they called into existence? or what lights of heaven have they caused to shine? within what
circles, moreover, have they confined them? or, what rains, or frosts, or snows, each suited
to the season, and to every special climate, have they brought upon the earth? And again,
in opposition to these, what heat or dryness have they set over against them? or, what rivers
have they made to flow? what fountains have they brought forth? with what flowers and
trees have they adorned this sublunary world? or, what multitude of animals have they
formed, some rational, and others irrational, but all adorned with beauty? And who can
enumerate one by one all the remaining objects which have been constituted by the power
of God, and are governed by His wisdom? or who can search out the greatness of that God
who made them? And what can be told of those existences which are above heaven, and
which do not pass away, such as Angels, Archangels, Thrones, Dominions, and Powers in-
numerable? Against what one of these works, then, do they set themselves in opposition?
What have they similar to show, as having been made through themselves, or by themselves,
since even they too are the Workmanship and creatures of this [Creator]? For whether the
Saviour or their Mother (to use their own expressions, proving them false by means of the
very terms they themselves employ) used this Being, as they maintain, to make an image of
those things which are within the Pleroma, and of all those beings which she saw waiting
upon the Saviour, she used him (the Demiurge) as being [in a sense] superior to herself,
and better fitted to accomplish her purpose through his instrumentality; for she would by
no means form the images of such important beings through means of an inferior, but by
a superior, agent.
4. For, [be it observed,] they themselves, according to their own declarations, were then
existing, as a spiritual conception, in consequence of the contemplation of those beings who
were arranged as satellites around Pandora. And they indeed continued useless, the Mother
accomplishing nothing through their instrumentality,601—an idle conception, owing their
being to the Saviour, and fit for nothing, for not a thing appears to have been done by them.
But the God who, according to them, was produced, while, as they argue, inferior to them-
selves (for they maintain that he is of an animal nature), was nevertheless the active agent
in all things, efficient, and fit for the work to be done, so that by him the images of all things
were made; and not only were these things which are seen formed by him, but also all things
invisible, Angels, Archangels, Dominations, Powers, and Virtues,—[by him, I say,] as being
the superior, and capable of ministering to her desire. But it seems that the Mother made
nothing whatever through their instrumentality, as indeed they themselves acknowledge;
so that one may justly reckon them as having been an abortion produced by the painful
travail of their Mother. For no accoucheurs performed their office upon her, and therefore
they were cast forth as an abortion, useful for nothing, and formed to accomplish no work
601 The punctuation is here doubtful. With Massuet and Stieren we expunge “vel” from the text.
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Chapter XXX.—Absurdity of their styling themselves spiritual, while the…