Edition Masquer
Confessiones

Caput 4

Sic enim nitebar invenire cetera, ut iam inveneram melius esse incorruptibile quam corruptibile, et ideo te, quidquid esses, esse incorruptibilem confitebar. neque enim ulla anima umquam potuit poteritve cogitare aliquid, quod sit te melius, qui summum et optimum bonum es. cum autem verissime atque certissime incorruptibile corruptibili praeponatur, sicut ego iam praeponebam, poteram iam cogitatione aliquid adtingere, quod esset melius deo meo, nisi tu esses incorruptibilis. ubi igitur videbam incorruptibile corruptibili esse praeferendum, ibi te quaerere debebam, atque inde advertere, ubi sit malum, id est unde sit ipsa corruptio, qua violari substantia tua nullo modo potest. nullo enim prorsus violat corruptio deum nostrum nulla voluntate, nulla necessitate, nullo inproviso casu, quoniam ipse est deus, et quod sibi vult, bonum est, et ipse est idem bonum; corrumpi autem non est bonum. nec cogeris invitus ad aliquid, quia voluntas tua non est maior quam potentia tua. esset autem maior, si te ipso tu ipse maior esses: voluntas enim et potentia dei deus ipse est. quid improvisum tibi, qui nosti omnia? et nulla natura est, nisi quia nosti eam. et ut quid multa dicimus, cur non sit corruptibilis substantia, quae deus est, quando, si hoc esset, non esset deus?

Traduction Masquer
The Confessions of St. Augustin In Thirteen Books

Chapter IV.--That God is Not Corruptible, Who, If He Were, Would Not Be God at All.

6. For I was so struggling to find out the rest, as having already found that what was incorruptible must be better than the corruptible; and Thee, therefore, whatsoever Thou wert, did I acknowledge to be incorruptible. For never yet was, nor will be, a soul able to conceive of anything better than Thou, who art the highest and best good. But whereas most truly and certainly that which is incorruptible is to be preferred to the corruptible (like as I myself did now prefer it), then, if Thou were not incorruptible, I could in my thoughts have reached unto something better than my God. Where, then, I saw that the incorruptible was to be preferred to the corruptible, there ought I to seek Thee, and there observe "whence evil itself was," that is, whence comes the corruption by which Thy substance can by no means be profaned. For corruption, truly, in no way injures our God,--by no will, by no necessity, by no unforeseen chance,--because He is God, and what He wills is good, and Himself is that good; but to be corrupted is not good. Nor art Thou compelled to do anything against Thy will in that Thy will is not greater than Thy power. But greater should it be wert Thou Thyself greater than Thyself; for the will and power of God is God Himself. And what can be unforeseen by Thee, who knowest all things? Nor is there any sort of nature but Thou knowest it. And what more should we say "why that substance which God is should not be corruptible," seeing that if it were so it could not be God?