Oration to the Greeks 18

Pharmacy too, and every form of it, belongs to the same contrivance. For if someone is healed by matter because he trusts in it, he will be healed all the more if he himself relies on the power of God. Just as poisons are material compounds, in the same way remedies are of the same substance. If we reject the baser matter, some people still often try to heal by combining one evil thing with another, and so would use evil things for good. And just as someone who dines with a robber, even if he is not a robber himself, still shares in his punishment because he ate with him, in the same way the one who is not bad, but has mixed with the bad and made use of it for what is thought good, will be punished by God the judge for his partnership in it. Why does one who trusts in the workings of matter not wish to trust in God? And why do you not approach the more powerful Lord, but instead heal yourself as the dog does with grass, the stag with a viper, the pig with river crabs, and the lion with apes? Why do you make gods of the things in the world? And why, when you heal your neighbor, are you called a benefactor? Follow the power of the Word. Demons do not heal; by their art they take human beings captive. The most admirable Justin rightly declared that they are like robbers. For just as robbers are accustomed to take people alive and then restore them to their families for a ransom, so too those who are thought to be gods enter into people's limbs; then by dreams they procure glory for themselves, order such people to come forward in public in the sight of all, and when they have enjoyed the things of the world, they fly away from the sick, bring to an end the disease they had contrived, and restore the people to their former state.