Novatian, On the Trinity 28

I will now include another section. In it the heretic glories as though with his own eye, yet having lost truth and light he may come to recognize the full blindness of his error. He repeatedly objects that the Lord said, "I have been with you all this time, and still you do not know me? Philip, whoever has seen me has seen the Father" (John 14:9). Let him learn what he fails to understand. Philip is blamed, and justly so, because he said, "Lord, show us the Father, and that will be enough for us." When had he ever heard or learned from Christ that Christ was the Father? On the contrary, he had often heard and learned that he was the Son, not the Father. The Lord said, "If you have known me, you will know my Father also; from now on you do know him and have seen him" (John 14:7). He did not speak this way to be understood as the Father, but because whoever approaches the Son of God with complete faith and complete devotion will reach the Father through the Son, in whom he believes, and will see him. Jesus said, "No one comes to the Father except through me" (John 14:6). Therefore anyone who comes to God the Father will not only come and know the Father, but must also hold and presume in mind and heart as if he already knows and sees the Father. Divine Scripture often announces what has not yet happened as if it were already done, because it will certainly happen; it narrates what must happen in every way not as future but as already accomplished. Long before Christ was born in Isaiah's time, it said, "A child is born to us" (Isa 9:6). Before he had come to Mary, it told the prophet, "He came, and she conceived and bore a son" (Isa 7:14). Before Christ had revealed the Father's bosom, it declared, "His name will be called Angel of Great Counsel" (Isa 9:6 LXX). Before he had suffered, it proclaimed, "He was led like a lamb to the slaughter" (Isa 53:7). Before the cross existed, it said, "All day long I have stretched out my hands to a disobedient people" (Isa 65:2; Rom 10:21). Before he had been given vinegar to drink, it said, "They gave me vinegar for my thirst" (Ps 69:21). Before he had been stripped, it said, "They cast lots for my garment" (Ps 22:18), "they numbered my bones" (Ps 22:17), "they pierced my hands and feet" (Ps 22:16). Divine Scripture foreknows the future and speaks of future deeds as already done, of future perfections as already perfect, without any doubt. Therefore the Lord said in this passage, "From now on you know him and have seen him" (John 14:7). He meant that the Father would be seen by anyone who followed the Son—not that the Son himself was the Father seen, but that whoever followed him and chose to be his disciple would receive the reward of seeing the Father. The Son is the image of God the Father (Col 1:15; Heb 1:3), so that we may add: just as the Father works, so the Son works, and the Son imitates all the Father's works (John 5:19). Thus each person may have it as if he already saw the Father when he sees the one who always imitates the invisible Father in every work.

But if Christ himself were the Father, how could he immediately add, "Whoever believes in me will do the works I do, and greater works than these, because I am going to the Father" (John 14:12)? He also adds, "If you love me, keep my commandments, and I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate" (John 14:15–16). After that he adds, "If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him" (John 14:23). He also adds, "The Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send, will teach you and remind you of everything I have said" (John 14:26). He anticipates this passage to show that he is the Son, and rightly adds, "If you loved me, you would rejoice that I am going to the Father, for the Father is greater than I" (John 14:28). What then when he also adds, "I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser. Every branch in me that bears no fruit he takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit he prunes, so that it may bear more fruit" (John 15:1–2)? He further adds, "As the Father loved me, so I have loved you; abide in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I kept my Father's commandments and abide in his love" (John 15:9–10). He also says, "I have called you friends, because I have made known to you everything I heard from my Father" (John 15:15). He adds, "They will do all these things to you on account of my name, because they do not know the one who sent me" (John 15:21). The Lord would never have added these things, which plainly testify that he is not the Father but the Son, if he had remembered being the Father or wanted to be understood as the Father—unless he wanted to express that each person ought to hold it as if he already saw the Father when he sees the image of God the Father through the Son, and as if he saw the Father. For every believer in the Son is exercised in contemplating the image, so that, becoming accustomed to seeing the divinity in the image, he may advance and grow until he reaches the perfect contemplation of God the Father Almighty. And whoever drinks this in with mind and heart and believes that all these things will be so, will possess the Father he is to see as if he had already seen him and already holds him, because he knows for certain that he will possess him.

But if he himself were the Father, what future reward would he promise when he had already given and bestowed it? Since he says, "Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God" (Matt 5:8), he is caught promising the contemplation and vision of the Father. Therefore he had not yet given it; why would he promise it if he had already given it? He would have given it if he were the Father; he would have been seen and touched. Yet while Christ himself was being touched and seen, he still promised that the pure in heart will see God. This very fact proves he is not the Father, who, though present and seen, promised that the pure in heart would see the Father. So it was not the Father but the Son who promised these things; because he was the Son, he promised what he was destined to be seen—a promise that would have been superfluous if he were not the Son. Why would he promise the pure in heart that they would see the Father, if those present were already seeing the Father in Christ? But because he was the Son, not the Father, and rightly the Son because he is the image of God, he was seen at that time, while the Father, being invisible, is promised to the pure in heart so that he may be seen and recognized. This is enough, even against this heretic—a few points out of many. For a field, broad and spacious, will open if we wish to engage this heretic more fully; since, blinded by the removal of two passages, he is utterly overcome by the blindness of his doctrine.