In this way Celsus surveys the main points of Christian history and teaching. They have no real grounds beneath them. The basis of the church is "faction (stásis) and the profit it brings, and fear of those without;—those are the things that establish the faith for them."[[74]] Faction is their keynote, taken from the Jews at first; and faction splits them up into innumerable sects beside the "great church,"[[75]]—"the one thing they have in common, if indeed they still have it, is the name; and this one thing they are ashamed to abandon."[[76]] When they all say "'Believe, if you wish to be saved, or else depart'; what are those to do who really wish to be saved? Should they throw the dice to find out to whom to turn?"[[77]] In short, faction is their breath of life, and "if all mankind were willing to be Christian, then they would not."[[78]]
Gods and dæmons
But Celsus is not content merely to refute; he will point out a more excellent way. "Are not all things ruled according to the will of God? is not all Providence from him? Whatever there is in the whole scheme of things, whether the work of God, or of angels, or other dæmons, or heroes, all these have their law from the greatest God; and in power over each thing is set he that has been counted fit."[[79]] "Probably the various sections are allotted to various rulers (epóptais) and distributed in certain provinces, and so governed. Thus among the various nations things would be done rightly if done as those rulers would have them. It is then not holy to break down what has been from the beginning the tradition of one and another place."[[80]] Again, the body is the prison of the soul; should there not then be warders of it—dæmons in fact?[[81]] Then "will not a man, who worships God, be justified in serving him who has his power from God?"[[82]] To worship them all cannot grieve him to whom they all belong.[[83]] Over and over Celsus maintains the duty of "living by the ancestral usages," "each people worshipping its own traditional deities."[[84]] To say with the Christians that there is one Lord, meaning God, is to break up the kingdom of God and make factions there (stasiáxein), as if there were choices to be made, and one were a rival of another.[[85]]
Ammon is no worse than the angels of the Jews; though here the Jews are so far right in that they hold by the ways of their ancestors—an advantage which the Jewish proselytes have forfeited.[[86]] If the Jews pride themselves on superior knowledge and so hold aloof from other men, Herodotus is evidence that their supposed peculiar dogma is shared by the Persians; and "I think it makes no difference whether you call Zeus the Most High, or Zeus, or Adonai, or Sabaoth, or Amun, like the Egyptians, or Papaios like the Scythians."[[87]]
The evidence for the ancillary dæmons and gods he finds in the familiar places. "Why need I tell at length how many things prophets and prophetesses at the oracles have foretold, and other men and women possessed by a voice of a god within them? the marvels heard from shrines? revelations from sacrifices and victims, and other miraculous tokens? And some have been face to face with visible phantoms. The whole of life is full of these things." Cities have escaped plague and famine through warnings from oracles, and have suffered for neglecting them. The childless have gained children, and the crippled have been healed, while those who have treated sacred things with contempt have been punished in suicide and incurable diseases.[[88]] Let a man go to the shrine of Trophonius or Amphiaraus or Mopsus, and there he may see the gods in the likeness of men, no feigned forms (pseudoménous) but clear to see, "not slipping by them once, like him who deceived these people [the Christians], but ever associating with those who will."[[89]] "A great multitude of men, Greeks and barbarians, testify that they have often seen and still do see Asklepios, and not merely a phantom of him, but they see himself healing men, and doing them good, and foretelling the future."[[90]] Is it not likely that these "satraps and ministers of air and earth" could do you harm, if you did them despite?[[91]] Earthly rulers too deserve worship, since they hold their positions not without dæmonic influence.[[92]] Why should not the Christians worship them, dæmons and Emperors? If they worshipped no other but one God, they might have some clear argument against other men; but, as it is, they more than worship the person who lately appeared, and reckon that God is not wronged by the service done to his subordinate,[[93]]—though in truth he is only a corpse.[[94]] In any case, "if idols are nothing, what harm is there in taking part in the festival? but if there are dæmons, it is clear they too are of God, and in them we must trust, and speak them fair, according to the laws, and pray that they may be propitious."[[95]]
It is characteristic of the candour of Celsus that he lets slip a caution or two about the service of dæmons. Christians are as credulous, he says in one place, as "those who lightly (alogôs) believe in the roaming priests of Cybele (metragúrtais) and wonder-seers, Mithras and Sabadios and the like—phantoms of Hecate or some other female dæmon or dæmons."[[96]] Again, he has a word of warning as to magic, and the danger and injury into which those fall who busy themselves with it—"One must be on one's guard, that one may not, by being occupied with these matters, become entangled in the service of them [literally; fused with them, syntakê], and through love of the body and by turning away from better things be overcome by forgetfulness. For perhaps we should not disbelieve wise men, who say (as a matter of fact) that of the dæmons who pervade the earth the greater part are entangled in 'becoming' (genesei syntetekós)—fused and riveted to it—and being bound to blood and smoke and chantings and other such things can do no more than heal the body and foretell future destiny to man and city; and the limits of their knowledge and power are those of human affairs."[[97]]
The rescue of the empire
At the last comes his great plea. Human authority is of divine ordinance. "To the Emperor all on earth is given; and whatever you receive in life is from him."[[98]] "We must not disbelieve one of old, who long ago said—
Let one be king, to whom the son of wise Kronos has given it.
If you invalidate this thought (dógma), probably the Emperor will punish you. For if all men were to do as you do, nothing will prevent the Emperor being left alone and deserted,[[99]] and all things on earth falling into the power of the most lawless and barbarous savages, with the result that neither of your religion nor of the true wisdom would there be left among men so much as the name.[[100]] You will hardly allege that if the Romans were persuaded by you and forsook all their usages as to gods and men, and called upon your 'Most High' or whatever you like, he would descend and fight for them and they would need no other help. For before now that same God promised (as you say) this and much more to those who served him, and you see all the good he has done them and you. As for them [the Jews], instead of being masters of all the earth, they have not a clod nor a hearthstone left them; while you—if there is any of you left in hiding, search is being made for him to put him to death."[[101]] The Christian sentiment that it is desirable for all who inhabit the Empire, Greeks and barbarians, Asia, Europe and Libya, to agree to one law or custom, is foolish and impracticable.[[102]] So Celsus calls on the Christians "to come to the help of the Emperor with all their might and labour with him as right requires, fight on his behalf, take the field with him, if he call on you, and share the command of the legions with him[[103]]—yes, and be magistrates, if need be, and to do this for the salvation of laws and religion."[[104]]