Exhortation to Martyrdom, Addressed to Fortunatus

It is shown: The idols of the nations are silver and gold, the works of men's hands. They have a mouth and speak not, they have eyes and see not, they have ears and hear not. For there is no spirit in their mouth. Let those who make them become like unto them. Likewise in the Wisdom of Solomon: All the idols of the nations they have esteemed as gods; which have neither the use of eyes for seeing, nor nostrils for receiving breath, nor ears for hearing, nor fingers on their hands for handling, but even their feet are slow for walking. For a man made them, and one who had borrowed spirit fashioned them. But no man can fashion for himself a god like himself: for since he is mortal, he fashions a dead thing with wicked hands. But he himself is better than those whom he worships, since he indeed has lived, but they never. Likewise in Exodus: You shall not make for yourself an idol nor the likeness of anything.

Likewise in Solomon concerning the elements: Neither attending to his works did they acknowledge who was the artificer, but they thought that either fire, or wind, or swift air, or the circle of stars, or the great water, or the sun or the moon were gods. Of whom if they esteemed this on account of their beauty, let them know how much more beautiful than these the Lord is. Or if they marveled at their powers and works, let them understand from these things that he who established these things with strength is mightier than they.

As it is written: You shall worship the Lord your God, and him alone shall you serve. Likewise in Exodus: You shall have no other gods before me. Likewise there: See, see that I am, and there is no God besides me. I will kill and I will make alive, I will strike and I will heal, and there is none who can deliver out of my hands. Likewise in the Apocalypse: And I saw another Angel flying in the midst of heaven, having the eternal Gospel, to announce it over the earth and over all nations and tribes and tongues and peoples, saying with a loud voice: Fear God rather, and give glory to him, for the hour of his judgment has come; and worship him who made heaven and earth and the sea and all things that are in them.

So also the Lord in the Gospel makes mention of the first and second commandment, saying: Hear, O Israel, the Lord your God is one God; and: You shall love your Lord with your whole heart and with your whole soul and with your whole strength. This is the first, and the second is like to it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments the whole law and the Prophets depend. And again: But this is eternal life, that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.

In Exodus: He who sacrifices to gods shall be rooted out, unless it be to the Lord alone. Likewise in Deuteronomy: They sacrificed to demons, and not to God. Likewise in Isaiah: They have worshipped those whom their own fingers have made, and man is bowed down, and man is humbled, and I will not forgive them. And again: To them you have poured out libations, and to them you have offered sacrifices. Shall I not be angry at these things, says the Lord? Likewise in Jeremiah: Walk not after strange gods to serve them, and worship them not, and provoke me not to anger by the works of your hands, to destroy you.

Likewise in the Apocalypse: If anyone worships the beast and its image, and receives its name on his forehead or on his hand, he also shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God mixed in the cup of his anger, and shall be punished with fire and brimstone before the eyes of the holy Angels and before the eyes of the Lamb: and the smoke of their torments shall ascend for ages of ages; nor shall they have rest day or night, whosoever worship the beast and its image.

Moses in Exodus prays for the people, and does not obtain it. I beseech you, he says, O Lord, this people has sinned a great sin. They have made for themselves gods of gold. And now if you will forgive them their sin, forgive it. But if not, blot me out of the book which you have written. And the Lord said to Moses: Whoever has sinned against me, him will I blot out of my book. Likewise when Jeremiah was interceding for the people, the Lord speaks to him saying: And you, pray not for this people, and make no petition for them in prayer and supplication, for I will not hear them in the time when they shall call upon me, in the time of their affliction.

Ezekiel also announces this same indignation of God against those who sin against God: And it came to pass, he says, that the word of the Lord came to me saying: Son of man, whatever land shall sin against me so as to commit a trespass, I will stretch out my hand upon it, and will break the staff of bread, and will send famine upon it, and will cut off from it man and beast. And if these three men were in the midst of it, Noah, Daniel and Job, they shall not deliver sons or daughters, they alone shall be saved. Likewise in the first book of Kings: If a man sins against a man, they shall pray to the Lord for him. But if a man sins against God, who shall pray for him?

In Deuteronomy: But if your brother, or your son, or your daughter, or your wife who is in your bosom, or your friend who is equal to your own soul, should entreat you secretly, saying: "Let us go and serve strange gods, the gods of the nations;" you shall not consent to him, and you shall not hearken to him, and your eye shall not spare him, and you shall not conceal him, but announcing you shall announce concerning him. Your hand shall be upon him first to kill him, and the hand of all the people last; and they shall stone him and he shall die, because he sought to turn you away from the Lord your God.

And again the Lord speaks and says that not even a city is to be spared, even if it has all consented to idolatry: Or if you shall hear in one of the cities which the Lord your God shall give you to dwell in, men saying: "Let us go and serve strange gods," whom you have not known, killing you shall kill all who are in the city with the edge of the sword, and you shall burn the city with fire, and it shall be without habitation forever. It shall not be rebuilt even now, so that the Lord may turn away from the indignation of his wrath. And he will give you mercy and will have pity on you, and will multiply you, if you shall hearken to the voice of the Lord your God, and shall observe his commandments. Mindful of this precept and its force, Mattathias killed the one who had come forward to sacrifice at the altar.

But if before the coming of Christ these precepts were observed regarding the worship of God and the spurning of idols, how much more are they to be observed after the coming of Christ; since he, coming, not only exhorted us with words, but also with deeds, having suffered and been crucified after all injuries and insults, so that he might teach us by his own example to suffer and to die, so that there may be no excuse for a man who does not suffer for himself, since he suffered for us; and since he suffered for the sins of others, how much more ought each one to suffer for his own sins? And therefore in the Gospel he threatens and says: Whosoever shall confess me before men, I also will confess him before my Father who is in heaven; but whosoever shall deny me before men, I also will deny him before my Father who is in heaven.

Likewise the Apostle Paul: For if we die with him, we shall also live with him: if we endure, we shall also reign with him: if we deny him, he also will deny us. Likewise John: He who denies the Son has not the Father either: he who confesses the Son has both the Son and the Father. Whence the Lord exhorts and strengthens us to contempt of death, saying: Fear not those who kill the body, but cannot kill the soul. But rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell. And again: He who loves his life shall lose it: and he who hates his life in this world shall preserve it unto eternal life.

In the Gospel the Lord speaks and says: He who loves father or mother above me is not worthy of me. And he who loves son or daughter above me is not worthy of me. And he who does not take up his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. So also it is written in Deuteronomy: They who say to father and mother, "I know thee not," and have not acknowledged their sons, these have kept thy precepts and observed thy covenant. Likewise the apostle Paul: Who, he says, shall separate us from the love of Christ? Tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or the sword? As it is written: For thy sake we are killed all the day long, we are counted as sheep for the slaughter; but in all these things we overcome through him who loved us. And again: Ye are not your own: for ye are bought with a great price; glorify and bear God in your body.

And again: Christ died for all, that they also who live should no longer live unto themselves, but unto him who died for them and rose again.

In Exodus, the Jewish people, prefigured as a shadow and image of us, when, with God as their protector and avenger, they had escaped the most grievous bondage of Pharaoh and Egypt, that is, of the devil and the world; faithless and ungrateful toward God, they murmur against Moses, looking back upon the hardships of the wilderness and toil, and not understanding the divine benefits of freedom and salvation, they seek to return to the bondage of Egypt, that is, of the world, from which they had been freed, when they ought rather to have trusted and believed in God; since he who frees his people from the devil and the world protects those he has freed: What hast thou done to us, they say, in bringing us out of Egypt? It is better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in this wilderness.

And Moses said to the people: Have confidence, and stand firm, and behold the salvation which is from the Lord, which he will work for you this day: the Lord himself will fight for you, and ye shall be silent. Warning us of this in his Gospel and teaching us not to return to the devil and the world, which we have renounced and from which we have escaped, the Lord says: No one looking back and putting his hand to the plough is fit for the kingdom of God. And again: And he who is in the field, let him not turn back. Remember Lot's wife. And lest anyone be held back from following Christ by any desire for possessions or by the sweetness of his own people, he adds and says: Whoever does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple.

In Paralipomenon: The Lord is with you, as long as ye also are with him. But if ye forsake him, he will forsake you. Likewise in Ezekiel: The righteousness of the righteous shall not deliver him, in whatsoever day he shall go astray. Likewise in the Gospel the Lord speaks and says: He who shall persevere unto the end, the same shall be saved. And again: If ye abide in my word, ye are truly my disciples, and ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free. Also warning us that we ought always to be ready and to stand prepared firmly in readiness, he adds and says: Let your loins be girded, and your lamps burning; and be ye like men awaiting their lord, when he shall return from the wedding feast; that when he comes and knocks, they may open to him. Blessed are those servants whom the lord, when he comes, shall find watching.

Likewise the blessed apostle Paul, that our faith may advance and grow and reach its highest point, exhorts us saying: Know ye not that they who run in the stadium all run, yet one receives the palm? So run that ye may obtain. And they indeed that they may receive a corruptible crown, but ye an incorruptible one. And again: No man who serves as a soldier of God entangles himself in the affairs of the world, that he may please him to whom he has proved himself. But also if any man strive, he is not crowned unless he strive lawfully. And again: I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, pleasing to God; and be not conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of the spirit, to prove what is the good and pleasing and perfect will of God.

And again: We are children of God: but if children, then heirs also, heirs indeed of God, and joint heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may also be glorified together. And in the Apocalypse the same exhortation of divine proclamation speaks, saying: Hold fast what thou hast, that no one take thy crown. The example of persevering and remaining steadfast is set forth in Exodus, where Moses, in order to overcome Amalek, who bore the figure of the devil, raised his hands palms upward in the sign and sacrament of the cross. Nor could he overcome the adversary unless he persevered steadfast in the sign with hands continually raised. And it came to pass, it says, when Moses lifted up his hands, Israel prevailed; but when he let down his hands, Amalek grew strong. And they took a stone and placed it under him, and he sat upon it.

And Aaron and Hur supported his hands on either side; and the hands of Moses were made steady until the going down of the sun. And Jesus put Amalek and all his people to flight. And the Lord said to Moses: Write this for a memorial in a book, and deliver it to the ears of Jesus: for I will utterly blot out the memory of Amalek from under heaven.

In Deuteronomy: The Lord your God tempts you, to know whether ye love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength. And again in Solomon: The furnace proves the potter's vessels, and the trial of tribulation proves just men. Paul also bears witness to and speaks the same things, saying: We glory in the hope of the glory of God; and not only so, but we also glory in tribulations, knowing that tribulation works patience, and patience probation, and probation hope: and hope does not confound, because the love of God is poured forth in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who is given to us. And Peter in his Epistle sets down and says: Beloved, be not surprised at the fiery trial that comes upon you, which is for your testing; nor fall away, as though some new thing were happening to you.

But inasmuch as ye share in the sufferings of Christ, rejoice in all things; that when the revelation of his glory is made ye may also rejoice with exultation. If ye are reproached in the name of Christ, blessed are ye, because the name of the majesty and power of the Lord rests upon you: which indeed is blasphemed according to them, but is honoured according to us.

John in his Epistle proves it, saying: Greater is he who is in you than he who is in this world. Likewise: I will not fear what man shall do to me; the Lord is my helper. And again: These in chariots and these on horses, but we will be magnified in the name of the Lord our God. They are bound and have fallen; but we are risen and stand upright. And the Holy Spirit, teaching and showing yet more powerfully that the camps of the devil are not to be feared, and that if the enemy has declared war upon us, our hope rests rather in the very battle itself, and that through that conflict the righteous attain to the reward of the divine seat and eternal salvation, sets down and says: Though an army be arrayed against me, my heart shall not fear; and though war rise up against me, in it will I hope.

One thing have I asked of the Lord, this will I seek, that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life. Likewise in Exodus the divine Scripture declares that we are multiplied and increased rather by afflictions, saying: The more they oppressed them, the more they multiplied and grew exceedingly strong. And in the Apocalypse divine protection is promised to our sufferings: Fear none of those things which thou art about to suffer. Nor does he promise us security and protection otherwise than he who also speaks through the prophet Isaiah, saying: Fear not, for I have redeemed thee, and I have called thee by thy name; thou art mine. And if thou passest through the water, I am with thee, and the rivers shall not overflow thee; and if thou walkest through fire, thou shalt not be burned, and the flame shall not consume thee; for I am the Lord thy God, the Holy One of Israel, who saves thee.

Who also in the Gospel promises that divine aid will not be lacking to the servants of God in persecutions, saying: But when they shall deliver you up, be not anxious how or what ye shall speak; for it shall be given you in that hour what ye shall speak: for it is not ye who speak, but the Spirit of your Father who speaks in you. And again: Lay it up in your hearts not to premeditate how to answer; for I will give you a mouth and wisdom which all your adversaries shall not be able to resist. As in Exodus God speaks to Moses when he hesitated and trembled to go to the people, saying: Who gave a mouth to man? And who made the dumb? And who the deaf? And who the seeing and the blind? Is it not I, the Lord God? And now go, and I will open thy mouth, and instruct thee what thou shalt speak.

Nor is it difficult for God to open the mouth of a man devoted to him, and to inspire his confessor with constancy and confidence in speaking, since in Numbers he even made an ass speak against the prophet Balaam. Wherefore in persecutions let no one think upon the danger which the devil brings, but rather let him consider what help God affords; and let not human hostility weaken the mind, but let divine protection strengthen faith: since each one, according to the promises of the Lord and the merits of his own faith, receives as much of God's help as he believes he will receive; nor is there anything which the Almighty cannot grant, unless the wavering faith of the recipient has failed.

The Lord forewarns and foretells in the Gospel, saying: If the world hateth you, know that it hated me before you. If you were of the world, the world would love what is its own: but because you are not of the world, and I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you. Remember the word which I said unto you: The servant is not greater than his lord: if they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you. And again: The hour will come that whosoever killeth you will think that he doeth a service to God: but these things they will do, because they have not known the Father nor me. But these things I have spoken unto you, that when the hour shall come, you may remember them, because I told you. And again: Amen amen I say to you, that you shall weep and lament, but the world shall rejoice: you shall be sorrowful, but your sorrow shall be turned into joy.

And again: These things I have spoken to you, that in me you may have peace, but in the world you shall have distress: but have confidence, because I have overcome the world. And when he was asked by his disciples concerning the sign of his coming and of the consummation of the world, he answered and said: Take heed that no man seduce you; for many will come in my name saying: I am Christ; and they will seduce many. And you shall begin to hear of wars and rumours of wars: see that you be not troubled: for these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet. For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom; and there shall be famines and earthquakes and pestilences in divers places; but all these things are the beginnings of sorrows. Then shall they deliver you up to tribulation, and shall put you to death; and you shall be hated by all nations for my name's sake.

And then shall many be scandalized, and shall betray one another and shall hate one another. And many false prophets shall rise and shall seduce many: and because iniquity shall abound, the charity of many shall grow cold. But he that shall persevere to the end, he shall be saved. And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in the whole world, for a testimony to all nations, and then shall the end come. When therefore you shall see the abomination of desolation, which was spoken of by Daniel the prophet, standing in the holy place (he that readeth let him understand), then they that are in Judea, let them flee to the mountains; and he that is on the housetop, let him not come down to take any thing out of his house; and he that is in the field, let him not go back to take his coat. And woe to them that are with child and that give suck in those days! But pray that your flight be not in the winter or on the sabbath.

For there shall be then great tribulation, such as hath not been from the beginning of the world until now, neither shall be: and unless those days had been shortened, no flesh should be saved; but for the sake of the elect those days shall be shortened. Then if any man shall say to you: Lo here is Christ, or there, do not believe him. For there shall arise false Christs and false prophets: and they shall show great signs and wonders, insomuch as to deceive, if possible, even the elect. But take heed, behold I have foretold you all things. If therefore they shall say to you: Behold he is in the desert, go ye not out; behold he is in the closets, believe it not. For as lightning cometh forth from the East, and appeareth even to the West, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be. Wheresoever the body shall be, there shall the eagles also be gathered together.

And immediately after the tribulation of those days the sun shall be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of heaven shall be moved. And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven, and then shall all tribes of the earth mourn: and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with great power and glory. And he shall send his angels with a great trumpet. And they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from the farthest parts of the heavens to the utmost bounds of them. Nor are these things which now befall Christians new or sudden, since the good and just, devoted to God by the law of innocence and the fear of true religion, have always walked through tribulations and injuries and the grievous and manifold punishments of persecutions along the difficulty of the narrow way.

Thus from the very origin of the world, Abel the just is first slain by his brother: and Jacob is put to flight, and Joseph is sold, and king Saul persecutes the merciful David, and king Ahab strives to crush Elijah who boldly and bravely asserts the majesty of God; Zacharias the priest is slain in the midst of the temple and the altar, so that he who offered sacrifices to God there might himself become a sacrifice. So many martyrdoms of the just so often celebrated, so many examples of faith and virtue set forth for posterity. Three youths, Ananias, Azarias, and Misahel, equal in age, united in love, steadfast in faith, constant in virtue, stronger than the flames and punishments pressing upon them, proclaim that they serve God alone, know God alone, worship God alone, saying: King Nebuchadnezzar, we have no need to answer thee concerning this matter.

For there is a God whom we serve, who is able to deliver us from the furnace of burning fire, and he will deliver us out of thy hands, O king. But if not, be it known to thee that we do not serve thy gods, and the golden image which thou hast set up we do not adore. And Daniel, devoted to God and full of the Holy Spirit, cries out and says: I worship nothing but the Lord my God, who created heaven and earth. Tobias also, though under royal and tyrannical bondage, yet free in mind and spirit, preserves his confession to God, and sublimely proclaims the power and majesty of God, saying: I in the land of my captivity confess him, and show his power and majesty to a sinful nation. What then of the Maccabees, seven brothers alike in birth and in the lot of their virtues, filling up the number seven with the mystery of perfect consummation?

So the seven brothers cleave together in martyrdom, as the first seven days in the divine ordering contain seven thousand years, as the seven Spirits and seven Angels who stand and minister before the face of God, and the seven-branched lampstand in the tabernacle of witness, and in the Apocalypse the seven golden candlesticks, and in Solomon the seven pillars upon which Wisdom built her house: so likewise here the number of seven brothers, embracing the seven Churches by the measure of their number, according to what we read in the first book of Kings, that the barren hath borne seven. And in Isaiah: Seven women shall take hold of one man, and ask that his name be called upon them. And the apostle Paul, who is mindful of this lawful and fixed number, writes to seven Churches. And in the Apocalypse the Lord directs his divine commands and heavenly precepts to seven Churches and their angels, which number is now found here in the brothers, so that the lawful consummation may be fulfilled.

With the seven children the mother, their origin and root, is plainly joined; she who afterwards bore the seven Churches, herself the first and one, founded upon Peter by the voice of the Lord. Nor is it without meaning that in the sufferings the mother is alone with her children: for martyrs, who testify themselves to be sons of God in their passion, are henceforth reckoned as having no father but God; as the Lord teaches in the Gospel, saying: Call no man your father upon earth, for one is your Father who is in heaven. But what proclamations of confession did they utter, what illustrious and great proofs of faith did they give!

King Antiochus, hostile, or rather in Antiochus the Antichrist expressly figured, sought to defile with the pollution of swine's flesh the glorious mouths of the martyrs, invincible in the spirit of confession; and when he had beaten them severely with scourges and could make no progress, he ordered frying-pans to be heated: and when these were heated and blazing, he commanded that he who had spoken first, and had provoked the king the more by the constancy of his virtue and faith, should be brought forward and fried, after his tongue, which had confessed God, had first been drawn out and cut off: which befell the martyr more gloriously; for the tongue that had confessed the name of God ought itself to go first to God. Afterwards in the second, with more cruel torments devised, before he tortured the other members, he stripped off the skin of the head together with the hair, with manifest hatred.

For since Christ is the head of man, and God is the head of Christ, he who mangled the head in the martyr was persecuting God and Christ in the head. But that one, trusting in his martyrdom and promising himself the reward of resurrection from the recompense of God, cried out and said: Thou indeed, being powerless, destroyest us out of this present life: but the King of the world will raise us up, who die for his laws, in the resurrection of eternal life. The third, when asked for his tongue, quickly put it forth: for he had already learned from his brother to despise the punishment of having the tongue cut out; he also steadfastly stretched out his hands to be cut off, greatly blessed by this kind of torment, to whom it fell, with hands stretched out for punishment, to imitate the likeness of the Lord's passion.

The fourth likewise, despising the torments with equal virtue, and answering the king with a heavenly voice to rebuke him, cried out and said: It is better, being put to death by men, to look for hope from God to be raised up again by him to life eternal: for as for thee, thou shalt have no resurrection to life. The fifth, besides that he trampled down the king's butchery and the harsh and varied tortures with the vigour of faith, was also animated by the spirit of divinity to foreknowledge and awareness of things to come, and prophesied to the king the wrath of God and the vengeance that would swiftly follow: Thou, said he, having power among men, though thou art corruptible, doest what thou wilt. But think not that our nation is forsaken by God. Abide and see his great power, in what manner he will torment thee and thy seed.

How great a consolation was this to the martyr, how great a comfort, in his own torments not to think of his own sufferings, but to foretell the punishments of his torturer! In the sixth, moreover, not virtue alone but also humility is to be praised; that the martyr claimed nothing for himself, nor paraded the honour of his confession with proud words, but rather ascribed to his own sins the fact that he suffered persecution from the king; yet gave to God that he would afterwards be avenged. He taught that martyrs should be modest, should trust in vengeance, and boast of nothing in their passion: Be not deceived in vain, said he, for we suffer these things for ourselves, having sinned against our God. But thou, think not that thou shalt escape unpunished, who hast attempted to fight against God.

Admirable also was the mother, who, broken neither by the weakness of her sex nor moved by manifold bereavement, willingly watched her children dying, and counted not those sufferings of her dear ones as punishments but as glories, offering so great a martyrdom to God by the virtue of her eyes as her sons had offered by the torments and passion of their members: when six had been punished and slain and one of the brothers remained, to whom the king promised riches and power and many things, that his cruelty and ferocity might be soothed by the comfort of at least one subdued, and he asked that the mother would join him in entreating the son to yield; she entreated indeed, but as befitted the mother of martyrs, as befitted one mindful of the law and of God, as befitted one who loved her sons not tenderly but bravely.

She entreated indeed, but that he should confess God: she entreated that a brother should not be separated from his brothers in the fellowship of praise and glory: then reckoning herself the mother of seven sons, if it should fall to her lot to have borne seven sons to God rather than to the world. Arming him therefore and strengthening him, and then bringing forth her son in a more blessed birth, she said: Son, have pity upon me, who carried thee in the womb ten months, and gave thee suck three years, and nourished thee, and brought thee up to this age. I beseech thee, son, look upon heaven and earth; and having seen all that is in them, understand that God made them out of nothing, and the race of men likewise. Therefore, son, fear not this tormentor, but being made worthy of thy brothers, receive death, that in that mercy I may receive thee again with thy brothers.

Great is the praise of the mother in her exhortation to virtue, but greater in the fear of God and in the truth of faith, that she promised nothing to herself or to her son from the honour of the six martyrs, nor believed that the prayer of the brothers would profit the salvation of one who denied: she persuaded him rather to become a sharer in the passion, so that on the day of judgment he might be found with his brothers. After this the mother dies together with her children; for nothing else was now fitting, than that she who had borne and made martyrs should be joined to them in fellowship of glory; and that she should herself also follow those whom she had sent before to God.

And lest anyone, upon the occasion of a certificate or of any other thing offered to deceive him, should embrace the evil gift of deceivers, Eleazar also must not be passed over in silence, who, when the opportunity was offered him by the king's ministers that, receiving meat of which he was permitted to eat, he might, in order to circumvent the king, pretend to eat those things which were brought from the sacrifices and unlawful foods, refused to consent to this deceit, saying: that neither his age nor his nobility befitted that pretence whereby others would be scandalized and led into error, supposing that Eleazar, born ninety years ago, had gone over to the manner of foreigners, having abandoned and betrayed the law of God: nor was it worth so much to gain the brief moments of life as to incur eternal punishments by offending God.

But he, long tormented and now placed at the last extremity, when he was lamenting amid blows and torments, groaning said: O Lord, who hast holy knowledge, it is manifest that, whereas I might have been delivered from death, I endure these grievous pains of body under stripes; but in soul I suffer these things willingly for thy fear. A sincere faith truly and a virtue whole and sufficiently pure, not to have thought of king Antiochus but of God the judge; and to have known that it could profit him nothing toward salvation if he mocked and deceived a man, since God, who is the judge of our conscience and alone is to be feared, can neither be mocked at all nor deceived.

If therefore we also, consecrated and devoted to God, live accordingly, if we walk in the ancient and holy footsteps of the just, let us proceed through the same proofs of punishments, through the same martyrdoms of passions; accounting this the greater glory of our time, that whereas the ancient examples are numbered, with the abundance of virtue and faith thereafter overflowing, the Christian martyrs cannot be numbered; as the Apocalypse testifies and says: After this I saw a great multitude, which no man could number, of every nation, and of all tribes and peoples and tongues, standing before the throne and in sight of the Lamb: and they were clothed with white robes, and palms were in their hands, and they cried with a loud voice saying: Salvation to our God who sitteth upon the throne, and to the Lamb. And one of the ancients answered, saying to me: These that are clothed in white robes, who are they, and whence came they? And I said to him: My lord, thou knowest.

And he said to me: These are they who are come out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes, and have made them white in the blood of the Lamb: therefore they are before the throne of God, and serve him day and night in his temple. And if so great and so proven a people of Christian martyrs is shown, let no one think it difficult or arduous to become a martyr, when he sees that the people of martyrs cannot be numbered.

Through Solomon the Holy Spirit showed and foretold, saying: And if they have suffered torments before men, their hope is full of immortality. And having been chastised in a few things, they shall be well rewarded in many, because God tried them, and found them worthy of himself. As gold in the furnace he proved them, and as a whole burnt offering he received them, and in due time there shall be respect had unto them. They shall shine, and shall run to and fro like sparks among the stubble. They shall judge nations and have dominion over peoples, and their Lord shall reign for ever.

Likewise in the same author our vindication is described, and the repentance of those who persecute and assail us is foretold: Then, he says, shall the righteous stand with great constancy against those who have afflicted them, and who have taken away their labours: seeing this they shall be troubled with terrible fear, and shall marvel at the suddenness of unexpected salvation, saying among themselves, repenting and groaning for anguish of spirit: These are they whom we had sometime in derision and as a byword of reproach. We fools accounted their life madness and their end without honour. How then are they numbered among the children of God, and their lot is among the saints! Therefore we have erred from the way of truth, and the light of righteousness hath not shone unto us, and the sun of righteousness rose not upon us. We wearied ourselves in the way of wickedness and destruction, and we have walked through hard wildernesses, but the way of the Lord we knew not. What hath pride profited us?

Or what advantage hath the boasting of riches brought us? All those things are passed away like a shadow. Likewise the worth and reward of suffering is shown: Precious, he says, in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints. Likewise, the sorrow of conflict and the joy of recompense is expressed: They that sow, he says, in tears shall reap in joy. Going they went and wept, casting their seeds: but coming they shall come with exultation, bearing their sheaves. And again: Blessed are the undefiled in the way, who walk in the law of the Lord. Blessed are they that search out his testimonies, that seek him with their whole heart. Likewise the Lord in the Gospel, himself the avenger of our persecution and the rewarder of our suffering: Blessed, he says, are they who have suffered persecution for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

And again: Blessed shall ye be when men shall hate you, and shall separate you, and shall cast you out, and shall speak evil of your name as wicked, for the Son of man's sake. Rejoice in that day and leap for joy: for behold your reward is great in heaven. And again: Whosoever shall lose his life for my sake, he shall save it. Nor do the rewards of the divine promise await only those who have been punished and slain, but even if suffering itself be lacking to the faithful, yet if faith has remained whole and unconquered, and a Christian has shown that, despising and forsaking all his own things, he follows Christ, he too is honoured by Christ among the martyrs, Christ himself promising and saying: There is no man who leaveth house or field, or parents or brethren, or wife or children for the kingdom of God, and shall not receive sevenfold in this present time, and in the world to come life everlasting.

Likewise in the Apocalypse he speaks the same thing: And I saw, he says, the souls of those slain for the name of Jesus and the word of God: and when he had first placed the slain in the foremost position, he added, saying: And whosoever have not adored the image of the beast, nor received the inscription on their forehead or in their hand; all of whom he joins together as seen by him in the same place at once, and says: and they lived and reigned with Christ. He says that all live and reign with Christ, not only those who have been slain, but also whosoever, persisting in the firmness of their faith and in the fear of God, have not adored the image of the beast, nor consented to its deadly and sacrilegious edicts.

The blessed apostle Paul proves this, who, caught up by divine favour even to the third heaven and into paradise, testifies that he heard unspeakable words; who glories that he saw Jesus the Lord with the sight of faith; who professes with the greater truth of a conscious witness that which he both learned and saw: The sufferings of this present time, he says, are not worthy to be compared with the coming glory which shall be revealed in us. Who then would not strive with all his powers to attain to so great a glory, that he may become a friend of God, that he may rejoice with Christ immediately, that after earthly torments and punishments he may receive divine rewards?

If it is glorious for soldiers of the world to return to their homeland in triumph with the enemy defeated, how much more excellent and great is the glory to return in triumph to paradise with the devil overcome, and to carry back victorious trophies to the place from which Adam the sinner was cast out, now that he who had previously cast him down is himself prostrated; to offer to God a most acceptable gift, faith undefiled and the strength of mind unimpaired, the glorious praise of devotion; to accompany him when he shall begin to come, about to receive vengeance upon his enemies; to stand at his side when he shall sit to judge; to become a co-heir of Christ; to be made equal to the Angels; to rejoice with the Patriarchs, with the Apostles, with the Prophets in the possession of the heavenly kingdom? What persecution can overcome these thoughts? What torments can surpass them?

The mind, strong and steadfast, grounded in devout meditations, endures, and the spirit remains unmoved against all the terrors and threats of the devil and the world; a mind which a sure and solid faith in things to come strengthens. In persecutions the earth is closed, but heaven lies open: Antichrist threatens, but Christ protects; death is inflicted, but immortality follows; the world is taken away from the slain, but paradise is shown to the restored; temporal life is extinguished, but eternal life is restored. How great is the dignity and how great the security to go forth from hence rejoicing, to go forth glorious amid pressures and straits! To close in a moment the eyes with which men and the world were seen, and to open those same eyes straightway that God and Christ may be seen! How great is the swiftness of so blessed a departure! Thou art suddenly withdrawn from the earth, to be placed in the kingdoms of heaven. These things it is fitting to embrace in mind and thought, to meditate upon day and night.

If persecution shall find such a soldier of God, his virtue ready for battle cannot be overcome. Or if a summons shall have come before, the faith which was prepared for martyrdom shall not be without its reward. The recompense is rendered without loss of time, God being the judge: in persecution, the soldier is crowned; in peace, the conscience is crowned.