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[279]
But when he had ruled one year, and was fallen into a distemper,
he called for his sons, and set them round about him, and said, "O
my sons, I am going the way of all the earth; and I recommend to you my
resolution, and beseech you not to be negligent in keeping it, but to be
mindful of the desires of him who begat you, and brought you up, and to
preserve the customs of your country, and to recover your ancient form
of government, which is in danger of being overturned, and not to be carried
away with those that, either by their own inclination, or out of necessity,
betray it, but to become such sons as are worthy of me; to be above all
force and necessity, and so to dispose your souls, as to be ready, when
it shall be necessary, to die for your laws; as sensible of this, by just
reasoning, that if God see that you are so disposed he will not overlook
you, but will have a great value for your virtue, and will restore to you
again what you have lost, and will return to you that freedom in which
you shall live quietly, and enjoy your own customs. Your bodies are mortal,
and subject to fate; but they receive a sort of immortality, by the remembrance
of what actions they have done. And I would have you so in love with this
immortality, that you may pursue after glory, and that, when you have undergone
the greatest difficulties, you may not scruple, for such things, to lose
your lives. I exhort you, especially, to agree one with another; and in
what excellency any one of you exceeds another, to yield to him so far,
and by that means to reap the advantage of every one's own virtues. Do
you then esteem Simon as your father, because he is a man of extraordinary
prudence, and be governed by him in what counsels be gives you. Take Maccabeus
for the general of your army, because of his courage and strength, for
he will avenge your nation, and will bring vengeance on your enemies. Admit
among you the righteous and religious, and augment their power."
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