To Florus 3.49
This displeased idol worshipers; and our faith, which you see shaped by this law, displeases you too. Those irreverent people therefore said: ‘The Lord’s way is not right.’ ‘Listen, then, house of Israel,’ he says. ‘Is my way not right? Is it not your way that is unfair? Therefore I will judge each of you according to your own way, says the Lord God’ (Ezekiel 18:29–30).
Do you see the testimonies defending us? Are we chasing ambiguities? Are we hunting for vague phrases? Are we defending faith with weak or tangled arguments? We condemn what God condemns; we understand what God explains; we discuss what God argued; we believe what God swore to uphold: ‘The son shall not bear his father’s iniquity, nor shall the father bear his son’s injustice. The just person’s justice shall rest on himself, and the wicked person’s wickedness shall rest on himself’ (Ezekiel 18:20). The way God promises to judge shines clearly: he charges neither children with their parents’ sins nor parents with their children’s. Thus Scripture’s testimony has also established what reason would not allow to be doubted: God maintains in his judgments the same justice he maintained in his commands.
Latin
Displicuit hoc cultoribus idolorum, displicet et vobis fides nostra, quam videtis hac lege formatam. Dixerunt ergo profani: Non est recta via Domini. Audite ergo - inquit - domus Israel. Numquid non est via mea recta? Nonne via vestra non est aequa? Ideo unumquemque vestrum secundum viam vestram iudicabo vos, dicit Adonai Dominus [n65] . Perspicisne quibus testimoniis muniamur? Num aliqua sectamur ambigua? Num aucupamur verba generalia? Num aut debilibus aut involutis argumentis fidem tuemur? Exsecramur quod exsecratur Deus, intellegimus quod exponit Deus, disserimus quod disputavit Deus, credimus propter quod iuravit Deus: Non accipiet iniquitatem patris sui filius neque pater accipiet iniustitiam filii sui; iustitia iusti super ipsum erit et iniquitas iniqui super ipsum erit [n66] . Quomodo se Deus iudicaturum promittat, relucet, id est nec peccata parentum imputare filiis nec filiorum parentibus; ac per hoc constitit etiam testimoniis Scripturarum, de quo ambigi ratio non sinebat, eam videlicet iustitiam Deum tenere in iudiciis suis, quam tenuit in praeceptis.