Against Celsus 8.2

In what went before he raised the question to us why we do not serve demons; and to what he said about demons we replied according to what seemed to us the meaning of the divine Word. Then after that he introduces us as saying, in reply to his question, when he wants us to serve demons too, that it is not possible for the same person to “serve” many “masters.” This, as he thinks, is the voice of sedition, of people who, as he himself put it, wall themselves off and break away from the rest of mankind. He thinks that those who say this, as far as lies in them, transfer their own passion to God. That is why he thinks that among men it holds good that one who serves someone could not reasonably “serve” another man as well, since the first would be harmed by the divided service, nor that one who has already sworn alliance with someone should swear alliance with another too, as harming him; and that it is reasonable not to serve at the same time different heroes and such demons; but in the case of God, whom no harm or grief reaches, he thinks it unreasonable to guard against serving many gods in the same way as with men, heroes, and such demons. He says also that one who serves many gods, by serving one of those that belong to the Great God, does something pleasing to him too; and he adds that “it is not permitted for anyone to be honoured to whom this has not been granted by him. Therefore,” he says, “one who honours and worships all who are his does not grieve God, to whom they all belong.”