To Florus 4.124
The reader may now be waiting to learn how this testimony should be understood. The very man who appropriated it has shown that it concerns neither inherited sin nor the Manichaean opinion. For he says, “Whoever these words concern, they concern human beings.” (Wisdom 11:23–12:2) Surely, if it spoke of natural sin, it would speak not of some unspecified people but of everyone. The Manichaean opinion defames the nature of all mortals generally. But the statement under examination receives testimony even from its own plagiarist that it was pronounced not against everyone but against some. It is therefore clear that it had no business with inherited sin, since the statement strikes not at all but at a number of people.
Having shown that none of it concerns this profane opinion, let the writer’s soundness be defended by the testimony of his own book. He says to God: “You have mercy on everyone, because you can do everything, and you overlook human sins for the sake of repentance. For you love everything that exists, and you hate none of the things you have made. How could anything continue to exist unless you had willed it? You spare everything because it is yours, Lord, who love souls. For your good spirit is in all things. Therefore you correct those who stray little by little, and warn them about their sins, speaking to them so that they may abandon malice and believe in you, Lord” (Wisdom 11:23–12:2; Latin numbering 11:24–12:2).
Latin
Exspectet nunc forsitan lector, quomodo hoc testimonium debeat intellegi; quod certe non pertinere ad traducem peccati, nec ad Manichaeorum opinionem, iste ipse qui fuerat eius usurpator, ostendit; ait enim: De quibuscumque hoc dicat, de hominibus dicit; cum certe si de naturali peccato diceret, non de quibuscumque, sed de omnibus loqueretur. Opinio quippe Manichaeorum generaliter cunctorum mortalium infamat naturam; sententia vero de qua quaerimus, etiam ab ipso plagiatore suo recipit testimonium, quod non in omnes, sed in aliquos prolata sit. Ex quo constat, nullum ei negotium fuisse cum traduce, quae nequaquam universos, sed plerosque percellit. Igitur ostenso nihil de ea spectare ad profanam opinionem, ipsius libri suffragio scriptoris eius sanitas asseratur. Loquitur ad Deum: Misereris omnium, quoniam omnia potes, et dissimulas peccata hominum propter poenitentiam; diligis enim omnia quae sunt, et nihil odisti horum quae fecisti. Quomodo enim posset aliquid permanere, nisi tu voluisses? Parcis autem omnibus, quoniam tua sunt, Domine, qui animas diligis. Bonus enim spiritus tuus est in omnibus; propter quod hos qui errant, partibus corripis, et de quibus peccant admonens alloqueris, ut relicta malitia credant in te, Domine [n183] .