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another, and worfe treatment from our enemies, and to have been fenfible that the fame God, who had of old taken the Jewish nation into his favour, had now condemned them to deftruction; for had he either continued favourable, or been but in a leffer degree difpleafed with us, he had not overlooked the destruction of fo many men, or delivered his moft holy city to be burnt and demolished by our enemies. To be fure, we weakly hoped to have preferved ourselves, and ourfelves alone, ftill in a state of freedom, as if we had been guilty of no fins ourfelves againft God, nor been partners with thofe of others; we alfo taught other men to preferve their liberty. Wherefore, confider, how God hath convinced us that our hopes were in vain, by bringing fuch diftrefs upon us in the defperate ftate we are now in, and which is beyond all our expectations; for the nature of this fortrefs, which was in itfelt unconquerable, hath not proved a means of our deliverance; and even while we have fill great abundance of food, and a great quantity of arms and other neceffaries more than we want, we are openly deprived by God himfelt of all hope of deliverance; for that fire which was driven upon our enemies, did not, of its own accord, turn back upon the wall which we had built This was the effect of God's anger against us for our manifold fins, which we have been guilty of in a most infolent and extravagant manner with regard to our own countrymen; the punishments of which let us not receive from the Romans but from God himself, as executed by our own hands; for thefe will be more moderate than the other. Let our wives die before they are abufed, and our children before they have tafted of flavery; and after we have flain them, let us beflow that glorious benefit upon one another mutually, and preferve ourdelves in freedom, as an excellent funeral monument for us, But firft let us destroy our money and the fortrefs by fire; tor I am well aflured that this would be a great grief to the Romans, that they fhall not be able to feize upon our bodies, and thail fail of our wealth alfo: And let us fpare nothing but our provifions; for they will be a teftimonial when we are dead, that we were not fubdued for want of neceffaries, but that, accor ding to our original refolution, we have preferred death before flavery."

7. This was Eleazar's speech to them. Yet did not the opinions of all the auditors acquiefce therein; but although fome of them were very zealous to put his advice in practice, and were in a manner filled with pleasure at it, and thought death to be a good thing, yet had thofe that were most effeminate a commiferation for their wives and families; and when thefe men were especially moved by the profpect of their own certain death, they looked willfully at one another, and by the tears that were in their eyes, declared their diffent from his opinion. When Eleazar faw thefe people in fuch fear, and that their fouls were dejected at fo prodigious a propofal, te

was afraid left perhaps thefe effeminate perfons fhould by their lamentations and tears enfeeble thofe that heard what he had faid courageoufly; fo he did not leave off exhorting them, but. ftirred up himself, and recollecting proper arguments for raifing their courage, he undertook to fpeak more brifkly and fully to them, and that concerning the immortality of the foul. So he made a lamentable groan, and fixing his eyes intently on thofe that wept, he ipake thus: "Truly I was greatly miltaken, when I thought to be affifting to brave men who ftruggled hard for their liberty, and to fuch as were refolved either to live with honour, or else to die: But I find that you are fuch people as are no better than others, either in virtue or in courage, and are afraid of dying, though you be delivered thereby from the greatest miferies, while you ought to make no delay in this matter, nor to await any one to give you good advice; for the laws of our country, and of God himself, have from ancient times, and as foon as ever we could ufe our reafon, continually taught us, and our forefathers have corroborated the fame doctrine by their actions, and by their bravery of mind, that it is life that is a calamity to men, and not death; for this laft affords our fouls their liberty, and fends them by a removal into their own place of purity, where they are to be infenfible of all forts of mifery; for while fouls are tied down to a mortal body, they are partakers of its miferies; and real- . ly, to 1peak the truth, they are themselves dead; for the union of what is divine, to what is mortal, is difagreeable. It is true, the power of the foul is great, even when it is imprisoned in a mortal body; for by moving it after a way that is invifible, it makes the body a fenfible inftrument, and caules it to advance farther in its actions, than mortal nature could otherwise do. However, when it is freed from that weight which draws it down to the earth and is connected with it, it obtains its own proper place, and does then become a partaker of that bleffed power, and thole abilities which are then every way incapable of being hindered in their operations. It continues invifible, indeed, to the eyes of men, as does God himfelt; for certainly it is not itfelf feen, while it is in the body; for it is there after an invisible manner, and when it is freed from it, it is still not feen. It is this foul which hath one nature, and that an incorruptible one alfo; but yet is it the caufe of the change that is made in the body; for whatfoever it be which the foul touches, that lives and flourishes, and from whatsoever it is removed, that withers away and dies; fuch a degree is there in it of immortality. Let me produce the ftate of fleep as a moft evident demonftration of the truth of what I fay; wherein fouls, when the body does not diftract them, have the fweeteft reit depending on themfelves, and converfing with God, by their alliance to him; they then go every where, and toretel many futurities before hand. And why are we afraid of death, while we are pleafed with the reft that we have in fleep? And how

abfurd a thing is it to purfue after liberty while ye are alive, and yet to envy it to ourselves where it will be eternal? We, therefore, who have been brought up in a difcipline of our own, ought to become an example to others of our readiness to die. Yet, if we do ftand in need of foreigners to fupport us in this matter, let us regard thofe Indians who profefs the exercife of philofophy; for thefe good men do but unwillingly undergo the time of life, and look upon it as a neceffary fervitude, and make hafte to let their fouls loofe from their bodies: Nay, when no misfortune preffes them to it, nor drives them upon it, thefe have fuch a defire of a life of immortality, that they tell other men beforehand that they are about to depart; and nobody hinders them, but every one thinks them happy men, and gives them letters to be carried to their famil iar friends [that are dead; fo firmly and certainly do they be lieve that fouls converfe with one another in the other world J. So when thefe men have heard all fuch commands that were to be given them, they deliver their body to the fire; and, in order to their getting their foul a feparation from the body in the greateft purity, they die in the midft of by mns of commendations made to them: For their dearest friends conduct them to their death more readily than do any of the rest of mankind conduct their fellow-citizens when they are going a very long journey, who at the fame time weep on their own account, but look upon the others as happy perfons, as fo foon to be made partakers of the immortal order of beings. Are not we, therefore, ashamed to have lower notions than the Indians? and by our own cowardice to lay a base reproach upon the laws of our country, which are fo much de fired and imitated by all mankind? But put the cafe that we had been brought up under another perfuafion, and taught that life is the greatest good which men are capable of, and that death is a calamity; however, the circum flances we are now in ought to be an inducement to us to bear fuch calamity courageoully fince it is by the will of God and by neceffity that we are to die; for it now appears that God hath made fuch a decree against the whole, Jewish nation, that we are to be deprived of this life which [he knew] we would not make a due ule of. For do not you afcribe the occafion of our prefent condition to yourselves, nor think the Romans are the true occafion that this war we have had with them is become lo deftructive to us all. These things have not come to pass by their power, but a more powerful caule hath intervened, and made us afford them an occafion of their appearing to be conquerors over us. What Roman weapons, I pray you, were thofe, by which the Jews of Cefarea were flain? On the contrary, when they were no way difpofed to rebel, but were all the while keeping their feventh day feftival, and did not fo much as lift up their hands against the citizens of Cefarea, yet did those citizens run upon them in great crowds, and cut their throats, and the throats of their wives and children,

and this without any regard to the Romans themfelves, who never took us for their enemies till we revolted from them. But fome may be ready to lay, that truly the people of Cefarea had always a quarrel against thofe that lived among them, and that when an opportunity offered itfelf they only fatisfied the old rancour they had against them. What then fall we fay to thofe of Scythopolis, who ventured to wage war with us on account of the Greeks? Nor did they do it by way of revenge upon the Romans when they acted in concert with our countrymen. Wherefore you fee how little our goodwill and fidelity to them profited us, while they were flain, they and their whole tamilies, after the most inhuman manner, which was all the requital that was made them for the affiftance they had afforded the others: For that very fame deftruction which they had prevented from falling upon the others, dia they fuffer themselves from them, as if they had been ready to be the actors against them. It would be too long. for me to speak at this time of every destruction brought upon us; for you cannot but know, that there was not any one Syrian city, which did not flay their Jewish inhabitants, and were not more bitter enemies to us than were the Romans themselves: Nay, even those of Damafcus,* when they were able to allege no tolerable pretence against us, filled their city with the most barbarous flaughters of our people, and cut the throats of eighteen thousand Jews, with their wives and children. And as to the multitude of those that were flain in Egypt, and that with torments allo, we have been informed they were more than fixty thoufand; thofe indeed being in a foreign country, and. fo naturally meeting with nothing to oppofe against their enemies, were killed in the manner forementioned. As for all thofe of us who have waged war against the Romans, in our own country, had we not fufficient reafon to have fure hopesof victory? For we had arms, and walls, and fortreffes fo prepared as not to be easily taken, and courage not to be moved by any dangers in the caufe of liberty, which encouraged us all to revolt from the Romans. But then, thefe advantages fufficed us but for a fhort time, and only raised our hopes, while they really appeared to be the origin of our miferies; for all. we had hath been taken from us, and all hath fallen under our enemies, as if these advantages were only to render their vitory over us the more glorious, and were not difpofed for the prefervation of thofe by whom thefe preparations were made. And as for those that are already dead in the war, it is reafonable we should efteem them bleffed, for they are dead in defending, and not in betraying their liberty; but as to the multitude of those that are now under the Romans, who would not pity their condition? and who would not make hefte to die, belore he would fuffer the fame miferies with them? Some of them have been put upon the rack, and tortured with fire and whip* See B. 11. ch. xx. § 2, where the number of the flain is but 10,000.

pings, and fo died. Some have been half devoured by wild beafts, and yet have been referved alive to be devoured by them a fecond time, in order to afford laughter and fport to our enemies; and fuch of thofe as are alive ftill, are 'to be looked on as the most miferable, who being fo defirous of death, could not come at it. And where is now that great city, the metropolis of the Jewish nation? which was fortified 'by fo many walls round about, which had fo many fortreffes, and large towers to defend it, which could hardly contain the inftruments prepared for the war, and which had so many ten thousands of men to fight for it? Where is this city that was believed to have God himself inhabiting therein? It is now demolished to the very foundations, and hath nothing but that monument of it preferved, I mean the camp of those that hath deftroyed it, which ftill dwells upon its ruins; fome unfortu nate old men alfo lie upon the afhes of the temple, and a few women are there preferved alive by the enemy, for our bitter fhame and reproach. Now, who is there that revolves thefe things in his mind, and yet is able to bear the fight of the fun, though he might live out of danger? Who is there fo much his country's enemy, or fo unmanly, and fo defirous of living, as not to repent that he is still alive? And I cannot but with that we had all died, before we had feen that holy city demolished by the hands of our enemies, or the foundations of our holy temple dug up after fo profane a manner. But fince we had a generous hope that deluded us, as if we might perhaps have been able to avenge ourselves on our enemies on that account, though it be now become vanity, and hath left us alone in this diftrefs, let us make hafte to die bravely. Let us pity ourfelves, our children, and our wives, while it is in our own power to fhew pity to them; for we were born to die, as well as those were whom we have begotten; nor is it in the power of the most happy of our race to avoid it. But for abufes, and flavery, and the fight of our wives led away after an ignominious manner, with their children, these are not fuch evils as are natural and neceffary among men; although fuch as do not prefer death before thofe miferies, when it is in their power fo to do, muft undergo even them on account of their own cowardice. We revolted from the Romans with great pretenfions to courage, and when, at the very laft, they invited us to preferve ourselves, we would not comply with them. Who will not, therefore, believe that they will certainly be in a rage at us, in cafe they can take us alive? Miferable will then be the young men, who will be ftrong enough in their bodies to fuflain many torments; miferabie alfo will be thofe of elder years, who will not be able to bear those calamities which young men might fuftain. One man will be obliged to hear the voice of his fon implore help of his father, when his hands

* Reland here fets down a parallel aphorifm of one of the Jewish rabbins, "We are born that we may die, and die that we may live,"

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