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| Similitude Tenth. Concerning Repentance and Alms-Giving.
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Similitude Tenth.
Concerning Repentance and Alms-Giving.
Chap. I.
After I had fully written down this book, that
messenger who had delivered me to the Shepherd came into the house in
which I was, and sat down upon a couch, and the Shepherd stood on his
right hand. He then called me, and spoke to me as follows: “I have
delivered you and your house to the Shepherd, that you may be protected by
him.” “Yes, sir,” I said. “If you wish, therefore,
to be protected,” he said, “from all annoyance, and from all
harsh treatment, and to have success in every good work and word, and to
possess all the virtues of righteousness, walk in these commandments which
he has given you, and you will be able to subdue all wickedness. For if
you keep those commandments, every desire and pleasure of the world will
be subject to you, and success will attend you in every good work. Take
unto yourself his experience and moderation, and say to all that he is
in great honour and dignity with God, and that he is a president with
great power, and mighty in his office. To him alone throughout the whole
world is the power of repentance assigned. Does he seem to you to be
powerful? But you despise his experience, and the moderation which he
exercises towards you.”
Chap. II.
I said to him, “Ask himself, sir, whether from
the time that he has entered my house I have done anything improper, or
have offended him in any respect.” He answered, “I also know
that you neither have done nor will do anything improper, and therefore
I speak these words to you, that you may persevere. For he had a good
report of you to me, and you will say these words to others, that they
also who have either repented or will still repent may entertain the
same feelings with you, and he may report well of these to me, and I to
the Lord.” And I
said, “Sir, I make known to every
man the great works of God: and I hope that all those who love them,
and have sinned before, on hearing these words, may repent, and receive
life again.” “Continue, therefore, in this ministry, and
finish it. And all who follow out his commands shall have life, and
great honour with the Lord.401
But those who do not keep
his commandments, flee from his life, and despise him. But he has his
own honour with the Lord. All, therefore, who shall despise him,402
| 402But he has his own honour …
despise him, omitted in Vat. | and not follow his commands,
deliver themselves to death, and every one of them will be guilty of
his own blood. But I enjoin you, that you obey his commands, and you
will have a cure for your former sins.”
Chap. III.
“Moreover, I sent you these virgins, that
they may dwell with you.403
| 403
[Cap. xiii. p. 48, supra.] | For I saw that they were
courteous to you. You will therefore have them as assistants, that you
may be the better able to keep his commands: for it is impossible that
these commandments can be observed without these virgins. I see, moreover,
that they abide with you willingly; but I will also instruct them not to
depart at all from your house: do you only keep your house pure, as they
will delight to dwell in a pure abode. For they are pure, and chaste,
and industrious, and have all influence with the Lord. Therefore, if
they find your house to be pure, they will remain with you; but if any
defilement, even a little, befall it, they will immediately withdraw from
your house. For these virgins do not at all like any defilement.” I
said to him, “I hope, sir, that I will please them, so that they may
always be willing to inhabit my house. And as he to whom you entrusted
me has no complaint against me, so neither will they have.” He
said to the Shepherd, “I see that the servant of God wishes to
live, and to keep these commandments, and will place these virgins in
a pure habitation.”404
When he had spoken these words he again
delivered me to the Shepherd, and called those virgins, and said to
them, “Since I see that you are willing to dwell in his house,
I commend him and his house to you, asking that you withdraw not at all
from it.” And the virgins heard these words with pleasure.
Chap. IV.
The angel405
then said to me, “Conduct yourself manfully in this service, and
make known to every one the great things of God,406
and you will have favour in
this ministry. Whoever, therefore, shall walk in these commandments, shall
have life, and will be happy in his life; but whosoever shall neglect
them shall not have life, and will be unhappy in this life. Enjoin all,
who are able to act rightly, not to cease well-doing; for, to practice
good works is useful to them.407
| 407
[Here might follow that beautiful fragment of Irenæus, on God’s
goodness accepting the feeblest efforts of the soul in drawing near to
Him. Vol. i. Frag. lv. p. 577, this series.] | And I say that
every man ought to be saved from inconveniences. For both he who is in
want, and he who suffers inconveniences in his daily life, is in great
torture and necessity. Whoever, therefore, rescues a soul of this kind
from necessity, will gain for himself great joy. For he who is harassed
by inconveniences of this kind, suffers equal torture with him who
is in chains. Moreover many, on account of calamities of this sort,
when they could not endure them, hasten their own deaths. Whoever,
then, knows a calamity of this kind afflicting a man, and does not
save him, commits a great sin, and becomes guilty of his blood.408
| 408 [Jas. v. 19, 20. As St. James
concludes with this principle, so also Hermas, who evidently delights in
this apostle’s teaching and has thrown it into this allegorical
metaphrase.] | Do good works, therefore, ye who have received
good from the Lord; lest, while ye delay to do them, the building of the
tower be finished, and you be rejected from the edifice: there is now
no other tower a-building. For on your account was the work of building
suspended. Unless, then, you make haste to do rightly, the tower will
be completed, and you will be excluded.”
After he had spoken with me he rose up from the
couch, and taking the Shepherd and the virgins, he departed. But he
said to me that he would send back the Shepherd and the virgins to my
dwelling. Amen.409
| 409 The Vatican
has: “Here ends the Book of the Shepherd, the disciple of the
blessed apostle Paul. Thanks be to God.” The Æthiopic has:
“May the name of him who wrote this book be written on a pillar of
gold. With thanksgiving to Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, this book of
the prophet Hermas has been finished. Amen. Finished are the visions,
and commandments, and similitudes of the prophet Hermas, who is Paul,
in the year 191 of mercy, 23d night and 22d day of the month,”
etc. The writer goes on [fruitlessly] to show that Hermas is Paul,
appealing to Acts xiv. 12. |
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