54:5.9

“Now this is the order of those who have kept the ways of the Most High, when they will be separated from their mortal body. In the time that they lived in it, they painfully served the Most High, and were in jeopardy every hour, that they might keep the law of the lawgiver perfectly. Therefore this is the teaching concerning them: First of all they will see with great joy the glory of him who takes them up, for they will have rest in seven orders. The first order, because they have labored with great effort to overcome the evil thought which was fashioned together with them, that it might not lead them astray from life into death. The second order, because they see the perplexity in which the souls of the ungodly wander, and the punishment that awaits them. The third order, they see the testimony which he who fashioned them gives concerning them, that while they lived they kept the law which was given them in trust. The fourth order, they understand the rest which, being gathered in their chambers, they now enjoy with great quietness, guarded by angels, and the glory that awaits them in the last days. The fifth order, they rejoice that they have now escaped from that which is corruptible, and that they will inherit that which is to come, while they see in addition the difficulty and the pain from which they have been delivered, and the spacious liberty which they will receive with joy and immortality. The sixth order, when it is shown to them how their face will shine like the sun, and how they will be made like the light of the stars, being incorruptible from then on. The seventh order, which is greater than all the previously mentioned orders, because they will rejoice with confidence, and because they will be bold without confusion, and will be glad without fear, for they hurry to see the face of him whom in their lifetime they served, and from whom they will receive their reward in glory. This is the order of the souls of the just, as from henceforth is announced to them. Previously mentioned are the ways of torture which those who would not give heed will suffer from after this.”

Some of those who were over the city, therefore, abhorring any approach to the city of piety, unhesitatingly gave in to the king, and expected to derive some great honor from a future connection with him. A nobler spirit, however, prompted the majority to cling to their religious observances, and by paying money that they might live unmolested, these sought to escape the registration, cheerfully looking forward to future aid, they abhorred their own apostates, considering them to be national foes, and depriving them of common fellowship and mutual help.

More that this, they even urged them on to this mistreatment; so that they not only despised pains themselves, but they even got the better of their affections of brotherly love. Reasoning is more royal than a king, and freer than freemen! What a sacred and harmonious concert of the seven kindred as concerning piety! None of the seven youths turned cowardly or shrank back from death. But all of them, as though running the road to immortality, hastened on to death through tortures. For just as hands and feet are moved sympathetically with the directions of the soul, so those holy youths agreed to death for religion’s sake, as through the immortal soul of religion. O holy seven of harmonious kindred! For as the seven days of creation, about religion, so the youths, circling around the number seven, annulled the fear of torments. We now shudder at the recital of the affliction of those young men; but they not only saw, and not only heard the immediate execution of the threat, but undergoing it, persevered; and that through the pains of fire. What could be more painful? For the power of fire, being sharp and quick, speedily dissolved their bodies. Don’t think it wonderful that reasoning ruled over those men in their torments, when even a woman’s mind despised more manifold pains. For the mother of those seven youths endured the rackings of each of her children.