Book IV.—Of Marcion’s Antitheses.
What the Inviolable Power bids
The youthful people, which, rich, free, and heir,
Possesses an eternal hope of praise
(By right assigned) is this: that with great zeal
5 Burning, armed with the love of peace—yet not
As teachers (Christ alone doth all things teach),
But as Christ’s household—servants—o’er the earth
They should conduct a massive war; should raze
The wicked’s lofty towers, savage walls,
10 And threats which ’gainst the holy people’s bands
Rise, and dissolve such empty sounds in air.
Wherefore we, justly speaking emulous words,
Out of his own words even strive to express
The meaning of salvation’s records, which
15 Large grace hath poured profusely; and to ope
To the saints’ eyes the Bandit’s covert plague:
Lest any untrained, daring, ignorant,
Fall therein unawares, and (being caught)
Forfeit celestial gifts.
God, then, is One
20 To mortals all and everywhere; a Realm
Eternal, Origin of light profound;
Life’s Fount; a Draught fraught with all wisdom. He
Produced the orb whose bosom all things girds;
Him not a region, not a place, includes as
25 In circuit: matter none perennial is,
So as to be self-made, or to have been
Ever, created by no Maker: heaven’s,
Earth’s, sea’s, and the abyss’s Settler is
The Spirit; air’s Divider, Builder, Author,
30 Sole God perpetual, Power immense, is He.
Him had the Law the People shown to be
One God, whose mighty voice to Moses spake
Upon the mount. Him this His Virtue, too,
His Wisdom, Glory, Word, and Son, this Light
35 Begotten from the Light immense, proclaims
Through the seers’ voices, to be One: and Paul,
Taking the theme in order up, thus too
Himself delivers; “Father there is One
Through whom were all things made: Christ One, through whom
40 God all things made;” to whom he plainly owns
That every knee doth bow itself; of whom
Is every fatherhood in heaven and earth
Called: who is zealous with the highest love