Daniel 3:13

But when all fell down, and were subdued, then the youths alone are led into the midst; in order that from this too the conquest may become the more illustrious, they alone conquering and being proclaimed victors among so vast a multitude. For this would not have been so surprising if they had acted courageously at the first, when as yet no one had been overthrown. But the greatest, and most astonishing fact was, that the multitude of those who fell down, neither affrighted, nor enfeebled them. They did not say to themselves any such things as many are ofttimes wont to say; "If we were the first, and the only persons to worship the image, this would have been a sin: but if we do this with so many myriads, who will not make allowance? who will not think us worthy of defence?" nothing of that sort did they say or think, when they beheld the prostrate forms of so many tyrants.… What then does the king? He commands that they should be brought into the midst, so that he may affright them in every way. But nothing dismayed them, neither the wrath of the king, nor their being left alone in the midst of so many, nor the sight of the fire, nor the sound of the trumpet, nor the whole multitude looking fire at them; for deriding all these things, as if they were about to be cast into a cool fountain of water, they entered the furnace uttering that blessed sentence, "We will not serve thy gods, nor worship the golden image which thou hast set up."… I have not referred to this history without reason, but that ye may learn that whether it be the wrath of a king, or the violence of soldiers, or the envy of enemies, or captivity, or destitution, or fire, or furnace, or ten thousand terrors, nothing will avail to put to shame or terrify a righteous man.

But someone will say, "You are making sophistries." Be educated, O man, about the things which happen under Antiochus Epiphanes. While the seven brothers together with their mother were taken, they were struck with scourges and whips, but one of them answered the whips, and he said, "Why do you delay to ask and to learn? For we are prepared to die rather than to transgress our patriarchal laws." [2 Maccabees 7:1-2] "But the king, becoming stirred up at this, commanded pans and cauldrons to be heated at once, and he commanded that the one of them who spoke first, that his tongue be rooted out and having been scalped, to be maimed. While the rest of the brothers looked on, and while the steam of the pans grew sufficiently, he exhorted one another in the voice of their fatherland saying, 'The Lord God watches over us, and in truth, he comforts us just as Moses through the song which he spoke before God's face long ago saying, "He will be comforted in his slaves."'" [2 Maccabees 7:3-6; Deuteronomy 32:36] You see how the Spirit of the Father cares for martyrs, he teaches, while urging and encouraging them, to despise this death and to hasten to what is better. For if anyone is apart from the Holy Spirit, this one cowers in agony and is afraid, and he hides and avoids the temporary death and cringes before the sword and does not submit to retribution. He holds this world before his eyes, the cares of life, and he prefers his wife and he loves his own children and seeks the riches of property. Such a one does not procure heavenly power and is recklessly destroyed. And so it is necessary for every man who accepts the Word, to listen to what the heavenly king and master prescribes, "Whoever does not take up his cross and follow after me, is not worthy of me," [Matthew 10:38] and "He who does not renounce all his belongings is not able to be my disciple." [Luke 14:33]