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;[296] 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[297] course, even the race that is incorruptible; and let us in great numbers set out[298] 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[299] that he who strives in the corruptible contest, if he be found acting unfairly,[300] 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[301] [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.”[302] 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.”[303] This, then, is what He means: “Keep the flesh holy and the seal undefiled, that [304]ye may receive eternal life.”[305] CHAP. IX.—_We shall be judged in the flesh._