But neither did the coppersmith make the rust.

 

The Seventeenth Book
of
Hermes Trismegistus.

To Asclepius, to be truly wise.

1. Because, my Son Tat, in your absence, would needs learn the nature of the things that are, he would not suffer me to give over - as coming very young to the knowledge of every individual - till I was forced at large, that his contemplation might from point to point, be more easy and successful. 

2. But to thee, I have thought good to write in few words, choosing out the principal heads of the things than spoken, and to interpret them more mystically, because you have both more years, and more knowledge of Nature.

3. All things that appear were made, and are made.

4. Those things that are made, are not made by themselves, but by another.

5. And there are many things made, but especially all things that appear, and which are different and not like. 

6. If the things that be made and done, be made and done by another, there must be one that must make and do them, and he unmade, and more ancient than the things that are made.

7. For I affirm the things that are made, to be made by another, and it is impossible that of the things that are made , any should be more ancient than all, but only that which is not made.

8. He is stronger and one and only knowing all things indeed, as not having anything more ancient than himself.

9. For he bears rule, both over multitude and greatness, and the diversity of the things that are made, and the continuity of the facture and of the operation. 

10. Moreover, the things that are made, are visible, but he is invisible, and for this cause he makes them that he may be visible, and therefore he makes them always.

11. Thus it is fit to understand, and understanding to admire, and admiring to think yourself happy, that knows your natural Father. 

12. For what is sweeter than a natural Father?

13. Who therefore is this, or how shall we know him?

14. Or is it just to ascribe unto him alone, the title and appellation of God, or of the Maker, or of the Father, of all three? That of God, because of his power, the Maker, because of his working and operation, and the Father, because of his goodness?

15. For power is different from the things that are made, but act or operation, in that all things are made.

16. Wherefore, letting go all much and vain talking, we must understand these two things: that which is made, and him which is the Maker, for there is nothing in the middle between these two, nor is there any third.

17. Therefore, understanding all things, remember these two, and think that these are all things, putting nothing into doubt, neither of teh tings above, nor of the things below, neither of things changeable, nor things that are in darkness or secret.

18. For all things are but two things, that which makes and that which is made, and the one of them cannot depart, or be divided from the other.

19. For neither is it possible that the Maker should be without the thing made, for either of them is the selfsame thing; therefore cannot the one of them be separated from the other, no more than a thing can be separated from itself. 

20. For if he that makes be nothing else, but that which makes alone, simple, uncompounded, it is of necessity that he makes the same thing to himself, to whom it is the generation of him that makes to be also all that is made.

21. For that which is generated or made must necessarily be generated or made by another, but without the Maker that which is made, neither is made nor is, for the one of them without the other has lost his proper nature by the privation of the other. 

22. So if these two be confessed, that which makes and that which is made, then they are one in union, this going before and that following.

23. And that which goes before is God the Maker, and that which follows is that which is made, be it what it will. 

24. And let no man be afraid, because of the bariety of things that are made or done, lest he should cast an aspersion of baseness or infamy upon God, for it is the only glory of him to do or make all things.

25. And this making or facture is as it were the Body of God, and to him that makes or does there is nothing evil or filthy to be imputed, or there is nothing thought evil or filthy.

26. For these are passions that follow generation, as rust does copper, or as excrement does the body. 

27. But neither did the coppersmith make the rust, not the Maker the filth, nor God the evilness. 

28. But the vicissitude of generation makes them, as it were, to blossom out, and for this cause made change to be, as one should say, the purgation of generation. 

29. Moreover, is it lawful for the same painter to make both Heaven and the Gods, and the Earth, and the sea, and men, and brute beasts, and inanimate things, and trees? and is it impossible for God to make these things? O the great madness and ignorance of men in things that concern God!

30. For men that think so suffer that which is most ridiculous of all, for processing to bless and praise God, yet in not ascribing to him the making or doing of all things, they know him not. 

31. And besides their not knowing him, they are extremely unto him passions as pride, or oversight, or weakness, or ignorance, or envy.

32. For if he does not make or do all things, he is either proud or not able, or ignorant, or envious, which is impious to affirm. 

33. For God has only one passion, namely Good, and he that is good is neither proud nor impotent, nor the rest, but God is Good itself. 

34. For Good is all power to do or make all things, and everything that is made, is made by God, that is, by the Good, and that can make or do all things. 

35. See, then, how he makes all things, and how things are done, that are done, and if you will learn, you may see an image thereof very beautiful and like. 

36. Look upon the husbandman, how he casts seeds into the earth, here wheat, there barley, and elsewhere some other seeds.

37. Look upon the same man, planting a vine or an apple tree, or a fig tree, or some other tree. 

38. So does God in Heaven sow immortality; in the Earth, change; in the whole, life and motion. 

39. And these things are not many, but few and easily numbered, for they are all but four, God and generation, in which are all things. 

The End of the Seventeenth Book. 

FINIS