AX EXHORTATION TO MARTYRDOM. 69 urged them, proclaim that they only ohey God, that they know Him alone,thatthey worshipHim alone,saying: " O king Nebuchodonosor,thereisno need forus to answer thee in thismatter. For theGod whom we serveisableto deliver us out of the furnaceof burning fire; and He willdeliverus from thy hands, O king. And ifnot,be itknown unto thee, thatwe do not servethy gods,and we do not adorethegolden image which thou hast set up."1 And Daniel,devoted to God, and filledwith the Holy Spirit,exclaimsand says: " I worship nothing but the Lord my God, who founded the heaven and the earth."2 Tobias also,althoughunder a royal and tyrannicalslavery,yet in feelingand spiritfree,main tainsbis confessionto God, and sublimelyannounces both the divine power and majesty,saying: u In the land of my cap tivityI confessto Him, and I show forth His power in a sinfulnation."8 What, indeed,do we findin the Maccabees of seven brethren,equalsalikein theirlotof birthand vir tues,fillingup the number sevenin the sacramentof a per fectedcompletion? Seven brethrenwere thus associatingin martyrdom — as thefirstsevendays inthe divinearrangement containingseven thousand of years,as the sevenspiritsand seven angelswhich standand go in and out beforethe face of God, and the seven-branchedlamp in the tabernacleof witness,and the sevengolden candlesticksinthe Apocalypse, and the seven columns in Solomon upon which Wisdom built her house; so here alsothe number seven of the brethren, embracing, in the quantity of their number, the seven churches,as likewisein the firstbook of Kings we read that the barren hath borne seven. And in Isaiahsevenwomen lay hold on one man, whose name they ask to be calledupon them. And the ApostlePaul,who refersto thislawful and certainnumber, writesto the seven churches. And in the Apocalypse the Lord directsHis divineand heavenlypre cepts to the seven churchesand theirangels,which number isnow found in thiscase,in the sevenbrethren,thata lawful consummation may be completed. With the seven children ismanifestlyassociatedalsothe mother,theiroriginand root, 1 Dan.iii.16-18. * BelandDragon,ver.5. 3 Tob.xiii.6.