Novatian, On the Trinity 31
Therefore God the Father is the founder and creator of all, the only one who knows no origin, invisible, immense, immortal, eternal, one God; nothing can be compared to His magnitude, His majesty, or His power, let alone preferred above them. When He Himself willed, the Word His Son was born from Him: He is not apprehended in the sound of struck air or in the tone of a voice forced from the viscera, but is recognized in the substance of the power brought forth from God. The secrets of His sacred and divine birth were not learned by the apostle, not discovered by the prophet, not known by the angel, not recognized by any creature; they are known to the Son alone, who has known the Father's secrets. This Son, then, since He is begotten of the Father, is always in the Father. I say 'always' so that I may prove He is begotten, not innate. But He who exists before all time must be said to have been in the Father always; for time cannot be assigned to one who is before all time. The Father precedes Him, for it is necessary that the one who has an origin be preceded by the One who knows no origin; at the same time the Son is lesser, since He knows He exists in the Father, having an origin because He is begotten, and through the Father He is in some sense near in His birth, because He is begotten of the Father who alone lacks an origin. So then, when the Father willed, He proceeded from the Father; and He who was in the Father, because He was from the Father, was afterwards with the Father because He proceeded from the Father — that divine substance whose name is the Word, through whom all things were made, and without whom nothing was made. For all things come after Him, because they are through Him, and He is rightly before all things, yet after the Father, since all things were made through Him. He who proceeded from Him, from whose will all things were made, is God proceeding from God, constituting a second person after the Father as Son, yet not robbing the Father of what belongs to Him, that He is one God. For if the Son had not been begotten, an innate being compared with another innate would display equality on both sides, making two innate beings and therefore two Gods. If He had not been generated, He would be compared with the One who is not generated; equals would be found, and two ungenerated Gods would rightly result. If He were without origin like the Father, He would be found to be the principle of all things like the Father, producing two principles and consequently showing us two Gods. Or if the Son were not the Son but the Father generating another Son from Himself, rightly compared with the Father and marked as equally great, He would make two Fathers and therefore would approve two Gods. If He were invisible, compared with the Invisible He would appear equal, revealing two invisible beings and therefore proving two Gods. If He were incomprehensible, or possessed any of the Father's other attributes whatsoever, He would rightly raise the controversy of two Gods which these men invent. But now whatever He is, He is not from Himself, because He is not innate, but from the Father, because He is begotten. Whether He is the Word, or Power, or Wisdom, or Light, or the Son, and whatever else He may be, since He is from nowhere else but from the Father, as we have already said above, owing His origin to His Father, He could not create a division of the Godhead into two Gods, since He received His origin by being begotten from the One who is one God. By this very fact, because He is both Only-begotten and Firstborn from the One who, having no origin, is the one source and principle and head of all things, He affirmed one God, whom He proved to be not under any principle or beginning but rather the beginning and principle of all things. In the end He does nothing of His own will, He does nothing from His own counsel, He does not come from Himself, but obeys all the Father's commands and precepts: so that, although His birth proves Him to be the Son, yet His submissive obedience asserts Him to be the minister of the Father's will, from whom He comes. Thus while He renders Himself obedient to the Father in all things, although He is God He shows one God the Father by His obedience, from whom He also drew His origin. And therefore He could not make two Gods, because He did not make two origins, but received the principle of His birth before all time from the One who has no origin. For since the Father is the principle of all things in that He is innate — God the Father alone existing outside all origin, from whom comes the One who is begotten — the One who is begotten from Him rightly comes from the One who lacks an origin, proving Him to be the principle from which He Himself comes; and even though the begotten One is God, He still shows one God, whom He has proved to be without origin. So the Son is God, but He is begotten in order to be God; He is Lord, but He is born of the Father in order to be Lord; He is the Angel, but He is destined by the Father as the Angel to announce the great counsel of God. His divinity is handed down in such a way that it does not appear to have produced two Gods by any discrepancy or inequality of divinity. For since all things are subjected to Him as Son by the Father, while He Himself is subjected to the Father together with the things subjected to Him, He is proved to be His Father's Son; yet He is found to be the Lord and God of all other things. From the moment all things are placed beneath Him, who is God, and He receives all things subjected to Himself and refers them back to the Father, He returns the whole authority of divinity to the Father once more. The one true and eternal God the Father is shown, from whom alone this power of divinity was sent forth, even into the Son, and through communion it circles back to the Father's substance. The Son is shown to be God, to whom divinity was handed down and extended; and yet nonetheless the one God the Father is proved, because gradually, in a reciprocal movement, that majesty and divinity return to the Father who gave them, sent back and turned back by the Son Himself; so that the Father is rightly the God of all things, and the principle of His own Son whom He begot as Lord; and the Son is the God of all other things, because the Father has set Him over all things, the One whom He begot. Thus Christ Jesus, the mediator of God and men, having all creation subjected to Him by the power from His own Father through which He is God, and being found in harmony with His Father God together with all creation subjected to Him, briefly approved the one and only true God, His Father, abiding in what He had also been heard to say.
Latin
Est ergo deus pater omnium institutor et creator, solus originem nesciens, inuisibilis, immensus, immortalis, aeternus, unus deus; cuius neque magnitudini neque maiestati neque uirtuti quicquam, non dixerim praeferri, sed nec comparari potest. ex quo, quando ipse uoluit, sermo filius natus est: qui non in sono percussi aeris, aut tono coactae de uisceribus uocis accipitur, sed in substantia prolatae a deo uirtutis agnoscitur. cuius sacrae et diuinae natiuitatis arcana nec apostolus didicit, nec prophetes comperit, nec angelus sciuit, nec creatura cognouit; filio soli nota sunt, qui patris secreta cognoulit. Hic ergo, cum sit genitus a patre, semper est in patre. semper autem sic dico, ut non innatum, sed natum probem. sed qui ante omne tempus est, semper in patre fuisse dicendus est: nec enim tempus illi assignari potest, qui ante Semper enim in patre, ne pater non semper sit quia ‘et pater illum etiam praecedit, quod necesse est quoniam antecedat necesse est eum, qui habet originem, ille qui originem nescit; simul ut hic minor sit, dum in illo esse se scit, habens originem, quia nascitur, et per patrem quodam modo, quamuis originem habet, qua nascitur, uicinus in natiuitate, dum ex eo patre, qui originem solus non habet, nascitur. hic ergo quando pater uoluit, processit ex patre: et qui in patre fuit, quia ex patre fuit, cum patre postmodum fuit, quia ex patre processit, substantia scilicet illa diuina, cuius nomen est uerbum, per quod facta sunt omnia, et sine quo factum est nihil. omnia enim post ipsum sunt, quia per ipsum sunt, et merito ipse est ante omnia, sed post patrem, quando per illum facta sunt omnia. qui processit ex eo, ex cuius uoluntate facta sunt omnia, deus utique procedens ex deo, secundam personam efficiens post patrem, qua filius, sed non eripiens illud patri, quod unus est deus. Si enim natus non fuisset, innatus comparatus cum eo qui esset innatus, aequatione in utroque ostensa, duos faceret innatos, et ideo duos faceret deos. si non genitus esset, collatus cum eo qui genitus non esset, et aequales inuenti, duos deos merito reddidissent non geniti; atque ideo duos Christus reddidisset deos. si sine origine esset ut pater, inuentus et ipse principium omnium ut pater, duo faciens principia, duos ostendisset nobis consequenter et deos. aut si et ipse filius non esset, sed pater generans de se alterum filium, merito collatus cum patre et tantus denotatus, duos patres effecisset, et ideo duos approbasset etiam deos. si inuisibilis fuisset, cum inuisibili collatus, par expressus, duos inuisibiles ostendisset, et ideo duos comprobasset et deos. si incomprehensibilis, si et cetera quaecumque sunt patris, merito, dicimus, duorum deorum quam isti confingunt controuersiam suscitasset. nunc autem quicquid est, non ex se est, quia nec innatus est, sed ex patre est, quia genitus est. siue dum uerbum est, siue dum uirtus est, siue dum sapientia est, siue dum lux est, siue dum filius est, et quicquid horum est, dum non aliunde est, quam, sicut diximus iam superius, ex patre, patri suo originem suam debens, discordiam diuinitatis de numero duorum deorum facere non potuit, qui ex illo, qui est unus deus, originem nascendo contraxit. quo genere, dum et unigenitus est et primogenitus ex illo est qui, quia originem non habet, unus est omnium rerum et principium et caput, idcirco unum deum asseruit, quem non sub ullo principio aut initio, sed initium potius et principium rerum omnium comprobauit. Idem est denique quod nihil ex arbitrio suo gerit, nec ex consilio suo facit, nec a se uenit, sed imperiis paternis omnibus et praeceptis oboedit: ut quamuis probet illum natiuitas filium, tamen morigera oboedientia asserat illum paternae uoluntatis, ex quo est, ministrum. ita dum se patri in omnibus obtemperantem reddit, quamuis sit et deus, unum tamen deum patrem de oboedientia sua ostendit, ex quo et originem traxit. Et ideo duos deos facere non potuit, quia nec duas origines fecit, qui ex eo, qui originem non habet, principium natiuitatis ante omne tempus accepit. nam cum id sit principium ceteris quod innatum est (quod deus solus pater est, qui extra originem est, ex quo hic est qui natus est), dum qui ex illo nascitur merito ex eo uenit, qui originem non habet, principium probans illud esse, ex quo ipse est, etiamsi deus est qui natus est, unum tamen deum ostendit, quem hic qui natus est esse sine origine comprobauit. Est ergo deus, sed in hoc ipsum genitus, ut esset deus. est et dominus, sed in hoc ipsum natus ex patre, ut esset dominus. est et angelus, sed ad annuntiandum magnum dei consilium €x patre suo angelus destinatus. cuius sic diuinitas traditur, ut non aut dissonantia aut inaequalitate diuinitatis duos deos reddidisse uideatur. subiectis enim ei quasi filio omnibus rebus a patre, dum ipse cum his, quae illi subiecta sunt, patri suo subicitur, patris quidem sui filius probatur; ceterorum autem et dominus et deus esse reperitur. ex quo dum huic qui est deus omnia substrata traduntur, et cuncta sibi subiecta filius accepta refert patri, totam diuinitatis auctoritatem rursus patri remittit. unus deus ostenditur uerus et aeternus pater, a quo solo haec uis diuinitatis emissa, etiam in filium tradita et directa, rursum substantiae per communionem ad patrem reuoluitur. deus quidem ostenditur filius, cui diuinitas tradita et porrecta conspicitur; et tamen nihilominus unus deus pater probatur, dum gradatim reciproco meatu illa maiestas atque diuinitas ad patrem, qui dederat eam, rursum ab illo ipso filio missa reuertitur et retorquetur; ut merito deus pater omnium deus sit, et principium ipsius quoque filii sui, quem dominum genuit: filius autem ceterorum omnium deus sit, quoniam omnibus illum deus pater praeposuit, quem genuit. ita mediator dei et hominum Christus Iesus, omnis creaturae subiectam sibi habens a patre proprio potestatem, qua deus est, cum tota creatura subdita sibi, concors patri suo deo inuentus, unum et solum et uerum deum patrem suum, manente in illo quod etiam auditus est, breuiter approbauit.