that has been found without spot or defilement, in which the Holy Spirit dwelt, [will receive
a reward284]. You have now the explanation285 of this parable also.”
Chap. VII.
“I rejoice, sir,” I said, “to hear this explanation.” “Hear,” again he replied: “Keep this
flesh pure and stainless, that the Spirit which inhabits it may bear witness to it, and your
flesh may be justified. See that the thought never arise in your mind that this flesh of yours
is corruptible, and you misuse it by any act of defilement. If you defile your flesh, you will
also defile the Holy Spirit; and if you defile your flesh [and spirit], you will not live.”286
“And if any one, sir,” I said, “has been hitherto ignorant, before he heard these words, how
can such a man be saved who has defiled his flesh?” “Respecting former sins287 of ignorance,”
he said, “God alone is able to heal them, for to Him belongs all power. [But be on your guard
now, and the all-powerful and compassionate God will heal former transgressions288], if
for the time to come you defile not your body nor your spirit; for both are common, and
cannot be defiled, the one without the other: keep both therefore pure, and you will live
unto God.”
284 The passages within brackets are omitted by Lips. and Æth.
285 [If the reader feels that the explanation itself needs to be explained, let him attribute it to the confused
and inaccurate state of the text. Grabe says emphatically, that “the created Spirit of Christ as a man and not the
Holy Ghost, the third person of the Trinity,” is spoken of in this chapter chiefly. The apparent confusion of
words and phrases must be the result of ignorant copying. It is a sufficient answer to certain German critics to
cite the providential approval of Athanasius, a fact of the utmost moment. Nobody doubts that Athanasius was
sensitive to any discoloration of the Nicene Faith. In the text of Hermas, therefore, as it was in his copy, there
could have been nothing heretical, or favouring heresy. That Hermas was an artist, and purposely gave his fiction
a very primitive air, is evident. He fears to name the Scriptures he quoted, lest any one should doubt their use,
in the days of Clement, in the Western churches.]
286 [1 Cor. iii. 16, 17. Owen, On the Spirit, passim. Ambiguities, cap. ii.]
287 [Acts xvii. 30.]
288 Omitted in Lips. Æth. has simply, “But be on your guard now.”
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Similitude Fifth. Of True Fasting and Its Reward: Also of Purity of Bo…