Translated
By
G. R. S. Mead
THIS SERMON IS A FAIRLY STRAIGHTFORWARD HERMETIC VERSION of the “argument by design”, a standard approach since ancient times to a proof of the existence of God. Typically, for a Hermetic tractate, its choice of evidence includes a paean on the beauty and perfection of the human form. – G R M
1. I will recount to thee this sermon (logos) too, O Tat, that thou may’st cease to be without the mysteries of the God beyond all name. And mark thou well how that which to the many seems un-manifest, will grow most manifest for thee.
Now were it manifest, it would not be. For all that is made manifest is subject to becoming, for it hath been made manifest. But the Unmanifest for ever is, for It doth not desire to be made manifest. It ever is, and maketh manifest all other things.
Being Himself un-manifest, as ever being and ever making-manifest, Himself is not made manifest. God is not made Himself; by thinking-manifest (i.e., thinking into manifestation), He thinketh all things manifest.
Now “thinking-manifest” deals with things made alone, for thinking-manifest is nothing else than making.
2. He, then, alone who is not made, ’tis clear, is both beyond all power of thinking-manifest, and is un-manifest.