Exhortation to Martyrdom 45

Since some, not having considered the doctrine about demons—that in order to remain in this thick air around the earth they need the nourishment that comes from the fumes of sacrifice, and so watch for wherever there is always the savor of burnt fat, and blood, and incense—make light of sacrificing as a matter of indifference, we would say to them too: if those who supply food to robbers and murderers and barbarian enemies of the great King are punished as having wronged the commonwealth, how much more justly would those be accused who, by sacrificing, give to the servants of wickedness food that keeps them in the region around the earth; especially if, having learned the words, “He who sacrifices to other gods shall be utterly destroyed, except to the Lord alone,” they sacrifice to the causes of the evils on earth. And I think that for the sins committed by the demons working against men, those who nourished them by sacrificing will be accused no less than the demons who did the evil; for the demons, and those who kept them on earth, have as it were jointly done the evils to men, since the demons could not have lasted without the fumes and what are thought to be the foods suited to their bodies.