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[337]
This was Eleazar's speech to them. Yet did not the opinions of all
the auditors acquiesce therein; but although some 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 those that were most
effeminate a commiseration for their wives and families; and when these
men were especially moved by the prospect of their own certain death, they
looked wistfully at one another, and by the tears that were in their eyes
declared their dissent from his opinion. When Eleazar saw these people
in such fear, and that their souls were dejected at so prodigious a proposal,
he was afraid lest perhaps these effeminate persons should, by their lamentations
and tears, enfeeble those that heard what he had said courageously; so
he did not leave off exhorting them, but stirred up himself, and recollecting
proper arguments for raising their courage, he undertook to speak more
briskly and fully to them, and that concerning the immortality of the soul.
So he made a lamentable groan, and fixing his eyes intently on those that
wept, he spake thus: "Truly, I was greatly mistaken when I thought
to be assisting to brave men who struggled hard for their liberty, and
to such as were resolved either to live with honor, or else to die; but
I find that you are such 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 miseries, 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 soon
as ever we could use our reason, continually taught us, and our forefathers
have corroborated the same 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 last affords our souls their liberty, and sends them by a removal
into their own place of purity, where they are to be insensible of all
sorts of misery; for while souls are tied clown to a mortal body, they
are partakers of its miseries; and really, to speak the truth, they are
themselves dead; for the union of what is divine to what is mortal is disagreeable.
It is true, the power of the soul is great, even when it is imprisoned
in a mortal body; for by moving it after a way that is invisible, it makes
the body a sensible instrument, and causes it to advance further 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 blessed power, and those abilities, which are then every way incapable
of being hindered in their operations. It continues invisible, indeed,
to the eyes of men, as does God himself; for certainly it is not itself
seen 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 seen. It is this soul which
hath one nature, and that an incorruptible one also; but yet it is the
cause of the change that is made in the body; for whatsoever it be which
the soul touches, that lives and flourishes; and from whatsoever it is
removed, that withers away and dies; such a degree is there in it of immortality.
Let me produce the state of sleep as a most evident demonstration of the
truth of what I say; wherein souls, when the body does not distract them,
have the sweetest rest depending on themselves, and conversing with God,
by their alliance to him; they then go every where, and foretell many futurities
beforehand. And why are we afraid of death, while we are pleased with the
rest that we have in sleep? And how absurd a thing is it to pursue after
liberty while we are alive, and yet to envy it to ourselves where it will
be eternal! We, therefore, who have been brought up in a discipline of
our own, ought to become an example to others of our readiness to die.
Yet, if we do stand in need of foreigners to support us in this matter,
let us regard those Indians who profess the exercise of philosophy; for
these good men do but unwillingly undergo the time of life, and look upon
it as a necessary servitude, and make haste to let their souls loose from
their bodies; nay, when no misfortune presses them to it, nor drives them
upon it, these have such a desire 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 familiar friends [that are dead], so firmly and certainly
do they believe that souls converse with one another [in the other world].
So when these men have heard all such commands that were to be given them,
they deliver their body to the fire; and, in order to their getting their
soul a separation from the body in the greatest purity, they die in the
midst of hymns 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 same time weep on their own account, but look upon the others
as happy persons, as so soon 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 so much desired and imitated by all mankind?
But put the case that we had been brought up under another persuasion,
and taught that life is the greatest good which men are capable of, and
that death is a calamity; however, the circumstances we are now in ought
to he an inducement to us to bear such calamity courageously, since it
is by the will of God, and by necessity, that we are to die; for it now
appears that God hath made such 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 use of. For do not you ascribe the occasion of our present condition
to yourselves, nor think the Romans are the true occasion that this war
we have had with them is become so destructive to us all: these things
have not come to pass by their power, but a more powerful cause hath intervened,
and made us afford them an occasion of their appearing to be conquerors
over us. What Roman weapons, I pray you, were those by which the Jews at
Cesarea were slain? On the contrary, when they were no way disposed to
rebel, but were all the while keeping their seventh day festival, and did
not so much as lift up their hands against the citizens of Cesarea, 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 themselves, who never took us for their enemies till we revolted
from them. But some may be ready to say, that truly the people of Cesarea
had always a quarrel against those that lived among them, and that when
an opportunity offered itself, they only satisfied the old rancor they
had against them. What then shall we say to those 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 see how little our good-will and fidelity to them profiled
us, while they were slain, they and their whole families, after the most
inhuman manner, which was all the requital that was made them for the assistance
they had afforded the others; for that very same destruction which they
had prevented from falling upon the others did they suffer 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 slay their Jewish inhabitants, and were not more bitter enemies
to us than were the Romans themselves; nay, even those of Damascus, 1
when they were able to allege no tolerable pretense against us, filled
their city with the most barbarous slaughters 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 slain in Egypt, and that with torments
also, we have been informed they were more than sixty thousand; those indeed
being in a foreign country, and so naturally meeting with nothing to oppose
against their enemies, were killed in the manner forementioned. As for
all those of us who have waged war against the Romans in our own country,
had we not sufficient reason to have sure hopes of victory? For we had
arms, and walls, and fortresses so prepared as not to be easily taken,
and courage not to be moved by any dangers in the cause of liberty, which
encouraged us all to revolt from the Romans. But then these advantages
sufficed us but for a short time, and only raised our hopes, while they
really appeared to be the origin of our miseries; 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 victory over us the more glorious, and were not
disposed for the preservation of those by whom these preparations were
made. And as for those that are already dead in the war, it is reasonable
we should esteem them blessed, 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 haste to die, before he would suffer the same miseries with them?
Some of them have been put upon the rack, and tortured with fire and whippings,
and so died. Some have been half devoured by wild beasts, and yet have
been reserved alive to be devoured by them a second time, in order to afford
laughter and sport to our enemies; and such of those as are alive still
are to be looked on as the most miserable, who, being so desirous of death,
could not come at it. And where is now that great city, the metropolis
of the Jewish nation, which vas fortified by so many walls round about,
which had so many fortresses and large towers to defend it, which could
hardly contain the instruments 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 preserved, I mean
the camp of those that hath destroyed it, which still dwells upon its ruins;
some unfortunate old men also lie upon the ashes of the temple, and a few
women are there preserved alive by the enemy, for our bitter shame and
reproach. Now who is there that revolves these things in his mind, and
yet is able to bear the sight of the sun, though he might live out of danger?
Who is there so much his country's enemy, or so unmanly, and so desirous
of living, as not to repent that he is still alive? And I cannot but wish
that we had all died before we had seen that holy city demolished by the
hands of our enemies, or the foundations of our holy temple dug up after
so profane a manner. But since 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 distress, let us make haste to die bravely. Let us pity ourselves,
our children, and our wives while it is in our own power to show pity to
them; for we were born to die, 2
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 abuses, and slavery, and
the sight of our wives led away after an ignominious manner, with their
children, these are not such evils as are natural and necessary among men;
although such as do not prefer death before those miseries, when it is
in their power so to do, must undergo even them, on account of their own
cowardice. We revolted from the Romans with great pretensions to courage;
and when, at the very last, they invited us to preserve ourselves, we would
not comply with them. Who will not, therefore, believe that they will certainly
be in a rage at us, in case they can take us alive? Miserable will then
be the young men who will be strong enough in their bodies to sustain many
torments! miserable also will be those of elder years, who will not be
able to bear those calamities which young men might sustain! One man will
be obliged to hear the voice of his son implore help of his father, when
his hands are bound. But certainly our hands are still at liberty, and
have a sword in them; let them then be subservient to us in our glorious
design; let us die before we become slaves under our eneimies, and let
us go out of the world, together with our children and our wives, in a
state of freedom. This it is that our laws command us to do this it is
that our wives and children crave at our hands; nay, God himself hath brought
this necessity upon us; while the Romans desire the contrary, and are afraid
lest any of us should die before we are taken. Let us therefore make haste,
and instead of affording them so much pleasure, as they hope for in getting
us under their power, let us leave them an example which shall at once
cause their astonishment at our death, and their admiration of our hardiness
therein."
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