Letter 257: Augustine thanks Orontius for writing before visiting.

To my excellent, deservedly honorable, and respected son Orontius: Augustine. I thank you because you were willing to send a letter before Your Excellency's arrival, and to send conversation before sight, so that we might enjoy your address before your face. By tasting beforehand, through the comfort of a letter, a long-desired acquaintance, we waited more eagerly and ardently for what we would receive with still greater pleasure and gratitude, my excellent, deservedly honorable, and respected son. I therefore repay your merits and your preceding courtesies with the owed service of a return greeting. I rejoice that your good health has been announced, and I wish it to continue. You added, in asking for a reply from my smallness by right of the good will you had shown first, "if indeed we can deserve this from so great holiness." I in no way dare despair that the very spring of that holiness, by a drink from which we are something according to our measure, should be not only praised but also shared with us, and that it will please your prudence. May God, incomparably and unchangeably good, who by his power is the maker of your good mind, also be its restorer by grace. May almighty God keep you safe and happier, my excellent, deservedly honorable, and respected son.

EPISTOLA 257 Scripta post a. 395. A. Orontio resalutans illum qui suum adventum nuntiaverat. DOMINO EXIMIO MERITOQUE HONORABILI, ET SUSCIPIENDO FILIO ORONTIO, AUGUSTINUS. 1. Ago gratias quod adventum Eximietatis tuae litteris etiam praevenire dignatus es, et ante contuitum misisti colloquium, ut tuo prius affatu quam aspectu frueremur, et diu desideratam notitiam epistolari solatio quodammodo praegustantes, exspectaremus avidius et ardentius, quod iucundius gratiusque caperemus, domine eximie meritoque honorabilis, et suspiciende fili. Reddo itaque meritis tuis et praecurrentibus officiis debitum resalutationis obsequium, incolumitatem tuam gaudens nuntiatam, optansque continuam. Et quod rescripta exiguitatis meae iure praerogatae benevolentiae reposcendo addidisti, dicens: "Si tamen id de tanta sanctitate possumus promereri"; nullo modo audeo desperare, sanctitatis eiusdem, cuius haustu pro nostro modulo aliquid sumus, ipsum fontem non solum laudandum, verum etiam nobiscum participandum, et tuae prudentiae placiturum; ut Deus incomparabiliter atque incommutabiliter bonus, per suam potentiam tam bonae tuae mentis est institutor, sit etiam per gratiam restitutor. Incolumen te Deus omnipotens felicioremque tueatur, domine eximie meritoque honorabilis, ac suscipiende fili.