So great a King deserved to have dazzling beauty as the (ostentatious)
van of his (royal) procession. In the course of rising towards Him are
first met the things which by their inferior dignity are classed among
the first ranks of the procession; later those that are greater and
more beautiful; around the king stand those that are truly royal, while
even those that follow Him are of value. Then, after all these things,
suddenly breaks in upon our view the King himself; and we who have
remained behind after the departure of those who were satisfied with a
view of the preliminaries, fall down and worship. A profound difference
distinguishes the great King from all that precedes Him. But it must
not be supposed that He governs them as one man governs another. He
possesses the most just and natural sovereignty. He possesses real
royalty because He is the King of truth. He is the natural master of
all these beings that He has begotten, and which compose His divine
body-guard. He is the king of the king and of the kings,[253] and is
justly called Father of the divinities. Jupiter himself (who is the
universal Soul), imitates Him in this respect that he does not stop at
the contemplation of his father, (who is Intelligence), and he rises to
the actualization of his grandfather,[254] and he penetrates into the
hypostatic substance of His being.[255]