Then I beheld all the work of God, that a man cannot find out the work that is done under the sun: because though a man labour to seek [it] out, yet he shall not find [it]; yea further; though a wise [man] think to know [it], yet shall he not be able to find [it].
Ver. 17. That a man cannot find out the work.] No, not the wisest that is; the very best empiric in this kind cannot. Let him labour never so much to find it, he shall but be tossed in a labyrinth, or as a wayfaring man in a desert. If a man cannot define anything because the forms of things are unknown, if he know not the creatures themselves, ab imo ad summum, from the lowest to the highest, neither shall he know the reasons and manner of them. a As a man may look on a trade, and never see the mystery of it; he may look on artificial things, pictures, watches, &c., and yet not see the art whereby they are made; as a man may look on the letter, and never understand the sense; so it is here, and we must content ourselves with a learned ignorance. Si nos non intelligimus quid quare fiat, debeamus hoc providentiae quod non fiat sine causa: b If we understand not why anything is done, let us owe this duty to Providence, to be assured that it is not done without cause.
a Granger.
b Aug. in Psalm cxlviii.