About this time also began Jesus to speak less of the Kingdom of God and more of a certain Eternal Life, which, as he said, the righteous and none other should attain. Some would have it that he changed his words, only for fear of the Romans, lest they should suspect his often mention of the Kingdom of God, and lay hands upon him as one aiming to be king; and these men said that Eternal Life signified the Kingdom of God, though in different words. And perchance it did signify the same thing: howbeit Jesus changed not his words for fear, but partly, as I judge, because the covetousness of the people weighed upon him, and because he perceived them to be wholly given up to the lusts of the flesh, insomuch that they were even as dead, and content to lie in the valley of the shadow of death. For ever as Jesus drew nearer to Jerusalem, the sins of the people seemed to weigh heavier upon his soul, and death and destruction seemed to grow larger in his eyes; insomuch that now he desired to exhort the people not so much to enter into the Kingdom, as rather to flee from death unto life. Yea, so exceedingly did he fear the power of Satan to slay the souls of men, that about this time, when a certain disciple desired to have left him for a season to bury his father, Jesus would have the young man still continue with him, saying that the dead should bury their own dead. Howbeit, though we understood this afterwards, we perceived it not at the time; but whensoever Jesus spake of Eternal Life, then we would interpret the words still to signify the setting up of his Kingdom in Jerusalem.