Miscellanies 5.9.57

It is possible, then, to take several meanings, as indeed we do, from what is said with concealment. This being so, the inexperienced and ignorant go astray, but the one who knows grasps it. Indeed they did not wish all things to be set out freely for anyone who happens by, nor the good things of wisdom to be shared with those whose soul has not been purified even in a dream; for it is not lawful to hold out to all comers what was acquired with so many struggles, nor to recount the mysteries of the Word to the profane. They say, at any rate, that Hipparchus the Pythagorean, accused of writing out the teachings of Pythagoras plainly, was expelled from the school, and a monument was set up for him as for a dead man. That is why in the barbarian philosophy too those who fall away from the doctrines and subject their mind to the passions of the soul are called dead. “For what partnership has righteousness with lawlessness,” according to the divine apostle, “or what fellowship has light with darkness? What agreement has Christ with Beliar? Or what portion has a believer with an unbeliever?” “For the honors of the Olympians and of the dead are separate.” “That is why come out from their midst and be separate, says the Lord, and touch nothing unclean; and I will receive you, and I will be a father to you, and you will be my sons and daughters.”