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46 [This passage (with Vision iii. 2, and especially Similitude v.3) has been pressed into the service of those who seek to find "super-erogatory merit" in the Fathers. See 1 Cor. vii. 38. But why not begin with the Scriptures which Hermas doubtless has in mind, such as Rev. iii. 4,5, "They are worthy"? Does this ascribe to them any merit apart from ("worthy is the Lamb") the only meritorious cause of salvation? So also Rev. vii. 14, xiv. 4,5. The primitive Fathers accepted such truths like innocent children, and loved them. They believed St. Paul as to degrees of glory (1 Cor. xv. 41), and our Lord Himself as to the awards (Matt. xx. 21-23) of mercy to fruits of grace: and they are no more responsible for forced constructions that have been put upon them by afterthought and subsequent heresy, then our blessed Lord can be charged with all that has overloaded His precious sayings (Matt. xix. 12 or xiv. 18). The principle of deficient works of faith, which is the corresponding idea of the negative side, appears in St. Paul (1 Cor. iii. 13-15), and has been abused to sustain the whole system of creature merit, and the monstrous atfterthought of purgatory. Those, therefore, who read such ideas into "The Ante-Nicene Fathers," to diminish their credit, often, unintentionally (1) help the perverters of truth to claim the Fathers, and (2) give them the like aid in claiming the Scriptures. See p. 34, supra, note1 .]
49 Here ends Codex Lipsiensis. The rest of the text is from common translation corrected by the Palatine and Aethiopic.
50 [Born good. Not in the text of Gebhardt and Harnack (the Greek is wanting); nor do they note any such text, though the Aethiopic favours it. See p. 42, supra, note2 .]
51 [Here again the Latin has the reading before noted, on the circumcision of wealth,p. 15, note 2, supra.]
53 [Jer. xiii. 20; Zech. xi. 15-17.]
54 [Jas. v. 9. Who can fail to feel the searching spirit of the gospel here? Matt. v. 23, 24, vi. 14.]
55 Servants of God. Servant of the Lord.-Aeth.
2 But he has his own honourhim, omitted in Vat.
5 Angel, Aeth.; Pastor, Pal.; omitted in Vat.
6 God, common version; Lord, Aeth., Ral.; Lord God, Vat.
7 [Here might follow that beautiful fragment of Irenaeus, on God's goodness accepting the feblest efforts of the soul in drawing near to Him. Vol. i. Frag. lv. p. 577, this series.]
8 [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.]
9 The Vatican has: "Here ends the Book of the Shepherd, the disciple of the blessed apostle Paul. Thanks be to God." The Aethiopic 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.
11 On the Canon, p. 235. Ed. 1855.
12 Such as Lightfoot, Westcott, Canon Cook, and others.
13 Candidly treated by Guettee, L'Eglise de France, vol. xii. p. 15. See also Parton's Voltaire, vol. i. pp. 260-270.
14 Comment., book x. sec. 31, as quoted in Westcott, p. 219.
15 I subjoin Westcott's references: Clem. Alex., Stromata, i. 17, sec 85;Ibid., 1 29, sec 29; Ibid., ii. 1 sec. 3. Also Ibid., ii. 12, sec. 55; iv. 9. sec 76; vi. 6, sec 46. Also Tertull., Pudicitia, capp. 10 and 20. These I have verified in Ed. Oehler, pp. 468, 488. I add De Oratione, capp. xvi. p. 311. Let me also add Athanasius, De Incarnatione, p. 38; Contra Haeresim Arian., p. 369; Ibid., 380. To the testimony of this great Father and defender of the faith I attach the greatest importance; because his approval shows that there was nothing in the book, as he had it in its pure text, to justify the attempts of moderns to disprove its orthodoxy. Athanasius calls is "a most useful book," and quotes it again ("although that book is not in the Canon") with great respect. Ed, Paris, 1572.
Modern theories of inspiration appear to me untenable, with reference to canonical Scripture; but they precisely illustrate the sort of inspiration with which these prophesyings were probably first credited. The human element is largely intermixed with divine suggestions; or you may state the proposition conversely.
16 Eusebius, iii. 3, and Hieronym., catal. x. See Westcott, p. 220.
17 Comment., book x. sec. 31, as quoted in Westcott, p. 219.
18 I subjoin Westcott's references: Clem. Alex., Stromata, i. 17, sec 85;Ibid., 1 29, sec 29; Ibid., ii. 1 sec. 3. Also Ibid., ii. 12, sec. 55; iv. 9. sec 76; vi. 6, sec 46. Also Tertull., Pudicitia, capp. 10 and 20. These I have verified in Ed. Oehler, pp. 468, 488. I add De Oratione, capp. xvi. p. 311. Let me also add Athanasius, De Incarnatione, p. 38; Contra Haeresim Arian., p. 369; Ibid., 380. To the testimony of this great Father and defender of the faith I attach the greatest importance; because his approval shows that there was nothing in the book, as he had it in its pure text, to justify the attempts of moderns to disprove its orthodoxy. Athanasius calls is "a most useful book," and quotes it again ("although that book is not in the Canon") with great respect. Ed, Paris, 1572.
Modern theories of inspiration appear to me untenable, with reference to canonical Scripture; but they precisely illustrate the sort of inspiration with which these prophesyings were probably first credited. The human element is largely intermixed with divine suggestions; or you may state the proposition conversely.
19 Eusebius, iii. 3, and Hieronym., catal. x. See Westcott, p. 220.
20 Milman's Gibbon, vol. i. p. 550. The edit'rs notes are not over severe, and might be greatly strengthened as refutations.
21 Van Lennep,Bible-lands, p. 440.
22 See Vision iii. cap. 8, for the relation of encraty to faith, in the view of Hermas; also (cap. 7 and passim) note his uncompromising reproofs of lust, and his beautiful delineations of chastity. The third canon of the Nicene Synod proscribed the syneisactae, and also the nineteenth of Ancyra, adopted at Chalcedon into the Catholic discipline.