CORNELL UNIVERSITY LIBRARY GIFT FROM
Alfred C. Barnes
The original of this book is in the Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text.
http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924029308503
THE
FOURTH BOOK
OF MACCABEES:
CONTAINING
REFLECTIONS ON RELIGIOUS PRINCIPLE: LIKEWISE, AN ACCOUNT OF HELIODORUS’ ATTEMPT TO PLUNDER THE TEMPLE: AND THE HISTORY OF ELEAZAR AND THE SEVEN BRETHREN PERSECUTED EVEN TO DEATH FOR THEIR ADHERENCE TO RELIGION.
CHAPTER XVIII
B.C. 167
The victorious result of their constancy. The mother” speech to her children.
O YE Israelites, descendants of the seed of Abraham, obey this law, and in every way observe religion. Knowing that religious principle is lord over the passions: and not only over troubles from within, but likewise over those which are from without.
By which means those youths, exposing their lives to sufferings for religion, not only were admired by men, but also were deemed worthy of a divine inheritance. And through them the nation obtained peace; and having reestablished in the country the wholesome observance of the laws, it effectually dislodged its enemies. And the tyrant Antiochus was both punished-on earth, and now after his death is still enduring punishment. For, when he could by no means prevail so far as to compel the inhabitants of Jerusalem to adopt Gentile customs a, and to live in a manner strange b to the usages of their country he forthwith departed from Jerusalem c and led his army against the Persians. [B. C. 166.]
d That righteous woman, the mother of the seven young men, said thus also to her children;
” I formerly was a pure virgin and did not go out from my father’s house; but kept within e the walled building. No ravisher, the despoiler of unprotected innocence, ruined me in the field f :nor did the seducer, the deceitful serpentg, corrupt my virginity:”
“but I remained with a husband during the flower of my age. And when these my children had grown up, their father died: happy indeed was he: for having passed ” a life of abundance of fine children, he escaped the painful period of being deprived h of them. Who, while he was yet with you, used to teach you the law and the prophets. And he read to us of Abel, who was murdered by Cain: and of Isaac, who was offered for a burnt offering: and of Joseph, who was in prison. He told us also of the zealous Phineas: and he taught you the story Ananias, Azarias, and Misael. And he used to glorify Daniel, who was in the den of lions; whom also he pronounced blessed. And he reminded you of the scripture of Esaias i ” which says, ‘ When thou walkest through the fire, the flame shall not burn thee.’ He chanted ” to you David k the writer of the hymns, who says, ‘Many are the afflictions of the righteous, and the Lord shall deliver him out of all.’ He recited to us the Proverbs of Solomon, who saithl,”
” ‘ He is a tree of life to all those who do his will.’ He bare witness to Ezechiel m, who saith, ‘ Shall these dry bones live?’ For he did not forget the song which Moses taught n, which teaches and saith; ‘ I will kill, and I will make alive. This is your life, and the prolonging o of your ” days.’”
O ! bitter was that day, yet not bitter p, when the bitter tyrant of the Gentiles kindled the fire under his savage caldrons, and with boiling fury brought to the catapults and to all his torments the seven sons of the daughter of Abraham. Their eyeballs he blinded; and their tongues he cut out; and he slew them with various torments. For which deeds Divine Justice pursued, and will pursue, the accursed sinner. But the sons of Abraham, with their victorious mother, are gathered together to the land of their fathers, having received again pure and immortal souls from God. To whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.
END OF BOOK IV.
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