Section 129
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98 ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY. change them, but it has been implanted in all Jews, from the very origin of the nation, to consider them as the doctrines of God, and to abide by them, and cheerfully to die for them if neces sary." These declarations of this historian, I thought might be properly here subjoined. There is also another work, of no mean execution, by the same writer, " On the Supremacy of Reason," which, indeed, is entitled by some Maccabaicum, because it con tains the conflicts of those Hebrews that contended manfully for the true religion, as is related in the books called Maccabees. And at the end of the twentieth book of his Antiquities, the same author intimates, that he had purposed to write four books on God, and his existence, according to the peculiar opinions of the Jew ish nation ; also on the laws, wherefore it is permitted by them to do some things whilst others are forbidden. Other subjects, he says, are also discussed by him in his works. In addition to these, it seems proper to subjoin also the expressions that he uses at the close of his Antiquities, in confirmation of the testi mony that we have taken from him. For when he accuses Jus tus of Tiberias, who, like himself, attempted the history of his own times, and convicts him of not writing according to truth, after upbraiding him with many other misdemeanours, he also adds the following language : " I am not, however, afraid re specting my writings, as you are ; but have presented them to the emperors themselves, as the facts occurred almost under their eyes. For I was conscious of adhering closely to the truth in my narration, and hence was not disappointed in expecting to recede their testimony. To many others, also, did I hand my history, some of whom were present at the war, as king Agrippa and some of his relatives. For the emperor Titus desired so much that the knowledge of these events should be communi cated to the world, that with his own hand he wrote they should be published. And king Agrippa wrote sixty-two letters bearing testimony to their truth, of which Josephus subjoined two. But this may suffice respecting him. Let us now proceed to what , follows in order.