To Florus 3.162
The matter is clear and was sufficiently established in my first work. Yet because you wanted to be so deceitful as to attempt a distinction between yourself and Mani, I must now press the case. It must be clear that we have answered not only your past statements but also anything you may try to introduce afterward. We say, therefore, that God’s work in a newborn is so good that the natural characteristics of its substance need no corrector. Anyone who judges that what he acknowledges God made ought to have been made differently undoubtedly criticizes the one he acknowledges as the maker of a creature supposedly needing correction into another form.
Latin
Res clara est et iam in primo opere sufficienter impleta; verum quoniam tu adeo pellax esse voluisti, ut aliquam inter te et Manichaeum distinctionem facere nitereris, ideo necesse mihi nunc est urgere causam, ut non solum praeteritis dictis tuis, sed etiam, si qua deinceps inferre tentaveris, clareat obviatum. Dicimus itaque tam bonum esse opus Dei in nascente, ut ea quae substantiae eius sunt naturalia opus emendatore non habeant, quoniam, quicumque censuerit, id quod a Deo factum confitetur, aliter fieri debuisse, illum sine dubio reprehendit, quem corrigendae in alteram formam creaturae confitetur artificem.