The fourth Vision occurs twenty days later, on the Campanian Way. Hermas sees a huge cloud of dust, which resolves itself into the form of a beast like a sea-monster, emitting fiery locusts from its niouth. Its length is about a hundred feet, and its head was as it were of pottery, coloured black,
fire and blood-colour, gold and white. This is a tj'pe of the impending tribulation, but it does not harm Hermas, for the angel Segri has shut its mouth. The colours represent this world (black), the blood and fire in which it must perish, those that have escaped from the world (gold), and the coming age (white).
The fifth episode is called a revelation ('A7ro/f4- \v\j/is, not "Opaais). The Shepherd, the angel of repentance, now appears for the first time, glorious in visage, with sheepskin wallet and statf. He has been sent by the most holy angel to dwell with Hermas for the rest of his life. Hermas at first fails to recognize him as the being to whom he was delivered, but on recognition proceeds to write down the Commandments and the Parables dic- tated by the Shepherd.
(2) Mandates. — The first Commandment is to believe in and to fear the One God, the Creator, the incomprehensible [dx''^pv'''°^)> find to practise continence ; the second to avoid slander, whether by hearing or by speaking it, and to be generous to the needy ; the third to abstain from falsehood ; the fourth to be pure in thought as well as in deed. An adulterous wife is to be divorced, if unrepentant, but her husband may not marry again, for that would be committing adultery. If she repents after divorce her husband sins if he does not receive her again (after baptism only one opportunity of repentance is given, over which the Shepherd has authority). If a husband or a wife die, the other may marry without sin, but to re- main single is better. The fifth Commandment enjoins longsuffering, the opposite of ill-temper [d^vxoMa], that most evil spirit which causes bitter- ness, wrath, anger, and spite. The next three Mandates expand the provisions of the first — faith, fear, and temperance. Contrasts are drawn be- tween the two ways (and the two angels) of righteousness and wickedness, between the fear of God and the fear of the devil, and between temperance as to what is evil, and indulgence in what is good. The ninth Commandment extols faith in prayer, and condemns doubtful -minded- ness, while the tenth exhorts Hermas to be clothed in cheerfulness and to put away sadness. In the eleventh striking descriptions are given of the false prophet, who absents himself from the Christian assembly, and is consulted as a soothsayer by men in corners, and of the true prophet upon whom the Divine afflatus comes in the course of the Church's M'orship. The last Commandment is to banish evil desire by the cultivation of desire which ia good and holj'.
(3) Similitudes. — The first Parable is a simple expansion of the theme that the Christian is a so- journer in a foreign city, and should act as a citizen of the city which is his true home. In the second the duty of the rich to give to the poor is illus- trated by the figure of an elm and a vine. The former, though fruitless, supports the fruitful vine. So the intercessions of the poor man prevail on behalf of his wealthy benefactor. In the next two, a similitude is drawn between trees in winter, when all are leafless, and all seem equally withered, and in summer, when some are sprouting, while others remain withered. The winter represents the conditions of this world, the summer those of the world to come. The fifth Parable presents the story of a vineyard, a master, and a faithful servant, the exposition of which reveals an early belief in the doctrine of works of supererogation, and an Adoptianist conception of the personality of the Son of God (see below). In the next, two shepherds are shown, one of pleasant mien sport- ing Avith his sheep, the other of sour countenance lashing his flock with a whip and otherwise mal- treating them. The former is the angel of self-
HKRMAS, SHEPHERD OF
HERMAS, SHEPHERD OF 563
indulgence and deceit, the latter the angel of punishment. A few days later Hernias is afflicted liy this angel of punishment, and in the seventh Parable he is taught that this is because of the sins of his household. The next two are long and com- plicated. First Hernias sees a great willow tree (the Law of God, which is the Son of God preached unto the ends of the earth) under which stands a multitude of believers. A glorious angel (Michael) cuts rods from the tree and gives them to the people, who in due course return them in great varietj' of condition — withered, grub - eaten, cracked, green, some with shoots, and some with a kind of fruit. These last are those who have suffered for Christ. They are crowned and sent into the tower with some of the others. The re- mainder are left to the care of the Sliepherd, who, as the angel of repentance, plants the rods in the earth, and deals with the owners according to the results. The ninth Parable is an amplification of the third Vision. Hernias, seated on a mountain in Arcadia, sees a great plain surrounded by twelve mountains, each of which has a different appear- ance. These are the tribes of the world, varying in understanding and conduct. In the midst of the plain is a great and ancient rock, with a recently-hewn gate in it. This is the Son of God, older than creation, and j'et recently made mani- fest. Upon the rock a tower (the Church) is being built by angels, of stones that are brought through the gate. The first course is of ten stones, the second of twenty-five, the third of thirty-five, the fourth of forty. These are the first and the second generation of righteous men, the prophets and ministers, and the apostles and teachers. These stones come from the deep, and the rest come from the mountains. Some are suitable and others are rejected. The Shepherd, as in the former Parable, deals with the latter, to Ht those that are capable for a place in the building. A curious feature is the introduction of the Son of God, already sym- bolized by the rock and the gate, as the glorious man who ins]>ects the tower and rejects certain of the stones. The purport of the concluding Parable is an exhortation to Hernias to keep the Shepherd's conimandments and to publish them to others.