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and another reminded them, "Remember whence you came, and the father by whose hand Isaac would have submitted to being slain for the sake of religion."
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Each of them and all of them together looking at one another, cheerful and undaunted, said, "Let us with all our hearts consecrate ourselves to God, who gave us our lives, and let us use our bodies as a bulwark for the law.
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Let us not fear him who thinks he is killing us,
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for great is the struggle of the soul and the danger of eternal torment lying before those who transgress the commandment of God.
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Therefore let us put on the full armor of self-control, which is divine reason.
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For if we so die, Abraham and Isaac and Jacob will welcome us, and all the fathers will praise us."
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Those who were left behind said to each of the brothers who were being dragged away, "Do not put us to shame, brother, or betray the brothers who have died before us."
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You are not ignorant of the affection of family ties, which the divine and all-wise Providence has bequeathed through the fathers to their descendants and which was implanted in the mother's womb.
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There each of the brothers spent the same length of time and was shaped during the same period of time; and growing from the same blood and through the same life, they were brought to the light of day.
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When they were born after an equal time of gestation, they drank milk from the same fountains. From such embraces brotherly-loving souls are nourished;
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and they grow stronger from this common nurture and daily companionship, and from both general education and our discipline in the law of God.