of sin, forgiveness of sin, and
righteousness, in Clement, Barnabas, Polycarp and Ignatius, gives place
to Pauline formulae; but the uncertainty with which these are reproduced,
shews that the Pauline idea has not been clearly seen.[210] In Hermas,
however, and in the second Epistle of Clement, the consciousness of
being under grace, even after baptism, almost completely disappears
behind the demand to fulfil the tasks which baptism imposes.[211] The
idea that serious sins, in the case of the baptised, no longer should or
can be forgiven, except under special circumstances, appears to have
prevailed in wide circles, if not everywhere.[212] It reveals the
earnestness of those early Christians and their elevated sense of
freedom and power; but it might be united either with the highest moral
intensity, or with a lax judgment on the little sins of the day. The
latter, in point of fact, threatened to become more and more the
presupposition and result of that idea--for there exists here a fatal
reciprocal action.

_Supplement_ 2.--The realisation of salvation--as [Greek: basileia tou
theou] and as [Greek: aphtharsia]--being expected from the future, the
whole present possession of salvation might be comprehended under the
title of vocation ([Greek: klesis]) see, for example, the second Epistle
of Clement. In this sense _gnosis_ itself was regarded as something only
preparatory.

_Supplement_ 3.--In some circles the Pauline formula about righteousness
and salvation by faith alone, must, it would appear, not infrequently
(as already in the Apostolic age itself) have been partly misconstrued,
and partly taken advantage of as a cloak for laxity. Those who resisted
such a disposition, and therefore also the formula in the post-Apostolic
age, shew indeed by their opposition how little they have hit upon or
understood the Pauline idea of faith: for they not only issued the
watchword "faith and works" (though the Jewish ceremonial law was not
thereby meant), but they admitted, and not only hypothetically, that one
might have the true faith even though in his case that faith remained
dead or united with immorality. See, above all, the Epistle of James and
the Shepherd of Hermas; though the first Epistle of John comes also into
consideration (III. 7: "He that doeth righteousness is righteous").[213]

_Supplement_ 4.--However similar the eschatological expectations of the
Jewish Apocalyptists and the Christians may seem, there