Chapter VI.—Marcion Untrue to His Theory. He Pretends that His Gods are Equal, But He Really Makes Them Diverse.  Then, Allowing Their Divinity, Denies This Diversity.

Thus far our discussion seems to imply that Marcion makes his two gods equal. For while we have been maintaining that God ought to be believed as the one only great Supreme Being, excluding from Him every possibility68    Parilitatem. of equality, we have treated of these topics on the assumption of two equal Gods; but nevertheless, by teaching that no equals can exist according to the law69    Formam. of the Supreme Being, we have sufficiently affirmed the impossibility that two equals should exist. For the rest, however,70    Alioquin. we know full well71    Certi (sumus). that Marcion makes his gods unequal: one judicial, harsh, mighty in war; the other mild, placid, and simply72    Tantummodo. good and excellent. Let us with similar care consider also this aspect of the question, whether diversity (in the Godhead) can at any rate contain two, since equality therein failed to do so. Here again the same rule about the great Supreme will protect us, inasmuch as it settles73    Vindicet. the entire condition of the Godhead.  Now, challenging, and in a certain sense arresting74    Injecta manu detinens. the meaning of our adversary, who does not deny that the Creator is God, I most fairly object75    Præscribo. against him that he has no room for any diversity in his gods, because, having once confessed that they are on a par,76    Ex æquo deos confessus. he cannot now pronounce them different; not indeed that human beings may not be very different under the same designation, but because the Divine Being can be neither said nor believed to be God, except as the great Supreme. Since, therefore, he is obliged to acknowledge that the God whom he does not deny is the great Supreme, it is inadmissible that he should predicate of the Supreme Being such a diminution as should subject Him to another Supreme Being.  For He ceases (to be Supreme), if He becomes subject to any. Besides, it is not the characteristic of God to cease from any attribute77    De statu suo. of His divinity—say, from His supremacy.  For at this rate the supremacy would be endangered even in Marcion’s more powerful god, if it were capable of depreciation in the Creator. When, therefore, two gods are pronounced to be two great Supremes, it must needs follow that neither of them is greater or less than the other, neither of them loftier or lowlier than the other. If you deny78    Nega. him to be God whom you call inferior, you deny79    Nega. the supremacy of this inferior being.  But when you confessed both gods to be divine, you confessed them both to be supreme. Nothing will you be able to take away from either of them; nothing will you be able to add. By allowing their divinity, you have denied their diversity.

CAPUT VI.

Sic adhuc videmur disputare, quasi Marcion duos pares constituat. Nam, dum defendimus Deum summum magnum unicum credi oportere, excludentes ab eo parilitatem, tamquam de duobus paribus de his retractavimus: nihilominus tamen, docendo pares esse non posse secundum summi magni formam, satis confirmavimus duos esse non posse. Alioquin certi Marcionem dispares deos constituere, alterum judicem, 0253A ferum, belli potentem; alterum mitem, placidum, et tantummodo bonum atque optimum; dispiciamus aeque et hanc partem, an diversitas saltem duos capiat, si parilitas capere non potuit. Porro et hic eadem regula summi magni patrocinabitur nobis, utpote quae totum statum vindicet divinitatis. Conveniens enim et quodammodo injecta manu detinens adversarii sensum non negantis Creatorem Deum, justissime praescribo illi diversitati locum non esse inter eos qui ex aequo deos confessus, non potest facere diversos: non quia non et homines licet sub eadem appellatione diversissimos esse, sed quia deus non erit dicendus, quia nec credendus, nisi summum magnum. Cum ergo summum magnum cogatur agnoscere quem Deum non negat, non potest 0253B admitti ut summo magno aliquam adscribat diminutionem, qua subjiciatur alii summo magno: desinit enim, si subjiciatur. Non est autem Dei desinere de statu suo, id est: de summo magno. Nam et in illo deo potiore periclitari poterit summum magnum, si depretiari capit in Creatore . Ita, cum duo dii pronuntiantur duo summa magna, necesse est neutrum altero aut majus sit aut minus, neutrum altero aut sublimius aut dejectius. Nega deum, quem dicis deteriorem: nega summum magnum, quem credis minorem. Deum vero confessus, utrumque duo summa magna confessus es. Nihil alteri adimes, aut alteri adscribes. Agnoscens divinitatem, negasti diversitatem.