Bad Advertisement?
Are you a Christian?
Online Store:Visit Our Store
| Marcion's Own Antitheses, If Only the Title and Object of the Work Be Excepted, Afford Proofs of the Consistent Attributes of the True God. PREVIOUS SECTION - NEXT SECTION - HELP
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 God.
But I would have attacked Marcion’s own
Antitheses in closer and fuller combat, if a more elaborate
demolition of them were required in maintaining for the Creator the
character of a good God and a Judge, after3079
the examples of both points, which we have shown to be so worthy of
God. Since, however, these two attributes of goodness and justice do
together make up the proper fulness of the Divine Being as omnipotent,
I am able to content myself with having now compendiously refuted his
Antitheses, which aim at drawing distinctions out of the
qualities of the (Creator’s) artifices,3080 or
of His laws, or of His great works; and thus sundering Christ from the
Creator, as the most Good from the Judge, as One who is merciful from
Him who is ruthless, and One who brings salvation from Him who causes
ruin. The truth is,3081 they3082
3082 i.e.,
Marcion’s Antitheses. | rather unite the two Beings whom they
arrange in those diversities (of attribute), which yet are compatible
in God. For only take away the title of Marcion’s
book,3083
3083 Antitheses so
called because Marcion in it had set passages out of the O.T. and the
N.T. in opposition to each other, intending his readers to infer from
the apparent disagreement that the law and the gospel were not from the
same author (Bp. Kaye on Tertullian, p. 468). | and the intention and purpose of the work
itself, and you could get no better demonstration that the self-same
God was both very good and a Judge, inasmuch as these two characters
are only competently found in God. Indeed, the very effort which is
made in the selected examples to oppose Christ to the Creator, conduces
all the more to their union. For so entirely one and the same was the
nature of the Divine Beings, the good and the severe, as shown both by
the same examples and in similar proofs, that It willed to display Its
goodness to those on whom It had first inflicted Its severity. The
difference in time was no matter of surprise, when the same God was
afterwards merciful in presence of evils which had been
subdued,3084
3084 Pro rebus
edomitis. See chap. xv. and xix., where he refers to the
law as the subduing instrument. | who had once been
so austere whilst they were as yet unsubdued. Thus, by help of the
Antitheses, the dispensation of the Creator can be more readily
shown to have been reformed by Christ, rather than
destroyed;3085
3085 Repercussus: perhaps
“refuted.” | restored,
rather than abolished;3086 especially as you
sever your own god from everything like acrimonious conduct,3087
3087 Ab omni motu
amariore. | even from all rivalry whatsoever with the
Creator. Now, since this is the case, how comes it to pass that the
Antitheses demonstrate Him to have been the Creator’s
rival in every disputed cause?3088
3088 Singulas species, a
law term. | Well, even here,
too, I will allow that in these causes my God has been a jealous God,
who has in His own right taken especial care that all things done by
Him should be in their beginning of a robuster growth;3089
3089 Arbustiores. A
figurative word, taken from vines more firmly supported on trees
instead of on frames. He has used the word indomitis above
to express his meaning. | and this in the way of a good, because
rational3090
3090 Rationali. Compare
chap. vi. of this book, where the “ratio,” or
purpose of God, is shown to be consistent with His goodness in
providing for its highest development in man’s interest. | emulation, which
tends to maturity. In this sense the world itself will acknowledge His
“antitheses,” from the contrariety of its own elements,
although it has been regulated with the very highest reason.3091
3091 Ratione: in reference
to God’s ratio or purpose in creation. See chap. vi.
note 10. [p. 301, supra.] | Wherefore, most thoughtless Marcion, it was
your duty to have shown that one (of the two Gods you teach) was a God
of light, and the other a God of darkness; and then you would have
found it an easier task to persuade us that one was a God of goodness,
the other a God of severity. How ever, the “antithesis” (or
variety of administration) will rightly be His property, to whom it
actually belongs in (the government of) the world.E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
|