Tertullian, Against Marcion 28
What end awaits the one cast out? 'The creator's fire will seize him,' they say. Has that god no element, no provision for this very purpose, by which he could release his own sinners without cruelty, so as not to hand them over to the creator? And what of the creator then? I suppose he will prepare a sulphurous Gehenna for them — obviously for his blasphemers — unless, perhaps, a zealous God chooses to spare those who desert his adversary. O God, perverse in every way, irrational at every turn, empty in all things, and therefore utterly nonexistent! I see no status, condition, nature, or order of his that holds together — not even the sacrament of his own faith.
Why is baptism even required among them? If it is for the remission of sins, how can he appear to forgive sins when he does not appear to retain them? After all, if he retained them, he would have to judge. If it is for release from death, how can he release from death the one he never bound to death in the first place? He would have condemned humanity if he had bound it to death from the beginning. If it is for the regeneration of man, how can he regenerate what he never generated? Repetition does not suit a being from whom nothing was ever done even once. If it is for the bestowal of the Holy Spirit, how can he confer the Spirit when he never granted the soul to begin with? The Spirit will, in a sense, supply what the soul lacks. So he marks a man who was never marked by him; he washes a man who was never defiled by him.
And in all this, does he plunge the entire sacrament of salvation into flesh that has arisen from salvation? Not even a peasant waters ground that will bear no fruit — unless he is as vain as Marcion's god. Therefore, when he imposes such great sanctity, without burden or glory, on the weakest or most unworthy flesh, what does he burden the weak flesh with, or adorn the unworthy flesh with? What does he not reward with salvation, the very flesh he burdens or adorns? What does he cheat of its labor's wage by not repaying the flesh with salvation? And what does he allow the honor of sanctity to die in that flesh?
Latin
Exitus autem illi abiecto quis? \'ab igni\', inquiunt, \'creatoris deprehendetur\'. adeone nullum habet elemeutum uel in hanc causam prouisum, quo peccatores suos uel sine saeuitia releget, ne illos dedat creatori? quid tunc creator? credo. sulphuratiorem eis gehennam praeparabit, ut blasphemis suis scilicet; nisi quod deus zelotes fortassean desertoribus aduersarii sui parcat. o deum usquequaque peruersum, ubique inrationalem, in omnibus uanum, atque ita neminem! cuius non statum, non condicionem, non naturam, non ullum ordinem uideo consistere, iam nec ipsum fidei eius sacramentum. cui enim rei baptisma quoque apud eum exigitur? si remissio delictorum est, quomodo uidebitur delicta dimittere qui non uidebitur retinere, quia, si retineret, iudicaret? si absolutio mortis est, quomodo absoluet a morte qui non deuinxit ad mortem? damnasset enim, si a primordio deuinxisset. si regeneratio est hominis, quomodo regenerat qui non generauit? iteratio enim non competit ei, a quo quid nec semel factum est. si consecutio est spiritus sancti, quomodo spiritum adtribuet qui animam non prius contulit? quia suffectura est quodammodo spiritus animae. signat igitur hominem numquam apud se resignatum, lauat hominem numquam apud se coinquinatum. et in hoc totum salutis sacramentum carnem mergit exortem salutis? nec rusticus terram rigabit fructum non relaturam. nisi tam uanus quam deus Marcionis. proinde. cum tantam sine sarcinam siue gloriam infirmissimae aut indignissimae carni imponit sanctitatem, quid aut onerat infirmam aut exornat indignam? quid non salute remunerat quam onerat uel exornat? quid fraudat mercedem operis, non rependens carni salutem? quid et honorem sanctitatis in illa mori patitur?