Justin Martyr, Second Apology 10

Our teachings stand far above every human doctrine, because the entire rational Christ, who appeared for our sake, has become body, word, and soul. Whatever the philosophers and lawgivers ever said well or discovered was achieved by them through a portion of the word, by means of investigation and theory. Yet because they did not know all that belongs to the word, who is Christ, they often contradicted themselves. Those who lived before Christ and tried to examine and refute reality by human reason were dragged into courts as impious and meddlesome. Socrates, the most fortunate of them all in this pursuit, was charged with the very same offenses leveled against us: they said he introduced new demons and refused to acknowledge the gods the city worshiped. He, however, banished the wicked demons the poets described as doers of evil, expelled Homer and the other poets from the city, and taught people to reject them. He urged them toward recognition of the unknown God through rational inquiry, declaring, 'It is not easy to find the Father and creator of all, nor is it safe to speak of him to all, even if one has found him.' Our Christ accomplished this by his own power. No one was persuaded to die for this teaching under Socrates; but for Christ, who was known in part even by Socrates (for he was the word who is in all, who foretold the future through the prophets, and who became like us and taught these things), not only philosophers and lovers of words were persuaded, but also craftsmen and utter laypeople, who despised glory, fear, and death, because the power belongs to the ineffable Father, not to human reason.