Philosophumena; or, The refutation of all heresies, Volume I
David Hume · en
the mysteries called ineffable by all “which (we also speak) not in
the words taught by human wisdom, but in those taught by the Spirit,
comparing spiritual things with spiritual; but the natural[113] man
receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness
unto him”;[114] and these, he says, are the ineffable mysteries of the
Spirit which we alone behold. Concerning them, he says, the Saviour
spake: “No man shall come unto me unless my heavenly Father draw some
one (unto me).”[115] For very hard it is, he says, to receive and take
this great and ineffable mystery. And [Sidenote: p. 167.] again, he
says, the Saviour spake: “Not every one who sayeth unto me, Lord! Lord!
shall enter into the kingdom of the heavens, but he who doeth the will
of my Father who is in the heavens.”[116] Of which (will) he says, they
must be doers and not hearers only to enter into the kingdom of the
heavens. And again, says he, He spake: “The publicans and the harlots
go before you into the kingdom of the heavens.”[117] For the publicans,
he says, are those who receive the taxes of market-wares, and we are
the tax-gatherers “upon whom the ends of the æons have come down.”[118]
For the “ends,” he says, are the seeds sown in the cosmos by the
Unportrayable One,[119] whereby the whole cosmos is completed;[120]
for by them also it began to be. And this, he says, is the saying:
“The sower went forth to sow, and some (seed) fell on the wayside and
was trodden under foot, and some upon stony (parts) and sprang up;
and because it had no root, he says, it withered and died. But some
fell, he says, upon the fair and goodly earth and brought forth some
a hundredfold, and some sixty and some thirty. [Sidenote: p. 168.] He
that hath ears to hear, let him hear.”[121] This is, he says, that no
one becomes a hearer of these mysteries save only the perfect Gnostics.
This, he says, is the fair and goodly earth of which Moses spake: “I
will bring you to a fair and goodly land, to a land flowing with milk
and honey.”[122] This, he says, is the honey and the milk, tasting
which the perfect become kingless and partakers of the fulness.[123]
The same, he says, is the Pleroma, whereby all things that are begotten
by the unbegotten have come into being and are filled.