A Treatise of Novatian Concerning the Trinity.

 A Treatise of Novatian Concerning the Trinity.

 The Rule of truth requires that we should first of all things believe on God the Father and Lord Omnipotent that is, the absolutely perfect Founder o

 And over all these things He Himself, containing all things, having nothing vacant beyond Himself, has left room for no superior God, such as some peo

 Him, then, we acknowledge and know to be God, the Creator of all things—Lord on account of His power, Parent on account of His discipline—Him, I say,

 Him alone the Lord rightly declares good, of whose goodness the whole world is witness which world He would not have ordained if He had not been good

 Moreover, if we read of His wrath, and consider certain descriptions of His indignation, and learn that hatred is asserted of Him, yet we are not to u

 And although the heavenly Scripture often turns the divine appearance into a human form,—as when it says, “The eyes of the Lord are over the righteous

 But when the Lord says that God is a Spirit, I think that Christ spoke thus of the Father, as wishing that something still more should be understood t

 This God, then, setting aside the fables and figments of heretics, the Church knows and worships, to whom the universal and entire nature of things as

 The same rule of truth teaches us to believe, after the Father, also on the Son of God, Christ Jesus, the Lord our God, but the Son of God—of that God

 But of this I remind you , that Christ was not to be expected in the Gospel in any other wise than as He was promised before by the Creator, in the Sc

 Chapter XI.—And Indeed that Christ Was Not Only Man, But God Also That Even as He Was the Son of Man, So Also He Was the Son of God.

 Why, then, should we hesitate to say what Scripture does not shrink from declaring? Why shall the truth of faith hesitate in that wherein the authorit

 And thus also John, describing the nativity of Christ, says: “The Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, the glory as of the o

 And yet the heretic still shrinks from urging that Christ is God, whom he perceives to be proved God by so many words as well as facts. If Christ is o

 If Christ is only man, how is it that He says, “Though I bear record of myself, yet my record is true:  because I know whence I came, and whither I go

 If Christ was only man, how is it that He Himself says, “And every one that believeth in me shall not die for evermore?” And yet he who believes in ma

 What if Moses pursues this same rule of truth, and delivers to us in the beginning of his sacred writings, this principle by which we may learn that a

 Behold, the same Moses tells us in another place that “God was seen of Abraham.” And yet the same Moses hears from God, that “no man can see God and l

 What if in another place also we read in like manner that God was described as an angel? For when, to his wives Leah and Rachel, Jacob complained of t

 But if some heretic, obstinately struggling against the truth, should persist in all these instances either in understanding that Christ was properly

 And indeed I could set forth the treatment of this subject by all heavenly Scriptures, and set in motion, so to speak, a perfect forest of texts conce

 But why, although we appear to hasten to another branch of the argument, should we pass over that passage in the apostle: “Who, although He was in the

 In this place I may be permitted also to collect arguments from the side of other heretics. It is a substantial kind of proof which is gathered even f

 But the material of that heretical error has arisen, as I judge, from this, that they think that there is no distinction between the Son of God and th

 Therefore, say they, if Christ is not man only, but God also—and Scripture tells us that He died for us, and was raised again—then Scripture teaches u

 But from this occasion of Christ being proved from the sacred authority of the divine writings not man only, but God also, other heretics, breaking fo

 But since they frequently urge upon us the passage where it is said, “I and the Father are one,” in this also we shall overcome them with equal facili

 Hereto also I will add that view wherein the heretic, while he rejoices as if at the loss of some power of seeing special truth and light, acknowledge

 Moreover, the order of reason, and the authority of the faith in the disposition of the words and in the Scriptures of the Lord, admonish us after the

 And now, indeed, concerning the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, let it be sufficient to have briefly said thus much, and to have laid down t

 Thus God the Father, the Founder and Creator of all things, who only knows no beginning, invisible, infinite, immortal, eternal, is one God to whose

Chapter III. Argument.—That God is the Founder of All Things, Their Lord and Parent, is Proved from the Holy Scriptures.

Him, then, we acknowledge and know to be God, the Creator of all things—Lord on account of His power, Parent on account of His discipline—Him, I say, who “spake, and all things were made;”8    Ps. cxlviii. 5. He commanded, and all things went forth: of whom it is written, “Thou hast made all things in wisdom;”9    Ps. ciii. 24. of whom Moses said, “God in heaven above, and in the earth beneath;”10    Deut. iv. 39. who, according to Isaiah, “hath meted out the heaven with a span, the earth with the hollow of His hand;”11    Ps. ciii. 32. “who looketh on the earth, and maketh it tremble; who boundeth the circle of the earth, and those that dwell in it like locusts; who hath weighed the mountains in a balance, and the groves in scales,”12    Isa. xl. 22, 12. that is, by the sure test of divine arrangement; and lest its greatness, lying unequally, should easily fall into ruins if it were not balanced with equal weights, He has poised this burden of the earthly mass with equity. Who says by the prophet, “I am God, and there is none beside me.”13    Isa. xlv. 22. Who says by the same prophet, “Because I will not give my majesty to another,”14    Isa. xlii. 8. that He may exclude all heathens and heretics with their figments; proving that that is not God who is made by the hand of the workman, nor that which is feigned by the intellect of a heretic. For he is not God for whose existence the workman must be asked. And He has added hereto by the prophet, “The heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool: what house will ye build me, and where is the place of my rest?”15    Isa. lxvi. 1. [No portable or pocket god.] that He may show that He whom the world does not contain is much less contained in a temple; and He says these things not for boastfulness of Himself, but for our knowledge. For He does not desire from us the glory of His magnitude; but He wishes to confer upon us, even as a father, a religious wisdom. And He, wishing moreover to attract to gentleness our minds, brutish, and swelling, and stubborn with cloddish ferocity, says, “And upon whom shall my Spirit rest, save upon him that is lowly, and quiet, and that trembleth at my words?”16    Isa. lxvi. 2.—so that in some degree one may recognise how great God is, in learning to fear Him by the Spirit given to him: Who, similarly wishing still more to come into our knowledge, and, by way of stirring up our minds to His worship, said, “I am the Lord, who made the light and created the darkness;”17    Isa. xlv. 7. [A lesson to our age.] that we might deem not that some Nature,—what I know not,—was the artificer of those vicissitudes whereby nights and days are controlled, but might rather, as is more true, recognise God as their Creator. And since by the gaze of our eyes we cannot see Him, we rightly learn of Him from the greatness, and the power, and the majesty of His works. “For the invisible things of Him,” says the Apostle Paul,” from the creation of the world, are clearly seen, being understood by those things which are made, even His eternal power and godhead;”18    Rom. i. 20. [“So that they are without excuse.”] so that the human mind, learning hidden things from those that are manifest, from the greatness of the works which it should behold, might with the eyes of the mind consider the greatness of the Architect. Of whom the same apostle, “Now unto the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honour and glory.”19    1 Tim. i. 17. For He has gone beyond the contemplation of the eyes who has surpassed the greatness of thought. “For,” it is said, “of Him, and through Him, and in Him are all things.”20    Rom. xi. 33. For all things are by His command, because they are of Him; and are ordered by His word as being through Him; and all things return to His judgment; as in Him expecting liberty when corruption shall be done away, they appear to be recalled to Him.

CAPUT III. Deum esse omnium conditorem, dominum et parentem, e sacris Scripturis probatur.

Hunc igitur agnoscimus et scimus Deum, conditorem rerum omnium: Dominum, propter potestatem, et parentem, propter institutionem: hunc inquam qui dixit, et facta sunt omnia (Psal. CXLVIII, 5); praecepit, et processerunt universa; de quo scriptum 0891B est (Psal. CIII, 24): Omnia in sapientia fecisti; de quo Moyses (Deuteron. IV, 39): Deus in coelo sursum et in terra deorsum; qui secundum Isaiam (Isa. XL, 12), mensus est coelum palmo, terram pugillo: qui aspicit terram, et facit eam tremere (Psal. CIII, 32); qui continet gyrum terrae, et eos qui habitant in ipso quasi locustae; quiexpendit montes in pondere, et nemora in statera (Isa. XL, 22, 12); id est, certo divinae dispositionis examine: ac, ne facile in ruinam procumberet magnitudo inaequaliter jacens, si non paribus fuisset librata ponderibus, onus hoc moderanter terrenae molis aequavit. Qui dicit per Prophetam (Isa. XLV, 22): Ego Deus, et non est praeter me. Qui per eumdem Prophetam refert (Isa. XLII, 8): Quoniam majestatem meam non dabo alteri; ut omnes cum suis figmentis 0891C ethnicos excludat et haereticos, probans Deum non esse qui manu artificis factus sit, nec eum qui ingenio haeretici fictus sit. Non est enim Deus, cui, ut sit, quaerendus est artifex. Quique adhuc adjecit per Prophetam (Isa. LXVI, 1): Coelum mihi thronus est, terra autem scabellum pedum meorum: qualem mihi aedificabitis domum, aut quis locus requiei meae? ut ostendat quoniam multo magis illum templum non capit, quem mundus non capit: et haec non ad sui jactantiam, sed ad nostri scientiam refert. Neque enim ipse a nobis desiderat magnitudinis gloriam, sed nobis vult religiosam, qua pater, conferre sapientiam. Quique praeterea ferinos nostros animos, et de agresti immanitate tumidos et abruptos ad lenitatem 0891D trahere volens, dicit (Ibid. v. 2): Et super quem 0892Arequiescet Spiritus meus, nisi super humilem et quietum, et trementem verba mea? ut Deum aliquatenus quantus sit possit agnoscere, dum illum per Spiritum collatum discit timere. Qui similiter adhuc magis in notitiam nostri volens pervenire, ad culturam sui nostros excitans animos, aiebat (Isa. XLV, 7): Ego sum Dominus, qui feci lucem et creavi tenebras; ut vicissitudinum istarum quibus noctes diesque moderantur, non Naturam, nescio quam, putaremus artificem; sed Deum agnosceremus potius (quod erat verius) conditorem. Quem quoniam obtutu oculorum videre non possumus, de operum magnitudine et virtute et majestate condiscimus: Invisibilia enim ipsius, inquit apostolus Paulus, a creatura mundi per ea quae facta sunt intellecta conspiciuntur; 0892Bsempiterna quoque ejus virtus et divinitas (Rom. I, 20): ut animus humanus ex manifestis occulta condiscens, de operum magnitudine quae videret, mentis oculis artificis magnitudinem cogitaret. De quo idem Apostolus (I Tim. I, 17): Regi autem saeculorum immortali, invisibili, soli Deo honor et gloria. Evasit enim oculorum contemplationem, qui cogitationis vicit magnitudinem: Quoniam, inquit, ex ipso et per ipsum et in ipso sunt omnia (Rom. XI, 33). Nam et imperio ejus omnia, ut ex ipso sint: et verbo ejus digesta, ut per ipsum sint: et in judicium ejus recidunt universa; ut dum in ipso, exspectant libertatem corruptione deposita (Rom. VIII, 21), in ipsum videantur esse revocata.