Against Celsus 7.24

Again, we say that laying claim to glory among men is forbidden not only by the teaching of Jesus but also by the Old Testament. At any rate, one of the prophets, calling a curse on himself if he should be guilty of sins, says that worldly glory too would befall him as one of the greatest evils. He speaks thus: “Lord my God, if I have done this, if there is injustice in my hands, if I have repaid those who repaid me with evil, then may I fall empty before my enemies; then may the enemy pursue my soul and overtake it, and trample my life to the ground, and lay my glory in the dust.” Nor are the words “Do not be anxious about what you will eat or what you will drink. Consider the birds of the heaven,” or “Consider the ravens, that they neither sow nor reap, and your heavenly Father feeds them; how much more are you worth than the birds?” and “Why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field,” and what follows, contrary to the blessings in the law that teach that the righteous man eats and is filled, or to what Solomon says in this way: “The righteous man eats and satisfies his soul, but the souls of the ungodly are in want.” For one must see that it is the food of the soul that is indicated in the blessing according to the law, by which not the composite man is filled but the soul alone. And from the Gospel one must perhaps take something deeper, perhaps something simpler: that one must not let one's soul be distracted by cares about food and clothing, but, practising frugality, be persuaded that one is provided for by God, if one cares only for necessities.