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 VIII.  Argument.—It is This God, Therefore, that the Church Has Known and Adores; And to Him the Testimony of Things as Well Visible as Invisible is Given Both at All Times and in All Forms, by the Nature Which His Providence Rules and Governs.

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 well visible as invisible gives witness; whom angels adore, stars wonder at, seas bless, lands revere, and all things under the earth look up to; whom the whole mind of man is conscious of, even if it does not express itself; at whose command all things are set in motion, springs gush forth, rivers flow, waves arise, all creatures bring forth their young, winds are compelled to blow, showers descend, seas are stirred up, all things everywhere diffuse their fruitfulness. Who ordained, peculiar to the protoplasts of eternal life, a certain beautiful paradise in the east; He planted the tree of life, and similarly placed near it another tree of the knowledge of good and evil, gave a command, and decreed a judgment against sin; He preserved the most righteous Nöe from the perils of the deluge, for the merit of His innocence and faith; He translated Enoch: He elected Abraham into the society of his friendship; He protected Isaac: He increased Jacob; He gave Moses for a leader unto the people; He delivered the groaning children of Israel from the yoke of slavery; He wrote the law; He brought the offspring of our fathers into the land of promise; He instructed the prophets by His Spirit, and by all of them He promised His Son Christ; and at the time at which He had covenanted that He would give Him, He sent Him, and through Him He desired to come into our knowledge, and shed forth upon us the liberal stores of His mercy, by conferring His abundant Spirit on the poor and abject. And, because He of His own free-will is both liberal and kind, lest the whole of this globe, being turned away from the streams of His grace, should wither, He willed the apostles, as founders of our family, to be sent by His Son into the whole world, that the condition of the human race might be conscious of its Founder; and, if it should choose to follow Him, might have One whom even in its supplications it might now call Father instead of God.39    [Madame de Staël has beautifully remarked on the benefit conferred upon humanity by Him who authorized us to say,“ Our Father.” “Scientific” atheism gives nothing instead.] And His providence has had or has its course among men, not only individually, but also among cities themselves, and states whose destructions have been announced by the words of prophets; yea, even through the whole world itself; whose end, whose miseries, and wastings, and sufferings on account of unbelief He has allotted.  And lest moreover any one should think that such an indefatigable providence of God does not reach to even the very least things, “One of two sparrows,” says the Lord, “shall not fall without the will of the Father; but even the very hairs of your head are all numbered.”40    Matt. x. 29, 30. And His care and providence did not permit even the clothes of the Israelites to be worn out, nor even the vilest shoes on their feet to be wasted; nor, moreover, finally, the very garments of the captive young men to be burnt. And this is not without reason; for if He embraces all things, and contains all things,—and all things, and the whole, consist of individuals,—His care will consequently extend even to every individual thing, since His providence reaches to the whole, whatever it is. Hence it is that He also sitteth above the Cherubim; that is, He presides over the variety of His works, the living creatures which hold the control over the rest being subjected to His throne:41    [Ezek. i. 10 and Rev. iv. 7.] a crystal covering being thrown over all things; that is, the heaven covering all things, which at the command of God had been consolidated into a firmament42    [The science of the third century had overruled the Pythagorean system, and philosophers bound the Church and the human mind in the chains of false science for ages. The revival of true science was due to Copernicus, a Christian priest, and to Galileo, and other Christians. Let this be noted.] from the fluent material of the waters, that the strong hardness that divides the midst of the waters that covered the earth before, might sustain as if on its back the weight of the superincumbent water, its strength being established by the frost. And, moreover, wheels lie below—that is to say, the seasons—whereby all the members of the world are always being rolled onwards; such feet being added by which those things do not stand still for ever, but pass onward. And, moreover, throughout all their limbs they are studded with eyes; for the works of God must be contemplated with an ever watchful inspection: in the heart of which things, a fire of embers is in the midst, either because this world of ours is hastening to the fiery day of judgment; or because all the works of God are fiery, and are not darksome, but flourish.43    “Vigent,” or otherwise “lucent.” Or, moreover, lest, because those things had arisen from earthly beginnings, they should naturally be inactive, from the rigidity of their origin, the hot nature of an interior spirit was added to all things; and that this nature concreted with the cold bodies might minister44    “Ministraret” seems to be preferable to “monstraret.” for the purpose of life equal measures for all.45    [Our author’s genius actually suggests a theory, in this chapter, concerning the zoa, or “living creatures,” which anticipates all that is truly demonstrated by the “evolutionists,” and which harmonizes the variety of animated natures. Rev. v. 13, 14.] This, therefore, according to David, is God’s chariot. “For the chariot of God,” says he, “is multiplied ten thousand times;”46    Ps. lxviii. 18. that is, it is innumerable, infinite, immense. For, under the yoke of the natural law given to all things, some things are restrained, as if withheld by reins; others, as if stimulated, are urged on with relaxed reins. For the world,47    [The universe is here intended, as in Milton, “this pendent world.” Parad. Lost, book ii. 1052.] which is that chariot of God with all things, both the angels themselves and the stars guide; and their movements, although various, yet bound by certain laws, we watch them guiding by the bounds of a time prescribed to themselves; so that rightly we also are now disposed to exclaim with the apostle, as he admires both the Architect and His works: “Oh the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how inscrutable are His judgments, and His ways past finding out!” And the rest.48    Rom. xi. 33. “Note also the rest of the text” is our author’s additional comment.

CAPUT VIII. ARGUMENTUM.---Hunc ergo Deum novisse et venerari Ecclesiam; eique testimonium reddit tam invisibilium, quam etiam visibilium, et semper, et tota natura, quam ejus providentia regit ac moderatur.

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Hunc ergo, omissis haereticorum fabulis atque figmentis, Deum novit et veneratur Ecclesia; cui testimonium reddit tam invisibilium quam etiam visibilium et semper et tota natura: quem Angeli adorant, astra mirantur, maria benedicunt, terrae verentur, inferna quaeque suspiciunt: quem mens omnis humana sentit, etiam si non exprimit: cujus imperio omnia commoventur, fontes scaturiunt, amnes labuntur, fluctus assurgunt, foetus suos cuncta parturiunt, venti spirare coguntur, imbres veniunt, maria commoventur, foecunditates suas cuncta ubique diffundunt: qui peculiarem protoplastis aeternae vitae mundum quemdam paradisum in oriente constituit; arborem vitae plantavit (Gen. II, 0898C 9); scientiae boni et mali similiter alteram arborem collocavit; mandatum dedit; sententiam contra delictum statuit (II Pet. II, 5); Noe justissimum de diluvii periculis pro merito innocentiae fideique servavit (Gen. V, 24); Enoch transtulit (Jac. II, 23); in amicitiae societatem Abraham allegit (Gen. XXII, 12); Isaac protexit (Ibid. v. 30, 43); Jacob auxit (Exod. III, 9, 10); Moysem ducem populo 0899A praefecit; ingemiscentes filios Israel e jugo servitutis eripuit; Legem scripsit; patrum sobolem in terram repromissionis induxit; Prophetas spiritu instruxit; et per hos omnes Filium suum Christum repromisit; et quando daturum se spoponderat, misit. Per quem nobis in notitiam venire voluit; et in nos indulgentiae suae sinus largos profudit, egenis et abjectis locupletem Spiritum conferendo. Et quia ultro et largus et bonus est, ne totus hic orbis aversus gratiae ejus fluminibus aresceret (Marc. XVI, 15), Apostolos institutores generis nostri in totum orbem mitti per Filium suum voluit: ut conditio generis humani agnosceret institutorem; et, si sequi maluisset, haberet quem pro Deo in suis jam postulationibus Patrem diceret (Matth. VI, 9). Cujus 0899B providentia non tantummodo singillatim per homines cucurrit aut currit; sed etiam per ipsas urbes et civitates, quarum exitus Prophetarum vocibus cecinit; immo etiam per ipsum totum orbem, cujus propter incredulitatem, exitus, plagas, deminutiones poenasque descripsit. Et ne quis non etiam ad minima quaeque Dei putaret istam infatigabilem providentiam pervenire, Ex duobus, inquit Dominus, passeribus unus non cadet sine Patris voluntate; sed et capilli capitis vestri omnes numerati sunt (Matth. X, 29, 30). Cujus etiam cura et providentia Israelitarum non sivit nec vestes consumi, nec vilissima in pedibus calceamenta deteri (Deut. VIII, 4), sed (Dan. III, 27) nec ipsorum postremum adolescentium captiva sarabara comburi; nec immerito: nam si hic omnia complexus est omnia continens, 0899C (omnia autem et totum ex singulis constant) pertinget consequenter ejus ad usque singula quaeque cura, cujus ad totum, quidquid est, pervenit providentia. Hinc est quod et desuper Cherubim sedet (Ezech. I, 10; Psal. XCVIII, 1), id est, praeest super operum suorum varietatem, subjectis throno ejus animalibus prae caeteris principatum tenentibus, cuncta desuper crystallo contegente, id est, coelo omnia operiente: quod (Gen. I, 6) in firmamentum de aquarum fluente materia fuerat Deo jubente solidatum, ut glacies robusta, aquarum terram pridem contegentium dividens medietatem, dorso quodam pondera aquae superioris, corroboratis de gelu viribus, sustineret. Nam et (Ezech. X, 12) rotae subjacent, tempora scilicet, quibus omnia semper mundi membra 0899D volvuntur (Ezech. I, 18) talibus pedibus adjectis quibus non in perpetuum stant ista, sed transeunt. Sed et per omnes artus stellata sunt oculis: Dei 0900A enim opera pervigili obtutu contemplanda sunt, in quorum sinu carbonum medius est ignis; sive quoniam (II Pet. III) ad igneum diem judicii mundus iste festinat; sive quoniam omnia opera Dei ignea, nec sunt tenebrosa sed vigent; sive etiam, ne, quia ex terrenis ista fuerant orta principiis, naturaliter de originis suae rigore torperent, addita est omnibus interioris spiritus calida natura, quae frigidis concreta corporibus, ad usuram vitae aequalia omnibus libramenta monstraret. Hic est igitur currus, secundum David, Dei, Currus enim, inquit, Dei decies millies multiplicatus (Psal. LXVII, 18), id est, innumerus, infinitus, immensus. Sub jugo enim naturalis legis omnibus datae, alia quasi frenis revocata retrahuntur, alia quasi effusis habenis excitata impelluntur. 0900B Mundum enim istum currum Dei, cum omnibus et ipsi Angeli ducunt et astra; quorum varios licet meatus, certis tamen legibus vinctos, inspicimus ad metas definiti sibi temporis ducere; ut merito nobis quoque cum Apostolo, et artificem et opera mirantibus exclamare jam libeat: O altitudo divitiarum sapientiae et scientiae Dei, quam inscrutabilia judicia ejus et investigabiles viae ejus! et reliqua (Rom. XI, 33).