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2. For God Himself, whom we seek, will, as I hope, help our
labors, that they may not be unfruitful, and that we may understand
how it is said in the holy Psalm, "Let the heart of them rejoice
that seek the Lord. Seek the Lord, and be strengthened: seek His
face evermore." For that which is always being sought seems as though
it were never found; and how then will the heart of them that seek
rejoice, and not rather be made sad, if they cannot find what they
seek? For it is not said, The heart shall rejoice of them that
find, but of them that seek, the Lord. And yet the prophet Isaiah
testifies, that the Lord God can be found when He is sought, when
he says: "Seek ye the Lord; and as soon as ye have found Him,
call upon Him: and when He has drawn near to you, let the wicked man
forsake his ways, and the unrighteous man his thoughts." If, then,
when sought, He can be found, why is it said, "Seek ye His face
evermore?" Is He perhaps to be sought even when found? For things
incomprehensible must so be investigated, as that no one may think he
has found nothing, when he has been able to find how incomprehensible
that is which he was seeking. Why then does he so seek, if he
comprehends that which he seeks to be incomprehensible, unless because
he may not give over seeking so long as he makes progress in the inquiry
itself into things incomprehensible, and becomes ever better and better
while seeking so great a good, which is both sought in order to be
found, and found in order to be sought? For it is both sought in
order that it may be found more sweetly, and found in order that it may
be sought more eagerly. The words of Wisdom in the book of
Ecclesiasticus may be taken in this meaning: "They who eat me shall
still be hungry, and they who drink me shall still be thirsty." For
they eat and drink because they find; and they still continue seeking
because they are hungry and thirst. Faith seeks, understanding
finds; whence the prophet says, "Unless ye believe, ye shall not
understand." And yet, again, understanding still seeks Him, whom
it finds for "God looked down upon the sons of men," as it is sung
in the holy Psalm, "to see if there were any that would understand,
and seek after God." And man, therefore, ought for this purpose to
have understanding, that he may seek after God.
3. We shall have tarried then long enough among those things that
God has made, in order that by them He Himself may be known that
made them. "For the invisible things of Him from the creation of the
world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are
made." And hence they are rebuked in the book of Wisdom, "who
could not out of the good things that are seen know Him that is:
neither by considering the works did they acknowledge the workmaster;
but deemed either fire, or wind, or the swift air or the circle of the
stars, or the violent water, or the lights of heaven, to be the gods
which govern the world: with whose beauty if they, being delighted,
took them to be gods, let them know how much better the Lord of them
is; for the first Author of beauty hath created them. But if they
were astonished at their power and virtue, let them understand by them
how much mightier He is that made them. For by the greatness and
beauty of the creatures proportionably the Maker of them is seen" I
have quoted these words from the book of Wisdom for this reason, that
no one of the faithful may think me vainly and emptily to have sought
first in the creature, step by step through certain trinities, each of
their own appropriate kind, until I came at last to the mind of man,
traces of that highest Trinity which we seek when we seek God.
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