Against Celsus 8.41

Then, reviling us like old women, he says: “You mock their images as you revile them; but if you had reviled Dionysus himself or Heracles in person, perhaps you would not have got off lightly. But those who stretched out and punished your god in person have suffered nothing, not even afterwards in all this time. What new thing has happened since then to make one believe that he was not a sorcerer of a man but a son of God? And he who sent his son with certain messages, when he was so cruelly punished that the messages perished with him, looked on and has not turned to him in all the time that has passed. What father is so unholy? Perhaps, as you say, he wished it, and that is why he was treated with outrage. But these whom you blaspheme, one could say that they too wish it and that is why they endure being blasphemed; for it is best to compare like with like. But these at least take severe vengeance on the blasphemer, who either flees and hides for this reason, or is caught and destroyed.” To this too I would say that we revile no one, since we believe that “revilers” will not “inherit the kingdom of God,” and read, “Bless those who curse you,” and “Bless and do not curse,” and know also, “When reviled, we bless.” And if reviling has some justification as a defence for one who thinks he has been wronged, even this the Word of God does not allow us; how much more, where reviling shows great foolishness, must we not revile? It is equally foolish to revile stone or gold or silver, shaped into the form of gods customary among those far from divinity. So too we do not mock lifeless statues, but, if anything, those who worship them. And even if there are some demons established in certain statues, and one of them is thought to be Dionysus and another Heracles, we do not revile these either; for such a thing is vain and in no way befits one who is gentle, peaceable, and calm in soul, and who has learned that one must not revile anyone even for wickedness, whether man or demon.