Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Vol. II:
City of God: Chapter 6

Chapter 6.—Concerning the Meaning of the Platonists in that Part of Philosophy Called Physical.

These philosophers, then, whom we see not undeservedly exalted above the rest in fame and glory, have seen that no material body is God, and therefore they have transcended all bodies in seeking for God.  They have seen that whatever is changeable is not the most high God, and therefore they have transcended every soul and all changeable spirits in seeking the supreme.  They have seen also that, in every changeable thing, the form which makes it that which it is, whatever be its mode or nature, can only be through Him who truly is, because He is unchangeable.  And therefore, whether we consider the whole body of the world, its figure, qualities, and orderly movement, and also all the bodies which are in it; or whether we consider all life, either that which nourishes and maintains, as the life of trees, or that which, besides this, has also sensation, as the life of beasts; or that which adds to all these intelligence, as the life of man; or that which does not need the support of nutriment, but only maintains, feels, understands, as the life of angels,—all can only be through Him who absolutely is.  For to Him it is not one thing to be, and another to live, as though He could be, not living; nor is it to Him one thing to live, and another thing to understand, as though He could live, not understanding; nor is it to Him one thing to understand, another thing to be blessed, as though He could understand and not be blessed.  But to Him to live, to understand, to be blessed, are to be.  They have understood, from this unchangeableness and this simplicity, that all things must have been made by Him, and that He could Himself have been made by none.  For they have considered that whatever is is either body or life, and that life is something better than body, and that the nature of body is sensible, p. 149 and that of life intelligible.  Therefore they have preferred the intelligible nature to the sensible.  We mean by sensible things such things as can be perceived by the sight and touch of the body; by intelligible things, such as can be understood by the sight of the mind.  For there is no corporeal beauty, whether in the condition of a body, as figure, or in its movement, as in music, of which it is not the mind that judges.  But this could never have been, had there not existed in the mind itself a superior form of these things, without bulk, without noise of voice, without space and time.  But even in respect of these things, had the mind not been mutable, it would not have been possible for one to judge better than another with regard to sensible forms.  He who is clever, judges better than he who is slow, he who is skilled than he who is unskillful, he who is practised than he who is unpractised; and the same person judges better after he has gained experience than he did before.  But that which is capable of more and less is mutable; whence able men, who have thought deeply on these things, have gathered that the first form is not to be found in those things whose form is changeable.  Since, therefore, they saw that body and mind might be more or less beautiful in form, and that, if they wanted form, they could have no existence, they saw that there is some existence in which is the first form, unchangeable, and therefore not admitting of degrees of comparison, and in that they most rightly believed was the first principle of things which was not made, and by which all things were made.  Therefore that which is known of God He manifested to them when His invisible things were seen by them, being understood by those things which have been made; also His eternal power and Godhead by whom all visible and temporal things have been created. 301   We have said enough upon that part of theology which they call physical, that is, natural.

Footnotes

Rom. 1:19, 20.