God's permission does not make evil good; the question turns to the source of demonic divination
Augustine has just won the concession that God permits evil without approving it, and now he records the agreed next step: to ask where the divinations of demons or pagan gods come from.
When these things had been said, it was conceded that something is not for that reason to be thought just and good because God, while he takes care to forbid it, nevertheless allows it to happen. It must also be admitted that even those evils which are committed against the religion by which God is worshiped both displease the righteous God and are permitted by the Almighty by the reason of his judgment. But another question now had to be treated: where divinations come from—whether from demons or from whatever beings they are whom the pagans call gods. For it had to be seen whether these things should not be thought good because the Almighty permits them to happen, but rather because they are so great that they seem to be attributable only to the power of God. I promised that I would respond to this later, since the hour for going out to the people was already pressing on us. And I did not delay when time was given for writing, both to unravel those earlier arguments and to append these new ones.
Latin
Haec cum dicta essent, concessum est non ideo putandum aliquid iuste ac bene fieri, quia id deus, cum haec prohibenda curet, fieri tamen sinit, fatendumque esse etiam illa mala, quae contra religionem, qua deus colitur, fiunt, et dis-. plicere deo iusto et ratione iudicii eius ab omnipotente permitti; sed aliud iam esse tractandum, unde sint diuinationes uel daemonum uel quilibet illi sint, quos deos pagani uocant; uidendum enim esse, ne forte non quidem propterea haec bona putanda sint, quia ea fieri permittit omnipotens, sed ideo, quia tam magna sunt, ut nonnisi dei potentiae, tribuenda esse uideantur. ad hoc me postea responsurum esse promisi, quoniam tunc hora prodeundi ad populum iam nos urguebat, nec distuli, cum spatium datum est scribendo, et illa retexere et ista subtexere.