12. It remains to say something more concerning the mysterious generation of the Son; or rather this something more is everything. I quiver, I linger, my powers fail, I know not where to begin. I cannot tell the time of the Son’s birth; it were impious not to be certain of the fact. Whom shall I entreat? Whom shall I call to my aid? From what books shall I borrow the terms needed to state so hard a problem? Shall I ransack the philosophy of Greece? No! I have read, Where is the wise? Where is the enquirer of this world74    1 Cor. i. 20.? In this matter, then, the world’s philosophers, the wise men of paganism, are dumb: for they have rejected the wisdom of God. Shall I turn to the Scribe of the law? He is in darkness, for the Cross of Christ is an offence to him. Shall I, perchance, bid you shut your eyes to heresy, and pass it by in silence, on the ground that sufficient reverence is shown to Him Whom we preach if we believe that lepers were cleansed, the deaf heard, the lame ran, the palsied stood, the blind (in general) received sight, the blind from his birth had eyes given to him75    The healing of the blind man, St. John ix. 1 ff., is treated as a special case distinct from more ordinary cases of blindness., devils were routed, the sick recovered, the dead lived. The heretics confess all this, and perish.

12. Generatio Filii Dei, ignota sapientibus mundi, scribis legis, miraculis non satis probata.---Superest de inenarrabili generatione Filii adhuc aliquid, immo aliquid illud adhuc totum est. Aestuo differor, 0059C hebesco, et unde incipiam nescio. Nescio enim quando natus sit Filius; et nefas est mihi nescire quod natus sit. Quem imprecer? quem implorem? ex quibus libris ad tantarum difficultatum enarrationem verba praesumam? Evolvam omnem Graeciae scholam? Sed legi: Ubi sapiens? ubi conquisitor saeculi (I Cor. I, 20)? In hoc ergo sophistae mundi et sapientes saeculi muti sunt; sapientiam 0060A enim Dei reprobaverunt. Scribam ergo legis consulam? Sed ignorat; quia ei crux Christi scandalum est. Hortabor forte vos connivere et tacere, quia ad venerationem satis sit ejus qui praedicatur, leprosos emundatos fuisse, surdos audisse, claudos cucurrisse, paralyticos constitisse, caecos lumen recepisse, caecum ab utero oculos consecutum, daemonas fugatos, aegrotos revaluisse, mortuos vixisse? Sed haec haeretici confitentur, et pereunt.