63. Whenever God says that He does not know, He professes ignorance indeed, but is not under the defect of ignorance. It is not because of the infirmity of ignorance that He does not know, but because it is not yet the time to speak, or the divine Plan to act. Thus He says to Abraham, The cry of Sodom and Gomorrah is full, and their sin is very grievous. Therefore I will go down now, and see if they have done altogether according to the cry of it: and if not, I will know561    Gen. xviii. 20, 21.. Here we perceive God not knowing that which notwithstanding He knows. He knows that their sins are very grievous, but He comes down again to see whether they have done altogether, and to know if they have not. We observe, then, that He is not ignorant, although He does not know, but that, when the time comes for action, He knows. This knowledge is not, therefore, a change from ignorance, but the coming of the fulness of time. He waits still to know, but we cannot suppose that He does not know: therefore His not knowing what He knows, and His knowing what He does not know, is nothing else than a divine economy in word and deed.

63. Deus qui nescire aut jam scire quid dicatur.---In omnibus enim, quae ignorare se Deus loquitur, ignorantiam quidem profitetur, sed ignoratione tamen non detinetur: dum ad id quod nescit, non nesciendi infirmitas est, sed aut tempus est non loquendi, 0331C aut dispensatio est non agendi. Loquitur ad Abraham Deus dicens: Clamor Sodomae et Gomorrhae impletus est, et peccata eorum magna valde. Descendam ergo et videbo, si secundum clamorem eorum consummantur; quod si non, ut sciam (Gen. XVIII, 20 0332A et 21). Habemus ergo nescientem Deum, quod tamen non nesciat. Nam cum peccata magna valde sciat esse, et rursum descendit ut videat an consummata sint, et si nondum consummata sunt, ut sciat: intelligimus eum non nescire, quia nesciat; sed tum scire, quia tempus ad agendum sit. Scire ergo Deum, non est ignorantiae demutatio, sed temporis plenitudo. Exspectatur enim adhuc ut sciat: et cum non possimus id de eo intelligere quod nesciat; cum tamen adhuc exspectet ut sciat, necesse est, ut id quod sciens nescit, et nesciens scit, nihil aliud quam vel loquendi dispensatio sit, vel gerendi.