The prophet therefore vindicates the justice and equity of God on two substantial grounds: he directs his murmuring and rebellious people to consider, that they were visited with calamity for their own transgressions, as well as for those of their forefathers; and he refers them to the future and final judgment of the Almighty, in which the prosperity of the wicked and the sufferings of the righteous alike terminate; in which both shall receive their just and everlasting recompence. “The son shall not bear the iniquity of the father, neither shall the father bear the iniquity of the son; the righteousness of the righteous shall be upon him, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon him.” “Have I any pleasure at all that the wicked should die, saith the Lord God, and not that he should return from his ways and live?” {195} The passages last mentioned may introduce to our notice two considerations, most distinctly and forcibly stated in the latter part of this chapter, in both of which we are very deeply and peculiarly interested; they are these; that if the wicked repent of their evil ways and turn heartily to God, they shall be forgiven and received into His favour; but that if the righteous fall away, they shall be condemned and perish: on the one hand, there is ample encouragement to the sinner to return; on the other, an awful admonition, to the righteous, of the necessity of perseverance unto the end. How gracious the instruction in either point of view! If it were not for the heavenly assurance of the offer of pardon to all, without partiality or exception, many a flagrant transgressor, when brought to a sense of his sin and shame—his conscience pierced with the remembrance of so manifold offences against a just and holy God, his soul over-burdened with the load of guilt—might sit down disconsolate and despairing in the shadow of death: and if it were not for a warning voice, bidding them, as they hope for salvation, to persevere, the righteous, when assailed by temptation, might at length be induced to yield, under a presumption, that their former obedience, that the good deeds they had already performed, would turn the balance in their favour, and procure for them acceptance at the tribunal of God, though they were ultimately found in the way of evil. Into this error the Jews had actually fallen; and do, as it is affirmed, continue unto this day; and others might “follow their pernicious ways.”