The Second Epistle of Clement to the Corinthians

Let us then contend that we may all be crowned.

Let us run the straight course, the immortal contest, and let many of us sail to it, and contend, that we may also receive the crown, and if we cannot all receive the crown, let us at least come near to it.

We must remember that if he who takes part in the contest for a corruptible prize be detected in unfairness, he is flogged, taken up, and thrown off the course.

What do you think? What shall he suffer who cheats in the contest for that which is incorruptible?

For of those who have not kept the seal of baptism he says:—Their worm shall not die, and their fire shall not be quenched, and they shall lie a spectacle for all flesh.

Let us repent then while we are on the earth.[*](Call to repentance and purity)

For we are clay in the hand of the workman; for just as the potter, if he make a vessel, and it be bent or broken in his hand, models it afresh, but if he has come so far as to put it into the fiery oven, he can do nothing to mend it any more; so also let us, so long as we are in this world, repent with all our heart of the wicked deeds which we have done in the flesh, that we may be saved by the Lord, while we have a time for repentance.

For after we have departed from this world, we can no longer make confession, or repent any more in that place.

So then, brethren, if we do the will of the Father, if we keep the flesh pure, and if we observe the commandments of the Lord, we shall obtain eternal life.

For the Lord says in the Gospel, If ye did not guard that which is small, who shall give you that which is great? For I tell you that he who is faithful in that which is least, is faithful also in that which is much.

He means, then, this:— Keep the flesh pure, and the seal of baptism undefiled, that we may obtain eternal life.