Tertullian

“ The sun, too, is frequently put to the trial of an eclipse. Explain as best you may the modes of these celestial casualties, it is impossible [4] for God either to become less or to cease to exist. Vain, therefore, are [5] those supports of human learning, which, by their artful method of weaving conjectures, belie both wisdom and truth. ”

“ Now the man who shall carefully look into things, will surely allow it to be a greater probability that those [7] elements which we have been discussing are under some rule and direction, than that they have a motion of their own, and that being under government they cannot be gods. ”

“ Transition from the Physical to the Mythic Class of Gods.
Come now, do you allow that the Divine Being not only has nothing servile in His course, but exists in unimpaired integrity, and ought not to be diminished, or suspended, or destroyed? Well, then, all His blessedness [1] would disappear, if He were ever subject to change. Look, however, at the stellar bodies; they both undergo change, and give clear evidence of the fact. The moon tells us how great has been its loss, as it recovers its full form; [2] its greater losses you are already accustomed to measure in a mirror of water ”