On account of the hearts of the innocent, the apostle, in the Epistle to the Romans, owns that he rejoices, and furnishes a kind of definition of children, so to speak, when he says, "I would have you wise toward good, but simple towards evil." For the name of child, νήπιον, is not understood by us privatively, though the sons of the grammarians make the νη a privative particle. For if they call us who follow after childhood foolish, see how they utter blasphemy against the Lord, in regarding those as foolish who have betaken themselves to God. But if, which is rather the true sense, they themselves understand the designation children of simple ones, we glory in the name. For the new minds, which have newly become wise, which have sprung into being according to the new covenant, are infantile in the old folly. Of late, then, God was known by the coming of Christ: "For no man knoweth God but the Son, and he to whom the Son shall reveal Him."

Ἐπὶ δὲ ταῖς καρδίαις τῶν ἀκάκων ἐν τῇ πρὸς Ρωμαίους ἐπιστολῇ χαίρειν ὁ ἀπόστολος ὁμολογεῖ͵ καὶ δὴ ὅρον τινὰ νηπίων͵ ὡς εἰπεῖν͵ ἀποδίδωσιν εἰπών· Θέλω δὲ ὑμᾶς σοφοὺς μὲν εἶναι εἰς τὸ ἀγαθόν͵ ἀκεραίους δὲ εἰς τὸ κακόν. Καὶ γὰρ οὐδὲ ἔστιν τὸ ὄνομα τοῦ νηπίου κατὰ στέρησιν ἡμῖν νοούμενον͵ ἐπεὶ τὸ νη στερητικὸν γραμματικῶν νομοθετοῦσιν παῖδες. Εἰ γὰρ ἄφρονας ἡμᾶς οἱ τῆς νηπιότητος κατατρέχοντες καλοῦσιν͵ ὁρᾶτε πῶς βλασφημοῦσιν ἐπὶ τὸν κύριον τοὺς εἰς θεὸν καταπεφευγότας ἄφρονας ὑπολαμβάνοντες· εἰ δέ͵ ὅπερ καὶ μᾶλλον ἐξακουστέον͵ τοὺς νηπίους καὶ αὐτοὶ ἐπὶ τῶν ἁπλῶν ἐκδέξονται͵ χαίρωμεν τῇ προσηγορίᾳ· νήπιαι γὰρ αἱ νέαι φρένες εἰσίν͵ ἐν παλαιᾷ τῇ ἀφροσύνῃ αἱ νεωστὶ συνεταί͵ αἱ κατὰ τὴν διαθήκην τὴν καινὴν ἀνατείλασαι. Ἔναγχος γοῦν ἔγνωσται ὁ θεὸς κατὰ τὴν Χριστοῦ παρουσίαν. Θεὸν γὰρ οὐδεὶς ἔγνω͵ εἰ μὴ ὁ υἱὸς καὶ ᾧ ἂν ὁ υἱὸς ἀποκαλύψῃ.