The Shepherd of Hermas

The fourth vision which I saw, brethren.[*](The vision of the Leviathan) twenty days after the former vision, was a type of the persecution which is to come.

I was going into the country by the Via Campana. The place is about ten furlongs from the public road, and is easily reached.

As I walked by myself I besought the Lord to complete the revelations and visions which he had shown me by his holy Church, to make me strong and give repentance to his servants who had been offended, to glorify his, great and glorious name, because he had thought me worthy to show me his wonders.

And while I was glorifying him and giving him thanks an answer came to me as an echo of my voice, Do not be double-minded, Hermas. I began to reason in myself, and to say, In what ways can I be double-minded after being given such a foundation by the Lord, and having seen his glorious deeds?

And I approached a little further, brethren, and behold, I saw dust reaching as it were up to heaven, and I began to say to myself. Are cattle coming and raising dust? and it was about a furlong away from me.

When the dust grew greater and greater I supposed that it was some portent. The sun shone out a little, and lo! I saw a great beast like some Leviathan, and fiery locusts were going out of his mouth. The beast was in size about a hundred feet

And I began to weep and to pray the Lord to rescue me from it, and I remembered the word which I had heard, Do not be double-minded, Hermas.

Thus, brethren, being clothed in the faith of the Lord and remembering the great things which he had taught me, I took courage and faced the beast. And as the beast came on with a rush it was as though it could destroy a city.

I came near to it, and the Leviathan for all its size stretched itself out on the ground, and put forth nothing except its tongue, and did not move at all until I had passed it by.

And the beast had on its head four colours, black, then the colour of flame and blood, then golden, then white.