Miscellanies 6.9.78

The one whose practice is to worship the divine through true righteousness, of works and of knowledge: his voice in prayer the Lord does not wait for, saying: “Ask, and I will do it; think, and I will give it.” For in general, what is unchangeable cannot take firm hold and stability in what is changing; and in continual change, the ruling faculty becoming unstable for that reason, the power of habit is not preserved. For what is always being altered by things coming in and falling upon it from outside, how could it ever come to be in a habit and disposition, and, in short, in the possession of understanding? And yet the philosophers too consider the virtues habits, dispositions, and forms of understanding. As knowledge is not born with men but is acquired, and learning it needs attention at the beginning, and nourishment and growth, and then from unceasing practice comes into a habit, so, when perfected in the mystic habit, it remains unshakable through love. For he has not only apprehended the first cause and the cause begotten by it and holds firmly about them, possessing in a steadfast way steadfast, unchangeable, and immovable principles, but also about good and evil, about all coming into being, and, in a word, about the things of which the Lord spoke, he has the most exact truth from the foundation of the world to the end, having learned it from the truth itself; not choosing before the truth itself anything that might appear persuasive or compelling by Greek reasoning, but having received what was spoken by the Lord as clear and manifest. Even if these things are still hidden from others, he has already received knowledge of all things. And the oracles we have declare about things that are, how they are, about things to come, how they will be, and about things past, how they came to be.