24. For many will seek to enter This was added, that we might not be deceived by a vain hope, as if the multitude of our companions would be of any avail to us. The flesh is willing to flatter itself, and many who now give themselves every indulgence, promise to themselves an easy entrance into life. Thus men practice mutual deception on each other, and fall asleep in wicked indifference. To shake off from his own people those flattering hopes, Christ declares that those who calculate that their possession of life is already certain, will be shut out. (473)
(473) Our author appears to have become apprehensive that this language was ambiguous, and, lest it might be interpreted differently from what he intended, he has taken care to insert in the French Version an explanatory clause: “ que ceux qui se font accroire qu'ils sont desia tout asseurez de la vie eternelle, et cheminent a leur plaisir sans souci, en seront rejettez;” —”that those who make themselves believe that they are already perfectly assured of eternal life, and walk on at their pleasure without concern, will be excluded from it.” — Ed.