xx PREFACE. 



longer God; but this never can be. He is inexpressible, 

 and has no name. A name implies an elder or superior 

 to give the name; but there is none such. We call Him 

 Father and Master and Lord of all existences, not as 

 names, but appellations derived from His benefits and His 

 works. 



This, The God before the moist Nature which appeared 

 out of darkness, begat the Perfect Word, coessential 

 (' Opoouff/bi) with Himself, the Second God, visible and 

 sensible, First One and only, and loved Him as His own 

 Son a sacred, ineffable, and shining Word, exceeding 

 all the ability of men to declare Son of God The One 

 Man by the Will of God, through Whom is access in prayer 

 to The Father, The Lord of all things. 



Through this Word were the World, the Heaven, the 

 Stars, the Earth, Mankind, and all the living existences in 

 them, brought into being, and harmoniously ordered 

 through the operation of Mind ("NoDj"), the Wisdom of 

 God, the God of Fire and Spirit proceeding from God, 

 Which with the Seven administrative Spirits created by it, 

 whose administration constitutes Fate, applied themselves 

 to the conformation of the Universe out of chaos, according 

 to the Idea, the Archetype or Pattern, pre-existent in the 

 Mind of the Deity. This "Kotos'" so created, Hermes 

 calls second God, as being wholly instinct with The 

 One Divinity. He gives the same appellation to the Sun, 

 for the same reason and because it is the instrument of 

 God's Will in new creating. The mode of the creation is 

 shown in the form of a Vision displayed before Hermes, 

 and in several portions is related in the very words of 

 the Septuagint version of Genesis. The Procession of the 

 Holy Spirit and His instrumentality in Creation is enun- 

 ciated, apparently according to the creed of the orthodox 

 Greeks. Thus, The God created Man after the image of 

 Himself, as His child, an immortal and divine animal, out 

 of two natures, the immortal and mortal, between the two, 

 that viewing all things he may admire them and then- 

 wonderful order and harmony. Man has a divine nature, 



