Against Marcion 2.23

But if you would also have him understood as fickle in regard to persons, when he rejects those he once approved, or as improvident, when he approves those who are later to be rejected — as though he either condemned his own past judgments or did not know the future — yet nothing so befits one who is both good and a judge as to reject and to choose according to present merits. Saul is chosen, but not yet as a despiser of the prophet Samuel. Solomon is rejected, but only when already possessed by foreign women and enslaved to the idols of the Moabites and Sidonians. What should the Creator have done so as not to be censured by the Marcionites? Condemn in advance those still acting well, on account of sins to come? But it was not for a good God to condemn in advance those who did not yet deserve it. Or, on the other hand, not reject those now sinning, on account of their former good deeds? But it was not for a just judge to pardon crimes once the former good deeds had been cancelled. Or what man is without sin, so that God should always choose him and could never reject him? Or likewise, who is without any good work, so that God should always reject him and could never choose him? Show me one who is always good, and he will not be rejected; show me one who is always evil, and he will never be chosen. But if … the same man, being in both states at different times, will be assessed in both by God, who is both good and judge, and who does not change his sentences out of fickleness or lack of foresight, but with the weightiest and most provident judgment gives to each time its merits.