living, they only can form any conception of Him that is not
12 ON CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE. [BOOK I.
to all otlicrs. Or if they think that there is no one God supreme ahove the rest, but that there are many or even innumerable gods of equal rank, still these too they conceive as possessed of shape and form, according to wliat each man thinks the pattern of excellence. Those, on the other hand,
endeavour by an effort of the intelligence to reach a conception of God, place Him above all visible and bodily natures, and even above all intelligent and spiiitual natures that are subject to change. All, however, strive emulously to exalt the excellence of God : nor could any one be found to believe that any being to whom there exists a superior is God. And ^o all concur in believing that God is that which excels in dignity all other objects.
CiiAr. VIII. God to he esteemed above all else, because He is unchangeable tcisdom.
8. And since all who think about God think of Him as living, they only can form any conception of Him that is not absurd and unworthy who think of Him as life itself; and, whatever may be the bodily form that has suggested itself to them, recognise that it is by life it lives or does 'not live, and prefer what is living to what is dead ; who understand that the living bodily form itself, however it may outshine all others in splendour, overtop them in size, and excel them in beauty, is quite a distinct thing from the life by which it is quickened ; and who look upon the life as incomparably superior in dignity and worth to the mass which is quickened and animated by it. Then, when they go on to look into the nature of the life itself, if they find it mere nutritive life,
"without sensibility, such as tliat of plants, they consider it inferior to sentient life, such as that of cattle ; and above tliis, again, tliey ]tlace intelligent life, such as that of men. And, perceiving that even this is subject to change, they are compelled to place al)Ove it, ac,'ain, that unchangeable life, which is not at one time foolish, at another time wise, but on the contrary is wisdom itself. For a wise intelligence, that is, one that has attained to wisdom, was, previous to its attaining wisdom, unwise. But wisdom itself never was imwise, and never can become so. And if men never caught sight of this wisdom, they could never with entire confidence prefer a life