1618 verses about Faith

And when he was utterly maimed, the king commanded to bring him to the fire, being yet alive, and to fry him in the pan. And as the vapor of the pan spread far, they and their mother also exhorted one another to die nobly, saying thus:

And when he was at the last gasp, he said, You, miscreant, do release us out of this present life, but the King of the world shall raise up us, who have died for his laws, to an eternal renewal of life.

And after him was the third made a mocking-stock. And when he was required, he quickly put out his tongue, and stretched forth his hands courageously,

and nobly said, From heaven I possess these; and for his laws’ sake I contemn these; and from him I hope to receive these back again:

insomuch that the king himself and those who were with him were astonished at the young man’s soul, for that he nothing regarded the pains.

And next after him they brought the fifth, and shamefully handled him.

But above all was the mother marvelous and worthy of honorable memory; for when she looked on seven sons perishing within the space of one day, she bare the sight with a good courage for the hopes that she had set on the Lord.

But before she had yet ended speaking, the young man said, Whom wait you⌃ for? I obey not the commandment of the king, but I hearken to the commandment of the law that was given to our fathers through Moses.

So he also died pure from pollution, putting his whole trust in the Lord.

But Judas, who is also called Maccabaeus, and those who were with him, making their way privily into the villages, called to them their kinsfolk; and taking to them such as had continued in the Jews’ religion, gathered together as many as six thousand.

For they, said he, trust to arms, and withal to deeds of daring; but we trust on the almighty God, since he is able at a beck to cast down those who are coming against us, and even the whole world.

And moreover he recounted to them the help given from time to time in the days of their ancestors, both the help given in the days of Sennacherib, how that a hundred fourscore and five thousand perished,

And when he had with these words made them of good courage, and ready to die for the laws and their country, he divided his army into four parts;

and moreover Eleazer also: then, having read aloud the sacred book, and having given as watchword, THE HELP OF GOD, leading the first band himself, he joined battle with Nicanor.

For I am persuaded that he in gentleness and kindness will follow my purpose and treat you with indulgence.

And when the dawn was now spreading, the two armies joined battle; the one part having this, beside their virtue, for a pledge of success and victory, that they had fled to the Lord for refuge, the others making their passion their leader in the strife.

But Judas and his company, calling upon the great sovereign of the world, who without rams and cunning engines of war hurled down Jericho in the times of Joshua, rushed wildly against the wall;

and then in the language of his fathers he raised the battle-cry joined with hymns, and rushing unawares upon the troops of Gorgias put them to flight.

But when Judas heard of these things, he gave charge to the multitude to call upon the Lord day and night, beseeching him, if ever at any other time, so now to succour those who were at the point to be deprived of the law and their country and the holy temple,

And having gone apart with the elders he resolved that, before the king’s army should enter into Judea and make themselves masters of the city, they should go forth and try the matter in fight by the help of God.

but Maccabaeus still trusted unceasingly, with all hope that he should obtain help from the Lord.

And he exhorted his company not to be fearful at the inroad of the heathen, but, keeping in mind the help which of old they had oftentimes received from heaven, so now also to look for the victory which would come to them from the Almighty;

and comforting them out of the law and the prophets, and withal putting them in mind of the conflicts that they had maintained, he made them more eager for the battle.

And arming each one of them, not so much with the sure defence of shields and spears as with the encouragement that lies in good words, and moreover relating to them a dream worthy to be believed, he made them all exceeding glad.

And being encouraged by the words of Judas, which were of a lofty strain, and able to incite to virtue and to stir the souls of the young to manly courage, they determined not to carry on a campaign, but nobly to bear down upon the enemy, and fighting hand to hand with all courage bring the matter to an issue, because the city and the sanctuary and the temple were in danger.

Maccabaeus, perceiving the presence of the troops, and the various arms with which they were equipped, and the savageness of the elephants, holding up his hands to heaven called upon the Lord that works wonders, recognising that success comes not by arms, but that, according as the Lord shall judge, he gaineth the victory for those who are worthy.

but Judas and his company joined battle with the enemy with invocation and prayers.

For we had said to the king, that the power of our Lord would be with those who seek him, to support them in all ways.

But I drew his own sword and beheaded him, and removed reproach from the children of Israel.

And you rolled the depths of the sea over him, when he made pursuit with chariots, and with a multitude of followers, and gave a safe passage to those who put their trust in you, the Lord of the whole creation.

A nobler spirit, however, prompted the majority to cling to their religious observances, and by paying money that they might live unmolested, these sought to escape the registration:

O king, how long do you make trial of us, as of men bereft of reason? This is the third time that you have ordered their destruction. When the thing is to be done, you change your mind, and recall your instructions.

When the three friends in the land of Babylon of their own will exposed their lives to the fire rather than serve vain things, you did send a dewy coolness through the fiery furnace, and bring the fire upon all their adversaries.

Your houses will I give to a people that shall come; which not having heard of me yet believe me; they to whom I have showed no signs shall do that which I have commanded.

I take to witness the grace of the people that shall come, whose little ones rejoice with gladness: and though they see me not with bodily eyes, yet in spirit they shall believe the thing that I say.

So he answered and said to me, It is the Son of God, whom they have confessed in the world. Then began I greatly to commend those who stood so stiffly for the name of the Lord.

Nevertheless as concerning the tokens, behold, the days shall come, that they which dwell upon earth shall be taken with great amazement, and the way of truth shall be hidden, and the land shall be barren of faith.

Then said he to me, Just as you can do none of these things that I have spoken of, even so can you not find out my judgement, or the end of the love that I have promised to my people.

and ere the present years were sought out, and or ever the imaginations of those who now sin were estranged, before they were sealed that have gathered faith for a treasure:

and faith shall flourish, and corruption shall be overcome, and the truth, which has been so long without fruit, shall be declared.

but judgement only shall remain, truth shall stand, and faith shall wax strong:

The third way, they shall see the reward laid up for those who have believed the covenants of the Most High.

And everyone that shall be saved, and shall be able to escape by his wotks, or by faith, whereby he has believed,

He that shall endure the peril in that time shall keep those who are fallen into danger, even such as have works, and faith toward the Almighty.

Don’t be afraid of their imaginations against you, don’t let the unbelief of them that speak against you trouble you.

Behold, the word of the Lord, receive it: disbelieve not the things whereof the Lord speaks.

Be you⌃ not afraid, neither doubt; for God is your guide:

But he, though parched with thirst, reasoned that a draught reputed of equal value to blood, would be terribly dangerous to his soul.

And when many had been seized, a foremost man of the assembly, a Hebrew, by name Eleazar, a priest by family, by profession a lawyer, and advanced in years, and for this reason known to many of the king’s followers, was brought near to him.

And indeed, were our law (as you suppose) not truly divine, and if we wrongly think it divine, we should have no right even in that case to destroy our sense of religion.

I am not so old, and void of manliness, but that my rational powers are youthful in defence of my religion.

Why do you unreasonably destroy yourself, O Eleazar, with these miseries?

and be condemned by the tyrant for unmanliness, by not contending to the death for our divine law.

Wherefore do you, O children of Abraham, die nobly for your religion.

in no way shifted the rudder of piety till it sailed into the harbour of victory over death.

Not so has ever a city, when besieged, held out against many and various machines, as did that holy man, when his pious soul was tried with the fiery trial of tortures and rackings, move his besiegers through the religious reasoning that shielded him.

For as father Aaron, armed with a censer, hastening through the consuming fire, vanquished the flame-bearing angel,

And, what is most wonderful, though an old man, though the labors of his body were now spent, and his fibres were relaxed, and his sinews worn out, he recovered youth.

By the spirit of reasoning, and the reasoning of Isaac, he rendered powerless the many-headed instrument.

If, then, an old man, through religion, despised tortures even to death, confessedly religious reasoning is ruler of the passions.

since what person, walking religiously by the whole rule of philosophy, and believing in God,

and knowing that it is a blessed thing to endure all kinds of hardships for virtue, would not, for the sake of religion, master his passion?

Whence it is, that even boys, imbued with the philosophy of religious reasoning, have conquered still more bitter tortures:

Put confidence in me, then, and you shall receive places of authority in my government, if you forsake your national ordinance,

But if aged men of the Hebrews have died in the cause of religion after enduring torture, more rightly should we younger men die, scorning your cruel tortures, which our aged instructor overcame.

Make the attempt, then, O tyrant; and if you put us to death for our religion, think not that you harm us by torturing us.

And the noble youth, extended upon this, became dislocated.

And with every member disjointed, he exclaimed in expostulation,

he answered, Not so powerful, O accursed ministers, is your wheel, as to stifle my reasoning; cut my limbs, and burn my flesh, and twist my joints.

And although the framework of his bones was now destroyed the high-minded and Abrahamic youth did not groan.

after they with the iron hands had violently dragged all the flesh from the neck to the chin, the panther-like beasts tore off the very skin of his head: but he, bearing with firmness this misery, said,

How sweet is every form of death for the religion of our fathers! and he said to the tyrant,

Thinkest you not, most cruel of all tyrants, that you are now tortured more than I, finding your overweening conception of tyranny conquered by our perseverance in behalf of our religion?

Now this one, having endured this praiseworthy death, the third was brought along, and exhorted by many to taste and save his life.

And when he had died, disfigured in his torments, the fifth leaped forward, and said,

With his breath thus confined, and his body strangled, he said,

He also being dead, the sixth, quite a youth, was brought out; and on the tyrant asking him whether he would eat and be delivered, he said,

for having been born and reared to the same end, we are bound to die also in behalf of the same cause.

And he, while tormented, said, O period good and holy, in which, for the sake of religion, we kindred have been called to the contest of pain, and have not been conquered.

For religious understanding, O tyrant, is unconquered.

Your fire is cold to us, your catapelts are painless, and your violence harmless.

When he, too, had undergone blessed martyrdom, and died in the caldron into which he had been thrown, the seventh, the youngest of all, came forward:

And he, after his mother had urged him on in the Hebrew tongue, (as we shall soon relate) says,

And they, rejoicing exceedingly at the promise of the youth, quickly let him go.

And he, running up to the pans, said,

But they, bravely dying, fulfilled their religion towards God.

Thus having prayed, he hurled himself into the pans; and so expired.

so that seven-towered right-reasoning of the young men, securing the harbour of religion, conquered the intermperance of passions.

Let us not be cowards in the manifestation of piety.

And another, Remember of what stock you⌃ are; and by the hand of our father Isaac endured to be slain for the sake of piety.

And one and all, looking on each other serene and confident, said, Let us sacrifice with all our heart our souls to God who gave them, and employ our bodies for the keeping of the law.

And yet, although nature and intercourse and virtuous morals increased their brotherly love those who were left endured to behold their kindred, who were ill-used for their religion, tortured even to death.

For just as hands and feet are moved sympathetically with the directions of the soul, so those holy youths agreed to death for religion’s sake, as through the immortal soul of religion.

But sympathy with her children did not turn away the mother of the young men, who had a spirit kindred with that of Abraham.

The mother, when two things were set before here, religion and the safety of her seven sons for a time, on the conditional promise of a tyrant,

But she inclined each one separately and all together to death for religion.

Although beholding the destruction of seven children, the noble mother, after one embrace, stripped off her feelings through faith in God.

so you, the guardian of the law, when surrounded on every side by the flood of passions, and straitened by violent storms which were the torments of they children, did bear up nobly against the storms against religion.

If, then, even a woman, and that an aged one, and the mother of seven children, endured to see her children’s torments even to death, confessedly religious reasoning is master even of the passions.

But as one possessed with an adamantine mind, and as one bringing forth again her full number of sons to immortality, she rather with supplication exhorted them to death in behalf of religion.