Letter To Augustine of Hippo
Synopsis — Timasius and Jacobus were disciples of Pelagius who had compared Pelagius work "On Nature" with
some of the writings of Augustine and upon discovering discrepancies forwarded a copy of "On Nature" to Augustine.
Augustine then replied with a work entitled "On Nature And Grace" to which Jacobus and Timasius are here writing
back to him their thoughts upon his rebuttal of Pelagius. This letter is number 168 in the collected letters of Augustine.
"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." We have found, indeed, that your holiness has so thoroughly sired
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. 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.' 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."