Chapter XVIII.—Notwithstanding Their Conceits, the God of the Marcionites Fails in the Vouchers Both of Created Evidence and of Adequate Revelation.

Well, then,211    Age. he has now advanced into notice, just when he willed, when he could, when the destined hour arrived. For perhaps he was hindered hitherto by his leading star,212    Anabibazon. The ἀναβιβάζων was the most critical point in the ecliptic, in the old astrology, for the calculation of stellar influences. or some weird malignants, or Saturn in quadrature,213    Quadratus. or Mars at the trine.214    Trigonus. Saturn and Mars were supposed to be malignant planets. See Smith, Greek and Rom. Ant. p. 144, c. 2. The Marcionites are very strongly addicted to astrology; nor do they blush to get their livelihood by help of the very stars which were made by the Creator (whom they depreciate). We must here also treat of the quality215    Qualitate. of the (new) revelation; whether Marcion’s supreme god has become known in a way worthy of him, so as to secure the proof of his existence: and in the way of truth, so that he may be believed to be the very being who had been already proved to have been revealed in a manner worthy of his character. For things which are worthy of God will prove the existence of God. We maintain216    Definimus. that God must first be known217    Cognoscendum. from nature, and afterwards authenticated218    Recognoscendum. by instruction: from nature by His works; by instruction,219    Doctrina. through His revealed announcements.220    Ex prædicationibus. Now, in a case where nature is excluded, no natural means (of knowledge) are furnished.  He ought, therefore, to have carefully supplied221    Operari. a revelation of himself, even by announcements, especially as he had to be revealed in opposition to One who, after so many and so great works, both of creation and revealed announcement, had with difficulty succeeded in satisfying222    Vix impleverat. men’s faith. In what manner, therefore, has the revelation been made? If by man’s conjectural guesses, do not say that God can possibly become known in any other way than by Himself, and appeal not only to the standard of the Creator, but to the conditions both of God’s greatness and man’s littleness; so that man seem not by any possibility to be greater than God, by having somehow drawn Him out into public recognition, when He was Himself unwilling to become known by His own energies, although man’s littleness has been able, according to experiments all over the world, more easily to fashion for itself gods, than to follow the true God whom men now understand by nature. As for the rest,223    Alioquin. if man shall be thus able to devise a god,—as Romulus did Consus, and Tatius Cloacina, and Hostilius Fear, and Metellus Alburnus, and a certain authority224    He means the Emperor Hadrian; comp. Apolog. c. 13. some time since Antinous,—the same accomplishment may be allowed to others. As for us, we have found our pilot in Marcion, although not a king nor an emperor.

CAPUT XVIII.

Processerit, age, jam in notitiam quando voluit, quando potuit, quando hora fatalis advenit. Fortasse enim anabibazon ei obstabat, aut aliquae maleficae, aut Saturnus quadratus, aut Mars trigonus. Nam et mathematici plurimum Marcionitae , nec hoc erubescentes, de ipsis etiam stellis vivere Creatoris. Tractandum et hic de revelationis qualitate, an digne cognitus sit, ut constet an vere; et ita credatur esse, quem digne constiterit revelatum. Digna enim Deo probabunt Deum. Nos definimus Deum primo natura 0266B cognoscendum, dehinc doctrina recognoscendum: natura ex operibus, doctrina ex praedicationibus. Sed cui nulla natura est, naturalia instrumenta non suppetunt. Ergo vel praedicationibus revelationem sui debuerat operari; maxime adversus eum revelandus qui et conditionis et praedicationis operibus tot ac tantis, vix tamen hominum fidem impleverat. Quomodo itaque revelatus est? Si per humanam conjecturam, nega Deum alias cognosci posse quam per semetipsum: nec tantum ad formam provocans Creatoris, verum et ad conditionem tam divinae magnitudinis, quam humanae mediocritatis: ne major Deo homo videri possit, qui , eum non ultro volentem cognosci, suis viribus quodammodo in publicum agnitionis extraxerit: cum humana 0266C mediocritas facilius deos fingere sibi norit secundum totius aevi experimenta, quam verum sectari quem natura jam intelligunt. Alioquin, si sic homo Deum commentabitur, quomodo Romulus Consum, et Tatius Cloacinam, et Hostilius Pavorem, et Metellus Alburnum, et quidam ante hoc tempus Antinoum; hoc aliis licebit: nos Marcionem nauclerum novimus, non regem, nec imperatorem.