{"collection":"chr","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/chr/ecf/002/0020008.htm","path":"chr/ecf/002/0020008.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/chr/ecf/002/0020008.htm","text":"After I had been praying at home, and had sat down on my couch, there entered a man of p. 19 glorious aspect, dressed like a shepherd, with a white goat\u2019s skin, a wallet on his shoulders, and a rod in his hand, and saluted me. I returned his salutation. And straightway he sat down beside me, and said to me, \u201cI have been sent by a most venerable angel to dwell with you the remaining days of your life.\u201d And I thought that he had come to tempt me, and I said to him, \u201cWho are you? For I know him to whom I have been entrusted.\u201d He said to me, \u201cDo you not know me?\u201d \u201cNo,\u201d said I. \u201cI,\u201d said he, \u201cam that shepherd to whom you have been entrusted.\u201d And while he yet spake, his figure was changed; and then I knew that it was he to whom I had been entrusted. And straightway I became confused, and fear took hold of me, and I was overpowered with deep sorrow that I had answered him so wickedly and foolishly. But he answered, and said to me, \u201cDo not be confounded, but receive strength from the commandments which I am going to give you. For I have been sent,\u201d said he, \u201cto show you again all the things which you saw before, especially those of them which are useful to you. First of all, then, write down my commandments and similitudes, and you will write the other things as I shall show you. For this purpose,\u201d said he, \u201cI command you to write down the commandments and similitudes first, that you may read them easily, and be able to keep them.\u201d 150 Accordingly I wrote down the commandments and similitudes, exactly as he had ordered me. If then, when you have heard these, ye keep them and walk in them, and practice them with pure minds, you will receive from the Lord all that He has promised to you. But if, after you have heard them, ye do not repent, but continue to add to your sins, then shall ye receive from the Lord the opposite things. All these words did the shepherd, even the angel of repentance, command me to write. 151\n[This vision naturally belongs to book ii., to which it is a preface.]\n19:150\nKeep them. That you may be able to keep them more easily by reading them from time to time.\u2014Vat.\n19:151\n[\u201cThe Shepherd,\u201d then, is the \u201cangel of repentance,\u201d here represented as a guardian angel. This gives the work its character, as enforcing primarily the anti-Montanist principle of the value of true repentance in the sight of God.]","title":"Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol II: THE PASTOR OF HERMAS: Vision Fifth. Concerning the Commandments.","type":"page"}