Novatian, On the Trinity 31
God the Father is the founder and creator of all things. He alone has no origin; he is invisible, immense, immortal, eternal, the one God. Nothing can be preferred to his magnitude, majesty, or power, nor can anything even be compared with them. From him, when he so willed, his Son the Word was born. The Word is not a sound made by struck air or a tone forced from the throat; he is recognized as the very substance of the power that God produced. The secrets of this sacred, divine birth are known to the Son alone, who knows the Father's secrets; no apostle learned them, no prophet discovered them, no angel knew them, no creature perceived them. Since he is generated by the Father, the Son always exists in the Father. I say "always" not to suggest he is innate, but to prove he is generated. Because he exists before all time, he must be said to have always been in the Father; no time can be assigned to one who is before time itself. The Father always precedes him, because the one who has no origin precedes the one who has an origin. At the same time, the Son is lesser, since he knows he exists in the Father, having an origin because he is born. Through the Father, though he has an origin by which he is born, he stands near in birth, since he is born from the Father who alone has no origin. When the Father willed, the Son proceeded from the Father. He who was in the Father because he was from the Father came to be with the Father because he proceeded from him — that divine substance named the Word, through whom all things were made and without whom nothing was made. All things come after him because they exist through him; rightly he is before all things, but after the Father, since all things were made through him. The one who proceeded from the Father, from whose will all things were made, is God proceeding from God, constituting a second person after the Father, namely the Son, yet not depriving the Father of being the one God. If the Son had not been born, he would have been innate; compared with the innate Father, equality would appear in both, making two innates and therefore two Gods. If he had not been generated, he would be comparable to the ungenerated Father; found equal, they would constitute two ungenerated Gods, and Christ would have made two Gods. If he were without origin like the Father, he would be another principle of all things, yielding two principles and consequently two Gods. If he were not the Son but the Father generating another Son from himself, then compared with the Father and marked as equally great, he would produce two Fathers and thus two Gods. If he were invisible like the Father, the two would be expressed as equal, showing two invisibles and therefore two Gods. If he were incomprehensible, or possessed any other attribute of the Father, we say he would rightly have stirred up a controversy over two Gods. But as it stands, whatever the Son is, he is not from himself, because he is not innate; he is from the Father, because he is generated. Whether as Word, power, wisdom, light, or Son — whatever he is — he comes from nowhere else but the Father, owing his origin to his Father, as said above. Therefore he could not introduce a discord in divinity amounting to two Gods, since by being born he received his origin from the one God. Because he is both only-begotten and first-begotten from the one who, having no origin, is the one principle and head of all things, he affirmed one God. That God is not under any principle or beginning; rather, he is the beginning and principle of all things. Finally, this same Son does nothing on his own initiative, acts on no counsel of his own, comes from himself in no way; he obeys all the Father's commands and precepts. Thus, although his birth proves him to be the Son, his obedient subjection asserts him to be the minister of the Father's will, from whom he exists. By rendering himself obedient to the Father in all things, he shows one God, the Father, through his obedience — even though he himself is also God — because he derives his origin from the Father. Consequently he could not make two Gods, because he did not create two origins; he received the principle of his birth before all time from the one who has no origin. The innate one is the principle for all others; God the Father alone is that innate one, existing outside all origin, and from him comes the one who is born. The one born from him rightly comes from the one without origin, proving that one to be the principle from which he himself exists. Even though the one born is God, he demonstrates one God — the one whom the Son himself acknowledges as without origin. He is God, but precisely in being generated so that he might be God. He is Lord, but precisely in being born from the Father so that he might be Lord. He is also an angel, but one destined from his Father 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 through any discord or inequality. The Father subjected all things to him as Son; while he himself, together with the things subjected to him, submits to his Father, he is proven to be the Father's Son, yet he is found to be both Lord and God over the rest. All things are entrusted to him as God; the Son receives all things subjected to him and refers them back to the Father, thereby remitting the whole authority of divinity to the Father. Thus one God is shown, true and eternal, the Father. From him alone this power of divinity went forth; it was also handed down and directed to the Son, and through communion it returns again to the Father's substance. The Son is shown to be God, the one to whom divinity was handed down and extended; yet nonetheless one God, the Father, is proven, because that majesty and divinity, by a gradual reciprocal movement, return to the Father who gave it, sent back and turned by the Son himself. Rightly, then, God the Father is the God of all, and the principle of his own Son, whom he begot as Lord; the Son is the God of all the rest, because God the Father placed him, whom he begot, over all things. So Christ Jesus, the mediator of God and men, holds all creation subjected to himself by the Father's own power, by which he is God. With all creation subjected to him, he is found in harmony with his Father, God, acknowledging his one, only, and true God, the Father, remaining in that which has also been heard, briefly.
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.