4. “Then asked He them again, Whom seek ye? And they said, Jesus of Nazareth. Jesus answered, I have told you that I am [He]. If therefore ye seek me, let these go their way: that the saying might be fulfilled which He spake, That of those whom Thou hast given me I have lost none.” “If ye seek me,” He says, “let these go their way.” He sees His enemies,1803    Thomas Aquinas in the Casena reads here, He commands his enemies, and not altogether unsuitably.—Migne. and they do what He bids them: they let those go their way, whom He would not have perish. But were they not afterwards to die? How then, if they died now, should He lose them, were it not that as yet they did not believe in Him, as all believe who perish not?

4. «Iterum ergo eos interrogavit: Quem quaeritis? Illi autem dixerunt: Jesum Nazarenum. Respondit Jesus: Dixi vobis quia ego sum. Si ergo me quaeritis, sinite hos abire. Ut impleretur sermo quem dixit, Quia quos dedisti mihi, non perdidi ex eis quemquam. Si me,» inquit, «quaeritis, sinite hos abire.» Inimicos videt , et hoc faciunt quod jubet; sinunt eos abire, quos non vult perire. Numquid autem non erant postea morituri? Cur ergo si tunc morerentur, perderet eos, nisi quia nondum sic in eum credebant, quomodo credunt quicumque non pereunt?