IV Maccabees 8:15-25

15 Now let us consider the matter: had any of them been weak-spirited and cowardly among them, what reasonings would they have employed but these?

16 O wretched that we are, and exceeding senseless! when the king exhorts us, and calls us to his bounty, should we not obey him?

17 Why do we cheer ourselves with vain counsels, and venture upon a disobedience bringing death?

18 Shall we not fear, O brethren, the instruments of torture and weigh the threatenings of torment and shun this vain-glory and destructive pride?

19 Let us have compassion upon our age and relent over the years of our mother.

20 And let us bear in mind that we shall be dying as rebels.

21 And Divine Justice will pardon us if we fear the king through necessity.

22 Why withdraw ourselves from a most sweet life, and deprive ourselves of this pleasant world?

23 Let us not oppose necessity, nor seek vain-glory by our own excruciation.

24 The law itself is not forward to put us to death, if we dread torture.

25 Whence has such angry zeal taken root in us, and such fatal obstinacy approved itself to us, when we might live unmolested by the king?