Novatian, On the Trinity 7
VII. 1. But that which the Lord says, that God is spirit, I think Christ spoke thus about the Father, so that he still wants something more to be understood than that God is spirit. For although in his gospel he disputes, making increases of understanding for human beings, yet even he himself still speaks about God to human beings as they can still hear or take, although, as we have said, he already strives to make religious increases into the acknowledgment of God. 2. For we find it written that God has been called love, and yet from this God’s substance has not been expressed as love, and that he has been called light, and yet in this is not God’s substance, but all this has been said about God as far as it can be said, so that deservedly even when he has been called spirit, not all that which he is has been said, but so that, while the mind of human beings by understanding advances as far as spirit itself, already turned in the spirit it may be able to conjecture through the spirit that God is something further.
3. For that which he is according to that which he is can neither be uttered by human speech nor perceived by human ears nor gathered by human senses. For if the things which God has prepared for those who love him neither eye has seen nor ear heard nor the heart of a human or mind itself has perceived, of what sort and how great is that very one who promises these things, for understanding which both the mind of a human and nature have failed? 4. Finally if you will have taken spirit as God’s substance, you will have made God a creature. For every spirit is a creature. God therefore will already be made. Just as also if according to Moses you will have taken God as fire, by saying he is a creature you will have expressed one established, not taught the establisher. 5. But these things are figured rather than are so. For also in the old testament God is therefore called fire, so that fear may be struck into a sinful people while a judge is shown, and in the new testament he is brought forward as spirit, so that as restorer and creator of those dead in their offenses he may be proved through this goodness of indulgence conferred on believers.
Latin
VII. 1. Sed illud quod dicit Dominus spiritum Deum, puto ego sic locutum Christum de Patre, ut adhuc aliquid plus intellegi uelit quam spiritum Deum. Hominibus enim licet in euangelio suo intellegendi incrementa faciens disputet, sed tamen et ipse sic adhuc de Deo loquitur hominibus, quomodo possunt adhuc audire uel capere, licet, ut diximus, in agnitionem Dei religiosa iam facere incrementa nitatur. 2. Inuenimus enim scriptum esse quod Deus caritas dictus sit, nec ex hoc tamen Dei substantia caritas expressa est, et quod lux dictus est, nec tamen in hoc substantia Dei est, sed totum hoc de Deo dictum est quantum dici potest, ut merito et quando spiritus dictus est, non omne id quod est dictus sit, sed ut, dum mens hominum intellegendo usque ad ipsum proficit spiritum, conuersa iam ipsa in spiritu aliud quid amplius per spiritum conicere Deum esse possit.
3. Id enim quod est secundum id quod est nec humano sermone edici nec humanis auribus percipi nec humanis sensibus colligi potest. Nam si quae praeparauit Deus his qui diligunt illum nec oculus uidit nec auris audiuit nec cor hominis aut mens ipsa percepit, qualis et quantus est ille ipse qui haec repromittit ad quae intellegenda et mens hominis et natura defecit? 4. Denique si acceperis spiritum substantiam Dei, creaturam feceris Deum. Omnis enim spiritus creatura est. Erit ergo iam factus Deus. Quomodo et si secundum Moysen ignem acceperis Deum, creaturam illum esse dicendo institutum expresseris, non institutorem docueris. 5. Sed haec figurantur potius quam ita sunt. Nam et in ueteri testamento ideo Deus ignis dicitur, ut peccatori populo metus incutiatur, dum iudex ostenditur, et in nouo testamento spiritus esse profertur, ut refector et creator in delictis suis mortuorum per hanc bonitatem collatae credentibus indulgentiae comprobetur.