Prescription against Heretics 11

One errs without penalty, if one does not sin; although to err is also to sin. He wanders without penalty, I say, who deserts nothing. But if I have believed what I ought to have believed, and think that something else must be sought afresh, I certainly hope that something else is to be found; and I would in no way hope so unless either I had not believed, though I seemed to have believed, or I had ceased to believe. So, deserting my faith, I am found a denier. Let me say it once for all: no one seeks except one who either did not have or has lost. That old woman had lost one of her ten drachmas, and so she was seeking; but when she found it, she stopped seeking. The neighbor had no bread, and so he knocked; but when the door was opened to him and he received, he stopped knocking. The widow asked the judge to be heard, because she was not admitted; but when she was heard, she pressed no further. So there is an end to seeking and knocking and asking. “For to him who asks,” it says, “it will be given, and to him who knocks it will be opened, and by him who seeks it will be found.” Let him look to it who always seeks, because he does not find; for he seeks where it will not be found. Let him look to it who always knocks, because it will never be opened; for he knocks where no one is. Let him look to it who always asks, because he will never be heard; for he asks of one who does not hear.