e men, I will renounce him before my
Father who is to Heaven_. He made no answer to their pressing
solicitations, but raised his soul above all considerations of flesh and
blood to him who was looking down on his conflict from above, waiting to
crown his victory with immortal glory; and who seemed to cry out to him
from his lofty throne in heaven: "Come, make haste to enjoy me." The
governor said to him: "Will you be insensible to such marks of
tenderness and affection? can you see so many tears shed for you without
being moved? It is not beneath a great courage to be touched with
compassion. Sacrifice, and do not destroy yourself in the flower of your
age." Irenaeus said: "It is that I may not destroy myself that I refuse
to sacrifice." The governor sent him to prison, where he remained a long
time, suffering divers torments. At the second time of examination, the
governor, after having pressed him to sacrifice, asked him if he had a
wife, parents, or children, alive. The saint answered all these
questions in the negative. "Who then were those that wept for you at
your first examination?" Irenaeus made answer: "Our Lord Jesus Christ
hath said: _He that loveth father or mother, wife or children, brothers
or relations more than me, is not worthy of {652} me_. So, when I lift
up my eyes to contemplate that God whom I adore, and the joys he hath
promised to those who faithfully serve him, I forget that I am a father,
a husband, a son, a master, a friend." Probus said: "But you do not
therefore cease to be so. Sacrifice at least for their sakes." Irenmus
replied: "My children will not lose much by my death; for I leave them
for father that same God whom they adore with me; so let nothing hinder
you from executing the orders of your emperor upon me." PROBUS. "Throw
not yourself away. I cannot avoid condemning you." IRENAEUS. "You cannot
do me a greater favor, or give me a more agreeable pleasure." Then
Probus passed sentence after this manner: "I order that Irenaeus, for
disobeying the emperor's commands, be cast into the river."[1] Irenaeus
replied: "After so many threats, I expected something extraordinary, and
you content yourself with drowning me. How comes this? You do me an
injury; for you deprive me of the means of showing the world how much
Christians, who have a lively faith, despise death, though attended with
the most cruel torments." Probus, enraged at this, added to the sentence
that he should be first beheaded. I