For he was not yet a Christian,
though his wife was; and, indeed, he was more firmly enchained by
her than by anything else, and held back from that journey on
which we had set out. Furthermore, he declared he did not wish to
be a Christian on any terms except those that were impossible.
However, he invited us most courteously to make use of his country
house so long as we would stay there. O Lord, thou wilt
recompense him for this "in the resurrection of the just,"[271]
seeing that thou hast already given him "the lot of the
righteous."[272] For while we were absent at Rome, he was
overtaken with bodily sickness, and during it he was made a
Christian and departed this life as one of the faithful. Thus
thou hadst mercy on him, and not on him only, but on us as well;
lest, remembering the exceeding kindness of our friend to us and
not able to count him in thy flock, we should be tortured with
intolerable grief. Thanks be unto thee, our God; we are thine.
Thy exhortations, consolations, and faithful promises assure us
that thou wilt repay Verecundus for that country house at
Cassiciacum -- where we found rest in thee from the fever of the
world -- with the perpetual freshness of thy paradise in which
thou hast forgiven him his earthly sins, in that mountain flowing
with milk, that fruitful mountain -- thy own.
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