This offspring of thy
substance was supposed to be the human soul to which thy Word --
free, pure, and entire -- could bring help when it was being
enslaved, contaminated, and corrupted. But on their hypothesis
that Word was itself corruptible because it is one and the same
substance as the soul.
And therefore if they admitted that thy nature -- whatsoever
thou art -- is incorruptible, then all these assertions of theirs
are false and should be rejected with horror. But if thy
substance is corruptible, then this is self-evidently false and
should be abhorred at first utterance. This line of argument,
then, was enough against those deceivers who ought to be cast
forth from a surfeited stomach -- for out of this dilemma they
could find no way of escape without dreadful sacrilege of mind and
tongue, when they think and speak such things about thee.
CHAPTER III
4. But as yet, although I said and was firmly persuaded that
thou our Lord, the true God, who madest not only our souls but our
bodies as well -- and not only our souls and bodies but all
creatures and all things -- wast free from stain and alteration
and in no way mutable, yet I could not readily and clearly
understand what was the cause of evil.
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