By the goodly pearls may be understood the Law and the Prophets. Hear then Marcion and Manichaeus; the good pearls are the Law and the Prophets. One pearl, the most precious of all, is the knowledge of the Saviour and the sacrament of His passion and resurrection, which when the merchantman has found, like Paul the Apostle, he straightway despises all the mysteries of the Law and the Prophets and the old observances in which he had lived blameless, counting them as dung that he may win Christ. [margin note: Phil 3:8] Not that the finding of a new pearl is the condemnation of the old pearls, but that in comparison of that, all other pearls are worthless.
Reproduced in full. Translation: Oxford 1841 (Newman), public domain (Public domain).