trine of JESUS, who was crucified; tell us, what is this institution of the crucified JESUS?" To which the apostle answered with an audible voice: "Why do you enquire 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."

Hereupon the Scribes and Pharisees perceived that they had acted foolishly; that instead of reclaiming, they had confirmed the people in their error; and that there was no way leftbut to dispatch him immediately, in order to warn others, by his sufferings, not to believe in JEsus of Nazareth; accordingly they suddenly cried out, That Justus himself was seduced and become an imposter; and immediately threw him from the pinnacic 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; little portions of revenge serve only to enflame it, and rouse it up to greater acts of cruelty." Accordingly, his enemies, vexed that they had not fully accomplished their work, poured a shower of stones upon him, while he was imploring. their forgiveness at the throne of grace; and one of them, more merciful than the rest, with a fuller's club put an end to his misery.

This great and good man thus finished his course in the ninety-sixth year of his age, and about twentyfour years after our blessed Saviour's ascension into heaven. His death was lamented by all good men, even by the sober and just persons amongst the Jews themselves, as Josephus himself confesses. He was buried according to Gregory of Tours, on Mount Olivet, in a tomb he had built for himself, and in which he had buried Zazharias and Old Simeon. Hejessipus says, he was buried in the court of the temple, where he suffered

martyrdom, and that a monument was there erected to his memory but the former seems more agreeable to reason; for the Jews very rarely buried any person in the city, much less in the courts of the temple; and therefore it is not natural to think they would permit that honour to be paid to him they so lately put to death as an impostor and deceiver.

St. James was a man of exemplary piety and devotion, educated under the strictest rules and institutions of religion, a priest of the ancient order of the Rechabites, or rather as Epiphanius conjectures, according to the most ancient order and form of priesthood, when the sacerdotal office was the prerogative of the first-born; but whether this kind of priesthood was at any time observed under the Mosaic dispensation, we are no where told in Sacred Writ; but however that be,it is certain that he had the privilege of entering the sanctuary, or holy place, when he pleased, though none but priests of the order of Aaron.were permitted to enter there besides himself. Prayer was his constant business and delight; he seemed to live upon it, and to have continually his conversation in heaven; and therefore, used constantly to repair into the temple to pray, which he always per formed kneeling, and with the greatest reverence, till by his daily devotions, his knees were become hard and callous like those of a camel. 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, and relieved the necessities of the people.

His charity towards men was not less singular than his piety towards God; he did good to all, watched over the souls of men, and studied to advance their eternal welfare; his daily errand into the temple was to pray for the happiness of the people, and that God would not severely reckon with them; he could forgive his

most inveterate enemies, and overcome evil with good: when thrown from the top of the temple, he made use of his latest breath in sending up petitions to heaven for the pardon of his murderers, "I beseech thee, O Almighty Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do."

This apostle was of a remarkable meek and humble temper, honouring what was excellent in others, concealing what was valuable in himself: neither the eminency 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 brother 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 of his divine Master.

He was a person of extraordinary temperance, wholly abstaining from flesh, drinking neither wine nor strong drink, and never using the bath. His holy and mortified mind was contented with the meanest accommodations; he went barefoot, and never wore any other than linen garments. He lived indeed after the strictest rules of the Nazarite order; and as the mitre he wore on his head evinced his priesthood, which was rather from Melchizedeck than Aaron; so his never shaving his head, or using any ointments, his habit and diet, and the great severity of his life, shewed him to belong to the Nazarite institution, to which he was consecrated, even from his mother's womb. A man of so divine a temper, that he was at once the love and wonder of his age; and from the reputation of his holy and religious life, was styled James the Just. He was indeed the safety and happiness of the nation, which was reckoned to depend upon his prayers and interest with heaven; and hence he acquired the title VOL. ii.

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of Oblias, or Ozliam, the defence and fortress of the people; indicating, that when he was no more, their castles would be dismantled and their strength laid level with the ground: and so indeed it proved; for a few years after his death, the Roman army broke in upon them, and filled the country with blood and slaughter. It is indeed no wonder that the judgments of the Almighty, like a flood, should come rolling in upon a nation, when the sluices are plucked up, and Moses taken away that stood in the gap to oppose them. In short, St. James was the delight of all good men, and in so great favour and estimation with the people, that they used to flock after him, and strive who should touch, if it were only the border of his garment; his very episcopal chair, as Eusebius informs us, wherein he used to sit, was carefully preserved, and had a kind of veneration paid it, even in his time. He was beloved not only by his friends, but also by his enemies, and the Jews themselves mention St. James in their Talmud, as a person who wrought miracles in the name of JESUS his Master; and the wisest of them considered his martyrdom as the principal cause of all those calamities that soon after flowed in upon them. Josephus in particular reckons the death of St. James, as the action that more immediately roused the divine vengeance, and hastened the univer sal ruin of that nation by the Roman armies.

This apostle wrote only one epistle, probably not long before his martyrdom, as appears from some passages in it relating to the near approach of the destruction of the Jews: he directed it to the Jewish converts dispersed up and down those eastern countries, to comfort them under their sufferings, and confirm them against error: he saw a great degeneracy of manners coming on, and that the purity of the Christian faith. began to be undermined by the doctrines and practices of the Gnostics, who, under pretence of zeal for the legal rites, generally mixed themselves with the Jews: He beheld libertinism flowing in apace, and the way

to heaven made soft and easy, men declaiming against good works as useless and unnecessary, and asserting that a naked belief was sufficient to salvation. These doctrines the apostle opposes, presses the purity, patience, charity, and all the virtues of a good life; and by undeniable arguments proves, that such a faith alone, which has CHRIST for its object, and works by love and holiness, can justify us before God, and procure our admittance into the celestial kingdom of eter nal glory.

THE LIFE OF ST. PETER,

The Apostle to the Jews.

THIS remarkable apostle and disciple of our blessed Lord and Saviour was born at Bethsaida, a city of Galilee, situate on the banks of the lake of Genesareth, called also the sea of Galilee, from its being situated in that country; and the lake of Tiberias, from that city being built on its banks: but the particular time of this great apostle's birth cannot be known; the evangelists and other writers among the primitive Christians, having been silent with regard to this particular. It is, however, pretty certain, that he was at least ten years older than his Master; the circumstances of his being married, and in a settled course of life, when he became a follower of the great Messiah, and that authority and respect the gravity of his person procured him among the rest of the apostles, sufficiently declare this conjecture to be very far from being improbable.

St. Peter being a descendant of Abraham, was circumcised according to the rites of the Mosaic law, and called by his parents, Simon or Simeon, a name at that time common among the Jews: but after his becoming a disciple of the blessed JESUS: the additional fitle of Cephas was conferred upon him by his Master