Lactantius — Divine Institutes 5.21
They do not rage against us because the gods are not worshiped by us — for many do not worship them — but because the truth is with us, which, as has been most truly said, begets hatred. What then shall we think, except that they do not know what they suffer? For it proceeds by a blind and irrational fury, which we see and they do not know. For it is not the humans themselves who persecute, who have no cause why they should be angry at the innocent, but those contaminated and lost spirits, to whom the truth is both known and hated: they slip into their minds and goad the unknowing into fury. These, as long as there is peace in the people of God, flee the just and fear; and when they occupy human bodies and vex souls, they are adjured by them and put to flight by the name of the true God. When they hear this they tremble and cry out and testify that they are burned and scourged, and when asked who they are, when they came, how they crept into the human, they confess. Thus wrenched and tormented by the power of the divine name they are banished. Because of these scourges and threats they have always hated holy and just men. And because by themselves they can harm them nothing, they persecute with public hatreds those they feel heavy to themselves, and they exercise cruelty as violently as they can, that they may either lessen their faith through pain or, if they cannot accomplish that, take them altogether from the earth, lest there be any who can restrain their wickedness.
It does not escape me what can be answered to the contrary: 'Why then does that singular God, that great one, whom you confess powerful over things, lord of all, allow these things to happen and neither avenge nor protect his worshipers? Why finally are those who do not worship him both rich and powerful and blessed and possess honors and a kingdom and hold even those under their sway and power?' An account of this matter too must be given, lest any error remain. For first this is the reason why God's religion is thought to have no force: that humans are led by the appearance of earthly and present goods, which in no way pertain to the care of the mind. Because they see the just lack these and the unjust abound, they both judge the worship of God empty, in which they do not discern those things to be present, and reckon the rites of the gods true, since their worshipers enjoy riches and honors and kingdoms.
But those who are of this opinion do not look more deeply into the force and reason of a human, which is wholly not in the body but in the mind. For they see nothing more than what is seen by the eyes, namely the body. Because it is graspable by eyes and hand, it is weak, fragile, mortal: and all those goods that are objects of desire and wonder belong to it — wealth, honors, empires — since they bring pleasures to the body, and therefore they are as fleeting as the body itself. But the soul, in which alone the human is, since it is not subject to the eyes, nor can its goods be seen, which are set in virtue alone: and therefore it must be as stable and constant and perpetual as virtue itself, in which is the good of the soul.
Latin
Non ergo ideo aduersus nos insaniunt, quia dii non coluntur a nobis — a multis enim non coluntur — sed quia ueritas penes nos est, quae, ut est uerissime dictum, odium parit. quid igitur existimabimus nisi nescire illos quid patiantur? pergitur enim caeco et inrationabili furore, quem nos uidemus, illi nesciunt. non enim ipsi homines persecuntur, qui causam cur irascantur innocentibus non habent, sed illi spiritus contaminati ac perditi, quibus ueritas et nota est et inuisa, insinuant se mentibus eorum et instigant nescios in furorem. hi enim, quamdiu pax est in populo dei, fugitant iustos et pauent, et cum corpora hominum occupant animasque diuexant, adiurantur ab iis et nomine dei ueri fugantur. quo audito tremunt et exclamant et uri se uerberarique testantur et interrogati qui sint, quando uenerint, quomodo in hominem inrepserint, confitentur. sic extorti et excruciati uirtute diuini nominis exulantur. propter haec uerbera et minas sanctos et iustos uiros semper oderunt. et quia per se nocere iis nihil possunt, publicis eos odiis persecuntur, quos sibi graues sentiunt, exercentque saeuitiam quam uiolentissime possunt, ut aut eorum fidem minuant per dolorem aut, si id efficere non quiuerint, auferant omnino de terra, ne sint qui possint eorum nequitiam coercere.
non me fugit quid responderi e contrario possit: \'cur ergo deus ille singularis, ille magnus, quem rerum potentem, quem dominum omnium confiteris, haec fieri patitur nec cultores suos aut uindicat aut tuetur? cur denique qui eum non colunt, et opulenti et potentes et beati sunt et honoribus regnoque potiuntur eosque ipsos dicioni suae ac potestati sub- iectos habent?\' reddenda et huius rei ratio est, ne quid remaneat erroris. nam in primis haec causa est cur existimetur religio dei uim non habere, quod inducuntur homines specie terrenorum ac praesentium bonorum, quae ad curam mentis nullo modo pertinent. quibus quia carere iustos uident et afluere iniustos, et dei cultum inanem arbitrantur, in quo inesse illa non cernunt, et deorum ritus aestimant ueros, quoniam cultores eorum et diuitiis et honoribus et regnis fruantur.
uerum ii qui sunt in hac existimatione non perspiciunt altius uim rationemque hominis, quae tota non in corpore, sed in mente est. nihil enim uident amplius quam (quod oculis? uidetur, corpus scilicet. quod quia oculis manuque tractabile est, inbecillum fragile mortale est: cuius sunt illa omnia bona quae cupiditati ac miraculo sunt, opes honores imperia, quoniam corpori adferunt uoluptates, et ideo tam caduca sunt quam corpus ipsum. animus uero, in quo solo est homo, quoniam subiectus oculis non est, nec bona eius aspici possunt, quae in sola uirtute sunt posita, et ideo tam stabilis et constans et perpetuus sit necesse est sicut ipsa uirtus, in qua est animi bonum.