shall be recompensed unto him again?”3456 We cannot say to Him, “Give what Thou hast
received;” but we say without3457 scruple, “Give what Thou hast promised.”
5. For hence it is that we are bold to say, day by day, “Thy kingdom come;”3458 that
when His kingdom comes, we too may reign with Him. Which hath been promised to us
in these words; “Then will I say unto them, Come, ye blessed of My Father, receive the
kingdom prepared for you from the beginning of the world.”3459 But assuredly only if we
shall have done what follows in that place. “For I was an hungred, and ye gave Me meat,”
etc. He made these promises to our fathers; but He hath given us a security,3460 for us too
to read. If He who hath vouchsafed to give us this security, were to make a reckoning with
us and say, “Read my debts, the debts, that is, of my promises, and reckon up what I have
already paid, and reckon also what I still owe; see how many I have paid already; and what
I owe is but little; will ye for that little that remains, think Me an untrustworthy promiser?”
What should we have to answer against this most evident truth? Let him then who is barren
repent, and bear “fruit worthy of repentance.” He that is bent down, who looks only on the
earth, rejoices in earthly happiness, who thinks this the only happy life, where he may be
happy, and who believes no other can be; whosoever he be that is so bent down, let him be
made straight; if he cannot by himself, let him call upon God. For was that woman made
straight by herself? Woe had it been for her, if He had not stretched out His Hand.
3456 Rom. xi. 35.
3457 Planè.
3458 Matt. vi. 10.
3459 Matt. xxv. 34.
3460 Cautionem.
927
On the words of the Gospel, Luke xiii. 6, where we are told of the fig-tree,…