Tertullian — Against Marcion 2.11
Therefore up to man’s offense God was from the beginning only good; thereafter judge and severe and, as the Marcionites will have it, cruel: at once the woman is condemned to bear in pains and to serve the man—but she who before had heard without any grief, by blessing, the increase of the race: ‘only increase and multiply’—but who had been destined as help for the male, not for slavery.
At once the earth too is cursed, but before blessed; at once thorns and thistles, but before grass and herbs and fruitful trees; at once sweat and labor for bread, but before free food from every tree and secure nourishment.
Thereafter man to the earth, but before from the earth; thereafter to death, but before to life; thereafter in skins, but before naked without anxiety. So God’s prior goodness is according to nature, severity later according to cause.
That is inborn, this accidental; that proper, this adapted; that issued, this applied. For nature ought not to have held goodness idle, nor cause to have let severity slip by concealed. God furnished one for himself, the other for the case.
Begin now also to accuse the judge’s standing as neighbor to evil—you who dreamed up another god, only good, because you cannot bear a judge—though that one too you will either make a judge or leave precepts without teeth.
Latin
Igitur usque ad delictum hominis deus a primordio tantum bonus, exinde iudex et seuerus et, quod Marcionitae uolunt, saeuus: statim mulier in doloribus parere et uiro seruire damnatur, sed quae ante sine ulla contristatione per benedictionem incrementum generis audierat, ■— crescite, tantum, et multiplicamini — sed quae in adiutorium masculo. non in seruitium fuerat destinata; statim et terra maledicitur. sed ante benedicta; statim tribuli et spinae, sed ante foenum et herbae et arborum fructuosa; statim sudor et labor panis. sed ante ex omni ligno uictus inmunis et alimenta secura. exinde homo ad terram, sed ante de terra; exinde ad mortem. sed ante ad uitam; exinde in scorteis uestibus, sed ante sine scrupulo nudus. ita prior bonitas dei secundum naturam. seueritas posterior secundum causam. illa ingenita, haec accidens; illa propria, haec accommodata; illa edita, haec adhibita. nec natura enim inoperatam debuit continuisse bonitatem nec causa dissimulatam euasisse seueritatem. alteram sibi, alteram rei deus praestitit. incipe nunc etiam iudicis statum ut adfinem mali arguere, qui idcirco alium deum somniasti, solummodo bonum, quia non potes iudicem; quamquam et illum aut iudicem ostendimus, aut si non iudicem, certe peruersum ac uanum disciplinae non uindicandae, id est non iudicandae, constitutorem. non reprobus autem deum iudicem qui non iudicem deum probas: ipsam sine dubio iustitiam accusare debebis, quae iudicem praestat, aut t da eam in species malitiae deputare, id est iniustitiam in titulos bonitatis adscribere. tunc enim iustitia malum, si iniustitia bonum. porro cum cogeris iniustitiam de pessimis pronuntiare, eodem iugo urgeris iustitiam de optimis censere. nihil enim aemulum mali non bonum, sicut et boni aemulum nihil non malum. igitur quanto malum iniustitia, tanto bonum iustitia. nec species solummodo, sed tutela reputanda bonitatis, quia bonitas, nisi iustitia regatur, ut iusta sit. non erit bonitas, Isi iniusta sit, nihil enim bonum quod iniustum, bonum autem omne quod iustum.