Miscellanies 2.11.52

So Abraham was standing before the Lord, and drawing near he spoke; and to Moses it is said, “But you stand here with me.” The followers of Simon wish to be made like in character to the Standing One whom they worship. Faith, then, and the knowledge of the truth make the soul that has chosen them always the same and in the same state. Change, turning aside, and falling away are akin to falsehood, as quiet, rest, and peace are to the one who knows. As, then, conceit and self-importance have brought philosophy into disrepute, so false knowledge, which is called by the same name, has brought knowledge into disrepute; of which the apostle writes, “O Timothy, guard the deposit, avoiding the profane empty talk and contradictions of what is falsely called knowledge, which some have professed and so missed the mark concerning the faith.” Convicted by this saying, those of the heresies reject the letters to Timothy. Come, then: if the Lord is truth and wisdom and power of God, as indeed he is, it would be shown that the one who has known him, and the Father through him, is truly the one who knows. For he perceives the one who says, “The lips of the righteous know high things.”