1255. The fact that by their births means insofar as they were able to reform can be seen from the symbolism of birth as reformation. When we are being reborn or regenerated by the Lord, each and every new thing that we receive is a birth. So in this case, since the ancient church is under discussion, the births mean insofar as its people were able to reform.
With regard to reformation of the nations, they did not all have the same kind of worship or the same teachings, because they did not all have the same disposition or the same upbringing and education from childhood on. The Lord never breaks the principles we first adopt as children but bends them. Any principles we possess that we have always invested with holiness, any that do not inherently oppose God's plan or the order of the physical world but are inconsequential, those principles the Lord leaves alone and allows to remain in us. This was true of many principles that the second ancient church adopted, which will be discussed below [§§1337, 1343], by the Lord's divine mercy.
