Tertullian · a new plain-English translation from the original language
Now the sense of this saying rests on three points: the matter, the time, and the manner. In the matter, you must consider what is to be sought; in the time, when; in the manner, how far. What Christ established, then, is to be sought only for as long as you have not found it — only until you find it. And the finding is confirmed the moment trust follows. Had discovery not come first, no trust of yours could have followed it; and had finding not been your aim, no search of yours would have begun at all. To this end, then, you seek, that you may find; and to this end you find, that you may believe: by believing, you have fixed the whole process of seeking and finding. This limit was set for you by the very fruit of the search itself. This boundary was marked out for you by the one who does not want you to believe anything other than what he established, and therefore does not want you to go on seeking either. Otherwise — if, because other people have set up other things just as impressive, we ought therefore to go on seeking as far as we are able to find — we will always be seeking and never, ever believing. For where will there be an end of seeking? Where a stopping-place for believing? Where a full stop to finding? At Marcion's? But Valentinus too proposes: 'seek and you shall find.' At Valentinus's, then? But Apelles will come knocking at me with that same pronouncement; and Ebion and Simon, and every one of them in turn, have nothing else with which to work their way into me and win me over to themselves. So it will end nowhere, so long as I everywhere run into 'seek and you shall find,' as though I were nowhere, as though I had never yet grasped what Christ established, what must be sought, and what must necessarily be believed.