§ 1.
We may inquire into the cause of the Divine arrangement of which we have been speaking, but we may not attribute to another the framing of the world:1 and we are to say, that God prepared all things beforehand that they might come into being as they actually did; but we are not to be framing devices about a Shadow and a Void. Yea, and it may be asked, Whence is the Void? Whether is it also according to them produced by the Father and Producer of all, and equal in honour, and akin to the other Æons, perhaps too even elder than they? Now if it emanated from the same, it resembles Him from Whom and those with whom it emanated. It will follow then of absolute necessity, that the Deep whom they talk of, with their Silence, must resemble the Void, i.e., must be void: and that the other Æons, as brothers of The Void, must have their substance also void.—If on the other hand it be no emanation, it is self-born and self-begotten, and equal in time to that Deep the Father of all Whom they speak of: and so the Void will be of the same nature and honour with Him Whom they speak of, the Father of all. For it must either emanate from something, or be self-born and self-begotten.—But now if that which emanates be Void, the Producer of it too, Valentinus, is empty and void, void also are his followers. But if it be no emanation, but self-begotten: then that which is void is like, and as a brother, and equal in honour to the Father Whom Valentinus had before spoken of: but more ancient and greatly exceeding in age and honour all the other Æons of Ptolemy himself, and of Heracleon, and the rest who are of the same way of thinking.
§ 2.
But if, being at a loss herein, they confess that the Father of all contains all things,2 and that there is nothing without the Pleroma (for else He must of absolute necessity have limits, and be compassed about by some greater Being): and that they use the terms “without” and “within,” to express knowledge and ignorance, not local distance: and that the things made by the inferior Creator, or by Angels, whatsoever we know to have been made, being within the Pleroma, or in the parts comprehended by the Father, are themselves comprehended by that Unspeakable Greatness, as a centre within a circle, or as a spot in a vesture: first of all, what sort of a being will The Deep prove, suffering a spot to take place within his own bosom, and permitting some other to create or produce, in his own regions, contrary to his own mind? A thing which would bring discredit upon the whole Pleroma, seeing that He might have cut off Defect from the beginning, and all the emanations which took their origin therefrom, and not allow things to receive any order of Creation with ignorance, or passion, or defect. For he who afterwards corrects a defect, or cleanses it out as a blot, might much sooner have taken care, that no such blot might at all occur in the things which are his. Or if he allowed it in the beginning, because what was made could not be made otherwise; they must needs take place always in like manner. For the things which admit not of correction at first, how are they to admit of it afterwards?
Or how say they that men are called out to perfection, when the very beings which are the efficient causes of men, whether it be the Creator himself, or certain Angels, are said to be in Defect? And if because He is kind, He pitied men in the last times, and is giving them perfection; He ought first to pity those who were the makers of men, and give them perfection. In which case man too of course would have received mercy, being made perfect by beings that were perfect. Since if He pitied their work, much more ought He to pity them, and not to permit them to come to so great blindness.
§ 3.
Also their discourse about the Shadow and the Void will be refuted,3 (wherein they say was made this creation which we belong to), if all this took place in the regions which are comprehended by the Father. For if they suppose that paternal light of theirs to be such as to have the power of filling all things and enlightening all things which are within Him; how could there be void or shadow in those parts which are comprehended by the Pleroma and the paternal light? For they must point to some place within the First Father, or within the Pleroma, not enlightened nor occupied by any thing, wherein either the Angels or the Creator made whatsoever he would. It being no small space, wherein such and so great a creation was made. It will be absolutely necessary then, that locally within the Pleroma,4 or within their Father they must make themselves something void and shapeless and dark, wherein were made whatsoever things were made. Also blame will fall on their Paternal Light, as though He were unable to enlighten and fill the parts that are within Him. And calling it all Fruits of Defect, and the Work of Error, they will be still introducing defect and error within the Pleroma, and into the bosom of the Father.