10. This you have also in the Gospel, _Ask, and it shall be given you, seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you_. Ask from the ‘cause,’ that is, from the Author. You have as your subject-matter things spiritual which cause you to seek; _knock, and_ God the Word _opens to you_. That which asks is the mind, which works like fire; it is in things spiritual that the glow of the mind works, as fire on wood; God the Word opens unto you, this is the ‘end.’ We have also in another part of the Gospel these words of our Lord, _But when they deliver you up, take no thought how or what ye shall speak, for it shall be given you in that same hour what ye shall speak. For it is not ye that speak, but the Spirit of your Father which speaketh in you_. Sidenote: Gen. xxvii. 20. Sidenote: Ib. xxxi. 33. 11. These words too of Isaac you have in Genesis, _How is it that thou hast found it so quickly, my son? And he said, Because the Lord thy God brought it to me._ The Lord is the end. He who seeks in the Lord finds. And thus Laban who sought not in the Lord, for he sought idols, found not. Sidenote: Ib. xxvii. 4. 12. And he has well observed the rules[16] and distinctions as they are called. The first is _Go and take me some venison, that I may eat_. He excites and inflames his mind with the fire, as it were, of his exhortation, that he may labour and seek. The second is, _How is it that thou hast found it so quickly?_ This is in the form of a question; the third is an answer, _Because the Lord thy God brought it to me_. The ‘end’ is God, Who concludes and perfects all things, of Whom we are not to doubt. 13. And there is a ‘distinction’ too as to spontaneous things; If you sow not, you shall not reap[17]; for although culture calls forth seeds, yet nature by a certain spontaneous impulse, worketh in them that they spring up. Sidenote: 1 Cor. iii. 6, 7. 14. Wherefore the Apostle says, _I have planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the increase. So then neither is he that planteth any thing, neither he that watereth, but God That giveth the increase!_ God gives to you in the spirit, and the Lord sows in your heart. Take care then that He breathe life and sow in you, that you may reap; for if you sow not, neither shall you reap. This is a sort of admonition to you to sow. If you sow not you shall not reap, is a proverb. The end agrees with the beginning; the seed is the beginning, the harvest the end. 15. Learn, he says, of me; nature aids the learner, and God is the Author of nature. It is of God too that we learn well, for it is a natural gift to learn well; the hard of heart learn not. Nature, which is preserved by the Divine bounty, gives the increase. The final consummation God giveth, that is, the most excellent and Divine Nature and Essence of the Trinity. Farewell: love us, as you do, for we love you. COUNCIL OF AQUILEIA A.D. 381.