Novatian, On the Trinity 30
We have spoken briefly of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, stating the matter concisely rather than spinning out a long disputation, though we could have ranged more widely and argued more fully, since the whole Old and New Testament can be summoned as witness that the true faith stands just so. But heretics, forever opposing the truth, drag the sincere tradition and the Catholic faith into controversy; they take offense at Christ because He is also God, asserted as such through the Scriptures and believed so by us. Therefore we must dispute the point that Christ is God, but in a way that impedes neither the truth of Scripture nor our own faith — the faith by which one God is promised through the Scriptures and is held and believed by us. Both the party that claims Jesus Christ is the Father Himself and the party that insists He was only a man have seized the roots of their error and perversity from the same place: when they saw it written that there is one God, they thought they could preserve that conviction only by deciding that Christ is either merely a man or else the Father Himself. This is how they gather their calumnies, striving to validate their own error. Those who call Jesus Christ the Father argue like this: if there is one God and Christ is God, then Christ is the Father, because there is one God; but if Christ is not the Father, then, since Christ is the Son of God, two Gods appear to be introduced contrary to the Scriptures. Those who contend that Christ is only a man reason from the opposite direction: if the Father is one and the Son another, and the Father is God and Christ is God, then two Gods are introduced on equal footing — Father and Son; and if there is one God, then Christ must consequently be a man, so that the Father alone may rightly be the one God. In truth, the Lord is crucified between these two thieves just as He was once fixed between two criminals on the cross, and thus He receives the sacrilegious insults of these heretics from both sides. Yet neither the Holy Scriptures nor we supply them with causes for perdition and blindness, if they refuse or are unable to see what lies clearly in the midst of the divine letters. For we know and read and believe and hold that there is one God, who made heaven and earth alike, since we know no other and never shall, for there is none. 'I am,' He says, 'God, and there is no just and saving one besides Me' (Isaiah 44:6). And again: 'I am the first and the last, and there is no God besides Me' (Isaiah 48:12). 'Who is like Me?' 'Who has measured heaven with the palm of his hand, and earth with his fist?' And Hezekiah prayed: 'so that all may know that You alone are God.' The Lord Himself said: 'Why do you ask Me about what is good? There is one good God.' The apostle Paul also writes: 'He alone has immortality and dwells in inaccessible light; whom no human has seen or can see.' And elsewhere: 'A mediator of one is not; but God is one.' Yet even as we hold and read and believe this, we must not pass over any part of the heavenly Scriptures; for we must not refuse the marks of Christ's divinity placed there in any way, lest by corrupting the authority of the Scriptures we be held to have corrupted the integrity of the holy faith. So we believe — because it is most faithful — that Jesus Christ the Lord and our God is the Son of God: 'In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God' (John 1:1). This Word was in the beginning with God. And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us (John 1:14). And Thomas cried: 'My Lord and my God' (John 20:28). And again: 'From whom are the patriarchs, and from whom, according to the flesh, comes Christ, who is over all, God blessed forever.' What then shall we say? Do the Scriptures propose two Gods? How then does it say that God is one? Or is Christ not God? How then was it said to Christ, 'My Lord and my God'? Therefore, unless we hold all this with proper reverence and legitimate disputation, we shall rightly be thought to have given scandal to the heretics — not through any fault of the heavenly Scriptures, which never deceive, but through the presumption of human error, by which heretics have chosen to be heretics. First of all, this must be thrown back at those who presume to manufacture a controversy for us about two Gods. It is written, and they cannot deny it, that there is one Lord. What do they think of Christ? That He is the Lord, or that He is not the Lord at all? But they do not doubt that He is the Lord; therefore, if their reasoning holds, there are already two Lords. How then can there be one Lord according to the Scriptures? Christ is said to be one Master; yet we read that the apostle Paul is also a Master. So there is not one Master: we find two Masters by their logic. How then is Christ one Master according to the Scriptures? One God is called good in the Scriptures; but in the same Scriptures Christ is also called good. So, if they reason correctly, there is not one good but two goods. How then is there one good according to the faith of the Scriptures? And if they do not think that some distinction can be assigned to the fact that there is one Lord, through the fact that Christ is Lord; nor to the fact that there is one Master, through the fact that Paul is Master; nor to the fact that there is one good, through the fact that Christ is named good — then by the same reasoning let them understand that no distinction can be taken away from the fact that there is one God, by the fact that Christ is pronounced God.
Latin
Et haec quidem de patre et de filio et de spiritu sancto breuiter sint nobis dicta, et strictim posita, et non longa disputatione porrecta. latius enim potuerunt porrigi, et propensiore disputatione produci, quandoquidem ad testimonium, quod ita se habeat fides uera, totum et uetus et nouum testamentum possit adduci. sed quia obluctantes aduersus ueritatem semper haeretici sincerae traditionis et catholicae fidei controuersiam solent trahere, scandalizati in Christum, quod etiam deus et per scripturas asseratur et a nobis hoc esse credatur, merito a nobis (ut omnis a fide nostra auferri possit haeretica calumnia) de eo quod et deus sit Christus sic est disputandum, ut non impediat scripturae ueritatem, sed nec nostram fidem, qua unus deus et per scripturas promitur, et a nobis tenetur et creditur. tam enim illi qui Iesum Christum ipsum deum patrem dicunt, quam etiam illi qui hominem illum tantummodo esse uoluerunt, erroris sui et peruersitatis origines et causas inde rapuerunt, quia cum animaduerterent scriptum esse quod unus sit deus, non aliter putauerunt istam tenere se posse sententiam, nisi aut hominem tantum Christum, aut certe deum patrem putarent esse credendum. sic enim calumnias suas colligere consueuerunt, ut errorem proprium approbare nitantur. et quidem illi qui Iesum Christum patrem dicunt, ista praetendunt: si unus deus, Christus autem deus, pater est Christus, quia unus deus: si non pater sit Christus, dum et deus filius Christus, duo dii contra scripturas introducti esse uideantur. qui autem hominem tantummodo Christum esse contendunt, ex diuerso sic colligunt: si alter pater, alter est filius, pater autem deus, et Christus deus, non ergo unus deus, sed duo dii introducuntur pariter, pater et filius; ac si unus deus, consequenter homo Christus, ut merito pater sit deus unus. re uera quasi inter duos latrones cruci figitur dominus, quo modo fixus aliquando est: et ita excipit haereticorum istorum ex utroque latere sacrilega conuicia. Sed neque scripturae sanctae, neque nos causas illis perditionis et caecitatis afferimus, si qua in medio diuinarum ro litterarum euidenter posita aut uidere nolunt, aut uidere non possunt. nos enim et scimus et legimus et credimus et tenemus unum esse deum, qui fecit caelum pariter ac terram, quoniam nec alterum nouimus aut nosse (cum nullus sit) aliquando poterimus. ego sum, inquit, deus: e non est praeter me iustus et saluans. et alio in loco: ego primus et nouissimus, et praeter me non est deus. quis sicut ego? et: quis mensus est palmo caelum, et terram pugillo? quis suspendit montes in pondere, et nemora in statera? et Ezechias: ut sciant omnes quia tu es deus solus. ipse praeterea dominus: quid me interrogas de bono? unus deus bonus. apostolus quoque Paulus: guz solus, inquit, habet immortalitatem, et lucem habitat inaccessibilem; quem uidit hominum nemo, nec uidere potest. et alio in loco: mediator autem unius non est; deus autem unus est. sed quo modo hoc tenemus et legimus et credimus, sic scripturarum caelestium nullam partem praeterire debemus: quippe cum etiam illa quae in scripturis sunt posita Christi diuinitatis insignia nullo modo debemus recusare, ne scripturarum auctoritatem corrumpendo integritatem fidei sanctae corrupisse teneamur. et hoc ergo credamus, siquidem fidelissimum, dei filium Iesum Christum dominum et deum nostrum: quoniam zz principio erat uerbum, et uerbum erat apud deum, et deus erat uerbum. hoc erat in principio apud deum. et uerbum caro factum est, et habitauit in nobis. et: dominus meus et deus meus. et: quorum patres, et ex quibus Christus secundum carnem, qui est super omnia deus benedictus in saecula. Quid ergo dicemus? numquid duos deos scriptura proponit? quomodo ergo dicit, quia deus unus est? aut numquid non et Christus deus est? quomodo ergo, dominus meus et deus meus, Christo dictum est? totum igitur hoc nisi cum propria ueneratione et legitima disputatione teneamus, merito scandalum haereticis praebuisse credemur, non utique ex scripturarum caelestium uitio, quae numquam fallunt, sed humani erroris praesumptione, qua haeretici esse uoluerunt. et in primis illud retorquendum in istos qui duorum nobis deorum controuersiam facere praesumunt. scriptum est, quod negare non possunt, quoniam unus est dominus. de Christo ergo quid sentiunt? dominum esse, aut illum omnino non esse? sed dominum illum omnino non dubitant: ergo si uera est illorum ratiocinatio, iam duo sunt domini.. quomodo igitur iam secundum scripturas unus est dominus? et magister unus Christus est dictus; attamen legimus, quod magister sit etiam apostolus Paulus. non ergo iam unus magister: duos enim magistros secundum ista colligimus. quomodo igitur secundum scripturas unus magister Christus? unus in scripturis bonus dictus est deus; sed iisdem in scripturis bonus etiam Christus positus est. non igitur, si recte colligunt, unus bonus, sed etiam duo boni. quomodo igitur secundum scripturarum fidem unus bonus esse refertur? ac si non putant aliqua ratione offici posse ei quod unus dominus est, per illud quod est dominus et Christus; neque ei quod unus est magister, per illud quod est magister et Paulus; aut illi quod unus est bonus, per illud quod bonus sit nuncupatus et Christus; eadem ratione intellegant offici non posse ab illo quod unus est deus, ei quod deus pronuntiatus est et Christus.