7-3-4
Sed et ego adhuc, quamvis incontaminabilem et inconvertibilem et nulla ex parte mutabilem dicerem firmeque sentirem dominum nostrum, deum verum, qui fecisti non solum animas nostras sed etiam corpora, nec tantum nostras animas et corpora, sed omnes et omnia;
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,
non tenebam explicitam et enodatam causam mali.
yet I could not readily and clearly understand what was the cause of evil.
quaecumque tamen esset, sic eam quaerendam videbam, ut non per illam constringerer deum incommutabilem mutabilem credere, ne ipse fierem quod quaerebam.
Whatever it was, I realized that the question must be so analyzed as not to constrain me by any answer to believe that the immutable God was mutable, lest I should myself become the thing that I was seeking out.
itaque securus eam quaerebam, et certus non esse verum quod illi dicerent, quos toto animo fugiebam;
And so I pursued the search with a quiet mind, now in a confident feeling that what had been said by the Manicheans—and I shrank from them with my whole heart—could not be true.
quia videbam quaerendo, unde malum, repletos malitia, qua opinarentur tuam potius substantiam male pati quam suam male facere.
I now realized that when they asked what was the origin of evil their answer was dictated by a wicked pride, which would rather affirm that thy nature is capable of suffering evil than that their own nature is capable of doing it.