Philosophumena; or, The refutation of all heresies, Volume II — David Hume — John Shaqi
Philosophumena; or, The refutation of all heresies, Volume II
David Hume · en
9. This (sort of man) one must suppose Simon the magician (to be),
so that we would far sooner liken him to the Libyan who was born a
man than to (Him) who is really God.[10] But if the details of the
likeness be held accurate and the magician had some such passion as
Apsethus, we will undertake to teach Simon’s parrots that Simon who
stood, stands and will stand was not Christ, but [Sidenote: p. 246.]
a man (sprung) from seed, born of a woman[11] begotten from blood and
fleshly desire like the rest, and that he knew this to be so, we shall
easily show as the story goes on.[12] But Simon, stupidly and clumsily
garbling the Law of Moses--for when Moses has said that God was “a
burning and consuming fire,”[13]--he, not having received Moses’ saying
rightly, says that fire is the principle of the universals, and not
having comprehended the saying that God is not Fire, but a burning
and consuming fire, (thereby) not only rends in twain the Law of
Moses, but steals from Heraclitus the Obscure.[14] But Simon proclaims
that the principle of the universals is a boundless power, speaking
thus:--“This is the writing of the Announcement[15] of Voice and Name
from the Thought of the great power of the Boundless One. Wherefore it
will be sealed up, hidden, concealed and will be in the dwelling-place
where the root of the universals is founded.”[16] But he says that
the dwelling-place is the same man who has been begotten from blood
and that the [Sidenote: p. 247.] Boundless Power dwells in him, which
(power) he says is the root of the universals. But the Boundless Power,
the fire according to Simon, is not simple as the many say who think
that the four elements are simple and that fire is simple; but there is
a certain double nature of fire, and of this double nature he calls one
part hidden and the other manifest. But the hidden (parts) have been
hidden in the manifest parts of the fire, and the manifest have come
into being by the hidden. This it is which Aristotle calls potentiality
and action, and Plato the comprehensible and the perceptible.[17]