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| Chapter XXXIV
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Chapter
XXXIV.
Celsus would also have us to offer first-fruits to
demons. But we would offer them to Him who said, “Let the
earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree
yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself upon the
earth.”4908
And to Him to
whom we offer first-fruits we also send up our prayers, “having a
great high priest, that is passed into the heavens, Jesus the Son of
God,” and “we hold fast this profession”4909
as long as we live; for we find God and His
only-begotten Son, manifested to us in Jesus, to be gracious and kind
to us. And if we would wish to have besides a great number of
beings who shall ever prove friendly to us, we are taught that
“thousand thousands stood before Him, and ten thousand times ten
thousand ministered unto Him.”4910
And
these, regarding all as their relations and friends who imitate their
piety towards God, and in prayer call upon Him with sincerity, work
along with them for their salvation, appear unto them, deem it their
office and duty to attend to them, and as if by common agreement they
visit with all manner of kindness and deliverance those who pray to
God, to whom they themselves also pray: “For they are all
ministering spirits, sent forth to minister for those who shall be
heirs of salvation.”4911
Let the
learned Greeks say that the human soul at its birth is placed under the
charge of demons: Jesus has taught us not to despise even the
little ones in His Church, saying, “Their angels do always behold
the face of My Father which is in heaven.”4912
And the prophet says, “The angel
of the Lord encampeth round about them that fear Him, and delivereth
them.”4913
We do not,
then, deny that there are many demons upon earth, but we maintain that
they exist and exercise power among the wicked, as a punishment of
their wickedness. But they have no power over those who
“have put on the whole armour of God,” who have received
strength to “withstand the wiles of the devil,”4914
and who are ever engaged in contests with
them, knowing that “we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but
against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the
darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high
places.”4915
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