864:1
41. Perfecta æternitatis scientia, nulli tribuitur quandiu vivimus. — Quia plerumque in sacro eloquio, ut supra diximus, aquarum nomine populi designantur, aquas Dominus termino circumdat, c quia hu mani generis ita scientiam moderatur, ut quousque vicissitudines alternantium temporum transeant, perfecte ad cognitionem claritatis intimae non pertingat. Sin vero lucis nomine justos accipimus, tenebrarum vero appellatione peccatores (unde et Pautus dicit: Eratis aliquando tenebrae, nunc autem lux, in Domino [Ephes. v, 81), hoc ipsum quod diximus sentiri nil obstat, quia perfecta æternitatis scientia nulli tribuitur, quousque cursus justorum injustorumque finiatur.
四十一、只要我們還活著，永恆的完全知識就不賜給任何人。——因為在聖言中，如我們上面所說，眾民多以水為名來指稱，所以『主以界限環繞眾水』，因為祂如此節制人類的知識，使得在交替更迭的時代變遷過去之前，人不能完全達致對那至內榮光的認識。但若我們以光為名指義人，以黑暗之稱指罪人（因此保羅也說：『你們從前是黑暗的，但如今在主裡面是光明的』〔弗五8〕），那麼我們所說的這事被如此理解也無妨，因為永恆的完全知識不賜給任何人，直到義人與不義之人的路程都終結為止。
41. That perfect knowledge of eternity is granted to none so long as we live. — Because for the most part in sacred speech, as we said above, peoples are designated by the name of waters, 'the Lord encompasses the waters with a bound,' because He so tempers the knowledge of the human race that, until the vicissitudes of alternating times pass away, it does not attain perfectly to the recognition of the inmost brightness. But if by the name of light we understand the just, and by the appellation of darkness sinners (whence Paul too says: 'Ye were sometime darkness, but now are ye light in the Lord' [Eph. 5:8]), nothing hinders that this very thing which we have said be understood, because perfect knowledge of eternity is granted to none, until the course of the just and the unjust be ended.
864:2
Sed quia mirum non est carnales populos superna nescire, sanctus vir in ejusdem divinæ potentiae admiratione se erigit, et quod ipsam quoque angelorum perfectorumque hominum d scientiam transeat, intuetur dicens:
但因為屬肉體的眾民不認識天上之事並不足為奇，這位聖者便在對那同一神能的驚歎中振奮自己，並且看到它甚至超越天使與成全之人的知識，於是說：
But because it is no wonder that carnal peoples know not the things above, the holy man raises himself in admiration of that same divine power, and, beholding that it surpasses even the knowledge of the angels and of perfected men, says: