324 N0VAT1AN THE ROMAN PRESBYTER Lo, our God shallreturnjudgment ; He himselfshallcome, and shallsave you: then shallthe eyes of the Mind be opened,and the earsof the deaf shallhear; then shallthe lame man leapas a hart,and the tongue of the dumb shall be eloquent."1 Since the prophet says that at God's advent these should be the signswhich come to pass;let men acknowledge eitherthatChrist is the Son of God,at whose advent and by whom thesewonders of healingswere performed; or,overcome by the truth of Christ'sdivinity, letthem rush intothe other heresy,and refusingto confess Christto be the Son of God, and God, letthem declareHim to be the Father. For, being bound by the words ofthe prophets,they can no longerdeny Christto be God. What, then,do they replywhen those signs are said to be about to take placeon the advent of God, which were manifested on theadventof Christ? In what way do they receiveChrist as God ? For now they cannot deny Him to be God. As God the Father,or as God the Son ? If as the Son,why do theydeny thatthe Son of God isGod ? If as the Father, why do they not followthosewho appear to maintainblas phemies of thatkind? unlessbecausein thiscontestagainst them concerningthe truth,thisisin the meantime sufficient forus,that,being convincedin any kind of way, theyshould confess Christ to be God, seeing they have even wished to deny thatHe isGod. He saysby Habakkuk the prophet: " God shallcome from the south,and the Holy One from the dark and dense mountain."3 Whom do they wishto representas coming from the south? If they say thatit isthe Almighty God the Father,then God the Father comes from a place,from which place,moreover, He is thusex cluded,and He is bounded within the straitnessesof some abode; and thus by such as these,as we have said,thesacri legiousheresy of Sabelliusis embodied. Since Christis believedtobe not the Son, but the Father ; sinceby themHe isassertedto be in strictnessa bare man, in a new manner, by those,again, Christ is proved to be God the Father Almighty. But ifin Bethlehem, the region of which local 1Isa.xxxv.3,etc. * Hab.iii.3. ■