Tertullian · a new plain-English translation from the original language
Let me now, of my own accord, grant that point. Let it be granted that 'seek and you shall find' was said to everyone; even so, this needs to be read with a settled sense, under the guidance of sound interpretation. No divine utterance is so loose and diffuse that only the bare words are defended while the reasoning behind the words goes unfixed. But first of all I lay this down: that one single, definite thing was established by Christ, which the nations are bound to believe in every respect, and it is for this reason that they must seek — so that, once they have found it, they may believe. Now of one single, fixed thing there cannot be an endless inquiry; the search runs its course the moment discovery arrives, belief follows on the finding, and after that nothing remains but to hold fast what has been taken up as true — while also holding this too: that no further object of belief exists, and hence nothing further to hunt for once what Christ laid down has been found and trusted, since he who bids you seek forbids you to seek past his own boundary. If anyone doubts this, it will become clear that what was established by Christ is to be found in our possession. Meanwhile, on the strength of the proof I am about to offer, I get ahead of myself and warn certain people against looking past the very thing their own trust already rests on — that object of trust was what their search should have stopped at — lest they interpret 'seek and you shall find' as license without the discipline of reason.