Against Celsus 3.15

That fear of those outside does not hold our association together either is clear from the fact that, by God's will, this too has now ceased for a considerable time. And it is likely that the freedom from fear, as far as this life goes, that believers now enjoy will cease, when those who slander the teaching in every way again think the cause of the present great rebellion, as they call it, to be the multitude of believers and their not being attacked by the rulers as in former times. For we have learned from the teaching neither to grow slack in peace and give ourselves up to ease, nor, when the world makes war on us, to lose heart and fall away from the love of the God of the universe in Jesus Christ. We clearly show, and do not hide, as Celsus thinks, the dignity of our origin, when we instill in those first being introduced a contempt for idols and all images, and in addition, raising their thoughts from serving created things instead of God, lead them up to the Creator of all things; plainly showing the one prophesied both from the prophecies about him (and they are many) and from what is handed down with careful examination, to those able to hear more intelligently, from the Gospels and the apostolic words.