Novatian, On the Trinity 3
We therefore recognize and know this God as the Creator of all things, Lord by right of power, and Father by right of ordering: I mean the One who spoke, and all things were made; who commanded, and all things came forth. Scripture says of him, 'You made all things in wisdom' (Psalm 104:24). Moses declares, 'God in heaven above and on the earth beneath' (Deuteronomy 4:39). According to Isaiah, he measured heaven with a palm and the earth with a fist; he looks at the earth and makes it tremble; he encompasses the circle of the earth and its inhabitants like locusts. He weighs the mountains in a balance and the forests in a scale — that is, by a precise examination of divine disposition — so that the earth's uneven bulk would not easily collapse into ruin; he equalized this burden of earthly mass with matching weights. Through the prophet he says, 'I am God, and there is none besides me' (Isaiah 45:5), and he will not give his glory to another (Isaiah 48:11), thereby excluding all Gentiles with their fabrications and heretics, proving that God is not made by an artisan's hand nor invented by a heretic's mind; for that is not God for whom an artisan must be sought in order to exist.
He adds through the prophet: 'Heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool; what kind of house will you build for me, or what place of my rest?' (Isaiah 66:1-2). This shows that the temple cannot contain him whom the world cannot contain. He speaks these things not for his own boasting but for our knowledge. He himself does not desire the glory of greatness from us, but as a Father he wants to confer religious wisdom upon us. Furthermore, wishing to draw our savage minds — swollen with rustic barbarity and roughness — to gentleness, he says: 'Upon whom will my Spirit rest, if not upon the humble and quiet and those who tremble at my words?' (Isaiah 66:2). This is so that one may recognize what kind of God he is, while learning to fear him through the Spirit bestowed upon him.
Similarly, wishing to come even more fully to our knowledge and stirring our minds to cultivate him, he said: 'I am the Lord, who made light and created darkness' (Isaiah 45:7) — so that we might not think some unknown nature is the artisan of these alternations by which nights and days are governed, but rather recognize God the Creator (which is truer). Since we cannot see him with our bodily eyes, we learn from the greatness, power, and majesty of his works. For, as the apostle Paul says, his invisible attributes — his eternal power and divine nature — have been clearly perceived ever since the creation of the world in the things that have been made (Romans 1:20); so that the human mind, learning hidden things from manifest ones, may contemplate the greatness of the artisan from the magnitude of the works it sees. Concerning him the same apostle declares: 'Now to the King of the ages, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory' (1 Timothy 1:17); for he has escaped the contemplation of eyes, having surpassed the magnitude of thought. Because, he says, all things are from him and through him and in him (Romans 11:36): all things exist by his command so that they may be from him; all things are ordered by his word so that they may be through him; and all things fall under his judgment so that, while they await freedom after laying aside corruption, they may appear to have been recalled to him.
Latin
Hunc igitur agnoscimus et scimus deum, conditorem rerum omnium, dominum, propter potestatem, et parentem propter institutionem: hunc inquam, qui dzx7t, et facta sunt omnia; praecepit, et processerunt uniuersa; de quo scriptum est: omnia in sapientia fecisti; de quo Moyses: deus in caelo sursum et in terra deorsum; qui secundum Isaiam mensus est caelum palmo, terram pugillo: qui aspicit terram, et facit eam tremere: qui continet gyrum terrae, et eos qui habitant in ipso quasi locustae: qui expendit montes in pondere, et nemora in statera, id est certo diuinae dispositionis examine: ac, ne facile in ruinam procumberet magnitudo inaequaliter iacens, si non paribus fuisset librata ponderibus, onus hoc moderanter terrenae molis aequauit. qui dicit per prophetam: ego deus, et non est praeter me. qui per eundem prophetam refert quoniam matestatem meam non dabo alter’; ut omnes cum suis figmentis 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. adhuc adiecit per prophetam: caelum 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 iactantiam, sed ad nostri scientiam refert. neque enim ipse a nobis desiderat magnitudinis gloriam, sed nobis uult religiosam, qua pater, conferre sapientiam. quique praeterea ferinos nostros animos et de agresti immanitate tumidos et abruptos ad lenitatem trahere uolens, dicit: ef super quem requiescet spiritus meus, nisi super humilem et quietum, et trementem uerba mea? ut deum aliquatenus quantus sit possit agnoscere, dum illum per spiritum collatum discit timere. qui similiter adhuc magis in notitiam nostri uolens peruenire, ad culturam sui nostros excitans animos, aiebat: ego sum dominus, qui feci lucem et creaui tenebras; ut uicissitudinum istarum quibus noctes diesque moderantur non naturam nescio quam putaremus artificem, sed deum agnosceremus potius (quod erat uerius) conditorem. quem quoniam obtutu oculorum uidere non possumus, de operum magnitudine et uirtute et maiestate condiscimus: uisibilia enim ipsius, inquit apostolus Paulus, a creatura mundi per ea quae facta sunt intellecta conspiciuntur; sempiterna quoque eius uirtus et diuinitas: ut animus humanus ex manifestis occulta condiscens, de operum magnitudine, quae uideret, mentis oculis artificis magnitudinem cogitaret. de quo idem apostolus: reg? autem saeculorum immortali, inuisibili, soli deo honor et gloria, euasit enim oculorum contemplationem, qui cogitationis uicit magnitudinem: guoniam, inquit, ex ipso et per ipsum et in ipso sunt omnia, nam et imperio eius omnia, ut ex ipso sint: et uerbo eius digesta, ut per ipsum sint: et in iudicium eius recidunt uniuersa, ut dum ” ipso exspectant libertatem corruptione deposita, in ipsum uideantur esse reuocata.