John 8:41–45

Verse 41. We are not born of fornication; we have one Father, God. These Jews perceived that Christ had hinted that they were not the true and faithful sons of Abraham; and therefore they replied in this manner. But Christ answered, if God was your Father, if you were his dutiful children, you would also believe in me, and love me; for I have proceeded from him, and am come from him, his true Son: and now sent into the world by him. But you cannot hear my word, because you will not, by your own wilful obstinate blindness. Witham.

Verse 44. You are of your father, the devil, and have made yourselves his slaves.—He was a murderer from the beginning of the world, having brought both a corporal and a spiritual death by sin, upon all mankind.—He abode not in the truth, in the ways of truth and obedience to God.—He is a liar, and the father thereof: that is, the father of lies. I speak truth, being truth itself. Witham.—Saint Augustine compares heretics, who drive Christians out of the Church, to the devil, who was the cause of our first parents’ banishment from paradise. Cont. lit. Petil. l. ii. chapter 13.