Letter 2028: I left your company in such a way that I did not truly leave you at all.

XXVIII. RURICIUS TO HIS OMMATIUS, GREETING. I departed from your affection in such a way that I have by no means withdrawn entirely from you. I have presented you in that same part of the inner man in which I have remained with you. I know that I have remained in that very place from which neither the ancient plotter [the devil] nor any recent reconciler could exclude me. For this reason I also admonish you with that saying of the most wise Solomon: my son, do not forsake an old friend, for a new one will not be like him. A new friend is new wine; it will grow old, and you will drink it with pleasure. And therefore let us grow old in our friendships, and from day to day let us be renewed in our affections. But if a friend is not to be abandoned, how much more a father, who instructed you, who nourished you, who, with the Lord's help, even brought you all the way to the priesthood, to whom perhaps, in accordance with divine mercy, the use of this light is also owed. [The next lines of the manuscript carry the editor's apparatus -- a scriptural citation of Ecclesiasticus 9:14 and a list of textual variant readings -- not part of the letter's text.] But I write these things to your blessedness not as if charging you with anything or reproaching you, but as to a most beloved son, whom I desire to walk in this world of impiety without any blemish, and to appear pure and unstained on that day of judgment before God and his angels and the assembly of all flesh. And so I greet your like-mindedness, and I ask that you would deign to pray for me, and likewise, when it is opportune for us, that you would hold us worthy to visit. Farewell.

XXVIII. RURICIUS OMMATIO SUO SALUTEM. Sic (a) pietate uestra discessi, quod a nobis penitus non recessi. in eadem uos parte hominis interioris exhibui, in qua uobis remansi. scio, quia ibidem remansi, unde me nec insidiator antiquus potuit neque recens conciliator excludere. unde etiam sententia illius uos sapientissimi Salomonis admoneo: fili, ne derelinquas amicum antiquum, nouus enim non erit similis illi. uinum nouum amicus nouus, ueterascet et cum suauitate bibes illud. et ideo nos ueterascamus in amicitiis et de die in diem affectibus innouemur. quodsi amicus relinquendus non est, quanto magis pater, qui erudiit, qui nutriuit, qui adiuuante domino ad sacerdotium usque perduxit, cui fortasse etiam iuxta diuinam misericordiam lucis istius debetur usura. Sed haec ego beatitudini tuae scribo non quasi aliquid inputans aut exprobrans, sed ut filio carissimo, quem sine ullo naeuo cupio in hoc mundo inpietatis incedere et purum atque inmaculatum in illo die iudicii coram deo et angelis eius ac 16] Eccli. 9, 14. « 1 orbanus S indicari S 2 passus sum v, passum S nolim Luetjohcmn., inolli S, nollem v 3 uidendi uos sed nec scribendi Mommsenus 4 orae S saluę S 5 derimento S utriusque] cum add. Kr . 6 digDamini S 8 ammittitis S 9 in ante corde add. v 11 omacio S 12 a add. v, om. S paenitus S 13 exibui S 15 consiliator S, corr. f 16 solomonis S filii S 18 ueteriscat S 19 bibis S ueteriscamus S 25 ergo S 26 filioll S (s eras.) 27 incidere S congregatione carnis totius apparere. saluto itaque unanimitatem tuam et rogo, ut pro me orare digneris simulque, cum oportunum nobis fuerit, nos tanti habeatis uisitare. uale.