To Florus 3.12
Although this is so obvious that nothing could be more decisive or more true, I had promised to prove this very point by the testimony of divine law: it would be utterly unjust to charge newborn children with their parents’ crimes. God is so opposed to this that he expressly forbade judges in his law to perpetrate anything so disgraceful. I had therefore promised to establish this. But since the second book was occupied with explaining statements of the apostle Paul, it is fitting to fulfill that promise in the opening part of this book.
We read in Deuteronomy, among the commands ordering that people’s life and conduct, that God also gave this entirely explicit command. To show where it stands among the preceding and following provisions, he says: ‘You shall not withhold the wages of a poor and needy worker, whether one of your own people or one of the foreigners living in your towns. You shall pay his wages daily; the sun must not set before you pay them, because he is poor and places his hope in them. Otherwise he may cry to the Lord against you, and you will be guilty of sin. Fathers shall not die for their children, and children shall not die for their fathers. Each person shall die for his own sin’ (Deuteronomy 24:14–16).
Latin
Quod licet in tanta luce consistat, ut nihil aut absolutius inveniatur aut verius, tamen pollicitus eram hoc ipsum divinae me legis testimonio comprobare, id est iniquissimum esse, si generantium scelera nascentibus eorum liberis imputentur, sicque id adversari Deum, ut etiam in sua lege praescripserit, ne tale quidquam iudicantium deformitas perpetraret. Hoc me ergo spoponderam redditurum, sed, quoniam secundus liber apostoli Pauli exponen dis est sententiis occupatus, huius voluminis primis partibus fidem congruit promissionis impleri. Legimus ergo in Deuteronomio in catalogo praeceptorum, quibus vita et conversatio populi illius ordinatur, etiam hoc apertissime a Deo fuisse mandatum; nam ut de praecedentibus et de sequentibus, inter quae sit collocatum, possit intellegi: Non fraudabis - inquit - mercedem pauperis et egentis ex fratribus tuis aut ex proselytis, qui sunt in civitatibus tuis; quotidianam reddes mercedem illius, non occidat sol super eam, quia pauper est et in ea habet spem; et non proclamabit contra te ad Dominum et erit in te peccatum. Non morientur patres pro filiis et filii non morientur pro patribus; unusquisque in suo peccato morietur [n13] .