Chapter XIV.—All Portions of Creation Attest the Excellence of the Creator, Whom Marcion Vilifies. His Inconsistency Herein Exposed. Marcion’s Own God Did Not Hesitate to Use the Creator’s Works in Instituting His Own Religion.

Now, when you make merry with those minuter animals, which their glorious Maker has purposely endued with a profusion of instincts and resources,168    De industria ingeniis aut viribus ampliavit.—thereby teaching us that greatness has its proofs in lowliness, just as (according to the apostle) there is power even in infirmity169    2 Cor. xii. 5.—imitate, if you can, the cells of the bee, the hills of the ant, the webs of the spider, and the threads of the silkworm; endure, too, if you know how, those very creatures170    Tertullian, it should be remembered, lived in Africa. which infest your couch and house, the poisonous ejections of the blister-beetle,171    Cantharidis. the spikes of the fly, and the gnat’s sheath and sting. What of the greater animals, when the small ones so affect you with pleasure or pain, that you cannot even in their case despise their Creator? Finally, take a circuit round your own self; survey man within and without. Even this handiwork of our God will be pleasing to you, inasmuch as your own lord, that better god, loved it so well,172    Adamavit. and for your sake was at the pains173    Laboravit. of descending from the third heaven to these poverty-stricken174    Paupertina. This and all such passages are, of course, in imitation of Marcion’s contemptuous view of the Creator’s work. elements, and for the same reason was actually crucified in this sorry175    Cellula. apartment of the Creator. Indeed, up to the present time, he has not disdained the water which the Creator made wherewith he washes his people; nor the oil with which he anoints them; nor that union of honey and milk wherewithal he gives them the nourishment176    Infantat. of children; nor the bread by which he represents his own proper body, thus requiring in his very sacraments the “beggarly177    Mendicitatibus. elements” of the Creator. You, however, are a disciple above his master, and a servant above his lord; you have a higher reach of discernment than his; you destroy what he requires. I wish to examine whether you are at least honest in this, so as to have no longing for those things which you destroy. You are an enemy to the sky, and yet you are glad to catch its freshness in your houses. You disparage the earth, although the elemental parent178    Matricem. of your own flesh, as if it were your undoubted enemy, and yet you extract from it all its fatness179    Medullas. for your food. The sea, too, you reprobate, but are continually using its produce, which you account the more sacred diet.180    [The use of fish for fasting-days has no better warrant than Marcion’s example.] If I should offer you a rose, you will not disdain its Maker. You hypocrite, however much of abstinence you use to show yourself a Marcionite, that is, a repudiator of your Maker (for if the world displeased you, such abstinence ought to have been affected by you as a martyrdom), you will have to associate yourself with181    Uteris. the Creator’s material production, into what element soever you shall be dissolved. How hard is this obstinacy of yours! You vilify the things in which you both live and die.

CAPUT XIV.

At cum et animalia irrides minutiora, quae maximus artifex de industria ingeniis aut viribus ampliavit, sic magnitudinem in mediocritate probari docens quemadmodum virtutem in infirmitate, secundum Apostolum (II Cor., XII, 9); imitare, si potes, apis aedificia, formicae stabula, aranei retia, bombycis stamina: sustine, si potes, illas ipsas lectuli et tegetis tuae bestias, cantharidis venena, muscae spicula, culicis et tubam et lanceam. Qualia erunt majora, cum tam modicis aut juvaris aut laederis, ut nec in modicis despicias Creatorem? Postremo, te tibi circumfer, intus ac foris considera hominem. Placebit 0262A tibi vel hoc opus Dei nostri, quod tuus dominus ille Deus melior adamavit; propter quem in haec paupertina elementa de tertio coelo descendere laboravit; cujus caussa in hac cellula Creatoris etiam crucifixus est. Sed ille quidem usque nunc nec aquam reprobavit Creatoris, qua suos abluit; nec oleum, quo suos unguit; nec mellis et lactis societatem, qua suos infantat; nec panem, quo ipsum corpus suum repraesentat ; etiam in sacramentis propriis egens mendicitatibus Creatoris. At tu super magistrum discipulus, et servus super dominum, sublimius illo sapis, destruens quae ille desiderat. Volo inspicere si ex fide saltem, ut non et ipse quae destruis, appetas. Adversaris coelum, et libertatem coeli in habitationibus captas. Despicis terram, plane inimicae jam tuae carnis 0262B matricem; et omnes medullas ejus victui extorques. Reprobas et mare; sed usque ad copias ejus, quas sanctiorem cibum deputas. Rosam tibi si obtulero, non fastidies Creatorem. Hypocrita, ut apocarteresi probes te marcionistam , id est repudiatorem Creatoris (nam haec apud vos pro martyrio affectari debuisset, si vobis mundus displiceret), in quamcumque materiam resolveris, substantiam Creatoris uteris. Quanta obstinatio duritiae tuae! depretias in quibus et vivis et moreris.