Tertullian — Against Marcion 2.23
But if you also want him understood as light around persons, when he sometimes rejects those approved, or as improvident, when he sometimes approves those to be rejected—as if he either condemns his past judgments or is ignorant of future ones—yet nothing so suits both a good person and a judge as both to reject and to elect according to present merits. Saul is elected, but not yet a despiser of the prophet Samuel. Solomon is rejected, but already possessed by foreign women and made over to the idols of Moabites and Sidonians.
What should the Creator have done, lest he be blamed by Marcionites? Would he pre-condemn those still acting well already because of future delicts? But it was not of a good God to pre-condemn those not yet deserving. Likewise would he not refuse those now sinning because of former good deeds? But it was not of a just judge to forgive crimes when former goods had already been torn away. Or who of humans is without delict, so that God would always elect him whom he could never refuse? Or likewise who without some good work, so that God would always refuse him whom he could never elect?
Show someone always good, and he will not be refused; show someone always evil, and he will never be elected. For the rest, if the same human, as in each according to times, will in each be settled by God both good and judge, who turns sentences not by levity or improvidence but by most weighty and most provident censure dispenses the merits of each time.
Latin
Si uero etiam circa personas aut leuem uultis intellegi, cum reprobat aliquando probatos, aut improuidum, cum probat quandoque reprobandos, quasi iudicia sua aut damnet praeterita aut ignoret futura, atquin nihil tam (et) bono et iudici conuenit quam pro praesentibus meritis et reicere et adlegere. adlegitur Saul, sed nondum despector prophetae Samuelis. reicitur Salomon, sed iam a mulieribus alienis possessus et idolis Moabitarum et Sidoniorum mancipatus. quid faceret creator, ne a Marcionitis reprehenderetur? bene adhuc agentes praedamnaret iam propter futura delicta? sed dei boni non erat nondum merentes praedamnare. proinde peccantes nunc non recusaret propter pristina benefacta? sed iusti iudicis non erat rescissis iam bonis pristinis scelera donare. aut quis hominum sine delicto, ut eum deus semper adlegeret, quem numquam posset recusare? uel quis item sine aliquo bono opere, ut eum deus semper recusaret, quem numquam posset adlegere? exhibe bonum semper, et non recusabitur; exhibe malum semper, et numquam adlegetur. ceterum si ** idem homo, ut in utroque pro temporibus, in utroque dispungetur a deo et bono et iudice, qui non leuitate aut improuidentia sententias uertit sed censura grauissima et prouidentissima merita temporis cuiusque dispensat.