§ 1.
It is well then to begin from the first and chiefest head, from God the Artificer and Maker of Heaven and earth,1 and of all things that are therein; Whom they blaspheming call the offspring of Defect and to shew that neither above Him nor after Him is any thing: and that not moved by any, but of His own mind He freely made all things, He being the only God and the only Lord and the only Creator and the only Father, and alone upholding all things, and Himself giving to all things their existence.
§ 2.
For how shall there possibly be above Him any other Fulness, or Beginning, or Power, or any other God:2 since God, the Fulness of all these things, must contain them all in infinite space, and Himself be contained by none? But if there is any thing without Him, then He is not the Fulness of all, nor doth He contain all. For there will be wanting to the Fulness, i.e., to Him Who is God over all, so much as they say is without Him. But that which is deficient, and is parted off from something, is not the Fulness of all things. Yea, and He will have a limit, and a middle and an end, with respect to those who are without Him. Now if He have an end towards the parts below, He will have also a beginning towards the parts above. And in like manner on the other sides too this must of absolute necessity befal Him, and He must be comprehended, and limited and inclosed by those who are without. For that which is His limit downwards necessarily must in every way circumscribe and surround Him Who is limited thereby. Yea, by their account, the Father of all (whom forsooth they call also the First of Beings and of Principles), with the Fulness they talk of, and Marcion’s “good God,” will have a position in something, and will be inclosed, and surrounded externally by some other principle; which must needs be greater than it, since that which contains is greater than the thing contained. Now that which is greater is also more stable, and more truly the Lord; and that which is greater, and more stable, and more truly the Lord, that same must be God.
§ 3.
For, there being according to them some other thing too, which indeed they say is without the “Fulness,” and into which they think some higher Power, wandering, descended; it follows of course either that the said external Being comprehends, and the “Fulness” is comprehended;—(otherwise it will not be without the “Fulness” [or Pleroma]; for if there be aught without the Pleroma, the Pleroma will be within that same thing which they say is without it, and will be comprehended by that which is without: now with the Pleroma we are to understand the original God also:)—or again these two, i.e., the Pleroma, and that which is without it, must be indefinitely distant and parted off from one another. But if they affirm this latter, there will be some third thing, which parts off at that indefinite distance the Pleroma from that which is without it; and this third must circumscribe and contain both, and it will be greater both than the Pleroma and than that which is without it, as containing both in its own bosom: and the argument about the spaces contained and containing will go on to infinity. For if this third is to have its beginning upwards and its end downwards, it is absolutely necessary that it be limited also on its sides, both beginning and leaving off in some other things: and those again and others which are above or below, will have their beginnings in some other things: and so on to infinity: So that their device can never stay itself upon One God, but as a result of seeking more than is, must fall into that which is not, and depart from the true God.
§ 4.
And all this suits equally well for a reply to Marcion’s sect also.3 For his two Gods also will be comprehended and circumscribed by an indefinite interval, separating them one from another: And in this way we must needs imagine in every direction many Gods parted by an indefinite interval, having as towards each other both beginnings and terminations; and by the argument by which they try to shew that there is some Pleroma or God above the Framer of Heaven and Earth, by use of that same argument one may make out, that above the Pleroma there is another Pleroma, and above that again another, and above the Deep another Ocean of Godhead, and that the same exist on the several sides of them in like manner: and so their view will lose itself in infinity, i.e., they will be forced continually to be imagining other Pleromata and other Deeps, and nowhere at any time to stay themselves, ever seeking fresh ones besides those which have been mentioned. And it will be uncertain, whether these parts, whereabouts we are, are below, or whether the same be the higher regions, the parts which they call Above, whether they be above or below: so will there be nothing stationary nor fixed to limit our conception, but it will be forced to go forth among immense worlds and indefinite Gods.
§ 5.
Moreover, such being the case, each God will be content with his own,4 and will not be busy about what is another’s: else will he be unjust, and greedy, and ceasing to be that which God is. And each several creation will glorify its own framer, and will be contented with him, and will know no other: else being most justly accounted rebellious by all, it will incur most merited punishment. For there must needs either be One Who comprehends all, and Who in His own dominions made each one of the things which are made, according to His own will: or again many and indefinite Makers and Gods, having on every side both beginning and ending with respect to one another: so shall we be compelled to allow that all the rest are outwardly comprehended by something else which is greater, and are as it were shut up and abiding in their own home every one of them; and that none of these all is God. For to every one of them there will be somewhat wanting, occupying as it does a very small part in comparison of all the rest; and the title of Omnipotent will be abolished; so this way of thinking must needs end in Atheism.