how sayest thou, Ye shall be free?1161 Jesus answered them, Verily, verily, I say unto you,
Whosoever committeth sin is the servant of sin. And the servant abideth not in the house
for ever; but the Son abideth for ever. If the Son, therefore, shall make you free, ye shall be
free indeed. I know that ye are Abraham’s seed; but ye seek to kill me, because my word
hath no place in you.”1162 Now surely it is not to be supposed that He spake these words,
“Ye seek to kill me” to those persons who had already believed on Him, and to whom He
had said, “If ye abide in my word, then shall ye be my disciples indeed.” But inasmuch as
He had spoken in these latter terms to the men who had already believed on Him, and as,
moreover, there was present on that occasion a multitude of people, among whom there
were many who were hostile to Him, even although the evangelist does not tell us explicitly
who those parties were who made the reply referred to, the very nature of the answer which
they gave, and the tenor of the words which thereupon were rightly directed to them by
Him, make it sufficiently clear what specific persons were then addressed, and what words
were spoken to them in particular. Precisely, therefore, as in the multitude thus alluded to
by John there were some who had already believed on Jesus, and also some who sought to
kill Him, in that other concourse which we are discussing at present there were some who
had craftily questioned the Lord on the subject of the authority by which He did these things;
and there were also others who had hailed Him, not in deceit, but in faith, with the acclaim,
“Blessed is He that cometh in the name of the Lord.” And thus, too, there were persons
present who could say, “He will destroy those men, and will give his vineyard to others.”
This saying, furthermore, may be rightly understood to have been the voice of the Lord
Himself, either in virtue of that Truth which in His own Person He is Himself, or on the
ground of the unity which subsists between the members of His body and the head. There
were also certain individuals present who, when these other parties gave that kind of answer,
said to them, “God forbid,” because they understood the parable to be directed against
themselves.
1161 Liberi eritis.
1162 John viii. 31–37.
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Of the Two Sons Who Were Commanded by Their Father to Go into His Vineyard,…