66. The Lord Jesus Christ, then, Who searcheth the heart and the reins567    Rev. ii. 23., has no weakness in His nature, that He should not know, for, as we perceive, even the fact of His ignorance proceeds from the omniscience of His nature. Yet if any there be, who impute to Him ignorance, let them tremble, lest He Who knows their thoughts should say to them, Wherefore think ye evil in your hearts568    St. Matt. ix. 4.? The All-knowing, though not ignorant of thoughts and deeds, sometimes enquires as if He were, as for instance when He asks the woman who it was that touched the hem of His garment, or the Apostles, why they quarrelled among themselves, or the mourners, where the sepulchre of Lazarus was: but His ignorance was not ignorance, except in words. It is against reason that He should know from afar the death and burial of Lazarus, but not the place of his sepulchre: that He should read the thoughts of the mind, and not recognise the faith of the woman: that He should not need to ask concerning anything569    St. John xvi. 30. The Greek is ἵνα τίς σε ἐρωτᾷ, ‘that any one should ask thee’ (R.V.)., yet be ignorant of the dissension of the Apostles. But He, Who knows all things, sometimes by a practice of economy professes ignorance, even though He is not ignorant. Thus, in the case of Abraham, God concealed His knowledge for a time: in that of the foolish virgins and the workers of iniquity, He refused to recognise the unworthy: in the mystery of the Son of Man, His asking, as if ignorant, expressed His humanity. He accommodated Himself to the reality of His birth in the flesh in everything to which the weakness of our nature is subject, not in such wise that He became weak in His divine nature, but that God, born man, assumed the weaknesses of humanity, yet without thereby reducing His unchangeable nature to a weak nature, for the unchangeable nature was that wherein He mysteriously assumed flesh. He, Who was God is man, but, being man, has not ceased to remain God. Conducting Himself then as one born man, and proving Himself such, though remaining God the Word, He often uses the language of man (though God, speaking as God, makes frequent use of human terms), and does not know that which it is not yet time to declare, or which is not deserving of His recognition.

66. Christus nil nesciens dispensationis ergo loquitur quasi nesciens. Diei scientia occulta: ideo quasi ignorata. ---Non est igitur Dominus Jesus Christus, qui scrutans corda et renes Deus est, in ea naturae infirmitate, (ut) ne nesciat, cum hoc ipsum ex naturae scientia intelligatur esse, quod nescit. Quod si qui 0334A forte ignorationem ei deputabunt, ab eo qui sciat cogitationes eorum dici sibi metuant. Quid cogitatis mala in cordibus vestris (Matth. IX, 4)? Nam cum cogitationum gestorumque non ignarus cognitor interdum de cogitatis gestisque quasi ignarus interrogat, velut de tactu fimbriae mulierem, vel de dictorum dissensione Apostolos, vel de sepulcro Lazari flentes: non nesciens intelligendus est nescire, sed loquens. Neque enim natura fert, ut qui absens Lazarum mortuum sepultumque sciat, sepulcri locum nesciat; et qui cogitationes videt, mulieris fidem non cognoverit, et qui necessitatem non habet de aliquo interrogandi (Joan. XVI, 30), dissensionem Apostolorum ignoraverit. Sed ei, qui novit omnia, ea ipsa quae non nescit, dispensatio est aliquando nescire se loqui: 0334B dum aut apud Abraham scientia dissimulatur in tempus, aut apud stultas virgines et iniquitatis operarios cognitio negatur indignis, aut in sacramento filii hominis, interrogatio ignorantis ex homine est: in his se omnibus veritati corporeae nativitatis accommodans, quibus naturae nostrae infirmitas detinetur; non (ita) ut infirmis esset ex 310 natura qui Deus est, sed ut infirmitates sibi hominum Deus homo natus assumpserit, assumpserit autem ita, non ut in naturam infirmam natura indemutabilis sit redacta, sed ut in natura indemutabili susceptionis esset sacramentum: dum et qui erat Deus, homo est; nec Deus destitit manere, qui homo est. Agens itaque se atque confirmans hominem natum, manens Deus Verbum, saepissime in ea est professione, qua homo 0334C est, cum tamen et protestatio Dei ea sit saepe quae hominum: cum ea nescit, quae aut non sint in tempore confitenda, aut non agnoscuntur ad meritum.