may be crowned. And should we not all be able to obtain the crown, let us at least come near to it. We must remember[1] that he who strives in the corruptible contest, if he be found acting unfairly,[2] is taken away and scourged, and cast forth from the lists. What then think ye? If one does anything unseemly in the incorruptible contest, what shall he have to bear? For of those who do not preserve the seal[3] [unbroken], [the Scripture] saith, "Their worm shall not die, and their fire shall not be quenched, and they shall be a spectacle to all flesh."[4]
Chap. viii.—The necessity of repentance while we are on earth.
As long, therefore, as we are upon earth, let us practise repentance, for we are as clay in the hand of the artificer. For as the potter, if he make a vessel, and it be distorted or broken in his hands, fashions it over again; but if he have before this cast it into the furnace of fire, can no longer find any help for it: so let us also, while we are in this world, repent with our whole heart of the evil deeds we have done in the flesh, that we may be saved by the Lord, while we have yet an opportunity of repentance. For after we have gone out of the world, no further power of confessing or repenting will there belong to us. Wherefore, brethren, by doing the will of the Father, and keeping the flesh holy, and observing the commandments of the Lord, we shall obtain eternal life. For the Lord saith in the Gospel, "If ye have not kept that which was small, who will commit to you the great? For I say unto you, that he that is faithful in that which is least, is faithful also in much."[5] This, then, is what He means: "Keep the flesh holy and the seal undefiled, that [6]ye may receive eternal life."[7]
- ↑ Literally, "know."
- ↑ Literally, "if he be found corrupting."
- ↑ Baptism is probably meant.
- ↑ Isa. lxvi. 24.
- ↑ Comp. Luke xvi. 10–12.
- ↑ MS. has "we," which is corrected by all editors as above.
- ↑ Some have thought this a quotation from an unknown apocryphal book, but it seems rather an explanation of the preceding words.
