The Jews therefore look up stones to stone Him, as a blasphemer. The Jews show in this their hypocrisy, malignity, and hatred of Christ, and that they did not honestly, but craftily and insidiously, ask Him whether He were the Christ. But Christ as being God kept them from casting on Him the stones which they held in their hands. "Hard as stones," says S. Augustine, "they rushed to the stones." Mystically, says S. Hilary (de Trinit. lib. vii), "And now also heretics hurl the stones of their words, to cast down, if they can, Christ from His throne; inspired, no doubt, by Lucifer, who aimed at obtaining this throne of Godhead, and therefore grudged it to Christ, and is active in taking it away by means of heretics."
