Scripture, perhaps by the gentleman from
Howard, (Mr. Sands,) and afterwards com-
mented on by the gentleman from Kent,
(Mr. Chambers,) who seems to have turn-
ed commentator, and to have interpolated
some words at the end of that passage of
Scripture which totally change its signification.
We are all, I presume, disposed to
acknowledge the ability of the gentleman as
a jurist; but when be touches that sacred
volume, and puts words into the month of
Deity which were never uttered, and insists
upon a signification that was never' designed
he lays himself open to criticism; and I have
no hesitancy whatever in acting as a critic
under the circumstances. I understood the
gentlemen, after quoting the passage in ques-
tion, to add, at the end of it, " where the
children sin;" that is, that God visits the
transgressions or the iniquities of the fathers
upon the children unto the third and fourth
generation where the children sin. There is
no such language used in the passage of
Scripture to which reference is made.
Mr. CHAMBERS. I did not profess to give
a quotation of the language, but of the spirit.
While the sins of the father were visited upon
the children, those, that continued in sin,
there was not in the spirit of the gospel any
such doctrine in regard to the children who
were righteous children of sinful parents. I
did not profess to make a quotation from
Scripture, but to give what I maintain is the
spirit of the gospel.
Mr. TODD. I am ready to meet the gentle-
man upon that point. The passage of Scrip-
ture to which reference has been made, is
contained in the Decalogue. It was graven
upon the tables of stone which were given to
Moses amid the smoke and lightnings and
thunders of Mount Sinai, and was re-enacted
by our Saviour when he said to the world,
that the first and great commandment is,
" Thou shall love the Lord thy God with all
thy heart," and the second is like unto it,
"Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself."
These enactments, whatever may be said of
other Scripture, other laws and usages practiced
among the Jews as a nation, have never
been revoked. They stand the same to-day
as they have always stood; and they will
stand unchanged and unchangeable until the
end of time. Christianity is but a re-enact-
ment of the principles they contain, I will
read the words to which reference has been
made. They are contained in the twentieth
chapter of Exodus:
" Thou shalt not make unto thee any gra-
ven image, or any likeness of anything that
is in heaven above, or that is in the earth be-
neath, or that is in the water under the
earth. Thou shalt not bow down thyself to
them nor serve them; for I the Lord, thy
God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of
the fathers upon the children, unto the third
and fourth generation of them that hate me." |
Now upon this passage of Scripture, I
have consulted Dr. Clarke and Mr Scott,
both eminent commentators.
"Idolatry," says Dr. Clarke, "is particularly
intended, and visiting sins of this kind
refers principally to national judgments. By
withdrawing the Divine protection the idol-
atrous Israelites were delivered up into the
hands of their enemies, from whom the Gods,
in whom they had trusted, could not deliver
them. This God did even to the third and
fourth generation, i, e. successively; as may
beseen in every part of the Jewish history,"
Scott says—" It is evident that children in
general are sufferers by the crimes of their
parents; but Israel was under a peculiar cov-
enant, which idolatry violated in its primary
condition. If then the parents forfeited the
covenant-blessing, their posterity must suffer
the effects of the' forfeiture. As this was in-
tended to restrain them from sin by means
of natural affection, the third and fourth
generation only are mentioned; for they
could not expect to see more of their posteri-
ty: or it may imply, that the Lord being
ready to forgive the effects would ceases after
that period unless the children persisted in
the sins of their parents."
It will be seen from this, that it is held by
scribes as eminent for their research into the
teachings of divine truth as is the gentleman
from Kent for his erudition and complete mas-
tery of human enactments, that it is not in-
consistent with the recognized justice of the
divine Being, the great Legislator of the uni-
verse, that the children should suffer on ac-
count of the sins of the farthers. . Indeed the
same doctrine is taught by what we see oc-
curring around us every day, and have seen
all our lives. We see the man who is ad-
dicted to his cups, and who in this way
squanders his life, and his property, and
brings poverty and disease and loss of repu-
tation and dishonor upon his family succeed-
ing him.
We have only to recur to an event in the
history of our nation, to be satisfied that the
particular question that now engages the at-
tention of the Convention, treason against
the Government, does in many instances
transmit its stigma to succeeding ages. Men
who occupied the unenviable position of to-
ries in the war for our independence, not
only suffered the reproach themselves but the
stain has fastened itself upon their children,
and it has been to this day almost impossible
for them to wipe out the stigma which at-
taches to the name of traitor; and men of
the present generation may learn wisdom
from what is past.
From the quotation I have made from the
Scriptures, and from the commentaries upon
it by Drs. Clarke and Scott, it will be seen
that idolatry was the particular sin which
Jehovah denounced in such bitter language
and against which he enacted such fearful |
