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Thus spake Jesus; yet did not the multitude of the Idumeans give
any attention to what he said, but were in a rage, because they did not
meet with a ready entrance into the city. The generals also had indignation
at the offer of laying down their arms, and looked upon it as equal to
a captivity, to throw them away at any man's injunction whomsoever. But
Simon, the son of Cathlas, one of their commanders, with much ado quieted
the tumult of his own men, and stood so that the high priests might hear
him, and said as follows: "I can no longer wonder that the patrons
of liberty are under custody in the temple, since there are those that
shut the gates of our common city
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to their own nation, and at the same time are prepared to admit the Romans
into it; nay, perhaps are disposed to crown the gates with garlands at
their coming, while they speak to the Idumeans from their own towers, and
enjoin them to throw down their arms which they have taken up for the preservation
of its liberty. And while they will not intrust the guard of our metropolis
to their kindred, profess to make them judges of the differences that are
among them; nay, while they accuse some men of having slain others without
a legal trial, they do themselves condemn a whole nation after an ignominious
manner, and have now walled up that city from their own nation, which used
to be open to even all foreigners that came to worship there. We have indeed
come in great haste to you, and to a war against our own countrymen; and
the reason why we have made such haste is this, that we may preserve that
freedom which you are so unhappy as to betray. You have probably been guilty
of the like crimes against those whom you keep in custody, and have, I
suppose, collected together the like plausible pretenses against them also
that you make use of against us; after which you have gotten the mastery
of those within the temple, and keep them in custody, while they are only
taking care of the public affairs. You have also shut the gates of the
city in general against nations that are the most nearly related to you;
and while you give such injurious commands to others, you complain that
you have been tyrannized over by them, and fix the name of unjust governors
upon such as are tyrannized over by yourselves. Who can bear this your
abuse of words, while they have a regard to the contrariety of your actions,
unless you mean this, that those Idumeans do now exclude you out of your
metropolis, whom you exclude from the sacred offices of your own country?
One may indeed justly complain of those that are besieged in the temple,
that when they had courage enough to punish those tyrants whom you call
eminent men, and free from any accusations, because of their being your
companions in wickedness, they did not begin with you, and thereby cut
off beforehand the most dangerous parts of this treason. But if these men
have been more merciful than the public necessity required, we that are
Idumeans will preserve this house of God, and will fight for our common
country, and will oppose by war as well those that attack them from abroad,
as those that betray them from within. Here will we abide before the walls
in our armor, until either the Romans grow weary in waiting for you, or
you become friends to liberty, and repent of what you have done against
it."