Chapter III.—God Known by His Works. His Goodness Shown in His Creative Energy; But Everlasting in Its Nature; Inherent in God, Previous to All Exhibition of It.  The First Stage of This Goodness Prior to Man.

It will therefore be right for us, as we enter on the examination of the known God, when the question arises, in what condition He is known to us, to begin with His works, which are prior to man; so that His goodness, being discovered immediately along with Himself, and then constituted and prescriptively settled, may suggest to us some sense whereby we may understand how the subsequent order of things came about. The disciples of Marcion, moreover, may possibly be able, while recognising the goodness of our God, to learn how worthy it is likewise of the Divine Being, on those very grounds whereby we have proved it to be unworthy in the case of their god. Now this very point,404    That is, “the goodness” of God. which is a material one in their scheme,405    Agnitionis, their Gnostic scheme.Marcion did not find in any other god, but eliminated it for himself out of his own god. The first goodness, then,406    Denique. This particle refers back to the argument previous to its interruption by the allusion to Marcion and his followers. was that of the Creator, whereby God was unwilling to remain hidden for ever; in other words, (unwilling) that there should not be a something by which God should become known. For what, indeed, is so good as the knowledge and fruition407    Fructus, the enjoyment of God’s works. of God? Now, although it did not transpires that this was good, because as yet there existed nothing to which it could transpire,408    Apparebat. [Was not manifest.] yet God foreknew what good would eventually transpire, and therefore He set Himself about developing409    Commisit in. His own perfect goodness, for the accomplishment of the good which was to transpire; not, indeed, a sudden goodness issuing in some accidental boon410    Obventiciæ bonitatis. or in some excited impulse,411    Provocaticiæ animationis. such as must be dated simply from the moment when it began to operate. For if it did itself produce its own beginning when it began to operate, it had not, in fact, a beginning itself when it acted. When, however, an initial act had been once done by it, the scheme of temporal seasons began, for distinguishing and noting which, the stars and luminaries of heaven were arranged in their order. “Let them be,” says God, “for seasons, and for days, and years.”412    Gen. i. 14. Previous, then, to this temporal course, (the goodness) which created time had not time; nor before that beginning which the same goodness originated, had it a beginning.  Being therefore without all order of a beginning, and all mode of time, it will be reckoned to possess an age, measureless in extent413    Immensa. and endless in duration;414    Interminabili. nor will it be possible to regard it as a sudden or adventitious or impulsive emotion, because it has nothing to occasion such an estimate of itself; in other words, no sort of temporal sequence.  It must therefore be accounted an eternal attribute, inbred in God,415    Deo ingenita “Natural to,” or “inherent in.” and everlasting,416    Perpetua. [Truly, a sublime Theodicy.] and on this account worthy of the Divine Being, putting to shame for ever417    Suffundens jam hinc. the benevolence of Marcion’s god, subsequent as he is to (I will not say) all beginnings and times, but to the very malignity of the Creator, if indeed malignity could possibly have been found in goodness.

CAPUT III.

Igitur oportebit ineuntes examinationem in Deum notum, si quaeritur in qua conditione sit notus, ab operibus ejus incipere quae priora sunt homine, ut statim cum ipso comperta bonitas ejus, et exinde constituta atque praescripta, aliquem sensum suggerat nobis intelligendi, qualiter sequens rerum ordinatio evaserit. Possunt autem discipuli Marcionis recognoscentes bonitatem Dei nostri, dignam quoque Deo agnoscere per eosdem titulos, per quos indignam ostendimus in deo illorum. Jam hoc ipsum quod 0287B materia est agnitionis suae, non apud alium invenit, sed de suo sibi fecit. Prima denique bonitas Creatoris, qua se Deus noluit in aeternum latere, id est non esse aliquid, cui Deus cognosceretur. Quid enim tam bonum, quam notitia et fructus Dei? Nam, etsi nondum apparebat, hoc bonum esse, quia nondum erat quicquam cui appareret; sed Deus praesciebat quid boni appariturum esset: et ideo in suam summam commisit bonitatem, apparituri boni negotiatricem, non utique repentinam, nec obventitiae bonitatis, nec provocatitiae animationis, quasi exinde censendam, quo coepit operari. Si enim ipsa constituit initium, exinde quo coepit operari, non habuit initium ipsa cum fecit. Initio autem facto, ab ea etiam ratio temporum nata est, utpote quibus distinguendis 0287C et notandis, sidera et luminaria coelestia disposita sunt: Erunt enim, inquit (Gen., I, 14), in tempora, et menses, et annos. Ergo nec tempus habuit ante tempus, quae fecit tempus; sicut nec initium ante initium, quae constituit initium. Atque ita carens et ordine initii et modo temporis, de immensa et indeterminabili aetate censebitur, nec poterit repentina vel obventitia et provocatitia reputari, non habens unde reputetur, id est aliquam temporis speciem; sed et aeterna, et Deo ingenita, et perpetua praesumenda, ac per hoc Deo digna, suffundens jam hinc bonitatem dei Marcionis, non dico initiis et temporibus, sed ipsa malitia creatoris posteriorem, si tamen malitia potuit a bonitate committi .