[That We Who Believe in Christ are Under Grace, and Not Under the Servitude of that Additional Law.]
XXI. “But blessed are your eyes, for they see; and your ears, for they hear.” 120 Matt. xiii. 16. Yours, I say, who have believed in the one God, not by necessity, but by a sound understanding, in obedience to Him that called you. For you are released from the bonds, and freed from the servitude. For says He: 121 One V. ms. reads: “Thus also said the Lord to us His disciples.” “I call you no longer servants, but friends; for all things that I have heard of my Father have I made known unto you.” 122 John xv. 15. For to them that would not see nor hear, not for the want of those senses, but for the excess of their wickedness, “I gave statutes that were not good, and judgments whereby they would not live;” 123 Ezek. xx. 25. they are looked upon as not good, as burnings and a sword, and medicines are esteemed enemies by the sick, and impossible to be observed on account of their obstinacy: whence also they brought death upon them being not obeyed.
[21] Ὑμῶν δὲ τῶν πιστευσάντων εἰς τὸν ἕνα Θεόν, οὐκ ἀπὸ ἀνάγκης, ἀλλ' ἀπὸ γνώμης ὑγιοῦς ὑπακουσάντων τῷ καλέσαντι: «Μακάριοι οἱ ὀφθαλμοί, ὅτι βλέπουσιν, καὶ τὰ ὦτα ὑμῶν, ὅτι ἀκούουσιν»: ἀνείθητε γὰρ τῶν δεσμῶν καὶ ἠλευθερώθητε δουλείας. «Οὐκέτι γὰρ φησίν, λέγω ὑμᾶς δούλους, ἀλλὰ φίλους, ὅτι πάντα, ἃ ἤκουσα παρὰ τοῦ Πατρός μου, ἐγνώρισα ὑμῖν»: ἐκείνοις γὰρ μὴ θελήσασιν ἰδεῖν μήτε ἀκοῦσαι, οὐ στερήσει μορίων, ἀλλὰ κακίας ὑπερβολῇ, «ἔδωκα προστάγματα οὐ καλὰ καὶ δικαιώματα, ἐν οἷς οὐ ζήσονται ἐν αὐτοῖς», οὐ καλὰ δὲ τῷ σκοπῷ αὐτῶν, ἐπειδὴ καὶ οἱ καυτῆρες καὶ τὸ ξίφος καὶ τὰ φάρμακα ἐχθρὰ τοῖς οὐχ ὑγιαίνουσιν, ἀφύλακτα δὲ διὰ τὴν αὐτῶν παρακοήν, ὅθεν καὶ θάνατον αὐτοῖς ἐπάγει μὴ φυλασσόμενα.