For when friends are at a distance considerable comfort is given them by epistolary communication. Our wise Lord has laid bare their impiety, for He could not endure to confirm the unholy heresy by His long suffering. Write then to me in return, and again your letter, by God's leave, shall serve to kindle affection. And before you write, give me the help of your prayers, and beseech our good Lord to guide my feet into the right road, that I may travel the rest of my journey in accordance with His laws. You who have won right of access from your unstained life will easily persuade Him Who is eager to give us His good gifts.
Human nature is everywhere the same, but pursuits in life are many and various.
Others again are there, lying in a mean between these two extremes, who do not exhibit this praiseworthy enthusiasm, nor embrace a life of incontinence, but still honour the simplicity of the faith. Men who attack the statement that some things are altogether impossible with God must not, I apprehend, be classed with the zealous and the well instructed in divine things, but rather either with those who have no exact knowledge of the apostolic doctrines, or those who have been enslaved by pleasures and shift hither and thither at the caprice of a moment, setting forth now one thing and now another. You have asked me to write on these points. I should prefer at the present time to keep silence. I am constrained briefly to reply.