To Florus 4.76
I, however, find nothing to admire in my own talent because I understand that sin cannot exist without will, bodies without God, bodily sensations without bodies, marriage without union, or newborn people without God’s activity. And I hold as certain that what is proved unjust is not divine, and what is divine cannot be proved unjust. It is no less plain than these things that imputing one person’s sins to others who were not even there, much less consenting, is unjust. Enlightened by these suns, I am entirely justified in looking down on the Manichaeans’ caves. They think either that sin can exist without will, or that God does not make human beings, or that bodily sensation belongs to one author and bodies to another. They suppose either that someone weighed down by charges of injustice is God, or that the eternal creator of all can be charged with the crime of injustice, or that even a shadow of justice remains when one person’s acts of will are attached to another person’s birth. Accordingly, I assess the merits of the opposing sides by their causes, not by their talents.
Latin
Nos vero nihil habemus, quod in nostro admirandum credamus ingenio, quia intellegimus nec peccatum sine voluntate, nec sine Deo corpora, nec sine corporibus sensus corporum, nec sine commixtione coniugia, nec sine Deo operatore existere posse nascentes; et indubitatum tenemus, neque divinum esse, quod doceatur iniustum; neque quod divinum sit, posse iniustum doceri. Non minus autem, quam ea quae diximus, relucet esse iniquum, si aliorum peccata aliis, qui ibi nec fuerint, nedum consenserint, imputentur. Proinde his illuminati solibus iure optimo Manichaeorum antra despicimus, qui putant vel esse posse sine voluntate peccatum, vel non a Deo homines fieri, vel ad alium auctorem sensum corporum, et ad alium corpora pertinere; vel Deum esse, qui iniquitatum criminibus opprimatur; aut scelere iniquitatis urgeri eum, qui aeternus omnium conditor aestimetur; aut umbram aliquam tenere iustitiae, si aliorum voluntates aliorum applicentur exortibus. Ac per hoc merita partium negotiis, non ingeniis imputamus.