27. But now, beloved brethren, lest any one should think that I have placed all salvation in no other condition than in martyrdom, let him first of all look especially at this, that it is not I who seem to speak, that am of so great importance, nor is the order of things so arranged that the promised hope of immortality should depend on the strength of a partial advocacy. But since the Lord has testified with His own mouth, that in the Father’s possession are many dwellings, I have believed that there is nothing greater than that glory whereby those men are proved who are unworthy of this worldly life. Therefore, beloved brethren, striving with a religious rivalry, as if stirred up with some incentive of reward, let us submit to all the abundance and the endurance of strength.  For things passing away ought not to move us, seeing that they are always being pressed forward to their own overthrow, not only by the law proposed to them, but even by the very end of time. John exclaims, and says, “Now is the axe laid to the root of the tree;”23    Matt. iii. 10. [Elucidation II.] showing, to wit, and pointing out that it is the last old age of all things.  Moreover, also, the Lord Himself says, “Walk while ye have the light, lest the darkness lay hold upon you.”24    John xii. 35. But if He has foretold that we must walk in that time, certainly He shows that we must at any rate walk.

0801B XXVII. Nunc vero, charissimi fratres, ne quis me arbitretur omnem salutem non alio statu quam in martyrio collocasse, hoc primo profecto respiciat, neque me tantum esse qui loqui videor, neque ita se habere ordinem rerum, ut immortalitatis spes repromissa unius partis latere nitatur. Sed, quoniam ita Dominus suo ore testatus est, esse habitacula penes patrem multa, nihil majus credidi ea gloria qua probantur hi homines qui saeculari indigni sunt vita . Igitur, charissimi fratres, aemula religione certantes, velut incentivo quodam mercedis agitati , omnem virium copiam tolerantiamque subeamus. Non enim movere nos debent caduca, quae semper in eversionem suam, non modo lege proposita, sed etiam ipso fine temporis urgentur. Exclamat Joannes et dicit: 0801C Jam securis ad radicem arboris posita est (Joan. XII, 35), monstrans scilicet et ostendens ultimam esse rerum omnium senectutem. Sed et ipse Dominus: Ambulate, inquit, dum lucem habetis, ne vos tenebrae comprehendant (Matth. III, 10). Quod si illo tempore ambulandum nobis esse praedixit, utique ut nos magis ambularemus ostendit.