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 IV.—Another Instance of Marcion’s Tampering with St. Paul’s Text.  The Fulness of Time, Announced by the Apostle, Foretold by the Prophets. Mosaic Rites Abrogated by the Creator Himself. Marcion’s Tricks About Abraham’s Name. The Creator, by His Christ, the Fountain of the Grace and the Liberty Which St. Paul Announced. Marcion’s Docetism Refuted.

“But,” says he, “I speak after the manner of men: when we were children, we were placed in bondage under the elements of the world.”2999    This apparent quotation is in fact a patching together of two sentences from Gal. iii. 15 and iv. 3 (Fr. Junius). “If I may be allowed to guess from the manner in which Tertullian expresseth himself, I should imagine that Marcion erased the whole of chap. iii. after the word λέγω in ver. 15, and the beginning of chap. iv., until you come to the word ὅτε in ver. 3. Then the words will be connected thus: ‘Brethren, I speak after the manner of men…when we were children we were in bondage under the elements of the world; but when the fulness of time was come, God sent forth His Son.’ This is precisely what the argument of Tertullian requires, and they are the very words which he connects together” (Lardner, Hist. of Heretics, x. 43). Dr. Lardner, touching Marcion’s omissions in this chap. iii. of the Epistle to the Galatians, says: “He omitted vers. 6, 7, 8, in order to get rid of the mention of Abraham, and of the gospel having been preached to him.” This he said after St. Jerome, and then adds: “He ought also to have omitted part of ver. 9, σὺν τῷ πιστῷ ᾽Αβραάμ, which seems to have been the case, according to T.’s manner of stating the argument against him” (Works, History of Heretics, x. 43). This, however, was not said “after the manner of men.” For there is no figure3000    Exemplum. here, but literal truth. For (with respect to the latter clause of this passage), what child (in the sense, that is, in which the Gentiles are children) is not in bondage to the elements of the world, which he looks up to3001    Suspicit. in the light of a god? With regard, however, to the former clause, there was a figure (as the apostle wrote it); because after he had said, “I speak after the manner of men,” he adds), “Though it be but a man’s covenant, no man disannulleth, or addeth thereto.”3002    Gal. iii. 15. This, of course, is consistent in St. Paul’s argument. Marcion, however, by erasing all the intervening verses, and affixing the phrase “after the manner of men” to the plain assertion of Gal. iv. 3, reduces the whole statement to an absurdity. For by the figure of the permanency of a human covenant he was defending the divine testament. “To Abraham were the promises made, and to his seed. He said not ‘to seeds,’ as of many; but as of one, ‘to thy seed,’ which is Christ.”3003    Gal. iii. 16. Fie on3004    Erubescat. Marcion’s sponge! But indeed it is superfluous to dwell on what he has erased, when he may be more effectually confuted from that which he has retained.3005    So, instead of pursuing the contents of chap. iii., he proceeds to such of chap. iv. as Marcion reserved. “But when the fulness of time was come, God sent forth His Son”3006    Gal. iv. 4.—the God, of course, who is the Lord of that very succession of times which constitutes an age; who also ordained, as “signs” of time, suns and moons and constellations and stars; who furthermore both predetermined and predicted that the revelation of His Son should be postponed to the end of the times.3007    In extremitatem temporum. “It shall come to pass in the last days, that the mountain (of the house) of the Lord shall be manifested”;3008    Isa. ii. 2 (Sept). “and in the last days I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh”3009    Joel iii. 28, as quoted by St. Peter, Acts ii. 17. as Joel says. It was characteristic of Him (only)3010    Ipsius. to wait patiently for the fulness of time, to whom belonged the end of time no less than the beginning. But as for that idle god, who has neither any work nor any prophecy, nor accordingly any time, to show for himself, what has he ever done to bring about the fulness of time, or to wait patiently its completion? If nothing, what an impotent state to have to wait for the Creator’s time, in servility to the Creator! But for what end did He send His Son? “To redeem them that were under the law,”3011    Gal. iv. 5. in other words, to “make the crooked ways straight, and the rough places smooth,” as Isaiah says3012    Isa. xl. 4.—in order that old things might pass away, and a new course begin, even “the new law out of Zion, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem,”3013    Isa. ii. 3. and “that we might receive the adoption of sons,”3014    Gal. iv. 5. that is, the Gentiles, who once were not sons.  For He is to be “the light of the Gentiles,” and “in His name shall the Gentiles trust.”3015    Isa. xlii. 4, 6. That we may have, therefore the assurance that we are the children of God, “He hath sent forth His Spirit into our hearts, crying, Abba, Father.”3016    Gal. iv. 6. For “in the last days,” saith He, “I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh.”3017    Joel iii. 28, as given in Acts ii. 17.

Now, from whom comes this grace, but from Him who proclaimed the promise thereof? Who is (our) Father, but He who is also our Maker?  Therefore, after such affluence (of grace), they should not have returned “to weak and beggarly elements.”3018    Gal. iv. 9. By the Romans, however, the rudiments of learning are wont to be called elements. He did not therefore seek, by any depreciation of the mundane elements, to turn them away from their god, although, when he said just before, “Howbeit, then, ye serve them which by nature are no gods,”3019    Gal. iv. 8. he censured the error of that physical or natural superstition which holds the elements to be god; but at the God of those elements he aimed not in this censure.3020    Nec sic taxans. He tells us himself clearly enough what he means by “elements,” even the rudiments of the law: “Ye observe days, and months, and times, and years”3021    Gal. iv. 10.—the sabbaths, I suppose, and “the preparations,”3022    Cœnas puras: probably the παρασκευαί mentioned in John xix. 31. and the fasts, and the “high days.”3023    See also John xix. 31. For the cessation of even these, no less than of circumcision, was appointed by the Creator’s decrees, who had said by Isaiah, “Your new moons, and your sabbaths, and your high days I cannot bear; your fasting, and feasts, and ceremonies my soul hateth;”3024    Isa. i. 13, 14. also by Amos, “I hate, I despise your feast-days, and I will not smell in your solemn assemblies;”3025    Amos v. 21. and again by Hosea, “I will cause to cease all her mirth, and her feast-days, and her sabbaths, and her new moons, and all her solemn assemblies.”3026    Hos. ii. 11. The institutions which He set up Himself, you ask, did He then destroy? Yes, rather than any other. Or if another destroyed them, he only helped on the purpose of the Creator, by removing what even He had condemned. But this is not the place to discuss the question why the Creator abolished His own laws. It is enough for us to have proved that He intended such an abolition, that so it may be affirmed that the apostle determined nothing to the prejudice of the Creator, since the abolition itself proceeds from the Creator. But as, in the case of thieves, something of the stolen goods is apt to drop by the way, as a clue to their detection; so, as it seems to me, it has happened to Marcion: the last mention of Abraham’s name he has left untouched (in the epistle), although no passage required his erasure more than this, even his partial alteration of the text.3027    In other words, Marcion has indeed tampered with the passage, omitting some things; but (strange to say) he has left untouched the statement which, from his point of view, most required suppression. “For (it is written) that Abraham had two sons, the one by a bond maid, the other by a free woman; but he who was of the bond maid was born after the flesh, but he of the free woman was by promise: which things are allegorized”3028    Allegorica: on the importance of rendering ἀλληγορούμενα by this participle rather than by the noun “an allegory,” as in A.V., see Bp. Marsh’s Lectures on the Interpretation of the Bible, pp. 351–354. (that is to say, they presaged something besides the literal history); “for these are the two covenants,” or the two exhibitions (of the divine plans),3029    Ostensiones: revelationes perhaps. as we have found the word interpreted, “the one from the Mount Sinai,” in relation to the synagogue of the Jews, according to the law, “which gendereth to bondage”—“the other gendereth” (to liberty, being raised) above all principality, and power, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this world, but in that which is to come, “which is the mother of us all,” in which we have the promise of (Christ’s) holy church; by reason of which he adds in conclusion: “So then, brethren, we are not children of the bond woman, but of the free.”3030    Gal. iv. 21–26, 31. In this passage he has undoubtedly shown that Christianity had a noble birth, being sprung, as the mystery of the allegory indicates, from that son of Abraham who was born of the free woman; whereas from the son of the bond maid came the legal bondage of Judaism. Both dispensations, therefore, emanate from that same God by whom,3031    Apud quem. as we have found, they were both sketched out beforehand. When he speaks of “the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free,”3032    Gal. v. 1. does not the very phrase indicate that He is the Liberator who was once the Master? For Galba himself never liberated slaves which were not his own, even when about to restore free men to their liberty.3033    Tertullian, in his terse style, takes the case of the emperor, as the highest potentate, who, if any, might make free with his power. He seizes the moment when Galba was saluted emperor on Nero’s death, and was the means of delivering so many out of the hands of the tyrant, in order to sharpen the point of his illustration. By Him, therefore, will liberty be bestowed, at whose command lay the enslaving power of the law. And very properly. It was not meet that those who had received liberty should be “entangled again with the yoke of bondage”3034    Gal. v. 1.—that is, of the law; now that the Psalm had its prophecy accomplished: “Let us break their bands asunder, and cast away their cords from us, since the rulers have gathered themselves together against the Lord and against His Christ.”3035    Ps. ii. 3, 2. All those, therefore, who had been delivered from the yoke of slavery he would earnestly have to obliterate the very mark of slavery—even circumcision, on the authority of the prophet’s prediction. He remembered how that Jeremiah had said, “Circumcise the foreskins of your heart;”3036    Jer. iv. 4. as Moses likewise had enjoined, “Circumcise your hard hearts”3037    Deut. x. 16.—not the literal flesh. If, now, he were for excluding circumcision, as the messenger of a new god, why does he say that “in Christ neither circumcision availeth anything, nor uncircumcision?”3038    Gal. v. 6. For it was his duty to prefer the rival principle of that which he was abolishing, if he had a mission from the god who was the enemy of circumcision.

Furthermore, since both circumcision and uncircumcision were attributed to the same Deity, both lost their power3039    Utraque vacabat. in Christ, by reason of the excellency of faith—of that faith concerning which it had been written, “And in His name shall the Gentiles trust?”3040    Isa. xlii. 4.—of that faith “which,” he says “worketh by love.”3041    Gal. v. 6. By this saying he also shows that the Creator is the source of that grace. For whether he speaks of the love which is due to God, or that which is due to one’s neighbor—in either case, the Creator’s grace is meant: for it is He who enjoins the first in these words, “Thou shalt love God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength;”3042    Deut. vi. 5. and also the second in another passage:  “Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.”3043    Lev. xix. 18. “But he that troubleth you shall have to bear judgment.”3044    Gal. v. 10. From what God? From (Marcion’s) most excellent god? But he does not execute judgment. From the Creator? But neither will He condemn the maintainer of circumcision. Now, if none other but the Creator shall be found to execute judgment, it follows that only He, who has determined on the cessation of the law, shall be able to condemn the defenders of the law; and what, if he also affirms the law in that portion of it where it ought (to be permanent)? “For,” says he, “all the law is fulfilled in you by this:  ‘Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.’”3045    Gal. v. 14. If, indeed, he will have it that by the words “it is fulfilled” it is implied that the law no longer has to be fulfilled, then of course he does not mean that I should any more love my neighbour as myself, since this precept must have ceased together with the law. But no! we must evermore continue to observe this commandment. The Creator’s law, therefore, has received the approval of the rival god, who has, in fact, bestowed upon it not the sentence of a summary dismissal,3046    Dispendium. but the favour of a compendious acceptance;3047    Compendium: the terseness of the original cannot be preserved in the translation.the gist of it all being concentrated in this one precept! But this condensation of the law is, in fact, only possible to Him who is the Author of it.  When, therefore, he says, “Bear ye one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ,”3048    Gal. vi. 2. since this cannot be accomplished except a man love his neighbour as himself, it is evident that the precept, “Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself” (which, in fact, underlies the injunction, “Bear ye one another’s burdens”), is really “the law of Christ,” though literally the law of the Creator. Christ, therefore, is the Creator’s Christ, as Christ’s law is the Creator’s law.  “Be not deceived,3049    Erratis: literally, “ye are deceived.” God is not mocked.”3050    Gal. vi. 7. But Marcion’s god can be mocked; for he knows not how to be angry, or how to take vengeance. “For whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.”3051    Gal. vi. 7. It is then the God of recompense and judgment who threatens3052    Intentat. this. “Let us not be weary in well-doing;”3053    Gal. vi. 9. and “as we have opportunity, let us do good.”3054    Gal. vi. 10. Deny now that the Creator has given a commandment to do good, and then a diversity of precept may argue a difference of gods. If, however, He also announces recompense, then from the same God must come the harvest both of death3055    Corruptionis. and of life. But “in due time we shall reap;”3056    Gal. vi. 9. because in Ecclesiastes it is said, “For everything there will be a time.”3057    Eccles. iii. 17. Moreover, “the world is crucified unto me,” who am a servant of the Creator—“the world,” (I say,) but not the God who made the world—“and I unto the world,”3058    Gal. vi. 14. not unto the God who made the world. The world, in the apostle’s sense, here means life and conversation according to worldly principles; it is in renouncing these that we and they are mutually crucified and mutually slain. He calls them “persecutors of Christ.”3059    See Gal. vi. 17, κόπους μοι μηδεὶς παρεχέτω, “let no one harass me.” But when he adds, that “he bare in his body the scars3060    Stigmata: the scars not of circumcision, but of wounds suffered for His sake (Conybeare and Howson). of Christ”—since scars, of course, are accidents of body3061    Corporalia.—he therefore expressed the truth, that the flesh of Christ is not putative, but real and substantial,3062    Solidam. the scars of which he represents as borne upon his body.

CAPUT IV.

Adhuc, inquit (Gal., III, IV, V et VI), secundum 0475Dhominem dico, dum essemus parvuli, sub elementis mundi eramus positi, ad deserviendum eis. Atquin non 0476A est hoc humanitus dictum: non enim exemplum est, sed veritas. Quis enim parvulus, utique sensu, quod sunt nationes, non elementis subjectus est mundi, quae pro Deo suspicit ? Illud autem facit , quod cum secundum hominem dixisset, tamen testamentum hominis nemo spernit aut superordinat. Exemplo enim humani testamenti permanentis, divinum tuebatur. Abrahae dictae sunt promissiones, et semini ejus. Non dixit, seminibus, quasi pluribus; sed semini, tanquam uni, quod Christus est. Erubescat spongia Marcionis, nisi quod ex abundanti retracto quae abstulit, cum validius sit illum ex his revinci quae servavit. Cum autem evenit impleri tempus, misit Deus Filium suum; utique is, qui etiam ipsorum temporum Deus est, quibus saeculum constat; qui signa 0476B quoque temporum ordinavit, soles, et lunas, et sidera, et stellas; qui Filii denique sui revelationem in extremitatem temporum et disposuit et praedicavit (Is., II, 2): In novissimis diebus erit manifestus mons Domini, et (Joel, II, 28): In novissimis diebus effundam de spiritu meo in omnem carnem, secundum Joclem. Ipsius erat sustinuisse tempus impleri, cujus erat etiam finis temporis sicut initium. Caeterum Deus ille otiosus, nec operationis, nec praedicationis ullius, atque ita nec temporis alicujus, quid omnino egit quod efficeret tempus impleri, etiam implendum sustineri? Si nihil, satis vanum est ut Creatoris tempora sustinuerit serviens Creatori. Cui autem rei misit Filium suum? Ut eos qui sub lege erant, redimeret: hoc est, ut efficeret (Is., XL, 4) tortuosa0476Cin viam rectam, et aspera in vias lenes , secundum Esaiam; ut vetera transirent, et nova orirentur; Lex nova ex Sion, et sermo Domini ex Hierusalem (Is. II, 3): et ut adoptionem filiorum acciperemus, utique nationes, quae filii non eramus. Et ipse enim lux erit nationum, et in nomine ejus nationes sperabunt. Itaque, ut certum esset nos filios Dei esse, misit Spiritum suum in corda nostra, clamantem, Abba, Pater. In novissimis enim, inquit (Joel, II, 28), diebus effundam de meo Spiritu in omnem carnem. Cujus gratiae, nisi cujus et promissio gratiae? quis Pater, nisi qui et factor? Post has itaque divitias, non erat revertendum ad infirma et mendica elementa. Elementa autem apud Romanos quoque etiam primae litterae solent dici. Non ergo per mundialium elementorum derogationem 0476D a Deo eorum avertere cupiebat; etsi dicendo supra: Si ergo his qui non natura sunt Dei servitis; physicae, 0477A id est, naturalis superstitionis elementa pro Deo habentis sugillabat errorem, nec sic tamen elementorum Deum taxans. Sed quae velit intelligi elementa, primas scilicet litteras legis, ipse declarat: Dies observatis, et menses, et tempora, et annos, et sabbata, ut opinor, et coenas puras, et jejunia et dies magnos. Cessare enim ab his quoque sicut et circumcisione oportebat ex decretis Creatoris, qui et per Esaiam (Is. I, 14): Neomenias vestras et sabbata et diem magnum non sustinebo: jejunium et ferias et caeremonias vestras odit anima mea; et per Amos (Am. V, 21): Odi, rejeci caeremonias vestras, et non odoraborin frequentiis vestris. Item per Osee (Os. II, 11): Avertam universas jucunditates ejus, et caeremonias ejus, et sabbata, et neomenias ejus, et omnes frequentias ejus.0477B Quae ipse constituerat, inquis, erasit? Magis quam alius: aut si alius, ergo ille adjuvit sententiam Creatoris, auferens quae et ille damnaverat. Sed non hujus loci quaestio, cur leges suas Creator infregerit. Sufficit quod infracturum probavimus, ut confirmetur nihil Apostolum adversus Creatorem determinasse, cum et ipsa amolitio Legis a Creatore sit. Sed ut furibus solet aliquid excidere de praeda in indicium, ita credo et Marcionem novissimam Abrahae mentionem dereliquisse, nullam magis auferendam, etsi ex parte convertit . Si enim Abraham duos liberos habuit, unum ex ancilla, et alium ex libera: sed qui 0477Cex ancilla, carnaliter natus est; qui vero ex libera, per 0478Arepromissionem; quae sunt allegorica, id est, aliud portendentia: haec sunt enim duo testamenta, sive duae ostensiones, sicut invenimus interpretatum: unum a monte Sina, in synagogam Judaeorum, secundum legem, generans in servitutem; aliud super omnem principatum, generans vim, dominationem, et omne nomen quod nominatur, non tantum in hoc aevo, sed in futuro; quae est mater nostra, in quam repromisimus sanctam Ecclesiam; ideoque adjicit: Propter quod, fratres, non sumus ancillae filii, sed liberae. Utique manifestavit et christianismi generositatem in filio Abrahae ex libera nato allegoriae habere sacramentum, sicut et judaismi servitutem legalem in filio ancillae; atque ita ejus Dei esse utramque dispositionem, apud quem invenimus utriusque dispositionis 0478B delineationem . Ipsum quod ait, Qua libertate Christus nos manumisit, nonne eum constituit manumissorem, qui fuit Dominus? Alienos enim servos ne Galba quidem manumisit, facilius liberos soluturus. Ab eo igitur praestabitur libertas, apud quem fuit servitus legis. Et merito. Non decebat manumissos rursus jugo servitutis, id est, legis adstringi, jam Psalmo (Ps. II) adimpleto: Dirumpamus vincula eorum, et abjiciamus a nobis jugum ipsorum; postquam archontes congregati sunt in unum adversus Dominum, et adversus Christum ipsius. De servitute igitur exemptos, ipsam servitutis notam 0478C eradere perseverabat, circumcisionem; ex praedicationis 0479A scilicet propheticae auctoritate; memor dictum per Hieremiam (Jerem. IV, 4): Et circumcidimini praeputiacordis vestri. Quia et Moyses (Deut. X, 16): Circumcidetis duricordiam vestram, id est, non carnem. Denique, si circumcisione ab alio Deo veniens excludebat, cur etiam praeputiationem negat quidquam valere in Christo, sicut et circumcisionem? praeferre enim debebat aemulam ejus, quam expugnabat, si ab aemulo circumcisionis Deo esset. Porro, quia et circumcisio et praeputiatio uni Deo deputabantur, ideo utraque in Christo vacabat, propter fidei praelationem; illius fidei, de qua erat scriptum (Is. XLII, 4): Et in nomine ejus nationes credent; illius fidei, quam dicendo per dilectionem perfici, sic quoque Creatoris ostendit. Sive enim dilectionem 0479B dicit quae in Deum, et hoc Creatoris est (Deut. VI): Diliges Deum ex toto corde tuo, et ex tota anima tua, et ex totis viribus tuis; sive quae in proximum: et proximum tuum tanquam te, Creatoris est. Qui autem turbat vos, judicium feret. A quo Deo? Ab optimo? Sed ille non judicat. A Creatore? Sed nec ille damnabit assertorem circumcisionis. Quod si non erit alius qui judicet nisi Creator, jam ergo non damnabit Legis defensores, nisi qui ipse eam cessare constituit. Quid nunc, si et confirmat illam ex parte qua debet? Tota enim, inquit, Lex invobis adimpleta est: Diliges proximum tuum tanquam te. Aut si sic vult intelligi, Adimpleta est, quasi jam non adimplenda, ergo non vult ut diligam proximum tanquam me, ut et hoc cum lege cessaverit; sed perseverandum 0479C erit semper in isto praecepto. Ergo lex Creatoris etiam ab adversario probata est; nec dispendium, sed compendium ab eo consecuta est, redacta summa in unum jam praeceptum. Sed nec hoc alii magis competit, quam auctori. Atque adeo cum dicit: Onera vestra invicem sustinete, et sic adimplebitis legem Christi; si hoc non potest fieri, nisi quis diligat proximum suum tanquam se, apparet, Diliges proximum tuumtanquam te, per quod auditur: Invicem onera vestra portate, Christi esse legem, quae sit Creatoris: atque ita Christum Creatoris esse, dum Christi est lex Creatoris. Erratis, Deus non deridetur. Atquin derideri potest Deus Marcionis, qui nec irasci novit, nec ulcisci. Quod enim seminaverithomo, hoc et metet. Ergo retributionis 0479D et judicii Deus intentat. Bonum autem facientes non fatigemur; et: Dum habemus tempus, operemur 0480Abonum. Nega Creatorem bonum facere praecipisse, et diversa doctrina sit diversae divinitatis. Porro, si retributionem praedicat, ab eodem erit et corruptionis messis et vitae. Tempore autem suo metemus; quia et Ecclesiastes , Tempus, inquit (Eccl., III, 17), erit omni rei. Sed et mihi famulo Creatoris mundus crucifixus est; non tamen Deus mundi; et ego mundo, non tamen Deo mundi. Mundum enim, quantum ad conversationem ejus posuit cui renuntiando mutuo transfigimur, et invicem morimur, persecutores vocat Christi; cum vero adjicit, Stigmata Christi in corpore suo gestare se (utique corporalia competunt), jam non putativam , sed veram et solidam carnem professus est Christi, cujus stigmata corporalia ostendit.