Tertullian, Against Marcion 28
What sort of exit awaits that one, cast out? 'He'll be seized by the Creator's fire,' they say. Has he no element, no provision for this very purpose—something to release his own sinners without cruelty, so he doesn't have to hand them over to the Creator? So what does the Creator do then? I'll tell you: he'll prepare a sulphurous Gehenna for them, fit for his blasphemers—unless, perhaps, the zealous God spares those who desert his adversary. Oh, a God perverse in every way, irrational everywhere, empty in all things, and therefore not existing at all! I see no status, no condition, no nature, no order of his holding together—nor even the sacrament of his faith. For what reason is baptism even required among them? If it's for the remission of sins, how will he appear to forgive sins when he doesn't appear to retain them, since if he retained them, he would judge? If it's for release from death, how will he release from death someone he never bound to death? He would have condemned them if he had bound them from the beginning. If it's for the regeneration of man, how will he regenerate someone he never generated? Repetition doesn't suit one from whom nothing was ever made once. If it's for the bestowal of the Holy Spirit, how will he confer the Spirit who never first imparted a soul? Because the Spirit will somehow supply what the soul lacks. So he seals a man who was never sealed by him, washes a man who was never defiled by him. And in all this, does he immerse the whole sacrament of salvation in the flesh that arises from salvation? Not even a peasant waters ground that won't yield fruit—unless he's as empty as Marcion's God. So then, when he imposes such tremendous 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, since he burdens or adorns it? What does he cheat of the wage of work, not repaying the flesh with salvation? And what does he let the honor of sanctity die in it?
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?