Page:Sermons on the Ten Commandments.djvu/50

 consideration that it is contrary to the Divine law, declared in the Word: "The son shall not bear the iniquity of the father, neither shall the father bear the iniquity of the son: the soul that sinneth, it shall die." The only way that children suffer for the sins of their parents, is by inheriting from them evil propensities, and this should be a warning to parents to beware how they indulge such propensities in themselves. But in the true spiritual sense, the meaning is altogether different. By the term "father," in that sense, is signified good or love, because the Lord, who is the Father of all, is Love itself: but in the opposite or bad sense, "father" signifies evil. So, the term "son" signifies truth, because truth is derived from good, as a son from a father; but in the opposite sense, "son" signifies falsity. In like manner, the numbers three and four have a spiritual sense. Three signifies what is full or complete, or an entire series from beginning to end: four signifies conjunction, because it is a multiple of two, which signifies conjunction or union of two things. Now, then, by "visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the Sons, upon the thirds and upon the fourths" (there is no such word as generation, observe, in the original) is meant increase of evils and consequent falses in a long series and conjunction. "With those that hate me;" that is, with those who do not worship the Lord, but reject him. The meaning is, that with those who do not worship the Lord, but love only themselves and the world, evils of heart continually increase,