I made an effort to comprehend what I was hearing, namely that the free choice of the will is the cause that we do evil and that we suffer Your right judgment. But I was not able to comprehend it clearly. So, I tried to raise my mind's eye up from the abyss, but I sank back in again. I tried repeatedly, but I sank back in again and again. What lifted me up towards Your light was that I knew myself to have a will as much as I knew myself to be alive. Thus whenever I was willing or unwilling with regard to something, I was completely certain that none but myself was willing or unwilling. And more and more did I recognize that there lay the cause of my sin. I saw that what I did unwillingly I suffered rather than did, and I judged it not a fault but a penalty; and recognizing that You are just, I admitted immediately that I was not punished unjustly…