hinder good Christians who are truly earnest and wish to do the commandments of God, which are written in the Gospel.  This multitude which is with the Lord hinders those who are crying out, hinders those, that is, who are doing well, that they may not by perseverance be healed.  But let them cry out, and not faint; let them not be led away as if by the authority of numbers; let them not imitate those who become Christians before them, who live evil lives themselves, and are jealous of the good deeds of others.  Let them not say, “Let us live as these so many live.”  Why not rather as the Gospel ordains?  Why dost thou wish to live according to the remonstrances of the multitude who would hinder them, and not after the steps of the Lord who passeth by?  They will mock, and abuse, and call thee back; do thou cry out till thou reach the ears of Jesus.  For they who shall persevere in doing such things as Christ hath enjoined, and regard not the multitude that hinder them, nor think much of their appearing to follow Christ, that is of their being called Christians; but who love the light which Christ is about to restore to them more than they fear the uproar of those who are hindering them; they shall on no account be separated from Him, and Jesus will stand still, and make them whole.

XIV.  For how are our eyes made whole?  That as by faith we perceive Christ passing by in the temporal economy, so we may attain to the knowledge of Him as standing still in His unchangeable eternity.  For there is the eye made whole when the knowledge of Christ’s divinity is attained.  Let your love apprehend this; attend ye to the great mystery which I am to speak of.  All the things which were done by our Lord Jesus Christ, in time, graft faith in us.  We believe on the Son of God, not on the word only, by whom all things were made; but on this very word, “made flesh that He might dwell among us”; who was born of the Virgin Mary; and the rest which the Faith contains, and which are represented to us that Christ might pass by, and that the blind, hearing His footsteps as He passeth by, might by their works cry out, by their life exemplifying the profession of their faith.  But now in order that they who cry out may be made whole, Jesus standeth still.  For he saw Jesus now standing still, who says, “Though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet now henceforth know we Him no more.”  For he saw Christ’s divinity as far as in this life is possible.  There is then in Christ the divinity, and the humanity.  The divinity standeth still, the humanity passeth by.  What means “the divinity standeth still?” It changeth not, is not shaken, doth not depart away.  For He did not so come to us as to depart from the Father; nor did He so ascend as to change His place.  When He assumed flesh, it changed place; but God assuming flesh, seeing He is not in place, doth not change His place.  Let us then be touched by Christ standing still, and so our eyes be made whole.  But whose eyes?  The eyes of those who cry out when He is passing by; that is, who do good works through that faith which hath been dispersed in time, to instruct in our infancy.