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).