Chapter vi. Of the Number of three, and the Scale thereof. The number of three is an incompounded number, a holy number, a number of perfection, a most powerfull number. For there are three persons in God, there are three Theologicall vertues in Religion. Hence it is that this number conduceth to the Ceremonies of God, and Religion, that by the solemnity of which, prayers, and sacrifices are thrice repeated. Whence Virgil sings,
Odd numbers to the God delightfull are.
And the Pythagorians use it in their sanctifications, and purifications, whence in Virgil,
The same did cleanse, and wash with Water pure
Thrice his companions -----
And it is most fit in bindings, or ligations, hence that of Virgil,
----- I walk around
First with these threads, which three, and severall are,
'Bout th' Altar thrice I shall thy image bear.
And a little after;
Knots, Amaryllis, tye, of colours three,
Then say, these bonds I knit, for Venus be.
And we read of Medea.
She spake three words, which caus'd sweet sleep at will,
The troubled Sea, the raging Waves stand still.
And in Pliny it was the cusome in every medicine to spit with three deprecations, and hence to be cured. The number of thee is perfected with three Augmentations, long, broad, and deep, beyond which there is no progression of dimension, whence the first number is called square. Hence it is said that to a body that hath three measures, and to a square number, nothing can be added. Wherefore Aristotle in the beginning of his speeches concerning Heaven, cals it as it were a Law, according to which all things are disposed. For Corporeall, and spirituall things consist of three things, viz. beginning, middle, and end. By three (as Tresmegistus saith) the world is perfected: Hemarmene {so the L}, necessity, and order (i.e.) concurrence of causes,
