58. Seeking to disparage His nature, the heretics lay hold of such sayings as, The Father is greater than I, or, But of that day and hour knoweth no one, not even the angels in heaven, neither the Son, but the Father only553    St. Matt. xxiv. 36; St. Mark xiii. 32.. It is turned to a reproach against the Only-begotten God that He did not know the day and the hour: that, though God, born of God, He is not in the perfection of divine nature, since He is subjected to the limitation of ignorance; that is, an external force stronger than Himself, triumphing, as it were, over His weakness, makes Him captive to this infirmity. And, indeed, it is with an apparent right to claim that this confession is inevitable, that the heretics, in their frenzy, would drive us to such a blasphemous interpretation. The words are those of the Lord Himself, and what, it may be asked, could be more unholy than to corrupt His express assertion by our attempt to explain it away.

58. Objicitur contra eum ignoratio diei.---Sed hoc 0328A haeretici ad naturae contumeliam sumunt, quia dictum est, Pater major me est: vel illud, De die autem et hora nemo scit, neque Angeli in coelis, neque Filius, nisi Pater solus (Marc. XIII, 32). Ignoratio ergo diei atque horae objicitur unigenito Deo: ut Deus ex Deo natus non sit in ea naturae perfectione qua Deus est, cum nesciendi necessitate dominante, jam vis aliqua exterior eo potior sit, quae tamquam adversum se imbecillum in ignorantiae eum infirmitate detineat. Quin etiam ad hujus nos intelligentiae impietatem haereticorum furor jure quodam 304 necessariae confessionis compellit, ut ita credendum sit; quia et a Domino ita dictum sit, et videri irreligiosissimum possit, professionis ejus de se protestationem diversae intelligentiae nostrae opinione corrumpi.