To Pammachius against John of Jerusalem 18
18 PL 23, 369
18. I now beg you, whose eloquence is so exuberant, and who expound the truth concerning all topics in the course of one sermon, to give an answer to your interrogators in concise and clear terms. When God formed man out of slime, and through the grace of His own inspiration gave him a soul, had that soul previously existed and subsisted which was afterwards bestowed by the inspiration of God, and where was it? or did it gain its capacity both to exist and to live from the power of God, on the sixth day, when the body was formed out of the slime? You are silent regarding this, and pretend you do not know what is wanted, and busy yourself with irrelevant questions. You leave Origen untouched, and rave against the absurdities of Marcion, Apollinaris, Eunomius, Manichæus, and the other heretics. You are asked for a hand and you put out a foot, and all the while covertly insinuate the doctrine to which you hold. You speak smooth things to plain men like us, but in such a way as in no degree to displease those of your own party.
Hoc nunc rogo, qui tanta loqueris, qui de cunctis sermonibus sub uno tractatu edisseris veritatem, ut respondeas sciscitantibus brevem absolutamque sententiam. Quando plasmavit Deus hominem ex limo, et per gratiam propriae insufflationis ei animam tribuit: utrum illa anima fuerit ante et substiterit, et ubi versata sit, quae Dei postea insufflatione donata est: an in sexto die quando corpus ex limo formatum est, et esse et vivere, Dei potestate susceperit. De hoc taces, et quid quaeratur scire dissimulans, in superfluis quaestionibus occuparis. Origenem relinquis intactum, et contra Marcionem, Apollinarem, Eunomium, Manichaeum, Arium caeterorumque haereticorum ineptias debaccharis. Manum peteris, et pedem porrigis; et tamen dogma quod retines, latenter insinuas. Sic nos rusticos placas, ut tuis penitus non displiceas.