to have been introduced here;” for he is utterly ignorant of the reason which led God to will its being inserted in the place it occupies. The word of an apostle is to this effect: “But if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost.”1409 And again he says: “To the one indeed we are the savour of life unto life; to the other, the savour of death unto death;” and adds imme- diately, “And who is sufficient for these things?”1410—that is to say, who is sufficient to comprehend how righteously that is done? The Lord Himself expresses the same when He says, “I am come that they which see not might see, and that they which see might be made blind.”1411 For it is in the depth of the riches of the knowledge and wisdom of God that it comes to pass that of the same lump one vessel is made unto honour, and another unto dishonour.1412 And to flesh and blood it is said, “O man, who art thou that repliest against God?”1413 Who, then, knows the mind of the Lord in the matter now under consideration? or who hath been His counsellor,1414 where He has in such wise ruled the hearts of these evangelists in their recollections, and has raised them to so commanding a position of au- thority in the sublime edifice of His Church, that those very things which are capable of presenting the appearance of contradictions in them become the means by which many are made blind, deservedly given over to the lusts of their own heart, and to a reprobate mind;1415 and by which also many are exercised in the thorough cultivation of a pious understanding, in accordance with the hidden righteousness of the Almighty? For the language of a prophet in speaking to the Lord is this: “Thy thoughts are exceeding deep. An inconsiderate man will not know, and a foolish man will not understand these things.”1416 49. Moreover, I request and admonish those who read the statement which, with the help of the Lord, has thus been elaborated by us, to bear in mind this discourse, which I have thought it needful to introduce in the present connection, in every similar difficulty which may be raised in such inquiries, so that there may be no necessity for repeating the same thing over and over again. Besides, any one who is willing to clear himself of the hardness of impiety, and to give his attention to the subject, will easily perceive how oppor- tune the place is in which Mark has inserted this notice of the third hour, so that every one may there be led to bethink himself of an hour at which the Jews really crucified the Lord, although they sought to transfer the burden of the crime to the Romans, whether to the 1409 2 Cor. iv. 3. 1410 2 Cor. ii. 16. 1411 John ix. 39. 1412 Rom. ix. 21. 1413 Rom. ix. 20. 1414 Rom. xi. 34. 1415 Rom. i. 24–28. 1416 Ps. xcii. 5, 6. 451 Of the Hour of the Lord’s Passion, and of the Question Concerning the Absence…