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| God, Although Incomprehensible, is Ever to Be Sought. The Traces of the Trinity are Not Vainly Sought in the Creature. PREVIOUS SECTION - NEXT SECTION - HELP
Chapter 2.—God, Although
Incomprehensible, is Ever to Be Sought. The Traces of the Trinity
are Not Vainly Sought in the Creature.
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.”938 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.”939 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.”940 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.”941 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.”942 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.”943 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.”944
944 Wisdom 13.1-5" id="iv.i.xvii.ii-p10.1" parsed="|Wis|13|1|13|5" osisRef="Bible:Wis.13.1-Wis.13.5">Wisd. xiii. 1–5 | 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.E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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