Magic has no power over those who pray
After this, as if he had forgotten that his task is to write against Christians, he says that a certain Dionysius, an Egyptian musician, who had spent time with him, said about the workings of magic that it has power over the uneducated and over people corrupt in character, but over those who have studied philosophy it can do nothing, since they have taken care to keep a healthy way of life.
Now if our present task were to discuss magic, we would have added a little on this point to what we said about it above. But since we must say what is more to the purpose in answer to Celsus’s book, we say this about magic: whoever wishes to examine whether even philosophers can be caught by it or not should read what Moeragenes wrote in his Memoirs of Apollonius of Tyana, the magician and philosopher. In them this man, no Christian but a philosopher, said that some philosophers of no mean standing were caught by the magic in Apollonius, having gone to him as to a sorcerer. Among them, I think, he told of the famous Euphrates and of a certain Epicurean.
But we affirm, having learned it also by experience, that those who, in the Christian way, worship through Jesus the God who is over all, who live according to his Gospel, and who use the prayers that have been commanded constantly and as they ought, night and day, cannot be caught either by magic or by demons. For truly “the angel of the Lord will encamp around those who fear him, and will deliver them” (Psalm 34:7) from every evil. And “the angels” of the little ones in the Church, who are appointed to watch over them, are said “always” to behold “the face of the Father in heaven” (Matthew 18:10), whatever that face may be and whatever that beholding may be.
Greek
Μετὰ ταῦτα ὡσπερεὶ ἐπιλαθόμενος οτι κατὰ Χριστιανῶν αὐτῷ πρόκειται γράφειν φησὶ Διονύσιόν τινα μουσικὸν Αἰγύπτιον συγγενόμενον αὐτῷ εἰρηκέναι περὶ τῶν κατὰ τὴν μαγείαν ὅτι πρὸς ἀπαιδεύτους μὲν αὐτὴ δύναται καὶ πρὸς διαφθαρέντας τὰ ἤθη, πρὸς δὲ τοὺς φιλοσοφήσαντας οὐδὲν οἵα τε ἐστὶν ἐνεργεῖν, ἅτε τῆς ὑγιεινῆς διαίτης προνοησαμένους. εἰ μὲν οὖν προέκειτο περὶ μαγείας νῦν ἡμῖν διαλαβεῖν, κἂν προσεθήκαμεν [ἐν] οἷς ἀνωτέρω περὶ αὐτῆς εἰρήκαμεν εἰς τοῦτο ὀλίγα· ἐπεὶ δὲ τὰ ἐπικαιρότερα χρὴ λέγειν πρὸς τὸ Κέλσου σύγγραμμα, περὶ μαγείας φαμὲν ὅτι ὁ βουλόμενος ἐξετάσαι, πότερόν ποτε καὶ φιλόσοφοι ἁλωτοί εἰσιν αὐτῇ ἢ μὴ, ἀναγνώτω τὰ γεγραμμένα Μοιραγένει τῶν Ἀπολλωνίου τοῦ Τυανέως μάγου καὶ φιλοσόφου ἀπομνημονευμάτων· ἐν οἷς ὁ μὴ Χριστιανὸς ἀλλὰ φιλόσοφος ἔφησεν ἁλῶναι ὑπὸ τῆς ἐν Ἀπολλωνίῳ μαγείας οὐκ ἀγεννεῖς τινας φιλοσόφους ὡς πρὸς γόητα αὐτὸν εἰσελθόντας· ἐν οἷς οἶμαι καὶ περὶ Εὐφράτου (τοῦ) πάνυ διηγήσατο καί τινος Ἐπικουρείου. διαβεβαιούμεθα δὲ ἡμεῖς καὶ τῇ πείρᾳ παραλαβόντες ὅτι οἱ κατὰ χριστιανισμὸν διὰ τοῦ Ἰησοῦ τὸν ἐπὶ πᾶσι θεραπεύοντες θεὸν καὶ βιοῦντες κατὰ τὸ εὐαγγέλιον αὐτοῦ ταῖς προσταχθείσαις τε εὐχαῖς συνεχέστερον καὶ δεόντως νυκτὸς καὶ ἡμέρας χρώμενοι οὔτε μαγείᾳ οὔτε δαιμονίοις εἰσὶν ἁλωτοί. ἀληθῶς γὰρ „παρεμβαλεῖ ἄγγελος κυρίου κύκλῳ τῶν φοβουμένων αὐτὸν καὶ ῥύσεται αὐτοὺς“ ἀπὸ παντὸς κακοῦ· καὶ „οἱ ἄγγελοι“ τῶν ἐν τῇ ἐκκλησίᾳ μικρῶν καὶ τεταγμένοι εἰς τὸ προΐστασθαι αὐτῶν „διὰ παντὸς“ λέγονται βλέπειν „τὸ πρόσωπον τοῦ ἐν οὐρανοῖς πατρὸς,“ ὅ τι ποτ᾿ ἐστὶ τὸ πρόσωπον καὶ ὅ τι ποτ᾿ ἐστὶ τὸ βλέπειν.