A Treatise of Novatian Concerning the Trinity, c. 257 AD, during the Decian Persecution.
A proper and full refutation of the heresy of Modalism, all too prevalent in Pentecostal Churches, the churches of Witness Lee (the Amarna movement), T D Jakes (the Potter's House) and others. Modalism is the doctrine that the Father and the Son are one Person, it is also called Patripassianism (the Father suffered on the cross), or Sabellianism, after Sabellius the heretic who is refuted here.
(Taken from the excellent CCEL resource p.1549+ of their pdf)
The footnotes, provided by Philip Schaff's editor, are numbered as originally. (Local copy copyright CCEL.)
Chapter XXVI. fn.5209
Argument. Moreover, Against the Sabellians He Proves that
the Father is One, the Son Another.
But from this occasion of Christ being proved from the sacred authority of the divine
writings not man only, but God also, other heretics, breaking forth, contrive to impair the
religious position in Christ; by this very fact wishing to show that Christ is God the Father,
in that He is asserted to be not man only, but also is declared to be God. For thus say they,
If it is asserted that God is one, and Christ is God, then say they, If the Father and Christ be
one God, Christ will be called the Father. Wherein they are proved to be in error, not
knowing Christ, but following the sound of a name; for they are not willing that He should
be the second person after the Father, but the Father Himself. And since these things are
easily answered, few words shall be said. For who does not acknowledge that the person of
the Son is second after the Father, when he reads that it was said by the Father, consequently
to the Son, "Let us make man in our image and our likeness;"5210 and that after this it was
related, "And God made man, in the image of God made He him?" Or when he holds in his
hands: "The Lord rained upon Sodom and Gomorrha fire and brimstone from the Lord
from heaven?"5211 Or when he reads (as having been said) to Christ: "Thou art my Son, this
day have I begotten Thee. Ask of me, and I will give Thee the heathens for Thine inheritance,
and the ends of the earth for Thy possession?5212 Or when also that beloved writer says:
"The Lord said unto my Lord, Sit Thou on my right hand, until I shall make Thine enemies
the stool of Thy feet?"5213 Or when, unfolding the prophecies of Isaiah, he finds it written
thus: "Thus saith the Lord to Christ my Lord?"5214 Or when he reads: "I came not down
from heaven to do mine own will, but the will of Him that sent me?"5215 Or when he finds
it written: Because He who sent me is greater than I?"5216 Or when he considers the passage:
"I go to my Father, and your Father; to my God, and your God?"5217 Or when he finds it
placed side by side with others: "Moreover, in your law it is written that the witness of two
is true. I bear witness of myself, and the Father who sent me beareth witness of me?"
5209 According to Pamelius, ch. xxi.
5210 Gen. i. 26.
5211 Gen. xix. 24.
5212 Ps. ii. 7, 8.
5213 Ps. cx. 1.
5214 Isa. xlv. 1. Isa. xlv. 1. Some transcriber has written ..."the Lord" for "Cyrus," and the mistake has been followed by the author.
5215 John vi. 38.
5216 John xiv. 28.
5217 John xx. 17.
5218 John viii. 17, 18.
Moreover, Against the Sabellians He Proves that the Father is One, the Son Another.
1517
Or when the voice from heaven is: "I have both glorified Him, and I will glorify Him
again?"5219 Or when by Peter it is answered and said: "Thou art the Son of the living
God?"5220 Or when by the Lord Himself the sacrament of this revelation is approved, and
He says: "Blessed art thou, Simon Barjona, because flesh and blood hath not revealed this
to thee, but my Father which is in heaven?"5221 Or when by Christ Himself it is expressed:
"Father, glorify me with that glory with which I was with Thee before the world was
made?"5222 Or when it was said by the same: "Father, I knew that Thou hearest me always;
but on account of those who stand around I said it, that they may believe that Thou hast
sent me?"5223 Or when the definition of the rule is established by Christ Himself, and it is
said: "And this is life eternal, that they should know Thee, the only and true God, and Jesus
Christ, whom Thou hast sent. I have glorified Thee upon the earth, I have finished the work
which Thou gavest me?"5224 Or when, moreover, by the same it is asserted and said: "All
things are delivered to me by my Father?"5225 Or when the session at the right hand of the
Father is proved both by apostles and prophets? And I should have enough to do were I to
endeavour to gather together all the passages5226 whatever on this side; since the divine
Scripture, not so much of the Old as also of the New Testament, everywhere shows Him to
be born of the Father, by whom all things were made, and without whom nothing was made, who always has obeyed and obeys the Father; that He always has power over all things, but as delivered, as granted, as by the Father Himself permitted to Him. And what can be so evident proof that this is not the Father, but the Son; as that He is set forth as being obedient to God the Father, unless, if He be believed to be the Father, Christ may be said to be subjected to another God the Father?
5219 John xii. 20.
5220 Matt. xvi. 16.
5221 Matt. xvi. 17.
5222 John xvii. 5.
5223 John xi. 12.
5224 John xvii. 3, 4.
5225 Luke x. 22.
5226 [Cap. xxi. p. 632, supra.]
Moreover, Against the Sabellians He Proves that the Father is One, the Son…
Chapter XXVII.5227
Argument. He Skilfully Replies to a Passage Which the Heretics
Employed in Defence of Their Own Opinion.
But since they frequently urge upon us the passage where it is said, "I and the Father
are one,"5228 in this also we shall overcome them with equal facility. For if, as the heretics
think, Christ were the Father, He ought to have said, "I and the Father are one."5229 But
when He says I, and afterwards introduces the Father by saying, "I and the Father," He severs
and distinguishes the peculiarity of His, that is, the Son’s person, from the paternal authority,
not only in respect of the sound of the name, but moreover in respect of the order of the
distribution of power, since He might have said, "I the Father," if He had had it in mind
that He Himself was the Father. And since He said "one" thing, let the heretics understand
that He did not say "one" person. For one placed in the neuter, intimates the social concord,
not the personal unity. He is said to be one neuter, not one masculine, because the expression
is not referred to the number, but it is declared with reference to the association of another.
Finally, He adds, and says, "We are," not "I am," so as to show, by the fact of His saying "I
and the Father are," that they are two persons. Moreover, that He says one,
5230 has reference
to the agreement, and to the identity of judgment, and to the loving association itself, as
reasonably the Father and Son are one in agreement, in love, and in affection; and because
He is of the Father, whatsoever He is, He is the Son; the distinction however remaining, that
He is not the Father who is the Son, because He is not the Son who is the Father. For He
would not have added "We are," if He had had it in mind that He, the only and sole Father,
638
had become the Son. In fine, the Apostle Paul also apprehended this agreement of unity,
with the distinction of persons notwithstanding: for in writing to the Corinthians he said,
"I have planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the increase. Therefore neither is he that
planteth anything, nor he that watereth, but God who gives the increase. Now he that
planteth and he that watereth are one."5231 And who does not perceive that Apollos is one
person and Paul another, and that Apollos and Paul are not one and the same person?
Moreover, also, the offices mentioned of each one of them are different; for one is he who
plants, and another he who waters. The Apostle Paul, however, put forward these two not
as being one person, but as being "one;" so that although Apollos indeed is one, and Paul
another, so far as respects the distinction of persons, yet as far as respects their agreement
both are "one." For when two persons have one judgment, one truth, one faith, one and the
same religion, one fear of God also, they are one even although they are two persons: they
are the same, in that they have the same mind. Since those whom the consideration of person
divides from one another, these same again are brought together as one by the consideration
of religion. And although they are not actually the self-same people, yet in feeling the same,
they are the same; and although they are two, are still one, as having an association in faith,
even although they bear diversity in persons. Besides, when at these words of the Lord the
Jewish ignorance had been aroused, so that hastily they ran to take up stones, and said, "For
a good work we stone thee not, but for blasphemy; and because thou, being a man, makest
thyself God,"5232 the Lord established the distinction, in giving them the principle on which
He had either said that He was God, or wished it to be understood, and says, "Say ye of Him,
whom the Father sanctified, and sent into this world, Thou blasphemest; because I said, I
am the Son of God?"5233 Even here also He said that He had the Father. He is therefore the
Son, not the Father: for He would have confessed that He was the Father had He considered
Himself to be the Father; and He declares that He was sanctified by His Father. In receiving,
then, sanctification from the Father, He is inferior to the Father. Now, consequently, He
who is inferior to the Father, is not the Father, but the Son; for had He been the Father, He
would have given, and not received, sanctification. Now, however, by declaring that He has
received sanctification from the Father, by the very fact of proving Himself to be less than
the Father, by receiving from Him sanctification, He has shown that He is the Son, and not
the Father. Besides, He says that He is sent: so that by that obedience wherewith the Lord
Christ came, being sent, He might be proved to be not the Father, but the Son, who assuredly
would have sent had He been the Father; but being sent, He was not the Father, lest the
Father should be proved, in being sent, to be subjected to another God. And still after this
He added what might dissolve all ambiguity, and quench all the controversy of error: for
He says, in the last portion of His discourse, "Ye say, Thou blasphemest, because I said I am
the Son of God." Therefore if He plainly testifies that He is the Son of God, and not the
Father, it is an instance of great temerity and excessive madness to stir up a controversy of
divinity and religion, contrary to the testimony of the Lord Christ Himself, and to say that
Christ Jesus is the Father, when it is observed that He has proved Himself to be, not the
Father, but the Son.
5227 According to Pamelius, ch. xxii.
5228 John x. 30; scil. "unum," Gr. en
5229 Original, "unas." Scil. person.
5230 Neuter.
5231 1 Cor. iii. 6, 7, 8 ( scil. en).
5232 John x. 33.
5233 John x. 36.
