not content to have mangled his body after this merciless manner, they dragged him to the wheel, where being yet more distended upon the pins and screws, he saw his several parts burst asunder, his flesh drop off by piece. meals, and his bowels and blood gush out. His tormentors being wearied with their continual applications of cruelty, and nature just exhausted in the heroic youth, he closed this bloody scene with a dreadful prediction of the tyrant's fate: "O wicked and most inhuman of all "tyrants, we suffer thus for the love of God, and his "most righteous law; but thou, who art the cause of "all this injustice and cruelty, shalt suffer endless tor"ments."

The fourth brother being dragged to execution, is persuaded to consider and avoid inevitable destruction, which he saw preparing for him. But he, resolving not to stain the honour of his family, and disgrace the cause of religion by any pusillanimous act, replied, "The sight "of all your tortures in their dismal appearances cannot "affright me to derogate from the noble example of my "brethren. Let thy tortures be as extravagant as thy "malice and cruelty can invent, they shall only serve to prove me a branch of the same stock, and animated "with the very same soul with those whose blood thy

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impious hands have spilt." The barbarous Antiochus was so incensed at this, that he commanded the executioners to cut out his tongue. But the holy youth, not in the least terrified with his threatenings, cried out: "Here "it is ready for thy wicked agents to exercise their "cruelty upon: but know, thou tyrant, that by de"priving me of the use of this organ of speech, thou "canst not make my reason dumb. O that I might, to glorify God, lose my life by inches! But as for thee,

guilt and vengeance will soon overtake thee, who "cuttest out this inoffensive tongue, that hath been em"ployed in making melody, and singing praises to God, "who formed it for that purpose." Then the tormentors cut out his tongue, and tied it to the trunk of his body, which being exhausted with pain, and miserably mangled, he joyfully ended his course.

The fifth brother, eager to obtain his share in this honourable conflict, boldly stepped forward, uncalled for, and offered himself to the torture, addressing the king thus: "Thou seest, most inhuman tyrant, I wait not thy tedious orders, but voluntarily offer myself to the "trial, and dare thy cruelty in the defence of my faith. "The sooner thou dispatchest me, the sooner will my happiness be complete, and thine iniquities make thee ripe for vengeance. Tell me, thou destroyer of mankind, what could provoke thee to torment and murder "the innocent? Is it a crime to serve that God who cre"ated the world? And shall we not worship him by "whom we live, and who hath instituted the methods by "which we are to regulate our lives? In this we defy thy tortures, and despise thy punishments, which will "translate us to a happy eternity, and thee to endless "" torments. At these words the executioners seized, and bound him to the wheel, and drawing the screws strait, they at once dislocated the joints of his limbs and back, so that he twisted round the wheel; and being almost strangled, he thus took his leave: "Thou little "dost imagine, most execrable tyrant, the benefit thy "cruelty procures to us; for the more thou ragest against "us in these unheard of tortures, the more acceptable "dost thou render us to God. This momentary pain will "issue in everlasting rest, and every torture is but an "occasion of exercising our patience."

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The sixth brother being brought forward, the tyrant asked him whether he would accept of deliverance? To which the brave youth replied; " Though I am inferior "in years to my brothers that have suffered before me,

yet is my soul equal in magnanimity to theirs. And "as we were nourished and educated together in the "fear of God, we ought to persist in the same to death. "Think not therefore to terrify or persuade me to relin

quish the glorious cause of religion by the apprehen"sion of torture, for I am ready to suffer as they have "done; and know, that God will support me in the de"fence of a good conscience under the greatest pains "thou canst inflict." Antiochus seeing him thus reso

lute, commands him to be fastened to the wheel; and after having broken and distorted all his bones, they put fire under him. Then the soldiers heated spits and spears red hot, and thrust them into his back and sides, till his bowels were burnt up, while he cried, "O glorious con"flict, in which so many brethren have engaged for their religion, and come off with conquest! I will bear my "brethren company in so noble a death, and add to the "number of plagues due to thee, O wicked inventor of "artful cruelty, and implacable foe of all that adhere to "the true religion! Six of us have now baffled thy ma"lice and rage; for I must needs account thee baffled, "who hast without success attempted to force us from "our duty. Thy fires, methinks, are cold; thy racks easy; and thy guards are now no longer tormentors "and executioners, but defenders and promoters of our "law and its honour, since they assist us in giving testimony to it, and contribute to the triumphs of the religion they are not able to suppress." Having made an end of speaking, and just ready to expire, they dispatched him by casting him into a cauldron of boiling Jiquor.

And now the seventh and youngest brother appeared : whom, when the tyrant saw, fettered and pinioned, though he had been so implacably outrageous against the rest, his hard heart began a little to relent; therefore calling him up to the throne where he sat, he began to try him with soft words and fair means. "You see," said he, "young man, the miserable end to which the rest of your "family have by their own obstinacy brought themselves, "and which will be your fate in a few minutes, if by their example you will not become wiser. But I hope bet"ter things from you; and for an encouragement of your "better behaviour, I make you a generous offer of my “esteem and friendship, and promise to promote you to "places of honour and profit."

Then addressing himself to the mother of these brave youth, who had hitherto been a witness of her children's sufferings, with a pretended compassion for her loss, he

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intreated her to prevail upon her child, in pity to herself at least, to save this small remnant of her family, and not to give herself the affliction of having all her offspring so miserably torn away at once. But she, worthy of the honour of being mother to such godly heroes, whispered thus to her son in the Hebrew language: "In pity to

me, my son, and in honour of thy family; despise "the temptations of the tyrant, and defy his threats. "Look up with hope to that God who made the world, "and who can deliver thee from thy cruel persecutors.

Bravely imitate thy religious brethren, who have "suffered the worst of deaths for their conscience : "fear not the tortures this heathen can inflict; and be "assured that in the day of mercy, which this tyrant "shall never see, I shall receive you all in celestial "embraces."

The godly youth, having with great attention heard the admonition of his pious mother, on a sudden cried out, "Well then, unbind me, and let me apply myself "to the king and his friends that attend about the "throne." The company was overjoyed at this proposal, and immediately let him loose; upon which he ran hastily to the side of the cauldron, and thus addressed himself to the king: "Most impious tyrant! "Hast thou received from the hand of God a king"dom, and so many worldly blessings, and yet with "out the least shame or remorse murderest the friends "and servants of him who thus advanced thee? Is this "the requital thou makest to a bountiful God, to rack "and torture those that worship him, and for no other "reason but because they worship him as he himself "has directed? Be well assured this wickedness will "not be forgotten, nor go unrewarded, for justice will

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pursue thee; and in the mean time lay up in store "for thee torments and fires, not like these, which "quickly consume the body, and put a period to pain, "but such as shall be a store of fire, and pains inex"haustible. Canst thou call thyself a man, thou more "than savage brute, and yet have no regard, no re"lenting for these most exquisite and studied pains,

"which thou inflictest on them who have the same na"ture, the same tender sense of sufferings with thy"self? Is it possible a creature of like matter and form. "should take delight in mangling, burning, flaying, "scourging, killing his fellow creatures? Yet such "thou art; but unlike to us in disposition, and as un"like in thy fate and portion. For we who die to gra"tify thy malice have done our duty, and shall find "favour and happiness with God: but thou, who hast "put us upon the truth of our religion with so much "causeless pain, so undeserved a death, shalt howl "for ever in despair, and be plagued with the bitter reproaches of this sad day's transactions. So dreadful, so "infamous is thy case! so blessed, so glorious my mar"tyred brethren! from whose honours and rewards think "not that either flattery or fear shall exclude me for "know, I aspire to an equality with the best of them, and "think it long till we meet again in the same sufferings "here, and in the same bliss hereafter." With that he cast himself into the cauldron, and expired in the hottest of the fire.

This was the glorious end of these godly heroes, who waded through a sea of the acutest pains to the port of eternal rest. And yet to increase our wonder, and abate that notion of fortitude which men, too partial to themselves, are apt to boast of, as the peculiar glory of their sex, there is yet a more astonishing instance of it in the mother of these brave religious brethren. She was exercised by pains more sharp and complicated than any yet mentioned. Who can conceive the extremity, the variety of that pious mother's pains, who herself was tortured and put to death in every one of her seven sons? The affection of parents terminates in their children, who are the proper centre of all their care and concern: but so true a daughter of Abraham was the mother of these gallant godly youth, that even compassion for her own children could not break in upon her duty. Such was her zeal, that when religion and the present safety and prefer