{"collection":"Gnosticism","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/gno/th3/th312.htm","path":"gno/th3/th312.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/gno/th3/th312.htm","text":"Thrice-Greatest Hermes, Vol. 3, by G.R.S. Mead, [1906]\n(I have added the title, the excerpt not being found in Patrizzi.\nText: Stob., Phys., iii. 52, under the vague heading: \u201cOf Hermes\u201d; G. p. 50; M. i. 33, 34; W. i. 62, 63.\nM\u00e9nard, Livre IV., No. iv. of \u201cFragments from the Books of Hermes to his Son Tat,\u201d p. 240.)\n1. [Her.] For there hath been appointed, O [my] son, a very mighty Daimon turning in the universe\u2019s midst, that sees all things that men do on the earth.\nJust as Foreknowledge 1 and Necessity have been set o\u2019er the Order of the gods, in the same way is Justice set o\u2019er men, causing the same to act on them.\nFor they rule o\u2019er the order of the things existing as divine, which have no will, nor any power, to err.\nFor the Divine cannot be made to wander; from which the incapacity to err accrues [to it].\nBut Justice is appointed to correct the errors men commit on earth.\n2. For, seeing that their race is under sway of death, and made out of bad matter, [it naturally errs], and failure is the natural thing, especially to those who are without the power of seeing the Divine. 1\n\u2019Tis over these that Justice doth have special sway. They\u2019re subject both to Fate through the activities of birth, 2 and unto Justice through the mistakes [they make] in life. 3\nThe title and place of this excerpt has been discussed in the Commentary on C. H., xii. (xiii.) 6. It belongs to the Tat-Sermons, and in the collection of Lactantius probably stood prior to the Sermon of Hermes to Tat, \u201cAbout the General Mind.\u201d 4\n58:1 Or Providence. Cf. Ex. i. 15, note.\n59:1 This recalls Philo\u2019s description of the Therapeuts, who were \u201ctaught ever more and more to see,\u201d and strive for the \u201cintuition\u201d or \u201csight of that which is,\u201d\u2014\u03c4\u1fc6\u03c2 \u03c4\u03bf\u1fe6 \u1f44\u03bd\u03c4\u03bf\u03c2 \u03b8\u03ad\u03b1\u03c2 (Philo, D. V. C., 891 P., 473 M.).\n59:2 That is, through the natural accidents that attend life in a body.\n59:3 That is, in their way of living\u2014\u1f10\u03bd \u03c4\u1ff7 \u03b2\u03af\u03c9.\n59:4 Compare with it Exx. x., xii., xiii.","title":"Thrice-Greatest Hermes, Vol. 3: I. Excerpts by Stob\u00e6us: Excerpt XI. Of Justice","type":"page"}