The Inheritance of Unbelief

They strove to overturn it, for the truth was being made more certain by so much. And he suffered the same from the beasts as those, having been wounded by something and not yet having received the whole point in the stomach, with a rush and rivalry, concentrating all the iron upon itself.

ddlingness: if this same man, and not another in his place, was shown; this being clearly testified by the man, who cried out and clearly reported the sequence of the healing, that even the mud was used as a medicine for the blindness, and that the washing of the mud in the pool provided sight. These things the neighbors investigated and learned; the Pharisees sought and did not believe.

technique for the invalidation of what had happened was taken up, to try to show that Christ is not the one who worked the healing. Since the man cried out to the Savior and gave back the grace by his confession and his proclamation, and made public the benefactor, they, being prevented in their mouths, reeling in their opinion, having nothing what to do, again to the inquiry of the passion, and whether he was blind from birth; they investigate this and search the parents of the man, becoming precise examiners of each person, not in order to confirm what was done, but in order that they might receive an overturning of the wonder from somewhere and, having constructed some false pretense, might overturn the believing crowd by a rush. Oh, the excess of wickedness!

against the truth and not to worship the one doing these things, but to drag through the dirt the benefactor; not to marvel at the power, but to disparage by trying the matters. Be persuaded even by the parents, O Pharisees, that the man was born with the blindness; and yet again you run back to the blind man, from the second and third, being informed by him of the evil attempts and the plots.

7.8.5 But whenever you fall from the first trial, you move to the second; whenever from the second, to the third; whenever from the third, to the next. As a fox is running through paths, and everywhere you are surrounded by the nets of the truth; but the exit from the wonder is without escape. However, not of all...

You are weaving a web of deceit, making it colorful indeed, but attacking weakly and without permanence. This sickness is your inheritance. You are children like unbelieving fathers. Such were they also in their manner regarding the wonders in Egypt. They were being saved from wars in a new way, yet they disbelieved the one giving salvation even though they were saved by hope. They were being fed with foods surpassing nature, and among those who were starving, they were even more ungrateful; they received manna sent from heaven, and they even craved the stench of the Egyptian leeks and onions. They were shaded during the day by a pillar of cloud so that they would not be afflicted by the heat of the solar ray, and in the night they seized a pillar of fire, having taken another new luminary distinct from the moon, and as if enjoying no divine energy, they thus sought new and celestial gods, profiting from them, so that Moses, having been detained a little on the mountain in the giving of the law, might draw them back to the return.

You truly are heirs of that ignorance, not having loved the law and hating the grace, needing not a rod of carob for supervision, but an iron one. You see a man who has passed into light, yet has remained inactive in his senses until far into his age, being led by alien eyes, sitting daily before the temple, practicing the craft of misfortune so that he might draw many into pity, the city having a witness to the suffering, seeing now and being healed quickly, not by various medicinal compositions, nor by iron cuts, but by clay alone, and this happening through saliva.

And how have you not been placed, not been struck with amazement, not casting down to the earth, worshiping the one who created the eyes from the earth, and respecting the divine energy? Instead, you are bursting with envy and you pursue God as a rival craftsman, as creators pursuing a creator, as those of the same kind pursuing the one of the same kind. And encountering old books, how many were written during the economy of the people, and how many clearly teach the reigns of kings and the history concerning them, receive the things said about each one with obedience, as some consider Moses to be a small god and exult over Elisha and his teacher...