§ 1.
God however hath providence over all things; wherefore also He gives counsel, and with counsel He is present to all who have care of their conduct.1 It cannot then be, but that the subjects of foresight and government should know their proper guide: such, I mean, as are not irrational nor vain, but have distinct power of perceiving the Providence of God. And therefore certain of the Gentiles, who were less enslaved to allurements and pleausres, and were not so far led away by the superstition towards idols: being moved by His Providence, though faintly, yet so far they were changed, as to say that the Framer of this universe is a Father providing for all things, and ordering this world of ours.
§ 2.
In the next place,2 that they may take away from the Father the function of rebuking and judging, which they account unworthy of God; and imagining themselves to have found out a God exempt from wrath, and merely good, they have said that one judges and another saves; in their ignorance depriving both of understanding and righteousness. For if He that judgeth is not also good, that He may both give to whom He ought, and reprove whom He ought, He will neither seem a just nor a wise judge. On the other hand, He that is good, if He be nothing but good, and not a Trier of those on whom He sends His goodness; He will be beyond the limit of justice and goodness, and it will seem lack of power in His goodness, not to save all men, if its exercise be not joined with judgment.
§ 3.
Wherefore Marcion, who takes upon him to divide God into Two Beings,3 and to call the one good, and the other apt to judge, doth on both sides annul the Deity. For the one who judges, if He be not also good, is not God, because He is not God, to whom goodness is wanting; and He on the other hand who is good, if He be not apt to judge, it will follow of Him as of the other, that His Godhead is taken from Him.
And how again will they call the Father of all wise,4 if they do not attribute to Him withal a judicial function? For if He be wise, He is also a discriminator, but in that term is implied the function of a judge: but it is by Justice that this function obtains power rightly to discriminate. Justice provokes judgment, and judgment being wrought with justice will refer things to Wisdom. Accordingly the Father will excell in Wisdom beyond all Wisdom of men and Angels, because He is Lord, and Judge, and righteous and a Sovereign over all. For He is both good and merciful and patient, and saves whom He ought: neither doth His goodness fail from being wrought justly, nor is His Wisdom diminished. For He saves whom He ought to save, and judges those who deserve judgment. Neither is His Justice proved cruel, I mean, when goodness is supposed to precede and lead the way.
§ 4.
God therefore, Who in His Loving kindness maketh His sun to rise upon all,5 and raineth upon just and unjust, He will judge those who having their share of His kindness, have not behaved themselves suitably to the gifts vouchsafed by Him, but have spent their time in delights and luxuries, opposing His gracious Will, yea, and blaspheming Him Who hath wrought so great benefits for them.
§ 5.
Evidently Plato is more devout than these,6 who acknowledged the same God both just and good, having power over all, and Himself exercising judgment:—when he said,7 “And God indeed, as also the old saying is, being owner of all beings, their beginning, end, and middle, fulfils a straight course, visiting all according to His Nature: and on Him ever attends Justice, working vengeance on such as fall from the Divine Law.” And again he declares the Maker and Framer of this world to be good:8 “But in Him that is good,” saith he, “never from any cause ariseth any grudging:” thereby laying down the beginning and cause of the Creation of the world to be the goodness of God; not ignorance, nor an Æon that hath erred, nor the fruit of decay, nor a Mother weeping and lamenting, nor another God or Father.
§ 6.
But well may their Mother deplore them, when such are their thoughts and inventions: yea, meetly have they framed and forged lies against their own heads;9 as that their Mother is without the Pleroma, i.e., excluded from the knowledge of God; and their reasoning is become an abortion, without form or kind: for it apprehends nothing of the truth; it falls away into emptiness and shade, for empty is their doctrine and covered with darkness; and Horus permitted it not to enter the Pleroma, i.e., the spirit received them not into refreshment. For their very own Father, generating ignorance, wrought in them deadly passions.
These are not calumnies of ours, but they themselves affirm, themselves teach, themselves glory in them: they have high thoughts of that Mother, who they say was born without a Father, i.e., without God—a Female of a Female—i.e., of Error, Corruption.
§ 7.
But our prayer is that they may not continue in the pit which they have themselves digged,10 but may be separated from the aforesaid Mother, and come out of the Deep, and withdraw from the Void, and forsake the Shadow; and may obtain a lawful birth, upon turning to the Church of God, and that Christ may be formed in them, and that they may know the Framer and Maker of this Universe, the only true God and Lord of all. This we pray for them, with a more profitable love than that wherewith they think to love themselves. For the love on our side being real, is wholesome to them: if at least they will receive it. For it resembles a severe application in surgery, consuming the less natural and superfluous flesh of the wound, in that it annihilates their high and swelling thoughts. For which cause we will not be weary of endeavouring with all our might to reach forth the hand to them.
Now we will proceed in the following book to adduce certain discourses of our Lord in addition to what has been said; if haply convincing some of them by the very doctrine of Christ, we may persuade them to cease from that kind of error, and withdraw from the blasphemy which is directed against their Maker, Who is both God Alone, and the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.