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An Address to Demetrianus

15.

Oh, would you but hear and see them when they are adjured by us, and tortured with spiritual scourges, and are ejected from the possessed bodies with tortures of words, ¹ when howling and groaning at the voice of man and the power of God, feeling the stripes and blows, they confess the judgment to come! Come and acknowledge that what we say is true; and since you say that you thus worship gods, believe even those whom you worship. Or if you will even believe yourself, he--i.e., the demon--who has now possessed your breast, who has now darkened your mind with the night of ignorance, shall speak concerning yourself in your hearing. You will see that we are entreated by those whom you entreat, that we are feared by those whom you fear, whom you adore. You will see that under our hands they stand bound, and tremble as captives, whom you look up to and venerate as lords: assuredly even thus you might be confounded in those errors of yours, when you see and hear your gods, at once upon our interrogation betraying what they are, and even in your presence unable to conceal those deceits and trickeries of theirs.

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Ad Demetrianum [CSEL]

§ 15

0 si audire eos uelis et uidere, quando adiurantur a nobis, torquentur spiritalibus flagris et uerborum tormentis de obsessis corporibus eiciuntur, quando eiulantes et gementes uoce humana et potestate diuina flagella et uerbera sentientes uenturum iudicium confitentur. ueni et cognosce uera esse quae dicimus: et quia sic deos colere te dicis, uel ipsis crede quos colis. aut si uolueris et tibi credere, de te ipso loquetur audiente te qui nunc tuum pectus obsedit, qui nunc mentem tuam ignorantiae nocte caecauit. uidebis nos rogari ab eis quos tu rogas, timeri ab eis ¹[P. 362] quos tu adoras: uidebis sub manu nostra stare uinctos et tremere captiuos quos tu suspicis et ueneraris ut dominos. certe uel sic confundi in istis erroribus tuis poteris, quando conspecxeris et audieris deos tuos quid sint interrogatione nostra statim prodere et praesentibus licet uobis praestigias illas et fallacias suas non posse celare.