§11#3noli, inquit, frustra errare.
'Do not,' he said, 'err in vain.
nos enim propter nosmet ipsos haec patimur peccantes in Deum nostrum.
For we suffer these things on our own account, sinning against our God.
tu autem ne te existimes inpunitum futurum adgressus pugnare cum Deo. admirabilis quoque mater quae nec sexus infirmitate fracta nec multiplici orbitate commota morientes liberos spectauit libenter nec poenas illas pignerum sed glorias computauit. tam grande martyrium Deo praebens uirtute oculorum suorum quam praebuerant filii eius tormentis et passione membrorum.
But do not think that you shall go unpunished, having undertaken to fight against God.' Admirable also was the mother, who, neither broken by the weakness of her sex nor moved by her manifold bereavement, looked willingly upon her dying children, and reckoned those punishments of her offspring not as losses but as glories; offering to God as great a martyrdom by the virtue of her eyes as her sons had offered by their torments and the passion of their limbs.
cum sex punitis et occisis superesset unus ex fratribus, cui rex diuitias et potentatus et multa pollicebatur ut crudelitas eius ac feritas uel unius subacti solacio foueretur, et peteret ut ad filium deiciendum secum deprecaretur et mater, deprecata est illa, sed ut decebat martyrum matrem, ut decebat legis et Dei memorem, ut decebat filios suos non delicate sed fortiter diligentem.
When six had been punished and slain, and there remained only one of the brothers, to whom the king promised riches and power and many things, so that his cruelty and ferocity might be soothed by the consolation of even one being subdued, and he asked that the mother also would entreat with him to cast down her son, she did entreat, but as became the mother of martyrs, as became one mindful of the law and of God, as became one loving her sons not delicately but strongly.
deprecata est enim, sed ut Deum confiteretur.
For she did entreat, but so that he might confess God.
deprecata est ne a fratribus suis frater in consortio laudis et gloriae separaretur, tunc se septem filiorum conputans matrem, si sibi contingeret filios septem Deo potius peperisse, non saeculo.
She entreated lest the brother should be separated from his brothers in the fellowship of praise and glory, then reckoning herself the mother of seven sons if it should be her lot to have borne seven sons for God rather than for the world.
armans itaque eum et corroborans et feliciore tunc partu filium generans, fili, inquit, miserere mei quae te in utero mensibus decem portaui et lac triennio dedi et alui et in aetatem istam produxi.
Arming him therefore and strengthening him, and then bearing her son with a happier birth, she said: 'My son, have pity on me, who bore you in my womb for ten months, and gave you milk for three years, and nourished you, and brought you up to this age.
oro, fili, aspicias in caelum et terram et omnibus quae in eis sunt aspectis intellegas quia ex nihilo fecit illa Deus et hominum genus ita fit.
I pray you, my son, look upon heaven and earth, and having beheld all things that are in them, understand that God made them out of nothing, and the race of men was made likewise.
nec timeas carnificem istum, sed dignus fratribus effectus excipias mortem, ut in illa miseratione cum fratribus te recipiam. magna laus matris in exhortatione uirtutis, sed maior in Dei timore et in fidei ueritate, quod nihil sibi aut filio de sex martyrum honore promisit nec fratrum precem profuturam credidit ad negantis salutem, persuasit potius participem passionis fieri, ut in iudicii die posset cum fratribus inueniri.
Neither fear this tormentor, but being made worthy of your brothers, accept death, so that in that mercy I may receive you again with your 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, because she promised nothing to herself or to her son from the honor of the six martyrs, nor believed that the prayer of the brothers would profit for the safety of one who denied; she rather persuaded him to become a partaker of the passion, so that in the day of judgment he might be found with his brothers.
post haec liberis suis commoritur et mater: neque enim iam aliud decebat quam ut quae martyras et pepererat et effecerat in consortio illis gloriae iungeretur et quos ad Deum praemiserat ipsa quoque sequeretur.
After these things, the mother also died with her children; for indeed nothing else was now fitting than that she who had both borne and made martyrs should be joined with them in the fellowship of glory, and that she who had sent them before to God should herself also follow.
Ac ne qui uel libelli uel alicuius rei oblata sibi occasione qua fallat amplectatur decipientium malum munus, nec Eleazar tacendus est.
And lest anyone, having an opportunity offered to him either of a certificate or of some other thing by which he might deceive, should embrace the evil gift of those who deceive, neither must Eleazar be passed over in silence.
qui cum sibi a ministris regis offerretur facultas, ut accepta carne qua liceret ei uesci ad circumueniendum regem simularet se illa edere quae de sacrificiis adque inlicitis cibis ingerebantur, consentire ad hanc fallaciam noluit dicens nec aetati suae nec nobilitati conuenire id fingere, quo ceteri scandalizarentur et in errorem inducerentur existimantes Eleazarum nonaginta annos natum ad alienigenarum morem relicta et prodita Dei lege transisse, nec tanti esse lucrari breuia uitae tormenta, ut offenso Deo incurreret aeterna supplicia. adque ille excruciatus diu et in extremo iam constitutus, cum inter uerbera et tormenta moreretur, ingemescens ait: Domine, qui sanctam habes scientiam, manifestum est quia cum possim morte liberari durissimos dolores corporis tolero flagellis uapulans, animo autem propter ipsius metum libenter haec patior. sincera prorsus fides et uirtus integra ac satis pura non regem Antiochum cogitasse sed Deum iudicem et scisse proficere sibi ad salutem non posse, si hominem derideret ac falleret, quando Deus qui conscientiae nostrae iudex est et solus timendus nec derideri possit omnino nec falli.
Who, when opportunity was offered to him by the king's ministers, that, having received meat which it was lawful for him to eat, he should pretend to eat those things which were forced upon him from the sacrifices and unlawful foods to circumvent the king, would not consent to this deceit, saying that it became neither his age nor his nobility to feign this, whereby the rest should be scandalized and led into error, thinking that Eleazar, being ninety years old, had passed over to the custom of foreigners, having left and betrayed the law of God; and that it was not of so much consequence to gain the brief moments of life, as that he should incur eternal punishments from an offended God. And he, having been tortured for a long time, and now being at the very point of death, as he was dying amidst stripes and torments, groaning, said: 'O Lord, who hast holy knowledge, it is manifest that, although I might be delivered from death, I tolerate the most severe pains of body, being beaten with scourges; but in my soul, because of Thy fear, I willingly suffer these things.' A faith entirely sincere, and a virtue complete and sufficiently pure, which did not think of King Antiochus, but of God the Judge, and knew that it could not profit him for salvation if he should mock and deceive man, since God, who is the judge of our conscience and alone to be feared, can neither be mocked at all nor deceived.
Si igitur et nos dicati ac deuoti Deo uiuimus, si supra ipsa iustorum antiqua et sancta uestigia iter facimus, per eadem documenta poenarum, per eadem passionum martyria pergamus, hoc ampliorem gloriam conputantes temporis nostri, quod cum uetera exempla numerentur, exuberante postmodum copia uirtutis ac fidei numerari non possunt martyres christiani testante Apocalypsi et dicente: post haec uidi turbam multam quam dinumerare nemo poterat ex omni gente et ex omni tribu et populo et lingua stantes in conspectu throni et agni: et erant amicti stolas albas et palmae fuerunt in manibus eorum et magno clamore dicebant: salus Deo nostro sedenti super thronum et agno. et respondens unus ex senioribus dicit mihi: qui amicti sunt stolas albas qui sunt et unde uenerunt? et dixi ei: Domine, tu scis. et ait mihi: hi sunt qui uenerunt ex magna tribulatione et lauerunt stolas suas et candidas eas fecerunt in sanguine agni.
If therefore we also live dedicated and devoted to God, if we journey upon those ancient and holy footsteps of the righteous, let us go through the same testimonies of punishments, through the same martyrdoms of passions, reckoning this the more abundant glory of our time, that while ancient examples are numbered, yet, by the afterwards overflowing abundance of virtue and faith, Christian martyrs cannot be numbered, as the Apocalypse testifies and says: 'After this I beheld a great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, 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 unto the Lamb.' And one of the elders answering says to me: 'What are these who are arrayed in white robes, and whence came they?' And I said to him: 'Sir, thou knowest.' And he said to me: 'These are they who came out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.
propter hoc sunt in conspectu honoris Dei [et seruiunt ei in templo eius]. quodsi tantus ostenditur et probatur christianorum martyrum populus, nemo difficile uel arduum putet esse martyrem fieri, quando uideat martyrum populum non posse numerari.
Therefore are they before the presence of the honor of God [and serve Him in His temple].' And if so great a multitude of Christian martyrs is shown and proved, let no one think it to be difficult or arduous to become a martyr, when he sees that the multitude of martyrs cannot be numbered.