§29AUG. dixit: De adoptione nostra memini me ante dies dixisse secundum testimonium apostoli, qui dicit nos uocatos in adoptionem filiorum.
AUG. dixit: Concerning our adoption, I remember that I spoke a few days ago according to the testimony of the Apostle, who says we are called to the adoption of sons.
non ergo meum fuit illud, sed apostolicum responsum.
Therefore, that was not my answer, but an apostolic one.
de qua re, id est de ista adoptione suo tempore, si placet, inquiramus; et de illa insibilatione respondebo, cum tu meis obiectionibus responderis.
Concerning this matter, that is, about this adoption, let us inquire at a suitable time, if you please; and I will answer concerning that breathing-in (or whispering) when you have answered my objections.
FORT. dixit: Progressum dico fuisse animae contra contrariam naturam, quae natura deo nihil nocere poterat.
FORT. dixit: I say that the progress of the soul was against the contrary nature, which nature could harm God in nothing.
§30AUG. dixit: Quid opus erat isto progressu, ubi nihil habebat deus, quod caueret, cui noceri nihil poterat?
FORT. dixit: Constat apud conscientiam nostram a deo uenisse Christum?
AUG. dixit: What need was there for this progress, where God had nothing to guard against, who could not be harmed in any way? FORT. dixit: Is it not clear to our conscience that Christ came from God?
§31AUG. dixit: Iterum me interrogas.
AUG. dixit: Again you question me.
ad interrogata responde.
Answer to what you are asked.
FORT. dixit: Sic accepi in fide, quod uoluntate dei ipse huc uenerit.
FORT. dixit: I have received this in faith: that by the will of God he himself came here.
§32AL G. dixit: Et ego dico: deus omnipotens, inuiolabilis, incommutabilis, cui noceri nihil possit, quare huc animam ad miserias, ad errorem, ad ista, quae patimur, misit?
FORT. dixit: Dictum est enim: potestatem habeo ponendi animam meam et potestatem accipiendi eam, non dixit, quod uoluntate dei progressa est anima.
AL G. dixit: And I say: almighty God, inviolable, immutable, who can be harmed in nothing, why did He send the soul here to miseries, to error, to these things which we suffer? FORT. dixit: For it is said: 'I have power to lay down my life (soul) and power to take it up again'; he did not say that by the will of God the soul progressed.
§33AUG. dixit: Ego autem causam quaero, cum deo noceri nihil possit.
AUG. dixit: But I am asking the cause, since God cannot be harmed.
FORT. dixit: Nihil noceri deo iam diximus, et in contraria natura esse animam diximus, ideo ut contrariae naturae modum inponeret; modo inposito contrariae naturae sumit eandem deus.
FORT. dixit: We have already said that God cannot be harmed, and we have said that the soul is in the contrary nature, for this purpose: to impose a limit upon the contrary nature; once the limit has been imposed upon the contrary nature, God takes back the same.
ipse enim dixit: potestatem habeo ponendi animam meam et potestatem sumendi eam.
For he himself said: 'I have power to lay down my soul and power to take it up.
hanc mihi pater dedit potestatem ponendi animam meam et sumendi eam.
This commandment I received from my Father to lay down my soul and to take it up.' Therefore, God, who was speaking in the Son, of which soul was He speaking?
deus ergo, qui loquebatur in filio, de qua anima diceret? constat esse animam nostram, quae in his corporibus habetur, quod dei uoluntate uenerit et de uoluntate ipsius iterum adsumatur.
It is clear that it is our soul, which is held in these bodies, that came by the will of God and is taken up again by His will.
§34AUG. dixit: Unde dixerit dominus noster "potestatem habeo ponendi animam meam et potestatem habeo sumendi eam" omnibus notum est, quia passurus erat et resurrecturus.
AUG. dixit: Why our Lord said 'I have power to lay down my soul and I have power to take it up' is known to all, because He was to suffer and rise again.
ego autem abs te iterum atque iterum quaero: si deo noceri nihil poterat, cur huc animas misit?
FORT. dixit: Naturae contrariae modum inponere.
But I ask you again and again: if God could not be harmed, why did He send souls here? FORT. dixit: To impose a limit upon the contrary nature.
§35AUG. dixit: Et omnipotens deus et omnium misericordissimus, ut modum inponeret naturae contrariae. ideo illam moderatam esse uoluit, ut nos inmoderatos efficeret?
FORT. dixit: Sed ideo ad se reuocat.
AUG. dixit: Did the almighty God, and most merciful to all, wish that contrary nature to be limited for this reason, so that He might make us unlimited (undisciplined)? FORT. dixit: But for this reason He recalls it to Himself.
§36AUG. dixit: Si ad se reuocat ab inmoderatione, si a peccato, ab errore. a miseria, quid opus erat tanta mala animam pati per tantum tempus, donec mundus finiatur, cum deo, a quo eam dicitis missam, noceri nihil possit?
FORT. dixit.
AUG. dixit: If He recalls it to Himself from lack of limit, from sin, from error, from misery, what need was there for the soul to suffer such great evils for so long a time, until the world is finished, when God, by whom you say it was sent, can be harmed in nothing?
Quid ergo dicturus sum?
FORT. dixit: What then am I to say?
§37AUG. dixit: Et ego noui non te habere, quid dicas, et me cum uos audirem in hac quaestione numquam inuenisse. quod dicerem, et inde fuisse admonitum diuinitus. ut illum errorem relinquerem et ad fidem catholicam me conuerterem uel potius reuocarem ipsius indulgentia. qui me huic fallaciae semper inhaerere non siuit.
AUG. dixit: I too know that you have nothing to say, and when I used to listen to you, I never found anything to say in this question, and from this I was admonished by divine power to leave that error and convert, or rather be recalled by His indulgence to the Catholic faith, He who did not suffer me to cling forever to this fallacy.
sed si confiteris te non habere. quod respondeas, omnibus audientibus et recognoscentibus, quoniam fideles sunt. catholicam fidem, si permittunt et uolunt, exponam.
But if you confess that you have nothing to answer, before all who hear and recognize this, since they are believers, I will explain the Catholic faith, if they permit and wish.
FORT. dixit: Sine praeiudicio professionis meae dixerim: illa quae a te obponuntur cum retractauero cum meis maioribus. si minus responderint interrogationi huic meae, quae similiter a te nunc mihi offertur, erit in mea contemplatione — quia et ego animam meam cupio certa fide liberari — uenire ad huius rei inquisitionem. quae a te mihi offertur et ostensurum te polliceris.
FORT. dixit: Without prejudice to my profession, I would say: when I have reconsidered with my superiors those things which are opposed by you, if they fail to answer this question of mine, which is likewise presented to me now by you, it will be in my contemplation — because I too desire my soul to be freed by a certain faith — to come to the inquiry of this matter which is presented to me by you, and which you promise to show.
AUG. dixit: Deo gratias.
AUG. dixit: Thanks be to God.