The Five Books Against Marcion.

 Book I. Wherein is described the god of Marcion. …

 Chapter I.—Preface. Reason for a New Work. Pontus Lends Its Rough Character to the Heretic Marcion, a Native. His Heresy Characterized in a Brief Inve

 Chapter II.—Marcion, Aided by Cerdon, Teaches a Duality of Gods How He Constructed This Heresy of an Evil and a Good God.

 Chapter III.—The Unity of God. He is the Supreme Being, and There Cannot Be a Second Supreme.

 Chapter IV.—Defence of the Divine Unity Against Objection. No Analogy Between Human Powers and God’s Sovereignty. The Objection Otherwise Untenable, f

 Chapter V.—The Dual Principle Falls to the Ground Plurality of Gods, of Whatever Number, More Consistent. Absurdity and Injury to Piety Resulting fro

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

 Chapter VII.—Other Beings Besides God are in Scripture Called God.  This Objection Frivolous, for It is Not a Question of Names. The Divine Essence is

 Chapter VIII.—Specific Points.  The Novelty of Marcion’s God Fatal to His Pretensions. God is from Everlasting, He Cannot Be in Any Wise New.

 Chapter IX.—Marcion’s Gnostic Pretensions Vain, for the True God is Neither Unknown Nor Uncertain.  The Creator, Whom He Owns to Be God, Alone Supplie

 Chapter X.—The Creator Was Known as the True God from the First by His Creation. Acknowledged by the Soul and Conscience of Man Before He Was Revealed

 Chapter XI.—The Evidence for God External to Him But the External Creation Which Yields This Evidence is Really Not Extraneous, for All Things are Go

 But even if we were able to allow that he exists, we should yet be bound to argue that he is without a cause. For he who had nothing (to show for hims

 Chapter XIII.—The Marcionites Depreciate the Creation, Which, However, is a Worthy Witness of God. This Worthiness Illustrated by References to the He

 Chapter XIV.—All Portions of Creation Attest the Excellence of the Creator, Whom Marcion Vilifies. His Inconsistency Herein Exposed. Marcion’s Own God

 Chapter XV.—The Lateness of the Revelation of Marcion’s God. The Question of the Place Occupied by the Rival Deities. Instead of Two Gods, Marcion Rea

 Chapter XVI.—Marcion Assumes the Existence of Two Gods from the Antithesis Between Things Visible and Things Invisible. This Antithetical Principle in

 Chapter XVII.—Not Enough, as the Marcionites Pretend, that the Supreme God Should Rescue Man He Must Also Have Created Him. The Existence of God Prov

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

 Chapter XIX.—Jesus Christ, the Revealer of the Creator, Could Not Be the Same as Marcion’s God, Who Was Only Made Known by the Heretic Some CXV. Years

 Chapter XX.—Marcion, Justifying His Antithesis Between the Law and the Gospel by the Contention of St. Paul with St. Peter, Shown to Have Mistaken St.

 Chapter XXI.—St. Paul Preached No New God, When He Announced the Repeal of Some of God’s Ancient Ordinances. Never Any Hesitation About Belief in the

 Chapter XXII.—God’s Attribute of Goodness Considered as Natural The God of Marcion Found Wanting Herein. It Came Not to Man’s Rescue When First Wante

 Chapter XXIII.—God’s Attribute of Goodness Considered as Rational. Marcion’s God Defective Here Also His Goodness Irrational and Misapplied.

 Chapter XXIV.—The Goodness of Marcion’s God Only Imperfectly Manifested It Saves But Few, and the Souls Merely of These. Marcion’s Contempt of the Bo

 Chapter XXV.—God is Not a Being of Simple Goodness Other Attributes Belong to Him. Marcion Shows Inconsistency in the Portraiture of His Simply Good

 Chapter XXVI.—In the Attribute of Justice, Marcion’s God is Hopelessly Weak and Ungodlike.  He Dislikes Evil, But Does Not Punish Its Perpetration.

 Chapter XXVII.—Dangerous Effects to Religion and Morality of the Doctrine of So Weak a God.

 Chapter XXVIII.—This Perverse Doctrine Deprives Baptism of All Its Grace. If Marcion Be Right, the Sacrament Would Confer No Remission of Sins, No Reg

 Chapter XXIX.—Marcion Forbids Marriage. Tertullian Eloquently Defends It as Holy, and Carefully Discriminates Between Marcion’s Doctrine and His Own M

 Book II. Wherein Tertullian shows that the creator, or demiurge, whom Marcion calumniated, is the true and good God.

 Chapter I.—The Methods of Marcion’s Argument Incorrect and Absurd.  The Proper Course of the Argument.

 Chapter II.—The True Doctrine of God the Creator. The Heretics Pretended to a Knowledge of the Divine Being, Opposed to and Subversive of Revelation.

 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 Exhibi

 Chapter IV.—The Next Stage Occurs in the Creation of Man by the Eternal Word. Spiritual as Well as Physical Gifts to Man. The Blessings of Man’s Free-

 Chapter V.—Marcion’s Cavils Considered. His Objection Refuted, I.e., Man’s Fall Showed Failure in God. The Perfection of Man’s Being Lay in His Libert

 Chapter VI.—This Liberty Vindicated in Respect of Its Original Creation Suitable Also for Exhibiting the Goodness and the Purpose of God.  Reward and

 Chapter VII.—If God Had Anyhow Checked Man’s Liberty, Marcion Would Have Been Ready with Another and Opposite Cavil. Man’s Fall Foreseen by God. Provi

 Chapter VIII.—Man, Endued with Liberty, Superior to the Angels, Overcomes Even the Angel Which Lured Him to His Fall, When Repentant and Resuming Obed

 Chapter IX.—Another Cavil Answered, I.e., the Fall Imputable to God, Because Man’s Soul is a Portion of the Spiritual Essence of the Creator.  The Div

 Chapter X.—Another Cavil Met, I.e., the Devil Who Instigated Man to Sin Himself the Creature of God. Nay, the Primeval Cherub Only Was God’s Work. The

 Chapter XI.—If, After Man’s Sin, God Exercised His Attribute of Justice and Judgment, This Was Compatible with His Goodness, and Enhances the True Ide

 Chapter XII.—The Attributes of Goodness and Justice Should Not Be Separated. They are Compatible in the True God. The Function of Justice in the Divin

 Chapter XIII.—Further Description of the Divine Justice Since the Fall of Man It Has Regulated the Divine Goodness. God’s Claims on Our Love and Our

 Chapter XIV.—Evil of Two Kinds, Penal and Criminal. It is Not of the Latter Sort that God is the Author, But Only of the Former, Which are Penal, and

 Chapter XV.—The Severity of God Compatible with Reason and Justice. When Inflicted, Not Meant to Be Arbitrary, But Remedial.

 Chapter XVI.—To the Severity of God There Belong Accessory Qualities, Compatible with Justice. If Human Passions are Predicated of God, They Must Not

 Chapter XVII.—Trace God’s Government in History and in His Precepts, and You Will Find It Full of His Goodness.

 Chapter XVIII.—Some of God’s Laws Defended as Good, Which the Marcionites Impeached, Such as the Lex Talionis. Useful Purposes in a Social and Moral P

 Chapter XIX.—The Minute Prescriptions of the Law Meant to Keep the People Dependent on God. The Prophets Sent by God in Pursuance of His Goodness.  Ma

 Chapter XX.—The Marcionites Charged God with Having Instigated the Hebrews to Spoil the Egyptians. Defence of the Divine Dispensation in that Matter.

 Chapter XXI.—The Law of the Sabbath-Day Explained. The Eight Days’ Procession Around Jericho. The Gathering of Sticks a Violation.

 Chapter XXII.—The Brazen Serpent and the Golden Cherubim Were Not Violations of the Second Commandment. Their Meaning.

 Chapter XXIII.—God’s Purposes in Election and Rejection of the Same Men, Such as King Saul, Explained, in Answer to the Marcionite Cavil.

 Chapter XXIV.—Instances of God’s Repentance, and Notably in the Case of the Ninevites, Accounted for and Vindicated.

 Chapter XXV.—God’s Dealings with Adam at the Fall, and with Cain After His Crime, Admirably Explained and Defended.

 Chapter XXVI.—The Oath of God: Its Meaning. Moses, When Deprecating God’s Wrath Against Israel, a Type of Christ.

 Chapter XXVII.—Other Objections Considered. God’s Condescension in the Incarnation.  Nothing Derogatory to the Divine Being in This Economy. The Divin

 Chapter XXVIII.—The Tables Turned Upon Marcion, by Contrasts, in Favour of the True God.

 Chapter XXIX.—Marcion’s Own Antitheses, If Only the Title and Object of the Work Be Excepted, Afford Proofs of the Consistent Attributes of the True G

 Book III. Wherein Christ is shown to be the Son of God, Who created the world to have been predicted by the prophets to have taken human flesh like

 Chapter I.—Introductory A Brief Statement of the Preceding Argument in Connection with the Subject of This Book.

 Chapter II.—Why Christ’s Coming Should Be Previously Announced.

 Chapter III.—Miracles Alone, Without Prophecy, an Insufficient Evidence of Christ’s Mission.

 Chapter IV.—Marcion’s Christ Not the Subject of Prophecy. The Absurd Consequences of This Theory of the Heretic.

 Chapter V.—Sundry Features of the Prophetic Style: Principles of Its Interpretation.

 Chapter VI.—Community in Certain Points of Marcionite and Jewish Error. Prophecies of Christ’s Rejection Examined.

 Chapter VII.—Prophecy Sets Forth Two Different Conditions of Christ, One Lowly, the Other Majestic. This Fact Points to Two Advents of Christ.

 Chapter VIII.—Absurdity of Marcion’s Docetic Opinions Reality of Christ’s Incarnation.

 Chapter IX.—Refutation of Marcion’s Objections Derived from the Cases of the Angels, and the Pre-Incarnate Manifestations of the Son of God.

 Chapter X.—The Truly Incarnate State More Worthy of God Than Marcion’s Fantastic Flesh.

 Chapter XI.—Christ Was Truly Born Marcion’s Absurd Cavil in Defence of a Putative Nativity.

 Chapter XII.—Isaiah’s Prophecy of Emmanuel. Christ Entitled to that Name.

 Chapter XIII.—Isaiah’s Prophecies Considered. The Virginity of Christ’s Mother a Sign. Other Prophecies Also Signs. Metaphorical Sense of Proper Names

 Chapter XIV.—Figurative Style of Certain Messianic Prophecies in the Psalms. Military Metaphors Applied to Christ.

 Chapter XV.—The Title Christ Suitable as a Name of the Creator’s Son, But Unsuited to Marcion’s Christ.

 Chapter XVI.—The Sacred Name Jesus Most Suited to the Christ of the Creator.  Joshua a Type of Him.

 Chapter XVII.—Prophecies in Isaiah and the Psalms Respecting Christ’s Humiliation.

 On the subject of His death, I suppose, you endeavour to introduce a diversity of opinion, simply because you deny that the suffering of the cross was

 Chapter XIX.—Prophecies of the Death of Christ.

 It is sufficient for my purpose to have traced thus far the course of Christ’s dispensation in these particulars. This has proved Him to be such a one

 Chapter XXI.—The Call of the Gentiles Under the Influence of the Gospel Foretold.

 Chapter XXII.—The Success of the Apostles, and Their Sufferings in the Cause of the Gospel, Foretold.

 Chapter XXIII.—The Dispersion of the Jews, and Their Desolate Condition for Rejecting Christ, Foretold.

 Chapter XXIV.—Christ’s Millennial and Heavenly Glory in Company with His Saints.

 Book IV. In Which Tertullian Pursues His…

 In Which Tertullian Pursues His Argument. Jesus is the Christ of the Creator. He Derives His Proofs from St. Luke’s Gospel That Being the Only Histor

 Chapter II.—St. Luke’s Gospel, Selected by Marcion as His Authority, and Mutilated by Him.  The Other Gospels Equally Authoritative.  Marcion’s Terms

 In the scheme of Marcion, on the contrary, the mystery edition the

 Chapter IV.—Each Side Claims to Possess the True Gospel. Antiquity the Criterion of Truth in Such a Matter. Marcion’s Pretensions as an Amender of the

 On the whole, then, if that is evidently more true which is earlier, if that is earlier which is from the very beginning, if that is from the beginnin

 Chapter VI.—Marcion’s Object in Adulterating the Gospel. No Difference Between the Christ of the Creator and the Christ of the Gospel. No Rival Christ

 Chapter VII.—Marcion Rejected the Preceding Portion of St. Luke’s Gospel. Therefore This Review Opens with an Examination of the Case of the Evil Spir

 Chapter VIII.—Other Proofs from the Same Chapter, that Jesus, Who Preached at Nazareth, and Was Acknowledged by Certain Demons as Christ the Son of Go

 Chapter IX.—Out of St. Luke’s Fifth Chapter are Found Proofs of Christ’s Belonging to the Creator, E.g. In the Call of Fishermen to the Apostolic Offi

 Chapter X.—Further Proofs of the Same Truth in the Same Chapter, from the Healing of the Paralytic, and from the Designation Son of Man Which Jesus Gi

 Chapter XI.—The Call of Levi the Publican. Christ in Relation to the Baptist. Christ as the Bridegroom. The Parable of the Old Wine and the New. Argum

 Chapter XII.—Christ’s Authority Over the Sabbath. As Its Lord He Recalled It from Pharisaic Neglect to the Original Purpose of Its Institution by the

 Chapter XIII.—Christ’s Connection with the Creator Shown. Many Quotations Out of the Old Testament Prophetically Bear on Certain Events of the Life of

 Chapter XIV.—Christ’s Sermon on the Mount. In Manner and Contents It So Resembles the Creator’s Dispensational Words and Deeds. It Suggests Therefore

 Chapter XV.—Sermon on the Mount Continued. Its Woes in Strict Agreement with the Creator’s Disposition.  Many Quotations Out of the Old Testament in P

 Chapter XVI.—The Precept of Loving One’s Enemies. It is as Much Taught in the Creator’s Scriptures of the Old Testament as in Christ’s Sermon. The Lex

 Chapter XVII.—Concerning Loans. Prohibition of Usury and the Usurious Spirit. The Law Preparatory to the Gospel in Its Provisions So in the Present I

 Chapter XVIII.—Concerning the Centurion’s Faith. The Raising of the Widow’s Son. John Baptist, and His Message to Christ And the Woman Who Was a Sinn

 Chapter XIX.—The Rich Women of Piety Who Followed Jesus Christ’s Teaching by Parables. The Marcionite Cavil Derived from Christ’s Remark, When Told of

 Chapter XX.—Comparison of Christ’s Power Over Winds and Waves with Moses’ Command of the Waters of the Red Sea and the Jordan. Christ’s Power Over Unc

 Chapter XXI.—Christ’s Connection with the Creator Shown from Several Incidents in the Old Testament, Compared with St. Luke’s Narrative of the Mission

 Chapter XXII.—The Same Conclusion Supported by the Transfiguration. Marcion Inconsistent in Associating with Christ in Glory Two Such Eminent Servants

 Chapter XXIII.—Impossible that Marcion’s Christ Should Reprove the Faithless Generation. Such Loving Consideration for Infants as the True Christ Was

 Chapter XXIV.—On the Mission of the Seventy Disciples, and Christ’s Charge to Them.  Precedents Drawn from the Old Testament.  Absurdity of Supposing

 Chapter XXV.—Christ Thanks the Father for Revealing to Babes What He Had Concealed from the Wise. This Concealment Judiciously Effected by the Creator

 Chapter XXVI.—From St. Luke’s Eleventh Chapter Other Evidence that Christ Comes from the Creator. The Lord’s Prayer and Other Words of Christ.  The Du

 Chapter XXVII.—Christ’s Reprehension of the Pharisees Seeking a Sign.  His Censure of Their Love of Outward Show Rather Than Inward Holiness. Scriptur

 Justly, therefore, was the hypocrisy of the Pharisees displeasing to Him, loving God as they did with their lips, but not with their heart.  “Beware,”

 Chapter XXIX.—Parallels from the Prophets to Illustrate Christ’s Teaching in the Rest of This Chapter of St. Luke. The Sterner Attributes of Christ, i

 Chapter XXX.—Parables of the Mustard-Seed, and of the Leaven. Transition to the Solemn Exclusion Which Will Ensue When the Master of the House Has Shu

 Chapter XXXI.—Christ’s Advice to Invite the Poor in Accordance with Isaiah. The Parable of the Great Supper a Pictorial Sketch of the Creator’s Own Di

 Chapter XXXII.—A Sort of Sorites, as the Logicians Call It, to Show that the Parables of the Lost Sheep and the Lost Drachma Have No Suitable Applicat

 Chapter XXXIII.—The Marcionite Interpretation of God and Mammon Refuted. The Prophets Justify Christ’s Admonition Against Covetousness and Pride. John

 Chapter XXXIV.—Moses, Allowing Divorce, and Christ Prohibiting It, Explained. John Baptist and Herod. Marcion’s Attempt to Discover an Antithesis in t

 Chapter XXXV.—The Judicial Severity of Christ and the Tenderness of the Creator, Asserted in Contradiction to Marcion. The Cure of the Ten Lepers. Old

 Chapter XXXVI.—The Parables of the Importunate Widow, and of the Pharisee and the Publican. Christ’s Answer to the Rich Ruler, the Cure of the Blind M

 Chapter XXXVII.—Christ and Zacchæus. The Salvation of the Body as Denied by Marcion. The Parable of the Ten Servants Entrusted with Ten Pounds.  Chris

 Chapter XXXVIII.—Christ’s Refutations of the Pharisees. Rendering Dues to Cæsar and to God. Next of the Sadducees, Respecting Marriage in the Resurrec

 Chapter XXXIX.—Concerning Those Who Come in the Name of Christ. The Terrible Signs of His Coming. He Whose Coming is So Grandly Described Both in the

 Chapter XL.—How the Steps in the Passion of the Saviour Were Predetermined in Prophecy. The Passover. The Treachery of Judas. The Institution of the L

 Chapter XLI.—The Woe Pronounced on the Traitor a Judicial Act, Which Disproves Christ to Be Such as Marcion Would Have Him to Be. Christ’s Conduct Bef

 Chapter XLII.—Other Incidents of the Passion Minutely Compared with Prophecy. Pilate and Herod. Barabbas Preferred to Jesus. Details of the Crucifixio

 Chapter XLIII.—Conclusions. Jesus as the Christ of the Creator Proved from the Events of the Last Chapter of St. Luke. The Pious Women at the Sepulchr

 Book V. Wherein Tertullian proves, with respect to St. Paul’s epistles, what he had proved in the preceding book with respect to St. Luke’s gospel.

 Chapter I.—Introductory. The Apostle Paul Himself Not the Preacher of a New God.  Called by Jesus Christ, Although After the Other Apostles, His Missi

 Chapter II.—On the Epistle to the Galatians. The Abolition of the Ordinances of the Mosaic Law No Proof of Another God. The Divine Lawgiver, the Creat

 Chapter III.—St. Paul Quite in Accordance with St. Peter and Other Apostles of the Circumcision. His Censure of St. Peter Explained, and Rescued from

 Chapter IV.—Another Instance of Marcion’s Tampering with St. Paul’s Text.  The Fulness of Time, Announced by the Apostle, Foretold by the Prophets. Mo

 Chapter V.—The First Epistle to the Corinthians. The Pauline Salutation of Grace and Peace Shown to Be Anti-Marcionite. The Cross of Christ Purposed b

 Chapter VI.—The Divine Way of Wisdom, and Greatness, and Might. God’s Hiding of Himself, and Subsequent Revelation. To Marcion’s God Such a Concealmen

 Chapter VII.—St. Paul’s Phraseology Often Suggested by the Jewish Scriptures. Christ Our Passover—A Phrase Which Introduces Us to the Very Heart of th

 Chapter VIII.—Man the Image of the Creator, and Christ the Head of the Man.  Spiritual Gifts. The Sevenfold Spirit Described by Isaiah. The Apostle an

 Chapter IX.—The Doctrine of the Resurrection. The Body Will Rise Again. Christ’s Judicial Character. Jewish Perversions of Prophecy Exposed and Confut

 Chapter X.—Doctrine of the Resurrection of the Body, Continued. How are the Dead Raised? and with What Body Do They Come? These Questions Answered in

 Chapter XI.—The Second Epistle to the Corinthians. The Creator the Father of Mercies. Shown to Be Such in the Old Testament, and Also in Christ.  The

 Chapter XII.—The Eternal Home in Heaven. Beautiful Exposition by Tertullian of the Apostle’s Consolatory Teaching Against the Fear of Death, So Apt to

 Chapter XIII.—The Epistle to the Romans. St. Paul Cannot Help Using Phrases Which Bespeak the Justice of God, Even When He is Eulogizing the Mercies o

 Chapter XIV.—The Divine Power Shown in Christ’s Incarnation. Meaning of St. Paul’s Phrase. Likeness of Sinful Flesh. No Docetism in It. Resurrection o

 Chapter XV.—The First Epistle to the Thessalonians. The Shorter Epistles Pungent in Sense and Very Valuable. St. Paul Upbraids the Jews for the Death

 Chapter XVI.—The Second Epistle to the Thessalonians. An Absurd Erasure of Marcion Its Object Transparent. The Final Judgment on the Heathen as Well

 Chapter XVII.—The Epistle to the Laodiceans. The Proper Designation is to the Ephesians. Recapitulation of All Things in Christ from the Beginning of

 Chapter XVIII.—Another Foolish Erasure of Marcion’s Exposed. Certain Figurative Expressions of the Apostle, Suggested by the Language of the Old Testa

 Chapter XIX.—The Epistle to the Colossians. Time the Criterion of Truth and Heresy. Application of the Canon. The Image of the Invisible God Explained

 Chapter XX.—The Epistle to the Philippians. The Variances Amongst the Preachers of Christ No Argument that There Was More Than One Only Christ. St. Pa

 Chapter XXI.—The Epistle to Philemon.  This Epistle Not Mutilated.  Marcion’s Inconsistency in Accepting This, and Rejecting Three Other Epistles Addr

Chapter XXIX.—Parallels from the Prophets to Illustrate Christ’s Teaching in the Rest of This Chapter of St. Luke. The Sterner Attributes of Christ, in His Judicial Capacity, Show Him to Have Come from the Creator. Incidental Rebukes of Marcion’s Doctrine of Celibacy, and of His Altering of the Text of the Gospel.

Who would be unwilling that we should distress ourselves2330    Agere curam: take thought.—A.V. about sustenance for our life, or clothing for our body,2331    Luke xii. 22–28. but He who has provided these things already for man; and who, therefore, while distributing them to us, prohibits all anxiety respecting them as an outrage2332    Æmulam. against his liberality?—who has adapted the nature of “life” itself to a condition “better than meat,” and has fashioned the material of “the body,” so as to make it “more than raiment;” whose “ravens, too, neither sow nor reap, nor gather into storehouses, and are yet fed” by Himself; whose “lilies and grass also toil not, nor spin, and yet are clothed” by Him; whose “Solomon, moreover, was transcendent in glory, and yet was not arrayed like” the humble flower.2333    Flosculo: see Luke xii. 24–27. Besides, nothing can be more abrupt than that one God should be distributing His bounty, while the other should bid us take no thought about (so kindly a) distribution—and that, too, with the intention of derogating (from his liberality).  Whether, indeed, it is as depreciating the Creator that he does not wish such trifles to be thought of, concerning which neither the crows nor the lilies labour, because, forsooth, they come spontaneously to hand2334    Ultro subjectis. by reason of their very worthlessness,2335    Pro sua vilitate. will appear a little further on.  Meanwhile, how is it that He chides them as being “of little faith?”2336    Luke xii. 28. What faith?  Does He mean that faith which they were as yet unable to manifest perfectly in a god who has hardly yet revealed,2337    Tantum quod revelato. and whom they were in process of learning as well as they could; or that faith which they for this express reason owed to the Creator, because they believed that He was of His own will supplying these wants of the human race, and therefore took no thought about them?  Now, when He adds, “For all these things do the nations of the world seek after,”2338    Luke xii. 30. even by their not believing in God as the Creator and Giver of all things, since He was unwilling that they should be like these nations, He therefore upbraided them as being defective of faith in the same God, in whom He remarked that the Gentiles were quite wanting in faith.  When He further adds, “But your Father knoweth that ye have need of these things,”2339    Luke xii. 30. I would first ask, what Father Christ would have to be here understood? If He points to their own Creator, He also affirms Him to be good, who knows what His children have need of; but if He refers to that other god, how does he know that food and raiment are necessary to man, seeing that he has made no such provision for him? For if he had known the want, he would have made the provision. If, however, he knows what things man has need of, and yet has failed to supply them, he is in the failure guilty of either malignity or weakness. But when he confessed that these things are necessary to man, he really affirmed that they are good. For nothing that is evil is necessary. So that he will not be any longer a depreciator of the works and the indulgences of the Creator, that I may here complete the answer2340    Expunxerim. which I deferred giving above. Again, if it is another god who has foreseen man’s wants, and is supplying them, how is it that Marcion’s Christ himself promises them?2341    Luke xii. 31. Is he liberal with another’s property?2342    De alieno bonus. “Seek ye,” says he, “the kingdom of God, and all these things shall be added unto you”—by himself, of course. But if by himself, what sort of being is he, who shall bestow the things of another?  If by the Creator, whose all things are, then who2343    Qualis. is he that promises what belongs to another?  If these things are “additions” to the kingdom, they must be placed in the second rank;2344    Secundo gradu. and the second rank belongs to Him to whom the first also does; His are the food and raiment, whose is the kingdom.  Thus to the Creator belongs the entire promise, the full reality2345    Status. of its parables, the perfect equalization2346    Peræquatio. of its similitudes; for these have respect to none other than Him to whom they have a parity of relation in every point.2347    Cui per omnia pariaverint. We are servants because we have a Lord in our God. We ought “to have our loins girded:”2348    Luke xii. 35. in other words, we are to be free from the embarrassments of a perplexed and much occupied life; “to have our lights burning,”2349    Luke xii. 35. that is, our minds kindled by faith, and resplendent with the works of truth. And thus “to wait for our Lord,”2350    Luke xii. 36. that is, Christ. Whence “returning?” If “from the wedding,” He is the Christ of the Creator, for the wedding is His. If He is not the Creator’s, not even Marcion himself would have gone to the wedding, although invited, for in his god he discovers one who hates the nuptial bed. The parable would therefore have failed in the person of the Lord, if He were not a Being to whom a wedding is consistent. In the next parable also he makes a flagrant mistake, when he assigns to the person of the Creator that “thief, whose hour, if the father of the family had only known, he would not have suffered his house to be broken through.”2351    Luke xii. 39. How can the Creator wear in any way the aspect of a thief, Lord as He is of all mankind? No one pilfers or plunders his own property, but he2352    Sed ille potius. rather acts the part of one who swoops down on the things of another, and alienates man from his Lord.2353    A censure on Marcion’s Christ. Again, when He indicates to us that the devil is “the thief,” whose hour at the very beginning of the world, if man had known, he would never have been broken in upon2354    Suffossus. by him, He warns us “to be ready,” for this reason, because “we know not the hour when the Son of man shall come”2355    Luke xi. 40.—not as if He were Himself the thief, but rather as being the judge of those who prepared not themselves, and used no precaution against the thief. Since, then, He is the Son of man, I hold Him to be the Judge, and in the Judge I claim2356    Defendo. the Creator. If then in this passage he displays the Creator’s Christ under the title “Son of man,” that he may give us some presage2357    Portendat. of the thief, of the period of whose coming we are ignorant, you still have it ruled above, that no one is the thief of his own property; besides which, there is our principle also unimpaired2358    Salvo.—that in as far as He insists on the Creator as an object of fear, in so far does He belong to the Creator, and does the Creator’s work. When, therefore, Peter asked whether He had spoken the parable “unto them, or even to all,”2359    Luke xii. 41. He sets forth for them, and for all who should bear rule in the churches, the similitude of stewards.2360    Actorum. That steward who should treat his fellow-servants well in his Lord’s absence, would on his return be set as ruler over all his property; but he who should act otherwise should be severed, and have his portion with the unbelievers, when his lord should return on the day when he looked not for him, at the hour when he was not aware2361    Luke xii. 41–46.—even that Son of man, the Creator’s Christ, not a thief, but a Judge. He accordingly, in this passage, either presents to us the Lord as a Judge, and instructs us in His character,2362    Illi catechizat. or else as the simply good god; if the latter, he now also affirms his judicial attribute, although the heretic refuses to admit it. For an attempt is made to modify this sense when it is applied to his god,—as if it were an act of serenity and mildness simply to sever the man off, and to assign him a portion with the unbelievers, under the idea that he was not summoned (before the judge), but only returned to his own state! As if this very process did not imply a judicial act!  What folly! What will be the end of the severed ones? Will it not be the forfeiture of salvation, since their separation will be from those who shall attain salvation? What, again, will be the condition of the unbelievers?  Will it not be damnation? Else, if these severed and unfaithful ones shall have nothing to suffer, there will, on the other hand, be nothing for the accepted and the believers to obtain. If, however, the accepted and the believers shall attain salvation, it must needs be that the rejected and the unbelieving should incur the opposite issue, even the loss of salvation. Now here is a judgment, and He who holds it out before us belongs to the Creator.  Whom else than the God of retribution can I understand by Him who shall “beat His servants with stripes,” either “few or many,” and shall exact from them what He had committed to them? Whom is it suitable2363    Decet. for me to obey, but Him who remunerates?  Your Christ proclaims, “I am come to send fire on the earth.”2364    Luke xii. 49. That2365    Ille: Marcion’s Christ. most lenient being, the lord who has no hell, not long before had restrained his disciples from demanding fire on the churlish village. Whereas He2366    Iste: the Creator. burnt up Sodom and Gomorrah with a tempest of fire. Of Him the psalmist sang, “A fire shall go out before Him, and burn up His enemies round about.”2367    Ps. xcvii. 3. By Hosea He uttered the threat, “I will send a fire upon the cities of Judah;”2368    Hos. viii. 14. and2369    Vel: or, “if you please;” indicating some uncertainty in the quotation. The passage is more like Jer. xv. 14 than anything in Isaiah (see, however, Isa. xxx. 27, 30). by Isaiah, “A fire has been kindled in mine anger.” He cannot lie. If it is not He who uttered His voice out of even the burning bush, it can be of no importance2370    Viderit. what fire you insist upon being understood.  Even if it be but figurative fire, yet, from the very fact that he takes from my element illustrations for His own sense, He is mine, because He uses what is mine. The similitude of fire must belong to Him who owns the reality thereof. But He will Himself best explain the quality of that fire which He mentioned, when He goes on to say, “Suppose ye that I am come to give peace on earth? I tell you, Nay; but rather division.”2371    Luke xii. 51. It is written “a sword,”2372    Pamelius supposes that Tertullian here refers to St. Matthew’s account, where the word is μάχαιραν, on the ground that the mss. and versions of St. Luke’s Gospel invariably read διαμερισμόν. According to Rigaltius, however, Tertullian means that sword is written in Marcion’s Gospel of Luke, as if the heretic had adulterated the passage. Tertullian no doubt professes to quote all along from the Gospel of Luke, according to Marcion’s reading. but Marcion makes an emendation2373    St. Luke’s word being διαμερισμόν (division), not μάχαιραν (sword). of the word, just as if a division were not the work of the sword. He, therefore, who refused to give peace, intended also the fire of destruction.  As is the combat, so is the burning.  As is the sword, so is the flame.  Neither is suitable for its lord.  He says at last, “The father shall be divided against the son, and the son against the father; the mother against the daughter, and the daughter against the mother; the mother-in-law against the daughter-in-law, and the daughter-in-law against the mother-in-law.”2374    Luke xii. 53. Since this battle among the relatives2375    Parentes. was sung by the prophet’s trumpet in the very words, I fear that Micah2376    Mic. vii. 6. must have predicted it to Marcion’s Christ!  On this account He pronounced them “hypocrites,” because they could “discern the face of the sky and the earth, but could not distinguish this time,”2377    Luke xii. 56. when of course He ought to have been recognised, fulfilling (as he was) all things which had been predicted concerning them, and teaching them so. But then who could know the times of him of whom he had no evidence to prove his existence?  Justly also does He upbraid them for “not even of themselves judging what is right.”2378    Luke xii. 57. Of old does He command by Zechariah, “Execute the judgment of truth and peace;”2379    Zech. viii. 16. by Jeremiah, “Execute judgment and righteousness;”2380    Jer. xxii. 3. by Isaiah, “Judge the fatherless, plead for the widow,”2381    Isa. i. 17. charging it as a fault upon the vine of Sorech,2382    Tertullian calls by a proper name the vineyard which Isaiah (in his chap. v.) designates “the vineyard of the Lord of hosts,” and interprets to be “the house of Israel” (ver. 7). The designation comes from ver. 2, where the original clause וַיִטַעַהז שׂר־ is translated in the Septuagint, Καὶ ἐφύτευσα ἄμπελον Σωρήκ. Tertullian is most frequently in close agreement with the LXX. that when “He looked for righteousness therefrom, there was only a cry”2383    Isa. v. 7. (of oppression). The same God who had taught them to act as He commanded them,2384    Ex præcepto. was now requiring that they should act of their own accord.2385    Ex arbitrio. He who had sown the precept, was now pressing to an abundant harvest from it. But how absurd, that he should now be commanding them to judge righteously, who was destroying God the righteous Judge! For the Judge, who commits to prison, and allows no release out of it without the payment of “the very last mite,”2386    Luke xii. 58, 59. they treat of in the person of the Creator, with the view of disparaging Him. Which cavil, however, I deem it necessary to meet with the same answer.2387    Eodem gradu. For as often as the Creator’s severity is paraded before us, so often is Christ (shown to be) His, to whom He urges submission by the motive of fear.

CAPUT XXIX.

Quis nollet curam nos agere animae de victu, et corporis de vestitu, nisi qui ista homini ante prospexit, 0432C et exinde praestans, merito curam eorum, tanquam aemulam liberalitatis suae, prohibet; qui et substantiam ipsius animae accommodavit potiorem esca, et materiam ipsius corporis figuravit potiorem tunica; cujus et corvi non serunt, nec metunt, nec in apothecas condunt, et tamen aluntur ab ipso; cujus et lilia et foenum non texunt, nec nent, et tamen vestiuntur ab ipso; cujus et Salomon gloriosissimus nec ullo tamen flosculo cultior? Caeterum nihil tam abruptum, quam ut alius praestet, alius de praestantia ejus secure agere mandet, et quidem derogator ipsius. Denique, si, quasi derogator Creatoris, non vult de ejusmodi frivolis cogitari, de quibus nec corvi nec lilia laborent, ultro scilicet pro sua vilitate subjectis, paulo post patebit. Interim cur illos modicae fidei incusat, 0433A id est cujus fidei? ejusne quam nondum poterant perfectam exhibere Deo, tantum quod velato cum maxime discentes eum, an quam hoc ipso titulo debebant Creatori, uti crederent haec illum ultro generi humano sumministrare, nec de eis cogitarent? Nam et cum subjicit, haec enim nationes mundi quaerunt, non credendo scilicet in Deum conditorem omnium et praebitorem , quos pares gentium nolebat, in eumdem Deum modicos fidei increpabat, in quem gentes incredulas notabat. Porro cum et adjicit, scit autem Pater opus esse haec vobis; prius quaeram quem patrem intelligi velit Christus. Si ipsorum Creatorem demonstrat, et bonum confirmat, qui scit quid filiis opus sit. Sin alium Deum: quomodo scit necessarium esse homini victum atque vestitum, 0433B quorum nihil praestitit? Si enim scisset, praestitisset. Caeterum, si scit quae sunt homini necessaria, nec tamen praestitit, aut malignitate aut infirmitate non praestitit. Professus autem necessaria haec homini, utique bona confirmavit. Nihil enim mali necessarium. Et non erit jam depretiator operum et indulgentiarum Creatoris, ut quod supra distuli, expunxerim. Porro, si quae necessaria scit homini, alius et prospexit et praestat, quomodo haec ipse repromittit ? An de alieno bonus est? Quaerite enim, inquit, regnum Dei, et haec vobis adjicientur. Utique ab ipso. Quod si ab ipso, qualis est qui aliena praestabit? Si a Creatore cujus et sunt, quis est qui aliena promittat? Ea si regno accedent , secundo gradu restituenda; ejus est secundus gradus, cujus et primus; 0433C ejus victus atque vestitus, cujus et regnum. Ita tota promissio Creatoris est parabolarum status, similitudinum peraequatio, si nec in alium spectant, quam cui per omnia pariaverint . Id sumus servi, Dominum enim habemus Deum. Succingere debemus lumbos, id est, expediti esse ab impedimentis laciniosae vitae et implicitae; item, lucernas ardentes habere, id est, mentes a fide accensas, et operibus veritatis relucentes; atque ita exspectare Dominum, id est Christum. Unde redeuntem? Si a nuptiis: Creatoris est, cujus nuptiae. Si non Creatoris: nec ipse Marcion invitatus ad nuptias isset, Deum suum intuens detestatorem nuptiarum. Defecit itaque parabola in persona Domini, si non esset cui nuptiae competunt. In sequenti quoque parabola satis errat, qui furem illum, cujus horam si pater familias sciret, 0434Anon sineret suffodidomum suam, in personam disponit Creatoris. Fur enim Creator quomodo videri potest Dominus totius hominis? Nemo sua furatur aut suffodit, sed ille potius qui in aliena descendit, et hominem a Domino ejus alienat. Porro, cum furem nobis diabolum demonstret , cujus horam etiam in primordio si homo scisset, nunquam ab eo suffossus esset; propterea jubet ut parati sumus, quia qua non putamus hora, Filius hominis adveniet; non quasi ipse sit fur, sed judex, scilicet eorum qui se non paraverint, nec caverint furem. Ergo si ipse est Filius hominis, judicem teneo, et in judice Creatorem defendo. Si vero Christum Creatoris in nomine Filii hominis hoc loco ostendit, ut eum furem portendat, qui quando venturus sit, ignoremus, habes supra 0434B scriptum, neminem rei suae furem esse: salvo et illo, quod in quantum timendum Creatorem ingerit, in tantum illi negotium agens, Creatoris est. Itaque interroganti Petro in illos, an et in omnes parabolam dixisset; ad ipsos et ad universos qui Ecclesiis praefuturi essent, proponit actorum similitudinem, quorum qui bene tractaverit conservos absentia Domini , reverso eo omnibus bonis praeponetur; qui vero secus egerit, reverso Domino qua die non putaverit, hora qua non scierit, illo scilicet filio hominis Christo Creatoris, non fure, sed judice, segregabitur, et pars ejus cum infidelibus ponetur. Proinde igitur aut et hic judicem Dominum opponit, et illi catechizat; aut si Deum optimum, jam et illum judicem affirmat, licet nolit haereticus. Temperare enim tentant hunc sensum, 0434C cum Deo ejus vindicatur: quasi tranquillitatis sit et mansuetudinis, segregare solummodo et partem ejus cum infidelibus ponere, ac si non sit vocatus, ut statui suo redditus, quasi non et hoc ipsum judicato fiat. Stultitia! Quis erit exitus segregatorum? Nonne amissio salutis? Siquidem ab eis segregabuntur, qui salutem consequentur. Quis igitur infidelium status? Nonne damnatio? Aut si nihil patientur segregati et infideles, aeque in diverso nihil consequentur retenti et fideles. Si vero consequentur salutem retenti et fideles, hanc amittant necesse est ex diverso segregati et infideles. Hoc erit judicium, quod qui intendit, Creatoris est. Quem alium intelligam, caedentem servos paucis aut multis plagis, et prout commisit illis, ita et exigentem ab eis, quam retributorem Deum? Cui me decet obsequi, nisi remuneratori? 0435A Proclamat Christus tuus: Ignem veni mittere in terram; ille optimus, nullius gehennae Dominus; qui paulo ante discipulos, ne ignem postularent inhumanissimo viculo, coercuerat. Quando iste Sodomam et Gomorrham nimbo igneo exussit? Quando cantatum est: Ignis ante ipsum praecedet , et cremabit inimicos ejus (Ps. XCIII, 3)? Quando et per Osee comminatus est: Ignem emittam in civitates Judae (Os. VIII, 14) ? vel per Esaiam : Ignis exarsit ex indignatione mea (Is. XXX, 27)? Non mentiatur. Si non est ille qui de rubo quoque ardenti vocem suam emisit, viderit quem ignem intelligendum contendat . Etiamsi figura est, hoc ipso quod de meo elemento argumenta sensui suo sumit, meus est, qui de meis utitur. Illius erit similitudo ignis, cujus et veritas. 0435B Ipse melius interpretabitur ignis istius qualitatem, adjiciens: Putatis venisse me pacem mittere in terram? Non, dico vobis, sed separationem.Machaeram quidem scriptum est; sed Marcion emendat, quasi non et separatio opus sit machaerae. Igitur et ignem eversionis intendit, qui pacem negavit. Quale praelium, tale et incendium. Qualis machaera, talis et flamma, neutra congruens Domino. Denique: Dividetur, inquit, pater in filium, et filius in patrem; et mater in filiam, et filia in matrem; et nurus in socrum, et socrus in nurum. Hoc praelium inter parentes, si in ipsis verbis tuba cecinit prophetae, vereor ne Michaeas (Mich. VII, 6) Christo Marcionis praedicarit. Et ideo hypocritas pronuntiabat, coeli quidem et terrae faciem probantes, tempus vero 0435Cillud non dinoscentes; quo scilicet adimplens omnia quae super ipsos fuerunt praedicata, nec aliter docens, debuerat agnosci. Caeterum, quis posset ejus tempora nosse, cujus per quae probaret non habebat? Merito exprobrat etiam, quod justum non a semetipsis judicarent. Olim hoc mandat per Zachariam (Zach. VIII, 16): Justum judicium et pacatorium judicate. Per Hieremiam (Jerem. XXII, 3): Facite judicium et justitiam. Per Esaiam (Is. I, 17; V. 6): Judicate pupillo, et justificate viduam; imputans etiam vineae 0436A Sorech, quod non judicium fecisset, sed clamorem. Qui ergo docuerat ut facerent ex praecepto, is exigebat ut facerent et ex arbitrio. Qui seminaverat praeceptum, ille et redundantiam ejus urgebat. Jam vero quam absurdum ut ille mandaret juste judicare, qui Deum judicem justum destruebat! Nam et judicem qui mittit in carcerem, nec ducit inde, nisi soluto etiam novissimo quadrante, in persona Creatoris obtrectationis nomine disserunt. Ad quod necesse habeo eodem gradu occurrere. Quotiescumque enim severitas Creatoris opponitur, totiens illius est Christus, cui per timorem cogit obsequium.