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Reply to Faustus the Manichaean

20.

You say, in reply, that you believe in what Manichaeus has not proved, because he has so clearly proved the existence of two natures, good and evil, in this world. But here is the very source of your unhappy delusion; for as in the Gospels, so in the world, your idea of what is evil is derived entirely from the effect on your senses of such disagreeable things as serpents, fire, poison, and so on; and the only good you know of is what has an agreeable effect on your senses, as pleasant flavors, and sweet smells, and sunlight, and whatever else recommends itself strongly to your eyes, or your nostrils, or your palate, or any other organ of sensation. But had you begun with looking on the book of nature as the production of the Creator of all, and had you believed that your own finite understanding might be at fault wherever anything seemed to be amiss, instead of venturing to find fault with the works of God, you would not have been led into these impious follies and blasphemous fancies with which, in your ignorance of what evil really is, you heap all evils upon God.

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Contra Faustum Manichaeum libri triginta tres

20.

Sed inquis propterea credidi, quae non mihi ostendit, quia duas naturas, boni scilicet et mali, mihi in hoc ipso mundo evidenter ostendit. At hoc ipsum est, infelix, unde decepta es, quia sicut in illa scriptura evangelica, ita in hoc mundo nihil mali putare potuisti, nisi quo tuus carnalis sensus offensus est, sicut serpentem, ignem, venenum et similia, nec aliquid boni, nisi quod eundem tuum carnalem sensum aliqua iucunditate permulsit, sicut saporum iucunditas et odorum suavitas et lucis huius aspectus et si quid aliud vel auribus vel oculis tuis vel naribus vel palato similiter forte blanditum est. p. 782,7 At si universam creaturam ita prius aspiceres, ut auctori deo tribueres, quasi legens magnum quendam librum naturae rerum, atque ita si quid ibi te offenderet, causam te tamquam hominem latere posse tutius crederes quam in operibus dei quicquam reprehendere auderes, numquam incidisses in sacrilegas nugas et blasphema figmenta, quibus non intellegens, unde sit malum, deum implere conaris omnibus malis.