The Shepherd of Hermas

Sir, said I, they are punished a very short time, for those who live in

He said to me: You are foolish, and do not understand the power of punishment. No, said I, Sir, for if I had understood it, I should not have asked you to tell me. Listen, said he, to the power of both.

The time of luxury and deceit is one hour, but the hour of punishment has the power of thirty days. If, therefore, any man live in luxury and deceit for one day, and be punished one day, the day of punishment has the power of a whole year, for a man is punished as many years as he has lived days in luxury. You see, therefore, said he, that the time of luxury and deceit is very short, but the time of punishment is long.

Sir, said I, I still do not at all understand about the time of deceit and luxury and torture; explain it to me more clearly.

He answered and said to me: Your foolishness is lasting, and you do not wish to purify your heart and to serve God. See to it, said he, lest the time be fulfilled, and you be found still foolish. Listen, then, said he, that you may understand it as you wish.

He who lives in luxury and deceit for a single day, and does what he likes, is clothed with great foolishness, and does not understand the deed which he is doing. For he forgets to-morrow what he did yesterday. For luxury and deceit have no memory, because of the foolishness which they have put on. But when punishment and torture cleave to a man for a single

Therefore, being tortured and punished for a whole year, he then remembers his luxury and deceit, and knows that he is suffering evil because of them. Therefore, all men who live in luxury and deceit are thus tortured, because though they have life, they have given themselves over to death.