length. It does not, however, follow, from the silence of St. Luke, that the churches in Judea' were exempt from persecution at this period. His narrative is concerned chiefly with St. Paul; and his notice of the Church at Jerusalem is, in this part at least, only incidental. From Heb. x. 34, .(" For ye had compassion of me in my bonds, and took joyfully the spoiling of your goods") compared with Acts xxiv. 23, (" And he commanded a centurion to keep Paul, and that he should forbid none of his acquaintance to minister or come to him,”) it may, perhaps, be inferred that during St. Paul's two years' imprisonment at Cæsarea (Acts xxiv. 27), which followed his apprehension on this occasion, the believing Jews not only sympathized with him, but shared also in his persecutions, so far at least as to be plundered "of their goods"; unless we suppose this allusion to relate to events of a still later period, of which information had been brought to the Apostle in Italy.

For when disappointed in their designs against St. Paul by his removal to Rome, his persecutors directed their malice against St. James the Less', or the Just, as he was also called; being held by all the Jews' in the highest veneration for his singular wisdom, patriotism, and piety. This James was Bishop of Jerusalem, appointed, some writers assert, by our Lord himself, but according to the most probable

1 Styled also" the Lord's brother," agreeably to the Hebrew idiom, as being a near relative of the Virgin Mary: i. e. her nephew.

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2 This was no uncommon thing. Ananias for instance was a Christian; but being a devout man according to the law, he had a good report of all the Jews which dwelt" at Damascus. Acts, xxii. 12.

opinion, by the Apostolic College'. To deprive the Christian Jews of such a Prelate, venerable at once. for his Apostolic character, his great age (now upwards of ninety'), and the extraordinary reputation which he enjoyed even among his enemies, would appear to the persecutors of the Church the most effectual method of compassing its destruction. Unhappily a combination of circumstances proved, soon after, peculiarly favourable to their views. The Roman governor, Festus, died within a short time, apparently, after sending away Paul to Rome: and his successor, Albinus, not having arrived, the high-priest, Ananus, availing himself of his temporary position, "assembled the Sanhedrim, and brought before him the brother of Jesus (who was called Christ), whose name was James, and some others [or some his companions]; and when he had formed an accusation of them as breakers of the law, he delivered them to be stoned"".

Thus it appears, that the imprisonment of St. Paul was the commencement of a persecution of a more general nature, in which the Apostle James (the Less),

1 As Bishop we find St. James presiding on several important occasions noticed in the 'Acts,' and referred to as the individual of chief note and authority in the Church at Jerusalem. See Acts xii. 17; xv. 13; xxi. 18. Gal. i. 19; ii. 9-12.

2 See Cave. If St. James was of so great an age when he died, he must have been thirty-four years old when our Lord was born, older probably than the Virgin Mary.

3 See note from Eusebius-p. 10.

Josephus (Whiston) Ant. B. xx. c. 9.

5 Bishop Percy in his Key thus alludes to this event: "A severe persecution had deprived the Hebrews" [i. e. "the converted Jews of Palestine"]" of the Apostle James, and had rendered almost that whole Church wavering in the faith. To confirm some, and to recover others from their Apostasy, was the purport of this Epistle."

1

the first Bishop of Jerusalem, with other of the more eminent Christians, suffered martyrdom; as St. Stephen had suffered about twenty-seven, and St. James, the brother of John, about fourteen years before. It is to these martyrs that allusion is supposed to be made in Heb. xiii. 72 (“ Remember your Guides, who spoke to you," &c. See the Greek); an opinion, as is shown above, more than probable, if, as Eusebius seems to say, St. James was put to death soon after

1 So Theodoret, who wrote about 423, A. D.

2 See Lect. XIII.

3 Eusebius certainly appears to speak of the martyrdom of St. James as directly consequent upon, and subsequent to the escape of St. Paul from the murderous intentions (Acts xxii. 22. and xxv. 3.) of the Jewish zealots. The passage is as follows:

"The Jews, however, when Paul appealed to Cæsar and was sent by Festus to Rome, being disappointed of their expectation in the plot which they were preparing for him" [viz. that just referred to as noticed Acts xxv. 3.]" turn their efforts against James, the Lord's brother, to whom the See (Opóvos) of the bishopric of Jerusalem had been committed by the Apostles. Their attempt against him was as follows: Bringing him publicly forth, they sought of him a denial of the Christian faith; but when, contrary to the general opinion, he spoke, before all the multitude, openly and with more freedom than they anticipated, confessing Jesus, our Saviour and Lord, to be the Son of God, they were no longer able to endure the testimony of one, who, on account of the eminent wisdom and piety which he cultivated in his life, was believed by all to be a most righteous man, but put him to death; availing themselves of the want of any chief governor (avapxíav), as an opportunity of assuming to themselves authority for the purpose. For it is to be observed, that, Festus having died in Judea at this point of time (кar' avrò rỡ kaipẽ), the local administration of affairs was left without any Governor or procurateur at its head."-Euseb. 1. 2. c. 23. He then adds from Hegesippus a particular account of the manner of his death; of his being thrown from the summit of the Temple, then stoned (as Josephus relates), and finally despatched with a fuller's club. The whole account may be seen in Cave or Lardner.

St. Paul was sent to Rome, and ere the rage, thus disappointed, had had time to cool.

But persecution was not the only trial to which the Hebrew Church was exposed. It was in still greater danger from the seduction of “false teachers", to whom there is frequent allusion in the course of the Epistle : -teachers, who whether to gratify their vanity, or to justify their immoral lives, or "lest they should suffer persecution'," "brought in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them2." For the purpose of avoiding persecution, it was important (see Galat. vi. 12.) to conciliate the Jews by upholding the Jewish ritual, as at least of equal obligation with the Gospel (See Heb. xiii. 9, &c.) Of the existence of such "false-brethren3" amongst the Christian Jews of other countries we have full evidence, especially in the Epistle to the Galatians, and in those of St. Jude and St. Peter. It is not probable that Judea should have been free from them, but rather that they should have abounded more there than elsewhere, particularly in the then disturbed state of the country, and after the recent loss of their Apostolic Bishop. Indeed, from the first there was a great inclination on the part of the Jewish converts, especially among the Pharisees who embraced Christianity, to pervert the gospel by

1 Gal. vi. 12.

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2 2 Pet. ii. 1. See also the Ep. of St. Jude. 3 Gal. ii. 4. 4 Such seems to have been the tendency to pervert the Gospel among the Jewish believers, that the very name (Nazarenes) by which they were known at first from other Jews, became soon the distinctive appellation of a sect of heretics. (Mosheim, vol. i. c. 5. Bp. Horsley-Charges.') Hence it is to be feared that the Hebrew Church at large did not benefit permanently by this Epistle.

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by

blending it with the Mosaic services1, and so, being Jews and Christians at once, to be neither Jews nor Christians." This mischief, begun by the Pharisees, was continued and increased by the heretics who soon arose, and particularly in Judea.

The history of the early heresiarchs is involved in much obscurity. Whilst, by God's good providence, the Truth has been preserved to us in his own blessed Word, the errors, against which his servants indirectly wrote, can scarcely be ascertained. He has "gathered his wheat into the garner;" but " the chaff" has been blown away, or "burnt" up by the "fiery trials" to which it has been exposed. And hence, perhaps, we should learn an important lesson; namely, that error should not be kept alive in perpetuating truth. Our reasoning should be rather confirmative, than confutatory. Some knowledge indeed of the existence of different errors at particular times or places, and of their general character, may be of great use in interpreting the oracles of truth; and so far history seems still to lend us light. For on referring to it, not only are we informed of the early existence, in the churches of Asia Minor, of the licentious Nicolaitans (mentioned Rev. ii. 6, 14, 15.); but we also find, among the early Hebrew heretics, the notorious names of Ebion and Cerinthus, who, according to Dr. Burton3, were cotem- · poraries, and lived towards the end of the first century. Waterland places Cerinthus "early enough to have

4

1 Acts xv. i.

2 Jerome, as quoted by Bishop Horsley.

Bampton Lectures." Lect. VI. and notes.

+ Waterland places only 12 years between them; the one heresy rising, as the other set.