Chapter VI.--The Present and Future Worlds are Enemies to Each Other.
Now the Lord declares, "No servant can serve two masters." [4360] If we desire, then, to serve both God and mammon, it will be unprofitable for us. "For what will it profit if a man gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?" [4361] This world and the next are two enemies. The one urges [4362] to adultery and corruption, avarice and deceit; the other bids farewell to these things. We cannot, therefore, be the friends of both; and it behoves us, by renouncing the one, to make sure [4363] of the other. Let us reckon [4364] that it is better to hate the things present, since they are trifling, and transient, and corruptible; and to love those [which are to come,] as being good and incorruptible. For if we do the will of Christ, we shall find rest; otherwise, nothing shall deliver us from eternal punishment, if we disobey His commandments. For thus also saith the Scripture in Ezekiel, "If Noah, Job, and Daniel should rise up, they should not deliver their children in captivity." [4365] Now, if men so eminently righteous are not able by their righteousness to deliver their children, how [4366] can we hope to enter into the royal residence [4367] of God unless we keep our baptism holy and undefiled? Or who shall be our advocate, unless we be found possessed of works of holiness and righteousness?
[4360] Matt. vi. 24; Luke xvi. 13.
[4361] Matt. xvi. 26. I. omits holon (whole).
[4362] Literally, "speaks of."
[4363] Or, "enjoy. "
[4364] The ms. has, "we reckon."
[4365] Ezek. xiv. 14, 20.
[4366] Literally, "with what confidence shall we."
[4367] Wake translates "kingdom," as if the reading had been basileian ; but the ms. has basileion, "palace."
Chapter VII.--We Must Strive in Order to Be Crowned.
Wherefore, then, my brethren, let us struggle with all earnestness, knowing that the contest is [in our case] close at hand, and that many undertake long voyages to strive for a corruptible reward; [4368] yet all are not crowned, but those only that have laboured hard and striven gloriously. Let us therefore so strive, that we may all be crowned. Let us run the straight [4369] course, even the race that is incorruptible; and let us in great numbers set out [4370] for it, and strive that we 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 [4371] that he who strives in the corruptible contest, if he be found acting unfairly, [4372] 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 [4373] [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." [4374]
[4368] Literally, "that many set sail for corruptible contests," referring probably to the concourse at the Isthmian games.
[4369] Or, "Let us place before us."
[4370] Or, "set sail."
[4371] Literally, "know."
[4372] Literally, "if he be found corrupting."
[4373] Baptism is probably meant.
[4374] Isa. lxvi. 24.
Chapter 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." [4375] This, then, is what He means: "Keep the flesh holy and the seal undefiled, that [4376] ye may receive eternal life."
[4375] Comp. Luke xvi. 10-12.
[4376] ms. has "we," which is corrected by all editors as above. I. apolabete.
[4377] Some have thought this a quotation from an unknown apocryphal book, but it seems rather an explanation of the preceding words.