Lactantius, Divine Institutes 7.2
Now let us instruct those ignorant of the truth. By the arrangement of the highest God it has been so ordered that this unjust age, when the span of times has run out, should take its end, and that, when every malice has been snuffed out at once and the minds of the pious have been called back to blessed life, a quiet, calm, peaceful age — finally a golden age, as the poets call it — should flower with God himself reigning.
First of all, this was the cause of all errors for the philosophers: that they did not grasp the account of the world, which contains all wisdom. But that account cannot be grasped by one's own sense and inward intelligence — which they refused to do through themselves without a teacher. And so they fell into various and often mutually contrary opinions from which they would have no exit, and, as the comic poet says, they stuck in the same mud — namely because reason did not answer their assumptions, since they had indeed assumed true things, but things that could not be affirmed and proved without knowledge of the truth and of heavenly matters: which, as I have already often said, cannot be in a human unless received with God teaching. For if a human can understand divine things, he will also be able to do them: for to understand is, as it were, to follow in the footprint. But he cannot do what God does, because he is clothed in a mortal body; therefore he cannot even understand what God does — and whether that can happen is easy for each one to measure from the immensity of divine things and works. For if you should wish to contemplate the world with all that is in it, you would surely understand how far God's work stands above human works. So as much as divine and human works differ, so much must God's wisdom and a human's stand apart. For because God is incorrupt and immortal and therefore perfect, because he is everlasting, his wisdom too is perfect just as he himself is, and nothing can stand in its way, because God himself is subject to no thing. But a human, because he is subject to passion, his wisdom too is subject to error, and just as many things hinder a human's life so that it cannot be perpetual, so his wisdom also must be hindered by many things from being perfect in thoroughly discerning the truth.
Latin
Nunc ignaros ueritatis instruamus. dispositione summi dei sic ordinatum, ut iniustum hoc saeculum decurso temporum spatio terminum sumat extinctaque protinus omni malitia et piorum animis ad beatam uitam reuocatis quietum tranquillum pacificum, aureum denique ut poetae uocant saeculum deo ipso regnante florescat.
in primis causa errorum omnium philosophis haec fuit, quod rationem mundi, quae totam sapientiam continet, non conprehenderunt. ea uero sensu proprio et interna intellegentia non potest conprehendi: quod illi sine doctore per se ipsos facere noluerunt. itaque in uarias sibique saepe contrarias sententias inciderunt ex quibus exitum non haberent, et in eodem luto, sicut comicus ait, haesitauerunt, scilicet adsumtionibus eorum non respondente ratione, cum adsumpsissent quidem uera, sed quae adfirmari probarique non possent sine scientia ueritatis rerumque caelestium: quae, ut saepe iam dixi, non potest esse in homine nisi deo docente percepta. nam si potest homo intellegere diuina, poterit et facere: nam intellegere est quasi e uestigio subsequi. non potest autem facere quae deus, quia mortali corpore indutus est, ergo ne intellegere quidem potest quae facit deus: quod an fieri possit, ex inmensitate rerum atque operum diuinorum facile est uni cuique metiri. nam si mundum cum omnibus quae sunt in eo contemplari uelis, intellegas profecto quantum dei opus humanis operibus antistet. ita quantum inter opera diuina et humana interest, tantum distare inter dei hominisque sapientiam necesse est. nam quia deus incorruptus atque inmortalis est et ideo perfectus, quia sempiternus est, sapientia quoque eius perinde ut ipse perfecta est nec obstare illi quicquam potest, quia nulli rei deus ipse subiectus est. homo autem quia subiectus est passioni, subiecta est et sapientia eius errori, et sicut hominis uitam multae res inpediunt, quominus possit esse perpetua, ita sapientiam quoque eius multis rebus inpediri necesse est, quominus in perspicienda penitus ueritate perfecta sit. ergo nulla est humana sapientia, si per se ad notionem ueri scientiamque nitatur, quoniam mens hominis cum fragili corpore inligata et in tenebroso domicilio inclusa neque liberius euagari neque clarius perspicere ueritatem potest, cuius notitia diuinae condicionis est. deo enim soli opera sua nota sunt. homo autem non cogitando aut disputando adsequi eam potest, sed discendo et audiendo ab eo qui scire solus potest et docere. ideo Marcus Tullius sententiam Socratis de ratione transferens dicentis uenisse tempus ut ipse migraret e uita, illos autem aput quos causam suam perorabat agere uitam, utrum melius sit, inquit dii immortales sciunt, hominem arbitror scire neminem. quare necesse est omnes philosophiae sectas alienas esse a ueritate, quia homines erant qui eas constituerunt, nec ullum fundamentum aut firmitatem possunt habere quae nullis diuinarum uocum fulciuntur oraculis.