Against Celsus 8.64–8.76

It is the one God over all, then, whose favour we must win and whom we must pray to be gracious, winning his favour by piety and every virtue. And if Celsus wishes us to win the favour of some others after the God over all, let him consider that, just as the movement of its shadow follows a moving body, in the same way, when one wins the favour of the God over all, it follows that one has the favour of all his friends, angels, souls, and spirits. For they perceive those who are worthy of God's favour, and not only become favourable themselves to the worthy but also work together with those who wish to serve the God over all, and win his favour for them, and pray with them and make requests with them; so that we dare to say that, when men who with deliberate choice set better things before themselves pray to God, countless holy powers pray with them unbidden, helping our mortal race and, if I may so put it, sharing its struggle, because they see the demons fighting and contending against the salvation above all of those who dedicate themselves to God and care nothing for the enmity of the demons, even if the demons rage against such a man, who flees their service by savour of fat and blood and hastens by every kind of word and deed to become akin to and united with the God over all through Jesus, who destroyed countless demons when he went about “healing” and converting “those oppressed by the devil.”

We, however, must despise winning the favour of men and kings, not only if we are to win their favour by murders, licentiousness, and the most cruel deeds, but also if it is through impiety toward the God of the universe, or through some servile and abject word, foreign to brave and high-minded men who wish to take up endurance, as the greatest virtue, together with the others. Where, however, we do nothing contrary to the law and word of God, we are not mad, nor do we rush to rouse against ourselves the anger of a king or potentate, which brings us to outrages and tortures or even death. For we have read also, “Let every soul be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God; so that whoever resists authority resists what God has appointed.” In our Exegetica on the Letter to the Romans we examined these words more fully and in various ways, as far as we could; but now we have taken them for the present purpose more simply, in the more common sense, since Celsus says, “Not even these have been deemed worthy of their position here without demonic power.” And since there is much to say about the establishment of kings and potentates, and much inquiry on the subject because of those who have ruled more cruelly and tyrannically, or who from ruling have run aground on luxury and self-indulgence, for this reason we have put off examining the problem for the present. We do not, however, swear by the Fortune of the emperor, as we do not swear by any other supposed god. For if, as some have put it, fortune is only a manner of speaking, like “opinion” and “interval,” we do not swear by what is nothing at all as though it were a god, or had any real existence and could do anything, so that we may not apply the power of an oath to what we should not; or if (as some have thought, saying, “Those who swear by the Fortune of the Roman emperor swear by his demon”) what is called the emperor's Fortune is a demon, then in that case we must rather die than swear by a wicked and faithless demon, which often sins together with the man to whom it has been allotted, or even sins more than he.

Then again Celsus, like those who recover for a time from demon-possession and then fall back again, says something like this as though sober: “If, however, someone commands one who happens to worship God either to act impiously or to say anything else shameful, one must in no way whatever obey, but rather endure every torture and submit to every death before one even thinks, let alone says, anything unholy about God.” Then again, from ignorance of our teaching and besides from confusing everything, he says: “But if someone commands you to praise the Sun or Athena, praise them most eagerly with a fine hymn; for so you will seem rather to worship the great God, if you hymn these too; for piety becomes more perfect by passing through all things.” We say, then, that we do not wait for someone to command us to praise the Sun, since we have learned to speak well not only of those subject to God's ordering but even of our enemies. We praise the Sun, then, as a beautiful work of God, keeping the laws of God, and obeying “Praise the Lord, sun and moon,” and hymning, as far as it can, the Father and Creator of the universe. But Athena, ranked with the Sun, is the subject of myths in the stories of the Greeks, whether with hidden meanings or without them, which say that she was born fully armed from the head of Zeus; and that when she was pursued by Hephaestus, who wished to destroy her virginity, she escaped him, but loved and reared the seed that fell to the earth from his desire, calling it Erichthonius, “whom once,” they say, “Athena reared, daughter of Zeus, and the grain-giving earth bore.” And we see that one who accepts Athena, daughter of Zeus, must accept along with her many myths and fictions, which one who flees myths and seeks truth would not accept.

And even if she is interpreted figuratively and said to be prudence, let someone show her subsistence and being, as actually subsisting according to this figurative interpretation. And if Athena was a woman of old who has been honoured, since those who wished her name to be sung among men as that of a goddess handed down mysteries and rites to their subjects, much more ought we not to hymn Athena and glorify her as a god, since it is not lawful for us to bow down even to the great sun, though we speak well of it. Celsus says, then, that we will seem rather to worship the great God if we hymn both the Sun and Athena; but we know the opposite. For we sing hymns to the God over all alone and to his only-begotten, God the Word. And we hymn God and his only-begotten, as do also “sun and moon” and “stars” and all the heavenly host. For all these, being a divine choir, hymn the God over all and his only-begotten together with the righteous among men. We have said before that we must not swear by the king among men or by his so-called Fortune. So there is no need for us to answer again the words: “And if someone commands you to take an oath by a king among men, this too is nothing terrible. For to him have been given the things on earth, and whatever you receive in life you receive from him.” We say that not all the things on earth have been given to him, nor do we receive from him whatever we receive in life. For when we receive justly and well, we receive from God and his providence, such as cultivated fruits and bread, which strengthens “the heart of man,” and the gentle vine and wine, which gladdens “the heart of man.” And the fruits of the olive too we have from the providence of God, “to make the face shine with oil.”

Next Celsus says that “one ought not to disbelieve an ancient man who long ago declared, ‘Let there be one king, to whom the son of crooked-counselling Kronos gave it.’” And he adds: “For if you undo this doctrine, the king will rightly punish you. For if all were to do the same as you, nothing would prevent him from being left alone and deserted, and the things on earth from falling into the hands of the most lawless and savage barbarians, and neither the fame of your worship nor of true wisdom would be left among men any longer.” Let there be one lord, then, one king, not the one “to whom the son of crooked-counselling Kronos gave it,” but the one to whom he gave it who sets up “kings and” removes them, “and raises up the useful man” on the earth at the right time; and it is not the son of Kronos, who was cast down into Tartarus, as the myths of the Greeks say, driving him from his rule, who sets up kings, not even if one allegorizes these passages; but God who governs all things knows what he does in the matter of the setting up of kings. We do, then, undo the doctrine, “to whom the son of crooked-counselling Kronos gave it,” since we are persuaded that God, or the Father of God, wishes nothing crooked or twisted. But we do not undo the doctrine about providence and about what happens by it, whether primarily or as consequences of other things. Nor would the king rightly punish us for saying that it was not the son of crooked-counselling Kronos who gave him his kingship, but he who removes “kings and” sets them up. And let all do the same as I do, overthrowing the Homeric doctrine, keeping the divine one about the king, and observing “Honour the king”; and on such a hypothesis the king will not be left alone, nor will he be deserted, nor will the things on earth be in the hands of the most lawless and savage barbarians. For if, as Celsus says, all were to do the same as I, clearly the barbarians too, having come to the Word of God, will be most law-abiding and most gentle; and every worship will be destroyed, and only that of the Christians will prevail; which indeed will one day alone prevail, as the Word continually wins more souls.

Then Celsus, not listening to himself, having said something inconsistent with “For if all were to do the same as you,” says: “Surely you will not say that if the Romans, persuaded by you, neglect their customary duties to gods and men and call upon your Most High, or whoever you like, he will come down and fight for them, and they will need no other defence. For formerly too the same God promised those who paid heed to him these things and much greater than these, as you say; and you see how much he has helped them and you. Of them, instead of being masters of the whole earth, not even a clod of earth or a hearth is left; and of you, if one still wanders about in hiding, he is sought out for the penalty of death.” Since he asks, as a hypothesis, what would happen if the Romans, persuaded by the teaching of Christians, neglected their duties to the customary gods and their former human laws and worshipped the Most High, hear what we think about this. We say that if “two” of us “agree on earth about anything they ask, it will be done for them by the Father” of the righteous “who is in heaven”; for God rejoices in the agreement of rational beings and turns away from disagreement. What must we think, then, if not only, as now, very few agree, but the whole empire of the Romans? For they will pray to the Word who formerly said to the Hebrews when they were pursued by the Egyptians, “The Lord will fight for you, and you shall be silent”; and praying in complete agreement they will be able to destroy far more enemies who pursue them than those destroyed by the prayer of Moses crying to God and of those with him. And if what God promised to those who keep the law has not come about, it has not failed because God lied, but because the promises were made on conditions, namely keeping the law and living according to the law. And if neither a clod nor a hearth is left to the Jews who received the promises on conditions, the blame must be laid on all their lawlessness, and especially on that against Jesus.

But on Celsus's hypothesis, if all the Romans were persuaded, they would by praying overcome their enemies, or would not even make war at all, guarded by the divine power that promised to save five whole cities for the sake of fifty righteous men. For the men of God are the salt that preserves the order of the world on earth, and earthly things hold together as long as the salt does not lose its savour; for “if the salt has lost its taste,” it “is no longer good either for the soil or for the manure heap,” but “is thrown out” and trampled “by men.” “He who has ears, let him hear” how these things are said. And we, when God allows the tempter and gives him authority to persecute us, are persecuted; and when God does not wish us to suffer this, even in a world that hates us we are wonderfully at peace, and take courage because of him who said, “Take courage, I have overcome the world.” And he has truly overcome “the world”; therefore the world has strength only as far as he who overcame it wills, having received from the Father to overcome “the world”; and we take courage in his victory. And if he wishes us again to contend and struggle for piety, let the opponents come, to whom we shall say, “I can do all things in him who strengthens me, Christ Jesus our Lord.” For when two sparrows are sold, as Scripture puts it, “for a penny,” “not one of them falls into a snare without the Father in heaven.” And divine providence embraces all things to such an extent that not even the hairs “of the head” have escaped being numbered by him.

Then again, as is Celsus's custom, he makes a muddle in what follows, saying what none of us has written. For he says something like this: “Nor is that tolerable when you say that, if those who now reign over us are persuaded by you and are captured, you will persuade those who reign after them, and then others, if they too are captured, and others after others, until, when all who are persuaded by you have been captured, some one government, having come to its senses and foreseeing what is happening, will destroy you all root and branch before it perishes first.” Reason does not require us to speak about this; for none of us says of those who now reign that, if they are persuaded and captured, we shall persuade those after them again, and when they are captured we shall again persuade the next. And from where did he fling out the idea that, as those who come later are successively persuaded by us and captured through not defending themselves against their enemies, some one government, having come to its senses and foreseeing what is happening, will destroy us root and branch? But it seems that in this, stringing nonsense together, he has blurted out this too of his own accord.

After this, having expressed a certain wish, “Would that it were possible for those who inhabit Asia, Europe, and Libya, Greeks and barbarians, to the ends of the earth, to agree under one law,” and thinking this impossible, he adds that “whoever thinks this knows nothing.” If one must speak of this too, a little will be said on the subject, which needs much examination and argument to show that what is said about all rational beings agreeing under one law is not only possible but true. The Stoics say that when the element stronger than the others has prevailed, there will be the conflagration, all things changing into fire; but we say that the Word will one day prevail over the whole rational nature and transform every soul into his own perfection, when each, using simply his own power of choice, chooses what he wills and comes to be in what he chose. And we say that it is not likely that, as with diseases and wounds in bodies some of what befalls is stronger than all medical art, so with souls there is anything arising from wickedness that cannot be healed by the rational being who is over all, who is God. For since the Word and the healing in him are more powerful than all the evils in the soul, he applies it to each according to the will of God, and the end of things is that wickedness is destroyed. Whether it is destroyed so that it can never again in any way be permitted, or not, is not for the present discussion to teach. The prophecies say much, in hidden words, about the complete destruction of evils and the correction of every soul; but for the present it is enough to cite the passage from Zephaniah, which runs thus: “Prepare yourself, rise early; all their gleaning is destroyed. Therefore wait for me, says the Lord, on the day of my rising up as a witness; for my judgment is on the gatherings of the nations, to receive kings, to pour out on them all the anger of my wrath. For in the fire of my jealousy all the earth shall be consumed; for then I will turn to the peoples a tongue for its generation, so that all may call on the name of the Lord, to serve him under one yoke. From the ends of the rivers of Ethiopia they shall offer me sacrifices. On that day you shall not be put to shame for all your practices by which you acted impiously against me; for then I will take away from you the contemptuous things of your pride, and you shall no more boast on my holy mountain. And I will leave in you a people meek and humble, and the remnant of Israel shall reverence the name of the Lord, and they shall do no injustice and speak no vain things, and no deceitful tongue shall be found in their mouth; for they shall feed and lie down, and there shall be none to make them afraid.” Let whoever can, having studied all this, set out the clear meaning of the prophecy, and especially examine what it means that, when all the earth is consumed, a tongue is turned “to the peoples for its generation,” corresponding to the state of things before the confusion; and let him consider what it means that “all call on the name of the Lord, to serve him under one yoke,” so that “the contemptuous things of pride” are taken away, and there is no longer “injustice,” nor vain words, nor a deceitful tongue. It seemed good to me to set out these things moderately and without exact exposition because of Celsus's words, since he thinks it impossible for the Greeks and barbarians who inhabit Asia, Europe, and Libya to agree. And perhaps such a thing is truly impossible for those still in bodies, but not impossible for those set free from them.

Next Celsus urges us to help the king with all our strength, to labour with him in what is just, to fight for him, and to serve in the army with him, if he presses, and to share his command. To this too we must say that we give help to kings at the right time, a divine help, so to speak, taking up “the whole armour of God.” And we do this in obedience to the apostolic voice that says, “I urge, then, first of all that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all men, for kings and all who are in high positions.” And the more pious a man is, the more effective he is in helping those who reign, more than the soldiers who go out to the battle lines and kill as many of the enemy as they can. Then we would also say this to those who are strangers to the faith and ask us to serve in the army for the common good and to kill men: that among you too the priests of certain images and the temple-wardens of those you consider gods keep their right hand undefiled for the sake of the sacrifices, so that they may offer the customary sacrifices to those you call gods with hands unstained by blood and pure from murder; and surely when war comes you do not enlist the priests too. If, then, this is done reasonably, how much more, while others serve in the army, do these serve as priests and servants of God, keeping their right hands pure but contending by prayers to God for those who serve as soldiers justly and for the one who reigns justly, so that everything opposed and hostile to those who act justly may be destroyed? And we, by our prayers destroying all the demons who stir up wars, violate oaths, and disturb the peace, help those who reign more than those who seem to serve in the army. We labour with them in the common affairs, we who offer up prayers with righteousness, together with exercises and meditations that teach us to despise pleasures and not be led by them. We fight for the king even more; and we do not serve in the army with him, even if he presses us, but we serve in the army for him, raising up our own army of piety through our intercessions to the divine.

And if Celsus wishes us also to lead armies for our country, let him know that we do this too, not doing it to be seen by men and to be vainglorious over it; for in secret, in our very ruling faculty, there are prayers sent up, as by priests, for those in our country. And Christians benefit their countries more than the rest of mankind, educating the citizens and teaching them to be pious toward the God who guards the city, taking up into a divine and heavenly city those who have lived well in the least cities; to whom it might be said, “You were faithful” in a very small city; come also to the great one, where “God has taken his place in the assembly of the gods; in the midst he judges gods,” and he numbers you among them, if you no longer die like a man nor fall “like one of the rulers.”

Celsus also urges us to take office in our country, if this too must be done for the preservation of the laws and of piety. But we, knowing that in each city there is another organization of a country founded by the Word of God, call those able in speech and who live soundly to rule over the churches; not accepting those who love power, but constraining those who, from great modesty, do not wish rashly to take on the common care of the church of God. And those of us who rule well are rulers under constraint, compelled by the great King, whom we are persuaded is the Son of God, God the Word. And if those who rule well in the church of the country according to God (I mean the church) are called or constrained to rule, they rule according to what God has commanded, and in doing so they defile none of the established laws. And it is not to shirk the more common services of life that Christians avoid such offices, but to keep themselves for the more divine and more necessary service of the church of God for the salvation of men; leading both necessarily and justly, and caring for all: for those within, that they may live better day by day, and for those who seem to be outside, that they may come to be in the holy words and deeds of worship of God, and so, truly worshipping God and educating many as far as they can, may be blended with the Word of God and the divine law, and so be united to the God over all through the Son of God, the Word, Wisdom, Truth, and Righteousness, who unites to him everyone who has been turned to living in all things according to God.

In these words you have, holy Ambrose, the completion, according to the power present in us and given to us, of what you commanded. And we have set out in eight books all that we thought fitting to dictate in answer to Celsus's work entitled The True Word. It is for the reader of his treatise and of what we have dictated against it to judge which of the two breathes more of the true God, and of the way of piety toward him, and of the truth that reaches men through sound doctrines urging them to the best life. Know, however, that Celsus promised to write another treatise after this one, in which he promised to teach how those who wish and are able to obey him ought to live. If, then, he did not write the second work he promised, it would be well for us to be content with the eight books dictated against his work; but if he began and finished that one too, seek out the treatise and send it, so that we may dictate against it too whatever the Father of truth gives us, and overturn the false opinion in it, and, if anything true is said somewhere in it, bear witness to it without contention as well said.