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
12. For, he says, he considered all the parts of the fire which
are invisible to have sense and a share of mind.[28] [Sidenote: p.
250.] Therefore the cosmos, he says, came into being begotten by the
unbegotten fire. But it began to be, he says, after this fashion:--He
who was produced from the beginning from that fire took six roots,
the first ones of the principle of generation.[29] And he says that
the roots came from the fire in pairs, which roots he calls Mind and
Thought, Voice and Name, Reasoning and Passion,[30] but that the whole
of the Boundless Power together is in these six roots potentially,
but not actively. The which Boundless Power he says is He who Stood,
Stands, and will Stand. Who if he be made into a complete image (of
the fire) will be in substance, power, greatness, and effect one and
the same with that Unbegotten and Boundless Power, and lacking nothing
possessed by that unbegotten and unchanging and infinite power. But if
he remains potentially only in the six powers and is not made into a
complete image (of the fire), he is done away with and is lost like as
the capacity for grammar or geometry in man’s soul. For power taking
[Sidenote: p. 251.] to itself skill becomes a light of the things which
are: but if it does not take unto itself (skill) it is unskilfulness
and darkness and as if it were not, it perishes[31] with the man at his
death.
13. But of these six powers and the seventh which is with the six, he
calls the first pair, (to wit) Nous and Epinoia, Heaven and Earth. And
(he says) that the masculine (partner) looks down from on high upon
and takes thought for his spouse and that the Earth below receives the
intellectual fruits proper to her brought down from Heaven to Earth.
Wherefore, he says, the Logos beholding often the things born from Nous
and Epinoia, that is from Heaven and Earth, says: “Hear, O Heaven,
and give ear, O Earth, for the Lord has spoken. I have begotten and
raised up sons, but they have disregarded me.”[32] He who thus speaks,
he says, is the Seventh Power who Stood, Stands and will Stand. For
he is the cause of those fair things which Moses praised and said
that [Sidenote: p. 252.] they were very good. And Phone and Onoma are
the Sun and Moon, and Logismos and Enthymesis Air and Water. But with
all these is mingled and compounded, as I have said, the great and
Boundless Power, He who has Stood.[33]