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| The Severity of God Compatible with Reason and Justice. When Inflicted, Not Meant to Be Arbitrary, But Remedial.
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Chapter XV.—The Severity of God Compatible with Reason and
Justice. When Inflicted, Not Meant to Be Arbitrary, But
Remedial.
Consider well,2873
then, before
all things the justice of the Judge; and if its purpose2874
be clear, then the severity thereof, and the
operations of the severity in its course, will appear compatible with
reason and justice. Now, that we may not linger too long on the point,
(I would challenge you to) assert the other reasons also, that you may
condemn the Judge’s sentences; extenuate the delinquencies
of the sinner, that you may blame his judicial conviction. Never mind
censuring the Judge; rather prove Him to be an unjust one. Well,
then, even though2875
He required the
sins of the fathers at the hands of the children, the hardness of the
people made such remedial measures necessary2876
for them, in order that, having their posterity in view, they might
obey the divine law. For who is there that feels not a greater care for
his children than for himself? Again, if the blessing of the fathers
was destined likewise for their offspring, previous to2877
any merit on the part of these, why might
not the guilt of the fathers also redound to their children? As was the
grace, so was the offence; so that the grace and the offence equally
ran down through the whole race, with the reservation, indeed, of that
subsequent ordinance by which it became possible to refrain from
saying, that “the fathers had eaten a sour grape, and the
children’s teeth were set on edge:”2878
in
other words, that the father should not bear the iniquity of the son,
nor the son the iniquity of the father, but that every man should be
chargeable with his own sin; so that the harshness of the law having
been reduced2879
| 2879 Edomita, cf.
chap. xix. sub init. and xxix. | after the hardness
of the people, justice was no longer to judge the race, but
individuals. If, however, you accept the gospel of truth, you will
discover on whom recoils the sentence of the Judge, when requiting on
sons the sins of their fathers, even on those who had been (hardened
enough) to imprecate spontaneously on themselves this condemnation:
“His blood be on us, and on our children.”2880
This, therefore, the providence of
God has ordered throughout its course,2881
even as it had heard it.E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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