The Origin of Man.--Jesus Christ.--Creation

The Barddas of Iolo Morganwg, Vol. I., ed. by J. Williams Ab Ithel, [1862], at sacred-texts.com

THE ORIGIN OF MAN.--JESUS CHRIST.--CREATION.

Here are Questions and Answers from another Book.

Teacher. Dost thou know what thou art?

Disciple. I am a man by the grace of God the Father.

T. Whence earnest thou?

D. From the extremities of the depth of Annwn, where is every beginning in the division of the fundamental light and darkness.

T. How earnest thou here from Annwn?

D. I came, having traversed about from state to state, as God brought me through dissolutions and deaths, until I was born a man by the gift of God and His goodness.

T. Who conducted that migration?

D. The Son of God, that is, the Son of man.

T. Who is He, and what is His name?

D. His name is Jesus Christ, and He is none other than God the Father incarnate in the form and species of man, and manifesting visible and apparent finiteness for the good and comprehension of man, since infinitude cannot be exhibited to the sight and hearing, nor can there, on that account, be any correct and just apprehension thereof. God the Father, of His great goodness, appeared in the form and substance of man, that He might be seen and comprehended by men. ²

T. Why is He called the Son of God?

D. Because He is from God in His essential works, and not from His uncreated pre-existence, that is, He is second to God, and every Second is a son to the primary First, in respect of existence and nature. That is to say,

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[paragraph continues] Jesus Christ is a manifestation of God in a peculiar manner, and every one is a son to another, who is primary, and the manifested is a son to him who manifests. And where God is seen or comprehended otherwise than as a species and existence beyond all knowledge and comprehension, such cannot take place except in what is seen differently to the attribute of God, in respect of the non-commencement and unchangeableness of His being, His nature, and His quality. ¹

T. Did man, and other intelligent beings, know anything of God before He was manifested and made comprehensible in Jesus Christ?

D. They knew that He existed by the creation of the world, and the whole being for good, because there can be no creation without a maker; and that would not be an act but a chance, which should not be thoroughly for good, as a heap of stones occurs by chance, whereas a house or a church is not built by chance.

T. How may what is made be known?

D. By unmaking what is possible of it, for where anything can be unmade, there must of necessity be a maker to what is thus unmade. For things which were never made, as place and space, without length and without breadth, cannot be unmade. In the same way, time cannot be undone, because it was never made, and it is said in St. Paul's Sermon, that it is impossible to make without a maker. ²

T. What is creation?

D. Every thing which can be otherwise, in respect of form and substance and essence, than what it seems. That is to say, it may be annihilated, in respect of what is seen or comprehended of it now; and its non-existence may be conceived. And nothing is made, of which its decomposition and non-existence cannot be conceived, as in the case of incorporeal length and breadth and depth, and immeasurable time, for it is impossible that they should not have existed always without a beginning, and it cannot be but that they

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shall always exist without end and without change. It cannot be judged differently of God, and His existence, because He is spiritual and not corporeal life, wherefore His spirituality can neither change nor end. Every thing changeable is made, in respect of what is capable of change and non-existence, as there is a change through burning and rottenness, and melting and hardness, and cold and warmth. That is, there can be non-existence in the change, but there can be no non-existence in the matter and mode, neither loss, except only in its changes.

T. What is imperishable matter?

D. There are two kinds: the one dead and lifeless, that is, the elements of the fundamental darkness, whence proceed all inanimation and dead corporeity; and the atoms or elements of light, whence proceed all living corporeity, and all intellect, and all spirituality and life, and all sensibility: for every thing dead is cold--every thing living is warm.

T. Why is it requisite to traverse Abred?

D. Because where there is a beginning there must needs be an increase and an improvement. And in order to magnify man in respect of vital goodness, and to improve and prepare him for Gwynvyd, God arranged it so. And this cannot occur to any thing in existence, without traversing the middle and intermediate space between the smallest small, and the greatest great. Nor can there be either good or evil, except by chance, in any immutable creation, nor can there be better or worse in what does not circulate, nor better in what cannot be worse, nor worse in what cannot be better. And where one enters upon evil, he cannot become worse by remaining in it for ever and ever; and it is the same with the better, where it cannot be better.

Footnotes

245:2 p. 244This view of our blessed Saviour is identical with the heresy of the Sabellians, or Patripassians. See Hammond's Canons of the Church, p. 54.

247:1 p. 246 The Sabellianism, which marks this fragment, does not appear to have been adopted by all the Christian Bards. Thus, in "the Venedotian Triads of the Isle of Britain," it is stated,--

"Taliesin Ben Beirdd a weles yn y Dwydid (in al. Dwydawd and Duwdid) dri pherson o Dad, o Fab, o Yspryd Glan."

Taliesin, the Chief of Bards, beheld in the Godhead three Persons, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.

247:2 Rom. i. 20.