But everyone shall die for his own iniquity: every man that eats the sour grape, his teeth shall be set on edge.
Read Chapter 31
Augustine of Hippo
AD 430
Finally, that we may not be disturbed by the words I have quoted and many others of like importance, about returning the sins of the parents on the children—words written truthfully, yet that might be thought contrary to this prophecy—he solves this very vexed question by adding, “Behold, the days shall come, says the Lord, and I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah, not according to the covenant that I made with their ancestors.” In this new covenant through the blood of the Mediator, the paternal decree having been cancelled, humankind by rebirth begins to be no longer subject to the paternal debts that bind them at birth, as the Mediator says: “And call no one on earth your father,” inasmuch as we but shall live forever with the Father. - "Against Julian 6.25.82"
Will you be able to persuade anyone that, by receiving those who lapsed, the entire church has fallen? That the party of those who receive them back has become like someone who denies the faith because they admit penitents? But even if a congregation somehow has been too lenient, have other congregations who did not approve of their actions but rather followed convention and kept communion, also lost the name Christian? Hear the voice of Jeremiah! “In those days they shall not say, ‘The fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the children’s teeth are set on edge.’ But each one shall die for his own sin.” - "Letter 3.3.3"
