To Florus 3.126

Although we dealt with this more fully in the first book (see this work 1.52, 64), let us briefly state your meaning here too. You fear assigning any substance to the devil’s work, yet you do not fear fastening a great crime—not merely some small fault—on God. Human flesh’s nature commands more reverence from you than God’s justice. You feared attributing human substance to the devil as though that were an important matter, but attached the formation of wickedness to God’s justice and holiness as though they were unimportant. As if, between two opinions that are both false, attributing flesh to the devil’s works would not be more tolerable than attributing iniquity to God’s works!