Tertullian — Against Marcion 11
If, owing to the fault of human error , the word God has become a common name (since in the world there are said and believed to be gods many 1 Corinthians 8:5 ), yet the blessed God , (who is the Father) of our Lord Jesus Christ , 2 Corinthians 1:3 will be understood to be no other God than the Creator, who both blessed all things (that He had made), as you find in Genesis, Genesis 1:22 and is Himself blessed by all things, as Daniel tells us. Now, if the title of Father may be claimed for ( Marcion's ) sterile god, how much more for the Creator? To none other than Him is it suitable, who is also the Father of mercies, 2 Corinthians 1:3 and (in the prophets ) has been described as full of compassion, and gracious, and plenteous in mercy. In Jonah you find the signal act of His mercy, which He showed to the praying Ninevites.
Jonah 3:8 How inflexible was He at the tears of Hezekiah! How ready to forgive Ahab, the husband of Jezebel , the blood of Naboth, when he deprecated His anger . How prompt in pardoning David on his confession of his sin 2 Samuel 12:13 — preferring, indeed, the sinner's repentance to his death, of course because of His gracious attribute of mercy. Ezekiel 33:11 Now, if Marcion's god has exhibited or proclaimed any such thing as this, I will allow him to be the Father of mercies. Since, however, he ascribes to him this title only from the time he has been revealed, as if he were the father of mercies from the time only when he began to liberate the human race , then we on our side, too, adopt the same precise date of his alleged revelation; but it is that we may deny him!
It is then not competent to him to ascribe any quality to his god, whom indeed he only promulged by the fact of such an ascription; for only if it were previously evident that his god had an existence , could he be permitted to ascribe an attribute to him. The ascribed attribute is only an accident; but accidents are preceded by the statement of the thing itself of which they are predicated, especially when another claims the attribute which is ascribed to him who has not been previously shown to exist. Our denial of his existence will be all the more peremptory, because of the fact that the attribute which is alleged in proof of it belongs to that God who has been already revealed.
Therefore the New Testament will appertain to none other than Him who promised it — if not its letter, yet its spirit; 2 Corinthians 3:6 and herein will lie its newness . Indeed, He who had engraved its letter in stones is the same as He who had said of its spirit, I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh. Joel 2:28 Even if the letter kills, yet the Spirit gives life; 2 Corinthians 3:6 and both belong to Him who says: I kill, and I make alive; I wound, and I heal. Deuteronomy 32:39 We have already made good the Creator's claim to this twofold character of judgment and goodness — killing in the letter through the law, and quickening in the Spirit through the Gospel .