Tertullian — Against Marcion 1.28
But what exit for that castaway? ‘By the Creator’s fire,’ they say, ‘he will be caught.’ Has he then so little an element prepared even for this cause by which to relegate his sinners even without savagery, lest he hand them over to the Creator? What then will the Creator do? I believe he will prepare a more sulphurous gehenna for them as for his blasphemers—unless perhaps a jealous God may spare deserters of his adversary.
O god everywhere perverse, irrational in all, vain in all—and so nobody! Whose status, condition, nature, or any order I see cannot stand—already not even the sacrament of his faith itself. For what is baptism also required with him?
If it is remission of delicts, how will he seem to dismiss delicts who will not seem to retain them—because if he retained he would judge? If it is absolution of death, how will he absolve from death who did not bind to death? For he would have condemned if from the beginning he had bound. If it is regeneration of a human, how does he regenerate who did not generate? For repetition does not suit him by whom something was not even once done. If it is obtaining the Holy Spirit, how will he assign the Spirit who did not first confer a soul—because the Spirit is somehow to supply for the soul?
He seals therefore a human never unsealed with him; he washes a human never defiled with him. And into this whole sacrament of salvation he plunges flesh sharing no salvation? Not even a farmer will water ground that will return no fruit—unless as vain as Marcion’s god.
Likewise when he lays on weakest or most unworthy flesh so great a burden or glory of holiness, why does he either load the weak or adorn the unworthy? Why not repay with salvation what he loads or adorns? Why cheat the work’s wage by not paying salvation back to the flesh? Why also allow the honor of holiness 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?