POEMANDRES. XIII. 8fr 



5. Tat. Now for the rest, Father ! thou hast brought 

 me to silence, abandoned by previous thoughts; for I 

 behold thy magnitude the same, Father! with the 

 character (a). 



Hermes. And in that thou art deceived ; for the form 

 of mortals is changed day by day : for by time it is turned 

 to augmentation or diminution, as falsity. 



6. Tat What then is true, O Trismegistus ? 

 Hermes. That not perturbed (6), Child ! that not 



limited (c), the colourless, the formless, the invariable, the 

 naked, the luminous, the comprehensible in itself, the 

 unalterable, the good, the incorporeal. 1 



Tat. I am really maddened, Father ! for seeming to 

 have become wise through thee, my senses have been 

 closed up by this cogitation (d). 



Hermes. Thus it holds, Child ! for [sense perceives 

 that] this is borne upwards as fire, that borne downwards 

 as earth, and moist as water, and blowing together as air ; 

 but how wilt thou understand this by sense, that not hard, 

 that not moist, the unconstrainable, the not dissolved, that 

 understood solely in power and energy? Thou wantest 

 Mind alone able to understand the generation in God. ;; 



7. Tat. I am then unable, O Father ! 



Hermes. Let it not be, O Child ! Draw to thyself and \ 

 it will come ; wish and it becomes. Lay to rest (e) the senses 

 of the body, and it will be the generation of The Deity; 

 purify thyself from the irrational avengers (/) of the Matter, i 



(a) ra ^dpocKrijpi. (b) Qohovptvov. (c) ^lopi^optvov. 



(d) vovjftccTo;. (e) xonapyififfO]/. (_/) Tiftapuv. 



this is extracted by Lactantius (Divin. Instit., iv. 6, vii. 4, post, Part 

 III.). Here we find a distinct assertion of the Incarnation of the Son 

 of God. This passage and the remainder of the Chapter is almost a 

 repetition of John iii. 3-21. For after having said, " Except a man be 

 born anew;" " Except a man be born of water and the Spirit, he can- 

 not enter into the kingdom of God;" " Ye must be born anew;" he 

 subjoins, " So God loved the world, that He gave His only begotten 

 Son, that whosoever believeth on Him should not perish, but have 

 eternal life." " That the world should be saved through Him." 



1 See Excerpt from Stobeeus, Part II. v., " Of Truth," ad fin. 



