est qui nos eripiat e manibus ipsorum.)
JOHN CALVIN was therefore a suitable time for God to regard the miseries of their posterity. The faithful, then, do not allege here their own innocency before God, as though they were blameless; but only mention that their fathers underwent a just punishment, for that whole generation had perished. Daniel speaks more fully when he says,
have sinned, and our fathers, and our kings.''
(Daniel 9:8.)
He involved in the same condemnation both the fathers and their children.
But our Prophet's object was different, even to turn God to mercy, as it has been stated; and to attain this object he says, ``O Lord, thou indeed hast hitherto executed just punishment, because our fathers had very long abused thy goodness and forbearance; but now the time is come for thee to try and prove whether we are like our fathers: as, then, they have perished as they deserved, receive us now into favor.'' We hence see that thus no quarrel or contention is carried on with God, but only that the miserable exiles ask God to look on them, since their fathers who had provoked God and had experienced his dreadful vengeance, were already dead. 588
And when he says that the sons bore the iniquity of the fathers, though it be a strong expression, yet its meaning is not as though God had without reason punished their children and not their fathers; for unalterable is that declaration,
son shall not bear the iniquity of the father, nor the father the iniquity of the son; but the soul that sinneth it shall die.''
(Ezekiel 18:20.)
It may yet be said that children are loaded with the sins of their fathers, because
God, as he declares by Moses, extends his vengeance to the third and fourth generation. (Exodus 20:5.) And he says also in another place,
will return into the bosom of children the iniquity of their fathers.''
(Jeremiah 32:18.)
God then continued his vengeance to their posterity. But yet there is no doubt but that the children who had been so severely punished, bore also the punishment of their own iniquity, for they deserved a hundred deaths. But these two things well agree together, that God returns the iniquity of the fathers into the bosom of their children, and yet that the children are chastised for their own sins.
Lamentations 5:8
8. Servants have ruled over us: there is none that doth deliver us out of their hand.
8. Servi dominati sunt nobis; eripiens nemo ex manibus ipsorum (hoc est, nemo est qui nos eripiat e manibus ipsorum.)
Another circumstance aggravated the calamity of the people, that they came under the power of servants, which is more degrading than when the rich and the eminent in wealth and power make us their servants. For it is no shame to serve a king, or at, least a man who possesses some eminence; for that servitude which is not apparently degrading is deemed tolerable. But when we become the servants of servants, it is a most afflicting degradation, and most grievously wounds our minds.
588The words may be thus rendered, — Our fathers, they sinned and are not; We, their iniquities have we borne. To bear iniquities, is here evidently to bear their penalty. So when Christ is said to bear our sins, the same thing is meant. — Ed.