Chapter VI.—Marcion Untrue to His Theory. He Pretends that His Gods are Equal, But He Really Makes Them Diverse.  Then, Allowing Their Divinity, Denies This Diversity.

Thus far our discussion seems to imply that Marcion makes his two gods equal. For while we have been maintaining that God ought to be believed as the one only great Supreme Being, excluding from Him every possibility^23882388    Parilitatem. of equality, we have treated of these topics on the assumption of two equal Gods; but nevertheless, by teaching that no equals can exist according to the law^23892389    Formam. of the Supreme Being, we have sufficiently affirmed the impossibility that two equals should exist. For the rest, however,^23902390    Alioquin. we know full well^23912391    Certi (sumus). that Marcion makes his gods unequal: one judicial, harsh, mighty in war; the other mild, placid, and simply^23922392    Tantummodo. good and excellent. Let us with similar care consider also this aspect of the question, whether diversity (in the Godhead) can at any rate contain two, since equality therein failed to do so. Here again the same rule about the great Supreme will protect us, inasmuch as it settles^23932393    Vindicet. the entire condition of the Godhead.  Now, challenging, and in a certain sense arresting^23942394    Injecta manu detinens. the meaning of our adversary, who does not deny that the Creator is God, I most fairly object^23952395    Præscribo. against him that he has no room for any diversity in his gods, because, having once confessed that they are on a par,^23962396    Ex æquo deos confessus. he cannot now pronounce them different; not indeed that human beings may not be very different under the same designation, but because the Divine Being can be neither said nor believed to be God, except as the great Supreme. Since, therefore, he is obliged to acknowledge that the God whom he does not deny is the great Supreme, it is inadmissible that he should predicate of the Supreme Being such a diminution as should subject Him to another Supreme Being.  For He ceases (to be Supreme), if He becomes subject to any. Besides, it is not the characteristic of God to cease from any attribute^23972397    De statu suo. of His divinity—say, from His supremacy.  For at this rate the supremacy would be endangered even in Marcion’s more powerful god, if it were capable of depreciation in the Creator. When, therefore, two gods are pronounced to be two great Supremes, it must needs follow that neither of them is greater or less than the other, neither of them loftier or lowlier than the other. If you deny^23982398    Nega. him to be God whom you call inferior, you deny^23992399    Nega. the supremacy of this inferior being.  But when you confessed both gods to be divine, you confessed them both to be supreme. Nothing will you be able to take away from either of them; nothing will you be able to add. By allowing their divinity, you have denied their diversity.