Tertullian, Against Marcion 39
It was once settled that the property of names belongs to the one who first proclaimed his Christ to mankind and re-named the laws. So it will also be settled that he acts with impudence when he claims many will come in his name, a name that is not his if Christ and Jesus are not the Creator's, to whom the property of names belongs. Furthermore, he ought to forbid the acceptance of those whose equal he himself is, so that the one who comes in a foreign name does so on the same basis; if not, it was his duty to prevent his disciples from the lie of the name, he who possessed his truth through the property of the name. In the end, men will come saying, 'I am the Christ,' and you will accept them, since you accepted a similar one; for neither does this man come in his own name. What then? When the Lord of names himself comes—Christ and Jesus of the Creator—will you reject him? How unjust, how iniquitous, and how unworthy of the best God, that you refuse to receive him coming in his own name, when you received another in that same name! Let us also see what signs he imposes on the times: wars, I think, and kingdom upon kingdom, nation upon nation, pestilence, famine, earthquakes, terrors, and portents from heaven—all of which suit a severe and cruel God. When he adds that these things must also happen, what kind of God does he present: a destroyer or an approver of the Creator? He confirms that the dispositions of the one whose will he enforces must be fulfilled—dispositions the best God would have removed rather than established, if they had not been his own. Yet he predicts these coming persecutions and sufferings for them, which will certainly result in martyrdom and salvation.
Latin
Olim constitit de nominum proprietate, ei illam *, qui prior et Christum suum in homines adnuntiarit et legum transnominarit. constabit itaque et de impudentia eius, qui multos dicat uenturos in nomine ipsius, quod non sit ipsius, si non Christus et Iesus creatoris est, ad quem proprietas nominum pertinet. amplius et prohibeat eos recipi, quorum et ipse par sit, ut qui proinde in nomine uenit alieno: si non, ipsius erat a mendacio nominis praeuenire discipulos, qui per proprietatem nominis possidebat ueritatem eius. uenient denique illi dicentes: ego sum Christus: recipies eos, qui consimilem recepisti; nec hic enim in nomine suo uenit. quid nunc? quando et ipse ueniet nominum dominus, Christus et Iesus creatoris, reicies illum P et quam iniquum, quam iniustum et optimo deo indignum, ut non recipias eum in suo nomine uenientem, qui alium in nomine eius recepisti! Videamus et quae signa temporibus imponat: bella, opinor., et regnum super regnum et gentem super gentem et pestem et fames terraeque motus et formidines et prodigia de caelo, quae omnia seuero et atroci deo congruunt. haec cum adicit etiam oportere fieri, quem se praestat? destructorem an probatorem creatoris? cuius dispositiones confirmat impleri oportere, quas ut optimus tam tristes quam atroces abstulisset potius quam constituisset, si non ipsius fuissent ante haec autem persecutiones eis praedicat et passiones euenturas, in martyrium utique et in salutem.