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[373]
"The present dread you are under seems to me to have seized
upon you very unreasonably. It is true, you might justly be dismayed at
that providential chastisement which hath befallen you; but to suffer yourselves
to be equally terrified at the invasion of men is unmanly. As for myself,
I am so far from being aftrighted at our enemies after this earthquake,
that I imagine that God hath thereby laid a bait for the Arabians, that
we may be avenged on them; for their present invasion proceeds more from
our accidental misfortunes, than that they have any great dependence on
their weapons, or their own fitness for action. Now that hope which depends
not on men's own power, but on others' ill success, is a very ticklish
thing; for there is no certainty among men, either in their bad or good
fortunes; but we may easily observe that fortune is mutable, and goes from
one side to another; and this you may readily learn from examples among
yourselves; for when you were once victors in the former fight, your enemies
overcame you at last; and very likely it will now happen so, that these
who think themselves sure of beating you will themselves be beaten. For
when men are very confident, they are not upon their guard, while fear
teaches men to act with caution; insomuch that I venture to prove from
your very timorousness that you ought to take courage; for when you were
more bold than you ought to have been, and than I would have had you, and
marched on, Athenio's treachery took place; but your present slowness and
seeming dejection of mind is to me a pledge and assurance of victory. And
indeed it is proper beforehand to be thus provident; but when we come to
action, we ought to erect our minds, and to make our enemies, be they ever
so wicked, believe that neither any human, no, nor any providential misfortune,
can ever depress the courage of Jews while they are alive; nor will any
of them ever overlook an Arabian, or suffer such a one to become lord of
his good things, whom he has in a manner taken captive, and that many times
also. And do not you disturb yourselves at the quaking of inanimate creatures,
nor do you imagine that this earthquake is a sign of another calamity;
for such affections of the elements are according to the course of nature,
nor does it import any thing further to men, than what mischief it does
immediately of itself. Perhaps there may come some short sign beforehand
in the case of pestilences, and famines, and earthquakes; but these calamities
themselves have their force limited by themselves [without foreboding any
other calamity]. And indeed what greater mischief can the war, though it
should be a violent one, do to us than the earthquake hath done? Nay, there
is a signal of our enemies' destruction visible, and that a very great
one also; and this is not a natural one, nor derived from the hand of foreigners
neither, but it is this, that they have barbarously murdered our ambassadors,
contrary to the common law of mankind; and they have destroyed so many,
as if they esteemed them sacrifices for God, in relation to this war. But
they will not avoid his great eye, nor his invincible right hand; and we
shall be revenged of them presently, in case we still retain any of the
courage of our forefathers, and rise up boldly to punish these covenant-breakers.
Let every one therefore go on and fight, not so much for his wife or his
children, or for the danger his country is in, as for these ambassadors
of ours; those dead ambassadors will conduct this war of ours better than
we ourselves who are alive. And if you will be ruled by me, I will myself
go before you into danger; for you know this well enough, that your courage
is irresistible, unless you hurt yourselves by acting rashly. 1
1 This speech of Herod is set down twice by Josephus, here and Antiq. B. XV. ch. 5. sect. 3, to the very same purpose, but by no means in the same words; whence it appears that the sense was Herod's, but the composition Josephus's.
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