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[361]
Upon this Josephus was afraid of their attacking him, and yet thought
he should be a betrayer of the commands of God, if he died before they
were delivered. So he began to talk like a philosopher to them in the distress
he was then in, when he said thus to them: "O my friends, why are
we so earnest to kill ourselves? and why do we set our soul and body, which
are such dear companions, at such variance? Can any one pretend that I
am not the man I was formerly? Nay, the Romans are sensible how that matter
stands well enough. It is a brave thin to die in war; but so that it be
according to the law of war, by the hand of conquerors. If, therefore,
I avoid death from the sword of the Romans, I am truly worthy to be killed
by my own sword, and my own hand; but if they admit of mercy, and would
spare their enemy, how much more ought we to have mercy upon ourselves,
and to spare ourselves? For it is certainly a foolish thing to do that
to ourselves which we quarrel with them for doing to us. I confess freely
that it is a brave thing to die for liberty; but still so that it be in
war, and done by those who take that liberty from us; but in the present
case our enemies do neither meet us in battle, nor do they kill us. Now
he is equally a coward who will not die when he is obliged to die, and
he who will die when he is not obliged so to do. What are we afraid of,
when we will not go up to the Romans? Is it death? If so, what we are afraid
of, when we but suspect our enemies will inflict it on us, shall we inflict
it on ourselves for certain? But it may be said we must be slaves. And
are we then in a clear state of liberty at present? It may also be said
that it is a manly act for one to kill himself. No, certainly, but a most
unmanly one; as I should esteem that pilot to be an arrant coward, who,
out of fear of a storm, should sink his ship of his own accord. Now self-murder
is a crime most remote from the common nature of all animals, and an instance
of impiety against God our Creator; nor indeed is there any animal that
dies by its own contrivance, or by its own means, for the desire of life
is a law engraven in them all; on which account we deem those that openly
take it away from us to be our enemies, and those that do it by treachery
are punished for so doing. And do not you think that God is very angry
when a man does injury to what he hath bestowed on him? For from him it
is that we have received our being, and we ought to leave it to his disposal
to take that being away from us. The bodies of all men are indeed mortal,
and are created out of corruptible matter; but the soul is ever immortal,
and is a portion of the divinity that inhabits our bodies. Besides, if
any one destroys or abuses a depositum he hath received from a mere
man, he is esteemed a wicked and perfidious person; but then if any one
cast out of his body this Divine depositum, can we imagine that
he who is thereby affronted does not know of it? Moreover, our law justly
ordains that slaves which run away from their master shall be punished,
though the masters they run away from may have been wicked masters to them.
And shall we endeavor to run away from God, who is the best of all masters,
and not guilty of impeity? Do not you know that those who depart out of
this life according to the law of nature, and pay that debt which was received
from God, when he that lent it us is pleased to require it back again,
enjoy eternal fame; that their houses and their posterity are sure, that
their souls are pure and obedient, and obtain a most holy place in heaven,
from whence, in the revolutions of ages, they are again sent into pure
bodies; while the souls of those whose hands have acted madly against themselves
are received by the darkest place in Hades, and while God, who is their
Father, punishes those that offend against either of them in their posterity?
for which reason God hates such doings, and the crime is punished by our
most wise legislator. Accordingly, our laws determine that the bodies of
such as kill themselves should be exposed till the sun be set, without
burial, although at the same time it be allowed by them to be lawful to
bury our enemies [sooner]. The laws of other nations also enjoin such men's
hands to be cut off when they are dead, which had been made use of in destroying
themselves when alive, while they reckoned that as the body is alien from
the soul, so is the hand alien from the body. It is therefore, my friends,
a right thing to reason justly, and not add to the calamities which men
bring upon us impiety towards our Creator. If we have a mind to preserve
ourselves, let us do it; for to be preserved by those our enemies, to whom
we have given so many demonstrations of our courage, is no way inglorious;
but if we have a mind to die, it is good to die by the hand of those that
have conquered us. For nay part, I will not run over to our enemies' quarters,
in order to be a traitor to myself; for certainly I should then be much
more foolish than those that deserted to the enemy, since they did it in
order to save themselves, and I should do it for destruction, for my own
destruction. However, I heartily wish the Romans may prove treacherous
in this matter; for if, after their offer of their right hand for security,
I be slain by them, I shall die cheerfully, and carry away with me the
sense of their perfidiousness, as a consolation greater than victory itself."
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