Augustine of Hippo

No knowledge can occur if there are not already objects to be known, and these objects exist in the Word, through whom all things were created, prior to their existing in all the beings that have been made. Human intelligence thus first perceives creatures with the senses of the body, forming a concept of them according to the capacity of human weakness. It then looks for causes, through which it can arrive at what resides originally and immutably in the Word of God, in this way coming to see with the intellect the invisible perfections of God in the works he has made. With what slowness and difficulty this happens, and how long it takes, on account of the corruptible body that weighs down the soul—even when the one who is ignorant is captivated by a most fervent desire to pursue it with insistence and perseverance! Angelic intelligence, by contrast, is united to the Word of God through pure charity. After being created according to the hierarchy from which all other creatures would proceed, it saw in the Word of God the things that would be created, before they were created. Thus things were originally made in angelic knowledge when God ordained that they exist, before they were constituted in their own nature.