Novatian, On the Trinity 1

The rule of truth requires us first of all to believe in God the Father and Lord, the Almighty — the most perfect Creator of all things. He suspended the heavens with high sublimity, solidified the earth with a thrown-down mass, poured out the seas with loosened liquid, and arranged and filled all these things with their own proper and worthy instruments. In the firmament He stirred up the light‑bringing sunrises, filled the shining globe of the moon with measured increments of its orbit for the solace of night, and kindled the rays of the stars with various gleams of twinkling light. He willed that all these bodies traverse the whole circuit of the world along legitimate paths, producing days, months, years, signs, seasons, and benefits for the human race. On the earth He lifted the highest mountains to their peaks, sank the valleys to their lowest depths, spread the plains evenly, and usefully established herds of animals for the varied services of humanity. He also strengthened the timber of the forests for human use, brought forth crops for food, opened the mouths of springs, and fed the flowing rivers. After these things, so that He might also provide for the delight of the eyes, He clothed everything with the varied colors of flowers for the pleasure of those who look on them. In the sea itself, though it was already wonderful in magnitude and utility, He fashioned many kinds of creatures, now of moderate size, now of vast bulk, testifying to the artisan's ingenuity through the variety of their forms. Not content with these, lest the roar and surge of the waters, to the loss of the human possessor, should invade an alien element, He enclosed the shores with boundaries, so that when the foaming wave and the spuming surge came they would turn back into themselves and not exceed the granted limits, keeping the prescribed laws, that man might keep the divine laws all the more, since even the elements observed them. After these things He also placed man in the world, made in the image of God. He gave him mind, reason, and prudence so that he might imitate God. Although his body had earthly origins, the substance of his breath was inspired by the heavenly and divine. And after giving all things into his service, He willed that man alone should be free. And lest he fall into danger with his freedom unloosed, He gave a command — not to teach that evil was present in the fruit of the tree, but that it would be future, if perhaps, from man's will, from contempt of the given law; He forewarned him, and man ought to be free, lest the image of God serve incongruously. And the law was added lest unbridled freedom burst forth into contempt of the Giver, so that man might receive worthy rewards and deserved punishments, having the power to agitate his mind's motion toward one side or the other. From this, mortality — certainly envy — returns to him, who, though he could have escaped through obedience, falls into the same condition while hastening to be God from perverse counsel. Nevertheless God tempered his punishment indulgently, cursing not so much the man himself as his labors upon the earth. For what is required does not come from ignorance, but shows the hope of man for the future in Christ, both of discovery and salvation. And the prohibition against touching the tree of life does not spring from malignant envy, but lest, living eternally, man might carry with him into punishment his ever‑immortal offense, unless Christ had previously forgiven sins. Although even in the regions above — above the firmament itself — which are not visible to our eyes today, He previously instituted angels, arranged spiritual virtues, appointed thrones and powers, and founded many other immense spaces of the heavens and infinite works of mysteries, so that this immense world might appear to be almost the last, rather than the only, work of God's bodily creation. For the things that lie beneath the earth are not empty of ordered and arranged powers. There is a place where the souls of the pious and the impious are led, experiencing the pre‑judgments of the future judgment, so that we might not see the overflowing magnitudes of His works only within the most capacious bosom of this world, but also consider them beneath the depths and heights of the world itself. And thus, contemplating the magnitude of the works, we may worthily wonder at the Artisan of such great works.