Novatian, On the Trinity 10
But I warn of this: that no other Christ was to be awaited in the gospel than the one promised beforehand by the creator in the Old Testament writings — especially since what was foretold of him has been fulfilled, and what has been fulfilled was foretold. We do not acknowledge the heretics' Christ who was in image, as they say, and not in truth — lest nothing true among the things he did be done if he himself was a phantasm and not truth — nor him who bore nothing of our body in himself while he took nothing from Mary, lest he not have come for us while he was not seen in our substance.
All these the Lord's birth and death itself refute. For the Word, says John, was made flesh and dwelt among us, so that deservedly our body was in him, since the Word took our flesh. And therefore blood flowed from hands and feet and from the side itself, that he might be proved partner of our body while he dies by the laws of our ending. Who, raised in the same substance of body in which he dies and proved by that body's wounds, also showed the laws of our resurrection in his flesh — who restored in his resurrection the body he had from us. For the law of resurrection is set when Christ is raised in the substance of body as an example for the rest. When flesh and blood are written not to obtain God's kingdom, the substance of flesh is not condemned — which was built by divine hands lest it perish — but only the flesh's guilt is rightly blamed, which by man's voluntary rashness ran against the divine law's rights; which guilt removed in baptism and in death's dissolving, flesh returns to salvation while, mortality of crime laid down, it is recalled to the state of innocence.
Latin
X. 1. Sed illud admoneo, non alterum in euangelio Christum expectandum fuisse quam hunc a creatore ueteris testamenti literis ante promissum, maxime cum et quae de ipso praedicta sunt impleta sint et quae impleta sunt ante praedicta sint. 2. Vt merito haereticorum istorum testamenti ueteris auctoritatem respuentium nescio cui commenticio et ex fabulis anilibus ficto Christo atque fucato possim uere et constanter dicere: Quis es? Vnde es? A quo missus es? Quare nunc uenire uoluisti? Quare talis? Vel qua uenire potuisti? 3. Vel quare non ad tuos abisti, nisi quod probasti tuos non habere, dum ad alienos uenis? Quid tibi cum mundo creatoris? Quid tibi cum homine conditoris? Quid tibi cum figmento corporis, cui eripis spem resurrectionis? Quid ad alienum uenis famulum, alienum sollicitare desideras filium? Quid me a Domino eripere conaris? Quid me in Patrem blasphemare atque impium esse compellis? 4. Aut quid sum a te in resurrectione consecuturus, qui me ipsum non recipio, dum corpus amitto? Si saluare uis, fecisses hominem, cui salutem dares. Si a delicto eripere cupis, ante mihi ne delinquerem contulisses. Quod autem tecum suffragium circumfers legis? Quod habes testimonium propheticae uocis? 5. Aut quid mihi possum de te solidum repromittere, cum te uideam in phantasmate et non in soliditate uenisse? Quid ergo tibi cum figura corporis, si corpus odisti? Immo reuinceris corporis quod odisti circumferre substantiam, cuius suscipere uoluisti etiam figuram; odisse enim debueras corporis imitationem, si oderas ueritatem, quoniam si alter es, aliter uenire debueras, ne dicereris filius creatoris, si uel imaginem habuisses carnis et corporis. Certe si oderas natiuitatem, quia creatoris oderas nuptiarum coniunctionem, recusare debueras etiam imitationem hominis qui per nuptias nascitur creatoris.
6. Neque igitur eum haereticorum agnoscimus Christum, qui in imagine, ut dicitur, fuit et non in ueritate, <ne> nihil uerum eorum quae gessit fecerit, si ipse phantasma et non ueritas fuit, neque eum qui nihil in se nostri corporis gessit, dum ex Maria nihil accepit, ne non nobis uenerit, dum non in nostra substantia uisus apparuit, neque illum qui aetheream siue sideream, ut alii uoluerunt haeretici, induit carnem, ne nullam in illo nostram intellegamus salutem, si non etiam nostri corporis cognoscamus soliditatem, nec ullum omnino alterum, qui quoduis aliud ex figmento haereticorum gesserit corpus fabularum. 7. Omnes enim istos et natiuitas Domini et mors ipsa confutat. Nam et uerbum, inquit Ioannes, caro factum est et habitauit in nobis, ut merito corpus nostrum in illo fuerit, quoniam quidem nostram carnem sermo suscepit. Et sanguis idcirco de manibus ac pedibus atque ipso latere demanauit, ut nostri consors corporis probaretur, dum occasus nostri legibus moritur. 8. Qui dum in eadem substantia corporis in qua moritur resuscitatus ipsius corporis uulneribus comprobatur, etiam resurrectionis nostrae leges in sua carne monstrauit, qui corpus quod ex nobis habuit in sua resurrectione restituit. Lex enim resurrectionis ponitur, dum Christus ad exemplum ceterorum in substantia corporis suscitatur. 9. Quoniam cum caro et sanguis non obtinere regnum Dei scribitur, non carnis substantia damnata est, quae diuinis manibus ne periret extructa est, sed sola carnis culpa merito reprehensa est, quae uoluntaria hominis temeritate contra legis diuinae iura grassata est, qua in baptismate et in mortis dissolutione sublata caro ad salutem reuertitur, dum ad statum innocentiae deposita criminis mortalitate reuocatur.