the father of John the Baptist. Hence he was reputed our Lord's brother. We find indeed several mentioned as the brethren of our Saviour in the evangelical history; but in what sense, was greatly controverted by the ancients. St. Jerome, St. Chrysostom, and some others, will have them to be called, from their being the sons of Mary, cousin-german, or, according to the Hebrew idiom, sister to the virgin Mary. But Eusebius, Epiphanius, and many others, tell us, they were the children of Joseph by a former wife. And this seems to be more natural, and best agrees with what the evangelists say of them, when they enumerate the question of the Jews: evidently implying their astonishment, that a person descended from, and related to, not the opulent and the mighty, but those of a humble sphere, as his parents and brethren were known to be, should possess such extraordinary endowments. The Jews looked for a Messiah invested with all the pomp and splendor of an earthly potentate; well then might they ask, when they beheld the display of his power, "Whence then hath this man these things?"

After the resurrection, he was honored with the particular appearance of our Lord to him, which, though passed over in silence by the evangelists, is recorded by St. Paul.

Some time after this appearance, he was chosen bishop of Jerusalem, and preferred before all the rest for his near relation to Christ; for the same reason we find Simon chosen to be his immediate successor in that see, because, after St. James, he was our Lord's next kinsman: a consideration that made Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, though they had been peculiarly honored by our Saviour, not to contend for this high and honorable station, but freely chose James bishop of Jerusalem.

When St. Paul came to Jerusalem after his conversion, he applied to St. James, and was honored by him with "the righthand of fellowship." And it was to St. James that Peter sent the news of his miraculous deliverance out of prison. "Go," said he, "shew these things unto James and to the brethren;" that is, to the whole church, especially to St. James the pastor

of it.

He performed every part of his duty with all possible care and industry, omitting no particular necessary to be observed by a diligent and faithful guide of souls, strengthening the weak, instructing the ignorant, refuting the erroneous, reproving the obstinate and by the constancy of his sermons, conquering the stubbornness of that perverse and refractory generation he had to deal with, many of the nobler and better sort being persuaded to embrace the Christian faith.

But a person so careful, so successful in his charge, could not fail of exciting the spite and malice of his enemies; a sort of men to whom the apostle has given too true a character, that

"they please not God, and are contrary to all men." They were vexed to see St. Paul had escaped their hands, by appealing unto Cæsar; and therefore turned their fury against St. James: but being unable to effect their design under the government of Festus, they determined to attempt it under the procuratorship of Albinus his successor, Ananus the Younger, of the sect of the Sadducees, being high priest.

In order to this a council was summoned, and the apostle, with others, arraigned and condemned as violators of the law. But that the action might appear more plausible and popular, the scribes and pharisees, masters in the art of dissimulation, endeavored to ensnare him; and, at their first coming, told him, that they had all placed the greatest confidence in him: that the whole nation as well as they, gave him the title of a just man, and one that was no respecter of persons; that they therefore desired that he would correct the error and false opinion the people had conceived of Jesus, whom they considered as the Messiah, and take this opportunity of the universal confluence to the paschal solemnity to set them right in their opinions in this particular, and would go with them to the top of the temple, where he might be seen and heard by all.

The apostle readily consented, and being advantageously placed on a pinnacle of the temple, they addressed him in the following manner; "Tell us, for we have all the reason in the world to believe, that the people are thus generally led away, with the doctrine of Jesus who was crucified; tell us, what is the instruction of the crucified Jesus?" To which the apostle answered, with an audible voice, "Why do you inquire of Jesus the Son of Man? He sits in heaven, at the right hand of the Majesty on high, and will come again in the clouds of heaven." The people below hearing this, glorified the blessed Jesus, and openly proclaimed, "Hosanna to the Son of David."

The scribes and pharisees now perceived that they had acted foolishly; that instead of altering, they had confirmed the people in their belief; and that there was no way left but to despatch him immediately, in order to warn others by his sufferings, not to believe in Jesus of Nazareth. Accordingly they suddenly cried out, That James himself was seduced, and become an impostor; and they immediately threw him from the pinnacle on which he stood, into the court below; but not being killed on the spot, he recovered himself so far as to rise on his knees, and pray fervently to heaven for his murderers. But malice is too diabolical to be pacified with kindness, or satisfied with cruelty. Accordingly his enemies, vexed that they had not fully acomplished their work, poured a shower of stones upon him, while he was imploring their forgiveness at the

throne of grace; and one of them dissatisfied with this cruel treatment, put an end to his misery with a fuller's club.

Thus did this great and good man finish his course, in the ninety-sixth year of his age, and about twenty-four years after our blessed Saviour's ascension into heaven. His death was lamented by all good men, even by the sober and just persons among the Jews themselves, as Josephus himself confesses.

He was a man of exemplary piety and devotion, educated under the strictest rules and institutions of religion. Prayer was his constant business and delight; he seems as it were to have lived upon it, and continually to have had his conversation in heaven; and he who has told us, "that the prayer of a righteous man availeth much," found it so by his own experience, heaven lending a more immediate ear to his petitions; so that in a time of remarkable drought, on his praying for rain, the clouds melted into fruitful showers.

Nor was his charity towards men less than his piety towards God; he did good to all, watched over the souls of men, and studied to advance their eternal welfare. He was of a remarkably meek and humble temper, honoring what was excellent in others, and concealing what was valuable in himself. Neither the eminence of his relation to the blessed Jesus, nor the dignity of the place he so worthily filled, could induce him to entertain lofty thoughts of himself above the rest of his brethren; on the contrary, he strove to conceal whatever might place him in a higher rank than the other disciples of the Lord of glory. Though he was a relative to the Redeemer of mankind, he styles himself only "the servant of our Lord Jesus Christ," not so much as mentioning his being an apostle.

ST. SIMON THE ZEALOT.

ST. SIMON, in the catalogue of the apostles, is styled "Simon the Canaanite," whence some conjecture he was born in Cana of Galilee, and others will have him to have been the bridegroom mentioned by St. John, at whose marriage our blessed Saviour turned the water into wine. But this word has no relation to his country, or the place of his nativity, being derived from the Hebrew word "kana," which signifies "zeal," and denotes a warm and sprightly temper. What some of the Evan

gelists therefore call "Canaanite," others, rendering the Hebrew by the Greek word, style "Zealot :" not from his great zeal, his ardent affection to his Master, and his desire of advancing his religion in the world, but from his warm, active temper, and zealous forwardness in some particular sect of religion before his coming to our Saviour.

In order to understand this the better, it will be necessary to observe, that as there were several sects and parties among the Jews, so there was one, either a distinct sect, or at least a branch, of the pharisees, called the sect of the Zealots. This sect of the zealots took upon them to execute punishments in extraordinary cases; and that not only by the connivance, but with the permission both of the rulers and people, till, in process of time, their zeal degenerated into all kinds of licentiousness and wild extravagance; and they not only became the pests of the commonwealth at home, but opened the door for the Romans to break in upon them, to their final and irrevocable ruin. They were continually prompting the people to throw off the Roman yoke, and assert their natural liberty, taking care, when they had thrown all things into confusion, to make their own advantage of the tumult. Josephus gives a large account of them, and every where bewails them as the great plague of the nation.

Many attempts were made, especially by Annas the highpriest, to reduce them to order, and oblige them to observe the rules of sobriety but all were in vain. They continued their violent proceedings, and joining with the Idumeans, committed every kind of outrage. They broke into the sanctuary, slew the priests themselves before the altar, and filled the streets of Jerusalem with tumults, rapine, and blood. Nay, when Jerusalem was closely besieged by the Roman army, they continued their detestable proceedings, creating fresh tumults and factions, and were indeed the principal cause of the ill success of the Jews in that fatal war.

This is a true account of the sect of the Zealots; though, whatever St. Simon was before, we have no reason to suspect, but after his conversion he was very zealous for the honor of his Master, and considered all those who were enemies to Christ as enemies to himself, however near they might be to him in any natural relation. And as he was very exact in all the practical duties of the Christian religion, so he shewed a very serious and pious indignation towards those who professed religion, and a faith in Christ with their mouths, but dishonored their sacred profession, by their irregular and vicious lives, as some of the first professing Christians really did.

St. Simon continued in communion with the rest of the apostles and disciples at Jerusalem; and at the feast of Pentecost

received the same miraculous gifts of the Holy Ghost; so that as he was qualified with the rest of his brethren for the apostolical office, in propagating the Gospel of the Son of God, we cannot doubt of his exercising his gifts with the same zeal and fidelity, though in what part of the world is uncertain. Some say he went into Egypt, Cyrene, and Africa, preaching the Gospel to the inhabitants of those remote and barbarous countries. And others add that after he had passed through those burning wastes, he took ship, and visited the frozen regions of the north, preaching the Gospel to the inhabitants of the western parts, and even to Britain; where having converted great multitudes and sustained the greatest hardships and persecutions, he was at last crncified, and buried in some part of Great Britain, but the place where is unknown.

ST. JUDE.

THIS apostle is mentioned by three several names in the evangelical history, namely, Jude or Judas, Thaddeus and Lebbeus.

He was brother to St. James the Less, afterwards bishop of Jerusalem, being the son of Joseph the reputed father of Christ, by a former wife. It is not known when or by what means he became a disciple of our blessed Saviour, nothing being said of him, till we find him in the catalogue of the twelve apostles; nor afterwards till Christ's last supper, when discoursing with them about his departure, and comforting them with a promise, that he would return to them again (meaning after his resurrection) and that the "world should see him no more, though they should see him," our apostle said to his Master, "Lord, how is it that thou wilt manifest thyself to us, and not unto the world?"

Paulinus tells us that the province which fell to the share of St. Jude, in the apostolic division of the provinces, was Lybia; but he does not tell us whether it was the Cyrenian Lybia, which is thought to have received the Gospel from St. Mark, or the more southern parts of Africa. But however that be, in his first setting out to preach the Gospel, he travelled up and down Judea and Galilee; then through Samaria unto Idumea, and to the cities of Arabia and the neighboring countries, and afterwards to