6. Thus Verecundus was full of grief; but Nebridius was
joyous. For he was not yet a Christian, and had fallen into the
pit of deadly error, believing that the flesh of thy Son, the
Truth, was a phantom.[273] Yet he had come up out of that pit and
now held the same belief that we did. And though he was not as
yet initiated in any of the sacraments of thy Church, he was a
most earnest inquirer after truth. Not long after our conversion
and regeneration by thy baptism, he also became a faithful member
of the Catholic Church, serving thee in perfect chastity and
continence among his own people in Africa, and bringing his whole
household with him to Christianity. Then thou didst release him
from the flesh, and now he lives in Abraham's bosom. Whatever is
signified by that term "bosom," there lives my Nebridius, my sweet
friend, thy son by adoption, O Lord, and not a freedman any
longer. There he lives; for what other place could there be for
such a soul? There he lives in that abode about which he used to
ask me so many questions -- poor ignorant one that I was. Now he
does not put his ear up to my mouth, but his spiritual mouth to
thy fountain, and drinks wisdom as he desires and as he is able --
happy without end.
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