48. [XXIV.]—A Letter Written by Timasius and Jacobus to Augustin on Receiving His Treatise “On Nature and Grace.”

“To his lordship, the truly blessed and deservedly venerable father, Bishop Augustin, Timasius and Jacobus send greeting in the Lord. We have been so greatly refreshed and strengthened by the grace of God, which your word has ministered to us, my lord, our truly blessed and justly venerated father, that we may with the utmost sincerity and propriety say, ‘He sent His word and healed them.’137    Ps. cvii. 20. We have found, indeed, that your holiness has so thoroughly sifted the contents of his little book as to astonish us with the answers with which even the slightest points of his error have been confronted, whether it be on matters which every Christian ought to rebut, loathe, and avoid, or on those in which he is not with sufficient certainty found to have erred,—although even in these he has, with incredible subtlety, suggested his belief that God’s grace should be kept out of sight.138    Supprimendam. There is, however, one consideration which affects us under so great a benefit,—that this most illustrious gift of the grace of God has, however slowly, so fully shone out upon us. If, indeed, it has happened that some are removed from the influence of this clearest light of truth, whose blindness required its illumination, yet even to them, we doubt not, the same grace will find its steady way, however late, by the merciful favour of that God ‘who will have all men to be saved and to come unto the knowledge of the truth.’139    1 Tim. ii. 4. As for ourselves, indeed, thanks to that loving spirit which is in you, we have, in consequence of your instruction, some time since thrown off our subjection to his errors; but we still have even now cause for continued gratitude in the fact that, as we have been informed, the false opinions which we formerly believed are now becoming apparent to others—a way of escape opening out to them in the extremely precious discourse of your holiness.” Then, in another hand: “May the mercy of our God keep your blessedness in safety, and mindful of us, for His eternal glory.”140    See Augustin’s Epist. 168.

CAPUT XXIV.

48. «Domino vere beatissimo, et merito venerabili patri episcopo Augustino, Timasius et Jacobus, in Domino salutem. Ita nos refecit et recreavit gratia Dei ministrata per verbum tuum, ut prorsus germane dicamus, Misit verbum suum, et sanavit eos (Psal. CVI, 20), domine beatissime, et merito venerabilis pater. Sane ea diligentia ventilasse Sanctitatem tuam textum ejusdem libelli reperimus, ut ad singulos apices responsa reddita stupeamus, sive in his quae refutare, detestari, ac fugere deceat christianum; 0348 sive in illis, in quibus non satis invenitur errasse; quamvis, nescio qua calliditate, in ipsis quoque gratiam Dei credidit supprimendam. Sed unum est quod nos in tanto beneficio afficit, quia tarde hoc tam praeclarum gratiae Dei munus effulsit. Siquidem contigit absentes fieri quosdam, quorum caecitati ista tam perspicuae veritatis illustratio deberetur; ad quos, etsi tardius, non diffidimus propitio Deo eamdem gratiam pervenire, qui vult omnes homines salvos fieri, et ad agnitionem veritatis venire (I Tim. II, 4). Nos vero, etsi olim spiritu charitatis , qui in te est, docti, subjectionem ejus abjecerimus erroris, in hoc etiam nunc gratias agimus, quod haec quae ante credidimus, nunc aliis aperire didicimus, viam facilitatis uberiore Sanctitatis tuae sermone pandente. Et alia manu: Incolumem Beatitudinem tuam, nostrique memorem, misericordia Dei nostri glorificet in aeternum» (Epist. 168, inter Augustinianas).