§ 1.
It is therefore utterly unreasonable, passing by Him Who is truly God, and is witnessed by all, to inquire whether there be this one above Him—who is not,1 nor hath ever been announced by any one. For that nothing is expressly said of him, themselves too give testimony: and that parables, the sense of which is itself matter of inquiry, are by them unwarrantably shaped to suit him whom they have devised, and that so they produce another [God] now, who before was never looked alter: this is evident. Thus by their wanting to solve doubtful Scriptures (doubtful, I mean, not as to another God, but as to the ordained ways2 of God), they have framed another God: twining, as we said before; ropes out of sand, and producing a greater question out of a less. Whereas no question is to be solved by another point, which is itself questioned, nor will one ambiguity be done away by another, in the judgement of those who have understanding, nor one riddle by another greater riddle: but all such things receive their explanations from evident, congruous and clear considerations.
§ 2.
But these men, seeking to explain Scriptures and Parables, introduce another,3 a greater, yea an impious question, Whether there be another God above the God Who made the world: Thus they do not solve questions (how should they?) but to a lesser question they annex a great one, and insert a knot which cannot be disentangled. Thus, to make themselves sure that they know this, namely, that Our Lord at thirty years came to the Baptism of the Truth—a thing which they were never taught;4 they impiously scorn God the Creator Who sent Him to save men. And that they may be supposed able to explain whence comes the substance of matter, not believing that God out of things that were not made all things that were made to be as He would, using His own Will and Power in the Place of Substance, they have put together vain discourses, truly declaring their own faithlessness. And because they believe not the things which are, they have sunk into that which is not.
§ 3.
So as to their statement, that from the tears of Achamoth proceeded the moist part of matter,5 and from her smile the bright part, and from her sadness the solid, and from her fear the moveable, and as to their being hereupon high-minded and puffed up; how can this be other than matter of Scorn and truly ridiculous? that men who believe not God’s creating matter itself, mighty and rich as He is in all things, because they know not the power of a spiritual and Divine Substance;—should yet believe that their Mother, whom they call a female born of a female, did by the aforesaid affections produce this great mass of creation! That while they make it a question, Whence the Creator was supplied with the substance of Creation, they made no question, whence their Mother, whom they call the Conception and effort of a wandering Æon, had so many tears, such sweat, so much sadness, or other ways of parting with her substance.
§ 4.
For to ascribe the substance of the things which are made to the Power and Will of Him Who is God of all,6 is credible, and approveable, and consistent: and to this subject may be well applied,7 The things which are impossible with men are possible with God. Because although men have no power to make any thing out of nothing, but only out of some subject matter, God on the contrary excels men in this first of all, that Himself devised the material of His work, which did not exist before. But to say that Matter was produced of the Conception of a wandering Æon, and that Æon widely separated from its own Conception, and again that the passion and affection of this latter take place even without its own substance, this is incredible, and foolish, and impossible, and inconsistent.