oquence and force that the Magians
were astonished to hear him, and said one to another, that if he were
permitted to speak in public, he would draw over many from their
religion. Whereupon they concluded for the future to hold his
interrogatories in the night. In the mean time they caused two red-hot
iron plates, and two red-hot hammers, to be applied under each arm, and
said to him: "If you shake off either of these, by the king's fortune,
you deny Christ." He meekly replied: "I fear not your fire; nor shall I
throw off your instruments of torture. I beg you to try without delay
all your torments on me. He who is engaged in combat for God is full of
courage." They ordered melted lead to be dropped into his nostrils and
eyes; and that he should then be carried to prison, and there hung up by
one foot. Jonas, after this, being brought out of his pool, the Magians
said to him: "How do you find yourself this morning? We imagine you
passed the {673} last night out very uncomfortably." "No," replied
Jonas; "from the day I came into the world, I never remember a night
more sweet and agreeable: for I was wonderfully refreshed by the
remembrance of Christ's sufferings." The Magians said: "Your companion
hath renounced." The martyr, interrupting them, answered: "I know that
he hath long ago renounced the devil and his angels." The Magians urged:
"Take care lest you perish, abandoned both by God and man." Jonas
replied: "If you are really wise, as you boast, judge if it be not
better to sow the corn than to keep it hoarded up. Our life is a seed
sown to rise again in the world to come, when it will be renewed by
Christ in immortal light." The Magians said: "Your books have drawn many
aside." Jonas answered: "They have indeed drawn many from worldly
pleasures. When a servant of Christ is in his sufferings inebriated with
love from the passion of his Lord, he forgets the transitory state of
this short life, its riches, estates, gold, and honors; regardless of
kings and princes, lords and noblemen, where an eternity is at stake, he
desires nothing but the sight of the only true King, whose empire is
everlasting, and whose power reaches to all ages." The judges commanded
all his fingers and toes to be cut off, joint by joint, and scattered
about. Then they said to him: "Now wait the harvest to reap other hands
from this seed." To whom he said: "Other hands I do not ask. God is
present, who first framed me, and who will give me new str