e of
our customs which are inhuman, but all tending to piety, and devoted to
the preservation of justice; nor do we conceal those injunctions of ours
by which we govern our lives, they being memorials of piety, and of a
friendly conversation among men. And the seventh day we set apart from
labor; it is dedicated to the learning of our customs and laws, [1] we
thinking it proper to reflect on them, as well as on any [good] thing
else, in order to our avoiding of sin. If any one therefore examine into
our observances, he will find they are good in themselves, and that they
are ancient also, though some think otherwise, insomuch that those who
have received them cannot easily be brought to depart from them, out of
that honor they pay to the length of time they have religiously enjoyed
them and observed them. Now our adversaries take these our privileges
away in the way of injustice; they violently seize upon that money of
ours which is owed to God, and called sacred money, and this openly,
after a sacrilegious manner; and they impose tributes upon us, and bring
us before tribunals on holy days, and then require other like debts of
us, not because the contracts require it, and for their own advantage,
but because they would put an affront on our religion, of which they are
conscious as well as we, and have indulged themselves in an unjust,
and to them involuntary, hatred; for your government over all is one,
tending to the establishing of benevolence, and abolishing of ill-will
among such as are disposed to it. This is therefore what we implore from
thee, most excellent Agrippa, that we may not be ill-treated; that we
may not be abused; that we may not be hindered from making use of our
own customs, nor be despoiled of our goods, nor be forced by these men
to do what we ourselves force nobody to do; for these privileges of ours
are not only according to justice, but have formerly been granted us by
you. And we are able to read to you many decrees of the senate, and
the tables that contain them, which are still extant in the capitol,
concerning these things, which it is evident were granted after you had
experience of our fidelity towards you, which ought to be valued, though
no such fidelity had been; for you have hitherto preserved what people
were in possession of, not to us only, but almost to all men, and have
added greater advantages than they could have hoped for, and thereby
your government is become a great advantage