Shepherd of Hermas 15

1As for the other stones that you saw thrown far from the tower and falling into the road and rolling from the road into the pathless places: these are those who have believed, but because of their double‑mindedness they abandon their true road. Thinking, then, that they are able to find a better road, they go astray and suffer misery as they walk in the pathless places.

2But those that fall into the fire and are burned—these are the ones who have finally turned away from the living God, and it no longer came up into their heart to repent because of the desires of their lewdness and the evils they have done.

3And those others that fall near the waters yet are not able to roll into the water—do you want to know who they are? These are the ones who have heard the word and want to be baptized into the name of the Lord; then, when the purity of the truth comes to their remembrance, they repent and go back again after their evil desires.

4So she finished the explanation of the tower. But, becoming bold again, I questioned her further whether all these stones that were cast away and did not fit into the building of the tower—whether there is repentance for them and whether they have a place in this tower. “They have repentance,” she says, “but they cannot fit into this tower.

5Rather, they will fit in another place, much smaller; and this will be when they have been tormented and have completed the days of their sins. And for this reason they will be transferred, because they have shared in the word of the righteous one. And then it will happen that they are transferred from their torments, if the evil deeds they have done come up into their heart. But if they do not come up into their heart, they are not saved because of their hardness of heart.”