Similitude Sixth. Of the Two Classes of Voluptuous Men, and of Their Death, Falling Away, and the Duration of Their Punishment. Chap. I. Sitting in my house, and glorifying the Lord for all that I had seen, and reflecting on the commandments, that they are excellent, and powerful, and glorious, and able to save a man’s soul, I said within myself, “I shall be blessed if I walk in these commandments, and every one who walks in them will be blessed.” While I was saying these words to myself, I suddenly see him sitting beside me, and hear him thus speak: “Why are you in doubt about the com- mandments which I gave you? They are excellent: have no doubt about them at all, but put on faith in the Lord, and you will walk in them, for I will strengthen you in them. These commandments are beneficial to those who intend to repent: for if they do not walk in them, their repentance is in vain. You, therefore, who repent cast away the wickedness of this world which wears you out; and by putting on all the virtues of a holy life, you will be able to keep these commandments, and will no longer add to the number of your sins. Walk,289 therefore, in these commandments of mine, and you will live unto God. All these things have been spoken to you by me.” And after he had uttered these words, he said to me, “Let us go into the fields, and I will show you the shepherds of the flocks.” “Let us go, sir,” I replied. And we came to a certain plain, and he showed me a young man, a shepherd, clothed in a suit of garments of a yellow colour: and he was herding very many sheep, and these sheep were feeding luxuriously, as it were, and riotously, and merrily skipping hither and thither. The shepherd himself was merry, because of his flock; and the appearance of the shepherd was joyous, and he was running about amongst his flock. [And other sheep I saw rioting and luxuriating in one place, but not, however, leaping about.290] Chap. II. And he said to me, “Do you see this shepherd?” “I see him, sir,” I said. “This,” he 37 answered, “is the angel291 of luxury and deceit: he wears out the souls of the servants of God, and perverts them from the truth, deceiving them with wicked desires, through which they will perish; for they forget the commandments of the living God, and walk in deceits and empty luxuries; and they are ruined by the angel, some being brought to death, others 289 The Vatican has a sentence before this: “For if you sin not afterwards, you will greatly fall away from your former [transgressions].” 290 Found only in Pseudo-Athanasius. It occurs in none of the translations. 291 [The use of the word “angel,” here, may possibly coincide with that in the Apocalypse, rebuking an un- faithful and luxurious pastor, like the angel of Sardis (Rev. iii. 1–5). The “yellow” raiment may be introduced as a contrast to the words, “thou has a few names even in Sardis which have not defiled their garments, and they shall walk with me in white.”] Similitude Sixth. Of the Two Classes of Voluptuous Men, and of Their Death, Falling Away, and the Duration of Their Punishment. 74 Similitude Sixth. Of the Two Classes of Voluptuous Men, and of Their Death,…