Against the Epistle of Manichæus, Called Fundamental 41
41 Corruption is by God’s Permission, and Comes from Us PL 42, 201
47. You ask, Why does corruption take from nature what God has given to it? It takes nothing but where God permits; and He permits in righteous and well-ordered judgment, according to the degrees of non-intelligent and the deserts of intelligent creatures. The word uttered passes away as an object of sense, and perishes in silence; and yet the coming and going of these passing words make our speech, and the regular intervals of silence give pleasing and appropriate distinction; and so it is with temporal natures which have this lowest form of beauty, that transition gives them being, and the death of what they give birth to gives them individuality. And if our sense and memory could rightly take in the order and proportions of this beauty, it would so please us, that we should not dare to give the name of corruptions to those imperfections which give rise to the distinction. And when distress comes to us through their peculiar beauty, by the loss of beloved temporal things passing away, we both pay the penalty of our sins, and are exhorted to set our affection on eternal things.
Unde malum, sive corruptio boni. Sed quoniam quaesivimus quid esset malum, neque hoc naturam, sed contra naturam esse cognovimus; consequenter quaerendum est unde sit: quod ille si fecisset, minus fortasse in has tanti erroris angustias laberetur. Praepropere quippe ac praepostere quaesivit unde esset, quod primo non quaesierat quid esset: et ideo nullo modo potuerunt quaerenti occurrere nisi vana phantasmata, quibus difficile animus carnalibus sensibus multum pastus exuitur. Dicet ergo aliquis, non jam certare, sed non errare desiderans: Unde est ista corruptio, quod quasi generale malum rerum bonarum, sed tamen corruptibilium esse comperimus? Qui talis quaerit, cito invenit magno ardore verum petens, et constanti perseverantia pie pulsans. Per homines enim commemoratio aliqua signis verborum fieri potest: docet autem unus verus Magister ipsa incorruptibilis Veritas, solus Magister interior: qui etiam exterior factus est, ut nos ab exterioribus ad interiora revocaret; et formam servi accipiens, ut ejus sublimitas surgentibus innotesceret, jacentibus humilis apparere dignatus est. In ejus nomine supplices simus, et per eum misericordiam Patris implorantes ista quaeramus. Primo enim brevissime responderi potest quaerentibus unde corruptio est, cum dicitur, Ex eo quod hae naturae quae corrumpi possunt, non de Deo genitae, sed ab eo de nihilo factae sunt: quas quoniam bonas ratio superior demonstravit, nemo potest recte dicere, Non fecisset Deus bona. Si autem dixerit, Summe bona fecisset, oportet intelligat summum bonum ipsum esse, qui fecit haec bona.