(28) The Mind of the Father said that all things should be cut into Three, whose Will assented, and immediately all things were so divided.

(50) But now in man's body, in the government or dominion of the birth or geniture, there are three several things, each of them being distinct, and yet they are not divided asunder one from another; but all three together are one only man, after the kind and manner of the Ternary or Trinity in the divine being [or essence].

(91) And in the seed there are three distinct things, whereof the one cannot fathom the others, and yet the others are in that one only seed, and they all qualify, mix or unite one with another, as one being; and they are also one being, and yet also three distinct things, according to the kind and manner of the Ternary or Trinity in the Deity.

(106) Just as was the first mass, out of which Adam became a living man, so also in like manner is every mass or seed of the Ternary or Trinity in every man. Observe:

(46) And the third Forming was together, in the same Twinkling of an Eye, with the other Formings also at once (out of the [pure] Element) produced, just as if an earthly Seed was sown, out of which a whole Child springs forth, and took its Beginning naturally; and the new Creature (in Perfection of the Element) was the masculine Seed of the earthly Man, which the earthly Matrix of the Virgin conceived in the Bosom of the Virgin Mary; yet the Earthliness defiled not the Limbus of the new Creature in the holy Element, for the- Word of the Deity (which was the Mark of the Limit of Separation) hindered that.

(1) After this we must narrate how, when he had admitted certain persons to be his disciples, he distributed them into different classes according to their respective merits. For it was not fit that all of them should equally participate of the same things, as they were naturally dissimilar; nor was it indeed right that some should participate of all the most honorable auditions, but others of none, or should not at all partake of them. For this would be uncommunicative and unjust. While therefore he imparted a convenient portion of his discourses to each, he benefited as much as possible all of them, and preserved the proportion of justice, by making each a partaker of the auditions according to his desert.

Hence, in conformity to this method, he called some of them Pythagoreans, but others Pythagorists; just as we denominate some men Attics, but others Atticists. Having therefore thus aptly divided their names, some of them he considered to be genuine, but he ordained that others should show themselves to be the emulators of these. He ordered therefore that with the Pythagoreans possessions should be shared in common, and that they should always live together; but that each of the others should possess his own property apart from the rest, and that assembling together in the same place, they should mutually be at leisure for the same pursuits. And thus each of these modes was derived from Pythagoras, and transmitted to his successors.

Again, there were also with the Pythagoreans two forms of philosophy; for there were likewise two genera of those that pursued it, the Acusmatici, and the Mathematici. Of these however the Mathematici are acknowledged to be Pythagoreans by the rest; but the Mathematici do not admit that the Acusmatici are so, or that they derived their instruction from Pythagoras, but from Hippasus. And with respect to Hippasus, some say that he was a Crotonian, but others a Metapontine. But the philosophy of the Acusmatici consists in auditions unaccompanied with demonstrations and a reasoning process; because it merely orders a thing to be done in a certain way, and that they should endeavour to preserve such other things as were said by him, as so many divine dogmas.

They however profess that they will not speak of them, and that they are not to be spoken of; but they conceive those of their sect to be the best furnished with wisdom, who retained what they had heard more than others. But all these auditions are divided into three species. For some of them indeed signify what a thing is; others what it especially is; but others, what ought, or what ought not, to be done. The auditions therefore which signify what a thing is, are such as, What are the islands of the blessed? The sun and moon. What is the oracle at Delphi? The tetractys. What is harmony? That in which the Syrens subsist . But the auditions which signify what a thing especially is, are such as, What is the most just thing?

To sacrifice. What is the wisest thing? Number. But the next to this in wisdom, is that which gives names to things. What is the wisest of the things that are with us, [i. e. which pertain to human concerns]? Medicine. What is the most beautiful? Harmony. What is the most powerful? Mental decision. What is the most excellent? Felicity. What is that which is most truly asserted? That men are depraved. Hence they say that Pythagoras praised the Salaminian poet Hippodomas, because he sings:

(45) But that there are so many formings, figurings or framings in him, is caused by his eternal birth or geniture, which first is threefold, and out of or from that Trinity or Ternary it generateth itself infinitely, immeasurably or inconceiveably.

(61) Thus God is one only undivided Essence, and yet threefold in personal Distinction, one God, one Will, one Heart, one Desire, one Pleasure, one Beauty, one Almightiness, one Fullness of all Things, neither Beginning nor Ending; for if I should undertake to seek for the Beginning or Ending of a small Point, [Punctum,] or of a perfect Circle, I should miss and be confounded.

(19) When He said this, His Forethought did by means of Fate and Harmony effect their couplings and their generations founded. And so all things were multiplied according to their kind. And he who thus hath learned to know himself, hath reached that Good which doth transcend abundance; but he who through a love that leads astray, expends his love upon his body - he stays in Darkness wandering, and suffering through his senses things of Death.

(1) [Trismegistus] The soul of every man, O [my] Asclepius, is deathless; yet not all in like fashion, but some in one way or [one] time, some in another.

[Asclepius] Is not, then, O Thrice-greatest one, each soul of one [and the same] quality?

[Trismegistus] How quickly hast thou fallen, O Asclepius, from reason’s true sobriety! Did not I say that “All” is “One,” and “One” is “All,” in as much as all things have been in the Creator before they were created. Nor is He called unfitly “All,” in that His members are the “All.” Therefore, in all this argument, see that thou keep in mind Him who is “One”-“All,” or who Himself is maker of the “All.”

(1) [Trismegistus] ’Tis in this way, Asclepius;—by mixing it, by means of subtle expositions, with divers sciences not easy to be grasped,—such as arithmetic, and music, and geometry. But Pure Philosophy, which doth depend on godly piety alone, should only so far occupy itself with other arts, that it may [know how to] appreciate the working out in numbers of the fore-appointed stations of the stars when they return, and of the course of their procession. Let her, moreover, know how to appreciate the Earth’s dimensions, its qualities and quantities, the Water’s depths, the strength of Fire, and the effects and nature of all these. [And so] let her give worship and give praise unto the Art and Mind of God.

(6) So came he with deductions to this point; Then he concluded: "Therefore it behoves The roots of your effects to be diverse. Hence one is Solon born, another Xerxes, Another Melchisedec, and another he Who, flying through the air, his son did lose. Revolving Nature, which a signet is To mortal wax, doth practise well her art, But not one inn distinguish from another; Thence happens it that Esau differeth In seed from Jacob; and Quirinus comes From sire so vile that he is given to Mars. A generated nature its own way Would always make like its progenitors, If Providence divine were not triumphant.

(12) At this point I have just recollected the following. In the end of the Timoeus he says: "You must necessarily assimilate that which perceives to that which is perceived, according to its original nature; and it is by so assimilating it that you attain to the end of the highest life proposed by the gods to men, for the present or the future time." For those have equal power with these. He, who seeks, will not stop till he find; and having found, he will wonder; and wondering, he will reign; and reigning, he will rest. And what? Were not also those expressions of Thales derived from these? The fact that God is glorified for ever, and that He is expressly called by us the Searcher of hearts, he interprets. For Thales being asked, What is the divinity? said, What has neither beginning nor end. And on another asking, "If a man could elude the knowledge of the Divine Being while doing aught?" said, "How could he who cannot do so while thinking?"

(11) Now the Father is greater than all, and the Son in him is greater than all, and his Mercifulness is also greater than all; and the [one pure] Element consists in his Mercifulness, and is as great as God; only, it is generated of God, and is substantial, and it is under [or inferior to] God, and so there is the Ternarius Sanctus, with the Wisdom of God in the Wonders; for all Wonders are manifested therein, and that is the heavenly Body of Christ, with our (here assumed) Soul in it, and the whole Fulness of the Deity is in the Center therein; and thus the Soul is environed with the Deity, and eats of God, for it is the Spirit. Thus, my beloved Soul, if thou art regenerated in Christ, then thou puttest on the Body of Christ, [which is] out of the holy Element, and that gives thy new Body Food and Drink; and the Spirit of this World in the four Elements gives our old earthly [Body earthly Meat and Drink that is earthly and elementary.] 12. Thus understand and know this precious Depth; as Christ made a Covenant with us, in the Garden of Eden, that he (as above-mentioned) would thus become Man, so also after he had laid off that which was earthly, he made a Covenant with us, and has appointed his Body for Food, and his Blood for Drink; and the Water of the eternal Life (in the Originality of the Deity) for a holy Baptism, and commanded that we should use it till he comes again.

(40) And after that this high princely angelical Creature, in the Twinkling of an Eye, in the Word and Holy Ghost (in the holy Element) was figured, [fashioned, formed, or made] a self-subsisting Creature (with perfect Life and Light) in the Word; then also in the same Twinkling of an Eye the four Elements (with the Dominion of the Sun and Stars) in the Tincture of the Blood, together with the Blood and all human Essences, which were in the Body of the Virgin Mary in her Matrix (according to the Counsel of God) in the Element, received the Creature, wholly and properly, as one [only] Creature, and not two.

(122) One quality has always generated the others alike, and none of them have vanished or gone out of sight, just as it is in the whole God; and then the whole body, as it is also in the Ternary, generated itself just as the Deity generateth itself, without or distinct from the body in the Ternary.

(4) 'He made each of these tripartite; and how these three beings become each of them tripartite, that learn from me now, my friend!

(103) As the Deity in its being is threefold, in that the efflux out of the seven spirits of God sheweth and generateth itself as threefold, viz. Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, one God; wherein the whole divine power consisteth, and all whatsoever is therein; and they are the three Persons in the Deity, and yet are not a divisible being or essence, but in one another as one:

(28) Now when God had severed the Matrix with [or from] its fiery Form, and would manifest himself with this World, then he put the Fiat into the Matrix, and spoke out of himself, [saying,] Let there be Herbs, Grass, Trees, and Beasts, every one according to their Kind: This Speaking, was the Heart, or the Virtue [or Power] of the Eternal Father: But the Spirit which had the Fiat, went from the Eternal Father (in the Virtue of the Heart of God) forth with the Will (and the Will was the Fiat) and made the Out-Birth in the third Principle material, visible, and comprehensible, each according to its Essence; as the Virtue was, so was also its Body. For there the fiery Matrix, or the Constellation, gave its Virtue to the Fiat; and the watery Matrix, with the Elements, received the Virtue, and so were impregnated, and each Element generated its own Creatures out of itself; as also each Form in the fiery and watery Nature out of themselves; and yet it became no separable Essence, but only every Creature was separated according to its Kind, according to the eternal Virtue, which arose in the Longing by the Lust, and became the third Principle, which was not before Time [begun.]

(106) Now, as the Ternary of the Deity is one only being or substance in all parts in the whole Father, and is united together, as the members in man's body, and all places are as one place, though one place may have a different function from the others, as also the members of men have; yet it is the one body of God: