The Shepherd of Hermas

Hermas

Hermas. The Apostolic Fathers with an English translation by Kirsopp Lake. In Two Volumes. Vol. II. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press; London: William Heinemann Ltd. 1913

And from the fourth mountain which has many[*](The fourth mountain) herbs, with the top of the herbs green but the parts by the roots dry, and some dried up by the sun, are such believers as these: the double-minded, and those who have the Lord on their lips but do not have him in their hearts.

For this cause their foundations are dry and have no power, and only their words are alive but their deeds are dead. Such are neither alive nor dead. Therefore they are like the double-minded, for the double-minded are neither green nor dry, for they are neither alive nor dead.

For just as these herbs, when they saw the sun, were dried up, so also the double-minded when they hear of affliction, become idolators through their cowardice, and they are ashamed of the name of their Lord.

Such men

therefore are neither alive nor dead; but these also will be able to live if they repent quickly, but if they do not repent they have already been given over to the women who take away their life.