112. C. A faith in the imputation or application of Christ's righteousness or merit is an imaginary faith because it is impossible. It was shown above that to everyone is imputed the evil in which he is, and likewise the good, n. 110. Hence it is evident that imputation, if it means the application and thereby the transference of the good of one person to another, is an illusion. In the world, favours may be transferred, as it were, by man. Thus, benefits may be conferred upon children on account of their parents, or upon the friends of some client from good-will towards him. Yet the good of merit cannot be inscribed on their souls; it can only be adjoined from outside. No such transference can take place with men as to their spiritual life, for this, as was shown above, must be implanted; and if it is not implanted by a life according to the aforesaid precepts of the Lord, man remains in the evil in which he was born. Until this is done it is not possible for any good to affect him; or, if it does affect him it is instantly repelled, so that it rebounds like an elastic ball falling on a stone, or else it is absorbed like a diamond thrown into a swamp. The man who is not reformed is, as to his spirit, like a panther or an owl, and may be compared to a thorn or a nettle. But the man who is regenerated is like a sheep or a dove, and may be compared to an olive-tree or a vine. Consider, then, I entreat you, if you will, how can a man who is like a panther be converted into one who is like a sheep, or how can an owl be changed into a dove, or a thorn into an olive-tree, or a nettle into a vine, by any imputation, if by this is meant transference? In order that conversion may take place, must not the ferocious nature of the panther and the owl, and the noxious properties of the thorn and the nettle, be first removed, and thus what is truly human and inoffensive be implanted? How this is effected the Lord also teaches in John xv 1-7.