by feveral forts of contrivance and tricks, and gained the opportunity of doing what they pleased, by the mutual quarrels of those who might have obftructed their measures; till at length, when they were fatiated with the unjust actions they had done towards men, they transferred their contumelious behaviour to God himself, and came into the fanctuary with polluted feet.

7. And now the multitude were going to rife against them already; for Ananus, the ancienteft of the high-priefts, perfuaded them to it. He was a very prudent man, and had perhaps faved the city if he could but have efcaped the hands of thofe that plotted against him. Those men made the temple of God a ftrong hold for them, and a place whither they might refort, in order to avoid the troubles they feared from the people; the fanctuary was now become a refuge, and a fhop of tyranny. They alfo mixed jefting among the miferies they introduced, which was more intolerable than what they did; for in order to try what surprise the people would be under, and how far their own power extended, they undertook to dif pofe of the high-priesthood by cafting lots for it. whereas, as we have faid already, it was to defcend by fucceffion in a family. The pretence they made for this ftrange attempt was an ancient practice, while they faid that of old it was determined by lot; but in truth, it was no better than a diffolution of an undeniable law, and a cunning contrivance to feize upon the government, derived from thofe that prefumed to appoint governors as they themfelves pleafed.

8. Hereupon they fent for one of the pontifical tribes, which is called Eniachim, and caft lots which of it fhould be the high-prieft. By fortune the lot fo fell as to demonftrate their iniquity after the plaineft manner, for it fell upon one whofe name was Phannias, the fon of Samuel, of the village Aptha. He was a man not only unworthy of the high-priesthood, but that did not well know what the high-priesthood was, fuch a mere ruftic was he; yet did they hale this man, without his own consent, out of the country, as if they were acting a play upon the stage, and adorned him with a counterfeit face: They alfo put upon him the facred garments, and upon every occafion inftructed him what he was to do. This horrid piece of wickedness was fport and paftime with them, but occafioned the other priests, who, at a distance faw their law made a jeft of, to fhed tears, and forely to lament the diffolution of such a facred dignity.

9. And now the people could no longer bear the infolence of this procedure, but did all together run zealously, in order to overthrow that tyranny: And indeed they were Gorion the

* This tribe or course of the high-priests or priests here called Eniakim feems to the learned Mr. Lowth, one well verfed in Jofephus, to be that 1 Chron. xxiv. 18 "the course of Jakim," where fome copies have "the course of Eliakim ;" and" I think this to be by no means an improbable conjecture.

fon of Jofephus, and Symeon* the fon of Gamaliel, who en couraged them, by going up and down when they were af fembled together in crowds, and as they faw them alone to bear no longer, but to inflict punishment upon these pefts and plagues of their freedom, and to purge the temple of these bloody polluters of it. The beft efteemed alfo of the highpriefts, Jefus the fon of Gamalas, and Ananus the fon of Ananus, when they were at their affemblies, bitterly reproached the people for their floth, and excited them against the zealots; for that was the name they went by, as if they were zeal. ous in good undertakings, and were not rather zealous in the worft actions, and extravagant in them beyond the example of others.

10. And now, when the multitude were gotten together to an affembly, and every one was in indignation at thefe mens feizing upon the fanctuary, at their rapine and murders, but had not yet begun their attacks upon them, (the reason of which was this. that they imagined it to be a difficult thing to fuppreis these zealots, as indeed the cafe was). Ananus ftood in the midft of them, and cafting his eyes frequently at the temple. and having a flood of tears in his eyes, he faid, "Certainly it had been good for me to die before I had feen the houfe of God full of fo many abominations, or these facred places that ought not to be trodden upon at random, filled with the feet of these blood fhedding villains; yet do I, who am clothed with the veftments of the high priesthood, and am called by that most venerable name [of high prieft], ftill live, and am but too fond of living, and cannot endure to undergo a death which would be the glory of my old age; and if I were the only perfon concerned, and as it were in a defert, I would give up my life, and that alone for God's fake; for to what purpofe is it to live among a people infenfible of their calamities, and where there is no notion remaining of any re medy for the miferies that are upon them? for when you are seized upon you bear it, and when you are beaten you are filent, and when people are murdered, no body dare fo much as fend out a groan openly. O bitter tyranny that we are under! but why do I complain of the tyrants? Was it not you, and your fufferance of them that have nourished them? Was it not you that overlooked thofe that first of all got together, for they were then but a few, and by your filence made them grow to be many, and by conniving at them when they took arms, in effect armed them againft yourselves? You ought to have

This Symeon, the son of Gamaliel, is mentioned as the president of the Jewish fanhedrim, and one that perished in the deftruction of Jerufalem, by the Jewish rabbins, as Reland obferves on this place He also tells us, that those rabbins men

tion one Jelus, the fan of Gamala, as once an high-prieft, but this long before the deftruction of Jerufalem; fo that if he were the fame perfon with this Jefus the fon of Gamala, in Jofephus, he must have lived to be very old, or they have been very bad chronologers.

then prevented their first attempts, when they fell a reproaching your relations; but by neglecting that care in time, you have encouraged thefe wretches to plunder men. When houfes were pillaged, no body faid a word, which was the occafion why they carried off the owners of those houses, and when they were drawn through the midft of the city, nobody came to their affiftance. They then proceeded to put thofe whom you have betrayed into their hands into bonds; I do not say how many, and of what characters thofe men were whom they thus ferved, but certainly they were fuch as were accufed by none, and condemned by none; and fince nobody fuccoured them when they were put into bonds, the confequence was, that you faw the fame perfons flain. We have feen this allo; fo that ftill the beft of the herd of brute anianals as it were have been still led to be facrificed, when yet no body faid one word. or moved his right hand for their prefervation. Will you bear therefore, will you bear to fee your fanctuary trampled on? and will you lay fteps for these profane wretches, upon which they may mount to higher degrees of infolence? Will you not pluck them down from their exaltation? for even by this time they had proceeded to higher enormities, if they had been able to overthrow any thing greater than the fanctuary. They have feized upon the itrongest place of the whole city; you may call it the temple, if you please, though it be like a citadel or fortrefs. Now while you have tyranny in fo great a degree walled in, and fee your enemies over your heads, to what purpose is it to take counfel? and what have you to fupport your minds withal? Perhaps you may wait for the Romans, that they may protect our holy places: Are our matters then brought to that país? and are we come to that degree of mifery, that our enemies themselves are expected to pity us? O wretched creatures? will not you rife up, and turn upon those that ftrike you? which you may obferve in wild beafts themfelves, that they will avenge themselves on those that flrike them. Will you not call to mind, every one of you, the calamities you yourselves have suffered ? nor lay before your eyes what afflictions you yourselves have undergone? and will not fuch things sharpen your fouls to revenge? Is therefore that most honourable, and most natural of our paffions utterly loft. I mean the defire of liberty! Truly we are in love with flavery, and in love with thofe that lord it over us, as it we had received that principle of fubjection from our ancestors; yet did they undergo many and great wars for the fake of liberty, nor were they fo far overcome by the power of the Egyptians, or the Medes, but that ftill they did what they thought fit, notwithstanding their commands to the contrary. And what occafion is there now for a war with the Romans? (I meddle not with determining whether it be an advantageous and profitable war or not): What pretence is VOL. III. I i

1

there for it? Is it not that we may enjoy our liberty? Be-fides, fhall we not bear the lords of the habitable earth to be lords over us, and yet bear tyrants of our own country? ALthough I muft fay that fubmiffion to foreigners may be borne, because fortune hath already doomed us to it, while fubmiffion to wicked people of our own nation is too unmanly, and brought upon us by our own confent. However, fince I have had occafion to mention the Romans, I will not conceal a thing that, as I am fpeaking, comes into my mind, and affects me confiderably; it is this, that though we should be taken by them (God forbid the event fhould be fo), yet can we undergo nothing that will be harder to be borne than what these men have already brought upon us. How then can we avoid fhedding of tears, when we fee the Roman donations in our temple, while we withal fee thofe of our own nation taking our poils, and plundering our glorious metropolis, and flaughtering our men, from which enormities thofe Romans themselves would have abftained. To fee thofe Romans never going beyond the bounds allotted to profane perfons, nor venturing to break in upon any of our facred customs, nay, having a horror on their minds when they view at a distance thofe facred walls, while fome that have been born in this very country; and brought up in our customs, and called Jews, do walk a bout the midst of the holy places, at the very time when their hands are till warm with the flaughter of their own country men. Befides, can any one be afraid of a war abroad, and that with fuch as will have comparatively much greater moderation than our own people have? For truly, if we may fuit our words to the things they reprefent, it is probable one may hereafter find the Romans to be the fupporters of our laws, and thofe within ourselves the fubverters of them. And now I am perfuaded that every one of you here come satisfied! before I fpeak, that these overthrowers of our liberties deferve to be deftroyed, and that nobody can so much as devise punishment that they have not deferved by what they have done, and that you are all provoked against them by thofe their wicked actions, whence you have fuffered fo greatly. But perhaps many of you are affrighted at the multitude of thofe zealots, and at their audacioufnefs, as well as at the advantage they have over us in their being higher in place than we are; for thefe circumftances, as they have been occafioned by your negligence, fo will they become ftill greater by being till longer negle&ted; for their multitude is every day augmented, by every ill man's running away to those that are like to themselves, and their audacioufnefs is therefore inflamed, becaule they meet with no obftruction to their defigns. And for their higher place, they will make use of it for engines alfo, if we give them time to do fo; but be affured of this, that if we go up to fight them, they will be made tamer by their own confciences, and what advantages they

have in the height of their fituation, they will lofe by the oppofition of their reafon; perhaps alfo God himself, who hath been affronted by them, will make what they throw at us return against themselves, and these impious wretches will be killed by their own darts: Let us but make our appearance be fore them, and they will come to nothing. However, it is a right thing, if there fhould be any danger in the attempt, to die before thefe holy gates, and to fpend our very lives, if not for the fake of our children and wives, yet for God's fake, and for the fake of his fan&tuary. I will affift you both with my counsel, and with my hand; nor fhall any lagacity of ours be wanting for your fupport, nor fhall you fee that I will be fparing of my body neither."

11. By thefe motives Ananus encouraged the multitude to go against the zealots, although he knew how difficult it would be to difperle them, because of their multitude and their youth, and the courage of their fouls, but chiefly because of their consciousness of what they had done, fince they would not yield, as not fo much as hoping for pardon at the last tor thofe their enormities. However, Ananus refolved to under, go whatever fufferings might come upon him, rather than o verlook things now they were in fuch great confusion. So the multitude cried out to him, to lead them on against those whom he had defcribed in his exhortation to them, and every one of them was moft readily difpofed to run any hazard what foever on that account.

12. Now while Ananus was choofing out his men, and putting those that were proper for his purpofe in array for fighting, the zealots got information of his undertaking (for there were fome who went to them, and told them all that the people were doing), and were irritated at it, and leaping out of the temple in crowds, and by parties, fpared none whom they met with. Upon this Ananus got the populace together on the fudden, who were more numerous indeed than the zealots, but inferior to them in arms, because they had not been regularly put into array for fighting: But the alacrity that every body thewed, fupplied all their defects on both fides, the citizens taking up so great a pallion as was ftronger than arms, and deriving a degree of courage from the temple, more forcible than any multitude whatloever; and indeed these citizens thought it was not poffible for them to dwell in the city, unless they could cut off the robbers that were in it. The zealots alfo thought that unless they prevailed, there would be no punishment fo bad, but it would be inflicted on them. So their conflicts were conducted by their paffions, and at the firft they only caft ftones at each other in the city, and before the temple, and threw their javelins at a distance; but when either of them were too hard for the other, they made ufe of their fwords; and great flaughter was made on both fides, and a great number were wounded.