Ennodius of Pavia → Agapitus

Sins resist desires, and so that the state of merits may become known to sinners, what is desired is withdrawn from the nearness of their lips. Things offered afflict more bitterly when they perish: thirst is more powerful when the taste of water has increased it; benefits denied at the first approach do not burn the memory. Who could bear with equanimity to have lost a sweetness thrust upon his eyes? But rightly are these things referred to heavenly providence, by which the dispensation of the celestial mystery interposes its hand against human arrangements for this reason — that it may furnish the fulfillment of desires. Your holy father had promised that he would willingly obey the command of Your Greatness concerning my meeting with him, but intervening counsels for the benefit, as he says, of the church snatched his mind in a different direction, as the letter of the aforesaid man sent to you has declared. Yet he awaits a second conversation of Your Greatness regarding the designated business, by which it may be more clearly revealed how necessary I am to the advantage of your brother Faustus the patrician, to whose grace he considers nothing too dear to deny. For the rest, with the humility of my service received, I pray that the maker of heaven, who has deigned to instill into your eminence the care of my insignificance, may himself through you arrange what must be followed.