04 Hermes.pdfVIP

The Fourth Book The Key 1. Yesterdays Speech, O Asclepius, I dedicated to thee, this days it is fit to dedicate to Tat, because it is an Epitome of those general speeches that were spoken to him. 2. God therefore, and the Father, and the Good, O Tat, have the same Nature, or rather also the same Act and Operation. 3. For there is one name or appellation of Nature and Increase which concerneth things changeable, and another about things unchangeable, and about things unmoveable, that is to say, Things Divine and Human; every one of which, himself will have so to be; but action or operation is of another thing, or elsewhere, as we have taught in other things, Divine and Human, which must here also be understood. 4. For his Operation or Act, is his Will, and his Essence, to Will all Things to be. 5. For what is God, and the Father, and the Good, but the Being of all things that yet are not, and the existence itself, of those things that are! 6. This is God, this is the Father, this is the Good, whereunto no other thing is present or approacheth. 7. For the World, and the Sun, which is also a Father by Participation, is not for all that equally the cause of Good, and of Life, to living Creatures: And if this be so, he is altogether constrained by the Will of the Good, without which it is not possible, either to be, or to be begotten or made. 8. But the Father is the cause of his Children, who hath a will both to sow and nourish that which is good by the Son. 9. For Good is always active or busy in making; and this cannot he in any other, but in him that taketh nothing, and yet willeth all things to be; for I will not say, O Tat, making them; for he that maketh is defective in much time, in which sometimes he maketh not