occasioned by your
negligence, so will they become still greater by being still
longer neglected; for their multitude is every day augmented, by
every ill man's running away to those that are like to
themselves, and their audaciousness is therefore inflamed,
because they meet with no obstruction to their designs. And for
their higher place, they will make use of it for engines also, if
we give them time to do so; but be assured of this, that if we go
up to fight them, they will be made tamer by their own
consciences, and what advantages they have in the height of their
situation they will lose by the opposition of their reason;
perhaps also God himself, who hath been
affronted by them, will make what they throw at us return
against themselves, and these impious wretches will be killed by
their own darts: let us but make our appearance before them, and
they will come to nothing. However, it is a right thing, if there
should be any danger in the attempt, to die before these holy
gates, and to spend our very lives, if not for the sake of our
children and wives, yet for God's sake, and for the sake of his
sanctuary. I will assist you both with my counsel and with my
hand; nor shall any sagacity of ours be wanting for your support;
nor shall you see that I will be sparing of my body neither."

11. By these motives Ananus encouraged the multitude to go
against the zealots, although he knew how difficult it would be
to disperse them, because of their multitude, and their youth,
and the courage of their souls; but chiefly because of their
consciousness of what they had done, since they would not yield,
as not so much as hoping for pardon at the last for those their
enormities. However, Ananus resolved to undergo whatever