175 To blame: nor e’en one—save you, hell’s new gate!—
Thankless, ye choose to speak ill of your Lord!
These cruel deadly gifts the Renegade
Terrible has bestowed, through Marcion—thanks
To Cerdo’s mastership—on you; nor comes
180 The thought into your mind that, from Christ’s name
Seduced, Marcion’s name has carried you
To lowest depths. Say of His many acts
What one displeases you? or what hath God
Done which is not to be extolled with praise?
185 Is it that He permits you, all too long,
(Unworthy of His patience large,) to see
Sweet light? you, who read truths, and, docking them,
Teach these your falsehoods, and approve as past
Things which are yet to be? What hinders, else,
190 That we believe your God incredible?
Nor marvel is’t if, practiced as he is,
He captived you unarmed, persuading you
There are two Fathers (being damned by One),
And all, whom he had erst seduced, are gods;
195 And after that dispread a pest, which ran
With multiplying wound, and cureless crime,
To many. Men unworthy to be named,
Full of all magic’s madness, he induced
To call themselves “Virtue Supreme;” and feign
200 (With harlot comrade) fresh impiety;
To roam, to fly. He is the insane god
Of Valentine, and to his Æonage
Assigned heavens thirty, and Profundity
Their sire. He taught two baptisms, and led
205 The body through the flame. That there are gods
So many as the year hath days, he bade
A Basilides to believe, and worlds
As many. Marcus, shrewdly arguing
Through numbers, taught to violate chaste form
210 ’Mid magic’s arts; taught, too, that the Lord’s cup
Is an oblation, and by prayers is turned
To blood. His suasion prompted Hebion
To teach that Christ was born from human seed;
He taught, too, circumcision, and that room
215 Is still left for the Law, and, though Law’s founts
Are lost, its elements must be resumed.
Unwilling am I to protract in words
His last atrocity, or to tell all
The causes, or the names at length. Enough