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.”930    Gen. i. 27    Ps. cv. 3, 4 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.”931    Cc. 2 sq.    Isa. lv. 6, 7 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.”932    Ecclus. xxiv. 22 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.”933    Isa. vii. 9 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.”934    Ps. xiv. 2 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.”935    Rom. i. 20 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.”936    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.

CAPUT II.

2. Deus incomprehensibilis semper quaerendus. Trinitatis vestigia non frustra quaesita in creatura. Deus quippe ipse quem quaerimus adjuvabit, ut spero, ne sit infructuosus labor noster, et intelligamus quemadmodum dictum sit in Psalmo sacro: Laetetur cor quaerentium Dominum: quaerite Dominum, et confirmamini; quaerite faciem ejus semper (Psal. CIV, 3,4). Videtur enim, quod semper quaeritur, nunquam inveniri: et quomodo jam laetabitur, et non potius contristabitur cor quaerentium, si non potuerint invenire quod quaerunt? Non enim ait, Laetetur cor invenientium; sed, quaerentium Dominum. Et tamen Dominum Deum inveniri posse dum quaeritur, testatur Isaias propheta, dum dicit: Quaerite Dominum, et mox ut inveneritis, invocate eum: et cum appropinquaverit vobis, derelinquat impius vias suas, et vir iniquus cogitationes suas (Isai. LV, 6, 7). Si ergo quaesitus inveniri potest, cur dictum est, Quaerite faciem ejus semper? An et inventus forte quaerendus est? Sic enim sunt incomprehensibilia requirenda, ne se existimet nihil invenisse, qui quam sit incomprehensibile quod quaerebat, potuerit invenire. Cur ergo sic quaerit, si incomprehensible comprehendit esse quod quaerit, nisi quia cessandum non est, quamdiu in ipsa incomprehensibilium 1058 rerum inquisitione proficitur, et melior meliorque fit quaerens tam magnum bonum, quod et inveniendum quaeritur, et quaerendum invenitur? Nam et quaeritur ut inveniatur dulcius, et invenitur ut quaeratur avidius. Secundum hoc accipi potest, quod dictum est in libro Ecclesiastico dicere sapientiam: Qui me manducant, adhuc esurient; et qui bibunt me, adhuc sitient (Eccli. XXIV, 29). Manducant enim et bibunt, quia inveniunt; et quia esuriunt ac sitiunt, adhuc quaerunt. Fides quaerit, intellectus invenit: propter quod ait propheta, Nisi credideritis, non intelligetis (Isai. VII, 9). Et rursus intellectus eum quem invenit adhuc quaerit: Deus enim respexit super filios hominum, sicut in Psalmo sacro canitur, ut videret si est intelligens, aut requirens Deum (Psal. XIII, 2). Ad hoc ergo debet homo esse intelligens, ut requirat Deum.

3. Satis itaque remorati fuerimus in iis quae Deus fecit, ut per ea cognosceretur ipse qui fecit: Invisibilia enim ejus, a creatura mundi, per ea quae facta sunt, intellecta conspiciuntur (Rom. I, 20). Unde arguuntur in libro Sapientiae, qui de iis quae videntur bona, non potuerunt scire eum qui est, neque operibus attendentes agnoverunt artificem; sed aut ignem, aut spiritum, aut citatum aerem, aut gyrum stellarum, aut violentiam aquarum, aut luminaria coeli, rectores orbis terrarum deos putaverunt: quorum quidem si specie delectati haec deos putaverunt, sciant quanto Dominator eorum melior est. Speciei enim generator ea creavit. Aut si virtutem et operationem eorum mirati sunt, intelligant ab his quanto qui haec constituit fortior est. A magnitudine enim speciei et creaturae cognoscibiliter poterat horum Creator videri (Sap. XIII, 1-5). Haec de libro Sapientiae propterea posui, ne me fidelium quispiam frustra et inaniter existimet in creatura prius per quasdam sui generis trinitates quodam modo gradatim, donec ad mentem hominis pervenirem, quaesisse indicia summae illius Trinitatis, quam quaerimus cum Deum quaerimus.