The Triads of St. Paul and Bardism

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

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THE TRIADS OF ST. PAUL AND BARDISM.

1. Three things that man will never be sufficiently: sufficiently wise; sufficiently kind; and sufficiently uncovetous.

2. The three laws of man's actions: necessity and obligation, since better cannot be; choice of the one you please of what is possible, after considering which is best; and judgment, according to what is possible, for ever in the circle of Gwynvyd, united with all love and goodness.

3. There are three things, and no spot or place can be found where they are not: God; truth; and the circle of Gwynvyd; and to know this is to be united with them, and the same will deliver from Abred.

4. Three things, the magnitude of which cannot be known: the circle of Ceugant; the length of eternity; and the love of God.

5. There are three things from God: peace; truth; and knowledge; and, knowing them, it is the duty of all to communicate them to others.

6. There are three things from Cythraul: disagreement; falsehood; and ignorance.

7. The three best friends of the soul of man, and the only ones that will not forsake him: justice; mercy; and obedience.

8. Three things which cannot become finite: God; time; and space.

9. Three things, between which there is a great difference: between the thing praised and the thing forgiven; between what is forgiven and what is suffered; and between what is suffered and what is not punished.

10. The three principal vigours of man: awen; affection; and intellect; and from these three ought every goodness to proceed.

11. There are three kinds of animal: aqueous; terrestrial; and aerial.

12. Every thing that a man does or seeks ought to be

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in unison with three things: with the commandment of God and conscience; with the best that can be conceived and comprehended by man; and with what can co-exist with it for ever in the circle of Gwynvyd.

13. The three principal objects of every thing in the hands of God: that it should be the greatest in point of necessity; the greatest in point of utility; and the greatest that the love of God can accomplish.

14. The three necessary characteristics of truth, by which it may be known: that it is better than any thing else which may be discerned and comprehended for the same purpose; that it is easier than any thing which may be comprehended and discerned for the same object; and that it is more beautiful than any thing which may be comprehended and realized for the same place, purpose, and time.

15. There are three principal elements: earth; water; and light; that is to say, every fundamental corporeity is from the earth; every motion is from the water; and every vitality is from the light or fire.

16. The three contemporaries of the Bardism of the Bards of the Isle of Britain: peace; love; and truth; and from these three comes justice.

17. Three things that will produce understanding and knowledge: peace towards every thing; love towards all that is good; and to consider every nature, whether it be corporal or spiritual.

18. The three primary materials of every thing: fire, that is, light; water; and earth. That is to say, the first of every material was fire, and the particles of light; the second was water, whereby things were discriminated; the third was earth, by which all things were corporalized--all things else were mixed--and these were called the three primary elements. Others say: There are three primary elements: water, which was the beginning; after that, earth; and it ended with fire; and hence ensued imperishableness.

19. Three things, of which God is not capable: thinking

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evil; not thinking the best; and thinking counter to what He has thought; because He does not think but what is best, and it is impossible that God should oppose the best.

20. There are three grades of animations: God in Ceugant, where there is nothing but Himself; spiritualities in Gwynvyd, that is, heaven; and corporalities in Abred, ¹ that is, in water and earth.

21. There are three proofs in respect of all things, without which they cannot be chosen: the proof of suffering before knowing; the proof of consideration before understanding; and the proof of understanding before choosing.

22. There are three conditions to which the nature of existence and animation is subject: efficient, as is the case with God and His powers; effected, as is the case with finite vitalities and mixed beings; and non-effective, that is, what was not made, and will not make, as, space, absolute time, mortality, and darkness. Others say: What has not been made, that is, God; what has been made, and will make, that is, the living and motion; what has not been made, and will not make, that is, the motionless dead.

23. There are three coincidences that support all things: coincidence of love and justice; coincidence of truth and conception; ² and coincidence of God and accident,

24. There are three things, and as the two former are, so will be the third: water flowing into the sea whence it came; the line of a circle ending where it began; and the soul of a living being returning to God whence it emanated;--after that, the same migration as before.

25. There are three things, of which one will be like another: the nature of agency in what is acted upon, as the nature of fire in what is heated; the nature of motion in what is moved; and so will be the nature of God, Who

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made them, in the soul and life of man. And as is coldness where fire is quenched, and stationariness, where motion is resisted, so will be death, where there is no God. (Paul.)

26. The three stabilities of oneness, that is to say: the first is universality, for there can be no two kinds of one universality; infinity, for there can be no limits to one whole, nor can any thing be whole, which is not universal or omnipresent, for that is not one whole which is not all-comprehensive; ¹ immutability, for it is impossible that there should be one conjunctive, universal, entire, and all-existent, otherwise than they are; therefore, there can be no God but from fundamental and universal oneness.

27. Three things peculiar to God cannot belong to any other: omniscience; omnipotence; and omnipresence.

28. There are three almsgivings, which are the principal of all alms: the giving of provisions; the giving of protection; and the giving of instruction and advice to a man who knows not what is useful for him. Al. food; protection; and advice.

29. From three blessings will the blessing of God be obtained: the blessing of father and mother; the blessing of a distressed stranger; and the blessing of the sick and wounded.

30. There are three elements of primary necessity: earth; fluid; and fire.

31. The three infinitudes: space; eternity; and God.

32. Three things that concur with the three infinitudes: goodness; power; and love.

33. Three things that run contrary to the three infinitudes: wickedness; inability; and uncharitableness. ²

Footnotes

343:1 p. 342 Some persons profess to discover indications of the doctrine of Abred, or the metempsychosis, in the Holy Scriptures. Thus, they say that the passage in Job, (ch. xxxiii. 29, 30,) "Lo, all these things worketh God often times with man, to bring back his soul from the pit, to be enlightened with the light of the living," ought, according to the Hebrew, to be rendered,--"Lo, all these things worketh God with man, AND THRICE to bring back his soul from the pit, to be enlightened with the light of the living." Again, they say that the Jews, when in reference to the man that was blind from his birth, asked our Saviour, "Who p. 343 did sin, this man, or his parents, that he was born blind?" (St. John ix. 2) must clearly have held a belief in a pre-existent state.

343:2 Al. "imagination."

345:1 p. 344 "Al. "all-existent."

345:2 There is a set of thirteen Triads, entitled "Paul's Triads," printed in E. Williams's Lyric Poems, vol. ii; but as they seem to be other versions only of some of those Triads which we have already inserted, it has not been deemed advisable to transfer them into our pages.