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 only 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.