7-2-3
Sat erat mihi, domine, adversus illos deceptos deceptores et loquaces mutos, quoniam non ex eis sonabat verbum tuum, sat erat ergo illud, quod iam diu ab usque Carthagine a Nebridio proponi solebat, et omnes, qui audiebamus, concussi sumus:
But it was not sufficient for me, O Lord, to be able to oppose those deceived deceivers and those dumb orators—dumb because thy Word did not sound forth from them—to oppose them with the answer which, in the old Carthaginian days, Nebridius used to propound, shaking all of us who heard it:
quid erat tibi factura nescio qua gens tenebrarum, quam ex adversa mole solent proponere, si tu cum ea pugnare noluisses? si enim responderetur, aliquid fuisse nocituram, violabilis tu et corruptibilis fores.
“What could this imaginary people of darkness, which the Manicheans usually set up as an army opposed to thee, have done to thee if thou hadst declined the combat?” If they replied that it could have hurt thee, they would then have made thee violable and corruptible.
si autem nihil ea nocere potuisse diceretur, nulla afferretur causa pugnandi, et ita pugnandi, ut quaedam portio tua et membrum tuum vel proles de ipsa substantia tua misceretur adversis potestatibus et non a te creatis naturis, atque in tantum ab eis corrumperetur et commutaretur in deterius, ut a beatudine in miseriam verteretur, et egeret auxilio,
If, on the other hand, the dark could have done thee no harm, then there was no cause for any battle at all; there was less cause for a battle in which a part of thee, one of thy members, a child of thy own substance, should be mixed up with opposing powers, not of thy creation; and should be corrupted and deteriorated and changed by them from happiness into misery, so that it could not be delivered and cleansed without thy help.
quo erui purgarique posset; et hanc esse animam, cui tuus sermo servienti liber, et contaminatae purus, et corruptae integer, subveniret, sed et ipse corruptibilis, quia ex una eademque substantia.
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.
itaque si te, quidquid es, id est substantiam tuam, qua es, incorruptibilem dicerent, falsa esse illa omnia et exsecrabilia;
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.
si autem corruptibilem, id ipsum iam falsum et prima voce abominandum. sat erat ergo istuc, adversus eos omni modo evomendos a pressura pectoris, quia non habebant, qua exirent, sine horribile sacrilegio cordis et linguae, sentiendo de te ista et loquendo.
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.