St. Maximus the Confessor ca. 580-662
God knows Himself and the things created by Him. The holy angels also know God and they know, too, the things created by Him. But the holy angels do not know God and the things created by him as God knows himself and the things created by Him.
God knows Himself of His own sacred essence, and the things created by Him from His wisdom, through which and in which He made all things. The holy angels, however, know God by participation, though He is beyond participation, and they know things created by Him by a perception of what is contemplated in them. (The Four Hundred Chapters on Love: Third Century 21-22)
