est, regeneretur, ut similiter, quia non potest aliter, quod tractum est remittatur . Ut enim quod dimissum est in parente, trahatur in prole , miris quidem modis fit, sed tamen fit. Haec invisibilia et infidelibus incredibilia, sed tamen vera, ut haberent aliquod visibile exemplum, hoc in quibusdam arbustis divina providentia procuravit. Cur enim non credamus, propter hoc esse institutum, ut ex oliva nascatur oleaster? An credendum non est, in aliqua re quae creata est ad usus hominum, Creatorem providisse et instituisse, quod ad generis humani valeret exemplum? Mirum est ergo quemadmodum a peccati vinculo per gratiam liberati, gignant tamen eodem vinculo obstrictos, quos eodem modo oporteat liberari: fatemur, mirum est. Sed quod lateret fetus oleastrorum etiam in seminibus olearum, quando et hoc crederetur, nisi experientia probaretur? Proinde sicut gignitur ex oleastri semine oleaster, et ex oleae semine nonnisi oleaster, cum inter oleastrum et oleam plurimum distet: ita gignitur et de carne peccatoris et de carne justi uterque peccator, quamvis inter peccatorem et justum plurimum distet. Gignitur autem peccator actu adhuc nullus, et ortu novus, sed reatu vetus: homo a creatore, captivus a deceptore, indigens redemptore. Sed quaeritur quomodo trahi possit captivitas prolis, etiam de parentibus jam redemptis. Et quia non facili ratione indagatur, nec sermone explicatur, ab infidelibus non creditur: quasi et illud quod de oleastro et de olea diximus, ut generis dissimilis sit fetus similis, facile aliqua invenit ratio vel explicat sermo . Sed hoc ab eo qui experiri voluerit, cerni potest: sit ergo in exemplo, unde et illud credatur quod cerni non potest.