Anf-03 v.iv.iii.iii Pg 11
Gen. i. 14.
Previous, then, to this temporal course, (the goodness) which created time had not time; nor before that beginning which the same goodness originated, had it a beginning. Being therefore without all order of a beginning, and all mode of time, it will be reckoned to possess an age, measureless in extent2734 2734 Immensa.
and endless in duration;2735 2735 Interminabili.
nor will it be possible to regard it as a sudden or adventitious or impulsive emotion, because it has nothing to occasion such an estimate of itself; in other words, no sort of temporal sequence. It must therefore be accounted an eternal attribute, inbred in God,2736 2736 Deo ingenita “Natural to,” or “inherent in.”
and everlasting,2737 2737 Perpetua. [Truly, a sublime Theodicy.]
and on this account worthy of the Divine Being, putting to shame for ever2738 2738 Suffundens jam hinc.
the benevolence of Marcion’s god, subsequent as he is to (I will not say) all beginnings and times, but to the very malignity of the Creator, if indeed malignity could possibly have been found in goodness.
