Against Celsus 8.64

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.”