to corruption.”292 I said to him, “Sir, I do not know the meaning of these words, ‘to death, and to corruption.’” “Listen,” he said. “The sheep which you saw merry and leaping about, are those which have torn themselves away from God for ever, and have delivered themselves over to luxuries and deceits293 [of this world. Among them there is no return to life through repentance, because they have added to their other sins, and blasphemed the name of the Lord. Such men therefore, are appointed unto death.294 And the sheep which you saw not leaping, but feeding in one place, are they who have delivered themselves over to luxury and deceit], but have committed no blasphemy against the Lord. These have been perverted from the truth: among them there is the hope of repentance, by which it is possible to live. Corruption, then, has a hope of a kind of renewal,295 but death has everlasting ruin.” Again I went forward a little way, and he showed me a tall shepherd, somewhat savage in his ap- pearance, clothed in a white goatskin, and having a wallet on his shoulders, and a very hard staff with branches, and a large whip. And he had a very sour look, so that I was afraid of him, so forbidding was his aspect. This shepherd, accordingly, was receiving the sheep from the young shepherd, those, viz., that were rioting and luxuriating, but not leaping; and he cast them into a precipitous place, full of thistles and thorns, so that it was impossible to extricate the sheep from the thorns and thistles; but they were completely entangled amongst them. These, accordingly, thus entangled, pastured amongst the thorns and thistles, and were exceedingly miserable, being beaten by him; and he drove them hither and thither, and gave them no rest; and, altogether, these sheep were in a wretched plight. Chap. III. Seeing them, therefore, so beaten and so badly used, I was grieved for them, because they were so tormented, and had no rest at all. And I said to the Shepherd who talked with me, “Sir, who is this shepherd, who is so pitiless and severe, and so completely devoid of compassion for these sheep?” “This,” he replied, “is the angel of punishment;296 and he be- longs to the just angels, and is appointed to punish. He accordingly takes those who wander away from God, and who have walked in the desires and deceits of this world, and chastises 292 καταφθοράν, translated in Pal. And Vat. by defectio, apostasy, as departure from goodness and truth. The Æthiopic has “ruin.” 293 Of … deceit, omitted in Lips. Our translation is made from the Vat. 294 Pseudo-Athanasius has, “of such men the life is death.” 295 Pseudo-Athanasius has, “Corruption, therefore, has a hope of resurrection up to a certain point.” [Death here must mean final apostasy (Heb. vi. 4–6, x. 26–31, xii. 15–17). But a certain death-in-life, which is not final, is instanced in Rev. iii. 1; note also 1 John iii. 14, 15, v. 16, 17.] 296 [The idea is, the minister of discipline, as St. Ambrose is represented with a scourge in his hand. The Greek (ἐκ τῶν ἀγγέλων τῶν δικαίων) favours the idea that faithful pastors are here symbolized,—just stewards and righteous men.] 75 Similitude Sixth. Of the Two Classes of Voluptuous Men, and of Their Death,…