To Florus 1.77

By this statement you would have established something definite. If you had then spoken against it, you would have appeared exceedingly shameless; if you had consistently maintained it throughout, you might have appeared corrected, even if belatedly. But now you say that I deceive, although I prove my charge through your own words; and you immediately lie in what you think you have constructed consistently. You say: “We do not deny free choice”, and append the Gospel's testimony: “But Truth says, ‘If the Son sets you free, then you will be truly free’” (John 8:36). Yet it is established that our Lord Jesus did not utter those words in that passage against free choice. Let us postpone their explanation a little and use definitions and distinctions to make clear what each of us means. According to the teaching of all learned people, a discussion ought to begin with a definition.