Chapter XI.—After We Have Believed, Search Should Cease; Otherwise It Must End in a Denial of What We Have Believed. No Other Object Proposed for Our Faith.

There is impunity in erring, if there is no delinquency; although indeed to err it is itself an act of delinquency.131    Quamvis et errare delinquere est. With impunity, I repeat, does a man ramble,132    Vagatur. when he (purposely) deserts nothing. But yet, if I have believed what I was bound to believe, and then afterwards think that there is something new to be sought after, I of course expect that there is something else to be found, although I should by no means entertain such expectation, unless it were because I either had not believed, although I apparently had become a believer, or else have ceased to believe. If I thus desert my faith, I am found to be a denier thereof. Once for all I would say, No man seeks, except him who either never possessed, or else has lost (what he sought). The old woman (in the Gospel)133    Anus illa. had lost one of her ten pieces of silver, and therefore she sought it;134    Luke xv. 8. when, however, she found it, she ceased to look for it. The neighbour was without bread, and therefore he knocked; but as soon as the door was opened to him, and he received the bread, he discontinued knocking.135    Luke xi. 5. The widow kept asking to be heard by the judge, because she was not admitted; but when her suit was heard, thenceforth she was silent.136    Luke xviii. 2, 3. So that there is a limit both to seeking, and to knocking, and to asking. “For to every one that asketh,” says He, “it shall be given, and to him that knocketh it shall be opened, and by him that seeketh it shall be found.”137    Luke xi. 9. Away with the man138    Viderit. who is ever seeking because he never finds; for he seeks there where nothing can be found. Away with him who is always knocking because it will never be opened to him; for he knocks where there is none (to open). Away with him who is always asking because he will never be heard; for he asks of one who does not hear.

CAPUT XI.

Nemo enim quaerit, nisi qui aut non habuit, aut perdidit.

Impune erratur nisi delinquatur (quamvis errare, delinquere 0025A est): impune, inquam, vagatur, qui nihil deserit. Atenim si quod debui credere credidi, et aliud denuo puto requirendum, spero utique et aliud esse inveniendum; nullo modo speratur istud, nisi quia aut non credideram qui videbar credidisse, aut desii credidisse. Ita fidem meam deserens, negator invenior. Semel dixerim: nemo quaerit, nisi qui, aut non habuit, aut perdidit. Perdiderat unam ex decem drachmis anus illa (Luc., XV, 8), et ideo quaerebat; ubi tamen invenit, quaerere desiit. Panem vicinus non habebat (Luc., XI, 5), et ideo pulsabat; ubi tamen apertum est ei, et accepit, pulsare cessavit. Vidua a judice petebat audiri (Luc. XVIII, 3), quia non admittebatur; sed ubi audita est, hactenus institit. Adeo. finis est et quaerendi, et pulsandi, et petendi. Petenti 0025B enim dabitur, inquit, et pulsanti aperietur, et quaerenti invenietur (Luc. XI, 9). Viderit, qui quaerit semper, quia non invenit: illic enim quaerit, ubi non invenietur. Viderit, qui semper pulsat, quia nunquam aperietur: illuc enim pulsat, ubi nemo est. Viderit qui semper petit, quia nunquam audietur . Ab eo enim petit, qui non audit.