Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it.
Ver. 44. Ye are of your father the devil] Who hath set his limbs in you, so that ye are as like him as if spit out of his mouth. Satan is called the god of this world, because as God at first did but speak the word, and it was done; so if the devil do but hold up his finger, give the least hint, they obey him.
The lusts of your father ye will do] If the fruits of the flesh (said Bradford) grow out of the trees of your hearts, surely, surely, the devil is at inn with you. You are his birds, whom when he hath well fed, he will broach you and eat you, chaw you and champ you, world without end, in eternal woe and misery, &c.
And abode not in the truth] Si Satan in conspectu Dei tantas res ausus est, quid apud nos non audebit? (Bucholcer.)
When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own] And so when we do evil, we work de nostro, et secundum hominem, 1 Corinthians 3:3. It is as impossible for us naturally to do good as for a toad to spit cordials.
For he is a liar, and the father of it] The devil did only equivocate to our first parents, and yet is here called a liar, and 2 Corinthians 11:3, a deceiver. A lie hath been always held hateful; but equivocation is now set forth of a later impression. The Jesuits have called back this pest from hell, lately, for the comfort of afflicted Catholics, as arch-priest Blackwell and provincial Garnet shamed not to profess. Est autem Satanae pectus semper faecundissimum mendaciis, saith Luther. He began his kingdom by a lie, and by lies he upholds it, as were easy to instance. See Trapp on " Gen 3:1 " &c.