that place was situated is uncertain : nor is it known what his particular way or course of life was before he was called to the apostleship; the sacred writers having been silent with regard to this particular, mentioning nothing concerning him during the life of our Saviour. Fords & te gipsor

St. James, was honoured, after the resurrection, with a particular appearance of our Lord to him, which, though passed over in silence by the evangelists, is recorded by St. Paul, St. Jerom, from the Hebrew gospel of the Nazarenes, which contain several particulars omitted by the evangelical historians, gives the following relation of his appearance to this apostle St. James had solemnly sworn, that from the time he had drank of the cup at the institution of the supper, he would eat bread no more, till he saw the Lord risen from the dead, our Lord, therefore, being returned from the grave, came and appeared to him, and commanded bread to be set be fore him, which he took, blessed, and brake, and gave to St. James; says ing, "Eat thy bread, my brother, for the Son of man is truly risen from amongst them that sleep."

After the resurrection of our Saviour, he was chosen bishop of Jerusa lem, being preferred before all the rest for his near relation to CHRIST and for the same reason, we find Simeon chosen to be his immediate successor in that see, because, after St. James, he was our Lord's next kiosman; a consideration that made Peter and the two sons of Zebedee though they had been peculiarly honoured by our Saviour, not to contend for this high and honourable station, but ifreely chose James the Just bishop of Jerusalem. This dignity is indeed said by some of the ancients to have been conferred on him by CHRIST, who constituted him bishop at the time of his appearing to him: but it is safest to follow the general opinion, that this dignity was conferred upon him by the apostles; though possibly they might receive some intimations from our Lord himself con cerning it.

that time.

St. Paul, when he came to Jerusalem, after his conversion, applied to St. James, and was by him honoured by the right-hand of fellowship: and Peter sent to St. James the news of his miraculous deliverance out of the prison, Go," said he, "shew these things unto James, and to the brethren;" that is, in the church, especially to St. James the pastor of it at This apostle was remarkably active in the synod of Jerusalem, when લગ્ન એટલો the great cause relating to the Mosaic rites was debated; for the cause being opened by Peter, and further debated by Paul and Barnabas, St. James stood up to pass the final and decretory sentence.-That the Gen tile converts were not to be loaded with the Jewish yoke; a few indif ferent rites only being ordered to be observed in order to produce an ac commodation between the Jews and Gentiles, ushering in the expedient with this positive conclusion, "This is my sentence and determination:" a circumstance the more considerable, because spoken at a time when Peter was in council, and produced not the least intimation of the authority afterwards ascribed to him.

St. James performed every part of his charge with all possible care and industry, omitting no particular necessary to be observed by a diligent and faithful guide of souls; strengthing the weak, instructing the ignorant, reducing 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 noble and better sort being persuaded to embrace the Christian faith: but a person so careful, so successful in his charge, could not fail of wakening the spite and malice of his enemies; a sort of men of whom the apostle has given, too truecharacter, that "they pleased not God, and are contrary to all men. The Jews being vexed to see St. Paul had escaped their hands by appealing unto Cæsar, their malice became as great and insatiable as hell.

itself, so that as they could not have their revenge on St. Paul, they turned their fary 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, Ananias the younger, of the sect of the Sadducees, being hight-priest. They were however fearful that Albinus would oppose their design, and therefore thought it the surest method to dispatch him, if possible, before the new governor arrived. In order to this, a council was summoned, and the apostle, with others, arraigned and condemned as violaters of the law: but that the action might appear more plausible & popular, the Scribes & Pharisees, masters in the art of dissimulation, endeavoured to ensnare him, telling him that they had 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 per sons; that they therefore desired 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 people.

To this the apostle readily consented, and being advantageously placed on the pinnacle of the temple, they addressed him in the following manner: "Tell us O Justus! whom we have all the reason in the world to believe, why the people are thus generally led away with the dootrine of JESUS, who was crucified; tell us, what is this institution of the crucified JaSUS ?" 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 righthand d of the Majesty on high, and will come again in the clouds of heeven." 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 left but 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 impostor; and 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: 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, they 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 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 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 Zacharias and old Simeon. Hejesippus, 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 had 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 Epiphanias conjectures, according to the most ancient order and form of priesthood, when the sacredotal office was the prerogative of the first-born; but whether this kind of priestbood 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 cone bat 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 performed kneeling, and with the greatest reverence, till by his daily devotions, his knees were become hard and callous like those of camel. And he who has told us, that "the prayer of the 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 redit ved the necessities of the peopled..

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, "1 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; Deither the eminency of his relation to the blessed JESUS, nor the dignity of the place be 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, be 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 accommoda tions; he went bare foot, 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 Melchizedek thap 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 be was at once the love and wonder of his age; and from the reputation of his holy and religious life, was stiled 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 of "Oblias," or "Ozliam," the "defence and fortress of the people" indicating, that when he was no more, their castles should 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 roll

ing 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 Esebius 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 universal 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 degenera. cy 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 salvar tion. 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 it's object, and works by love and holiness can justify us before God, and procure our admittance into the cœlestial kingdom of eternal glory.

The LIFE of St. PETER,

The APOSTLE to the JEWS.

THIS remarkable apostle and disciple of our blessed Lord and Sa viour was born at Bethsaida, a city of Galilee, situate on the banks of the Jake of Gennesareth, called also the sea of Galilee, from it's being situ ated in that country; and the lake of Tiberias, from that city being built on it's 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 apos tles, sufficiently declare this conjecture to be very far from being improbable.

St. Peter being a descendant of Abraham, was circumcised according to the rules of the Mosaic law, and called, by his parents, Simon or Simeon, aname at that time common among the Jews: but after his becoming disciple of the blessed Jesus, the additional title of Cephas was conferred

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upon him by his Master, to denote the firmness of his faith; the word Ce phas in the Syriac, the common language of the Jews at that time, signifying stone or rock and thence he is called in Greek Petros, and by us Peter, which appellation bears the same meaning.

The evangelists have also been silent with regard to the parents of St. Peter, except in telling us, that his father's name was Jonah, probably a fisherman of Bethsaida: but whatever was his trade, he was highly honoured by our blessed Saviour, who chose two of his sons, Andrew and Peter, to be his apostles, and preachers of the glad tidings of salvation to mankind. While young, St. Peter was brought up to the trade of fishing on the Jake of Bethsaida, famous for different kinds of fish, which excelled all others in the fineness of the taste. Here he closely followed his trade: but afterwards removed to Capernaum, probably on his being married, where he settled; for we find he had a house there when our blessed Saviour began his public ministry, and there he paid tribute. Nicephorus tells us, that Helen, the mother of Constantine, erected a beautiful church over the ruins of St. Peter's house in honour of him.

The town of Capernaum was as well situated as Bethsaida for the carrying on his trade, standing at the influx of the river Jordan into the sea of Galilee, and where he might, with equal advantage, reap the fruits of an honest and industrious diligence. The business of St. Peter was, we confess, both mean and servile: it exposed him to all the injuries of the weather, the tempestuousness of the sea, and the darkness and horror of the night, and all to acquire a mean livelihood for himself and his family; but meanness is no exception to the Almighty; the poor, if virtuous, are as dear to heaven as the wealthy, the great, and the powerful: the beggar and the monarch are equally regarded by the great Parent of the human race, with whom there is no respect of persons; and who is the rewarder of all that diligently seek him.

Here we cannot help observing the wise and admirable methods made use of by Divine Providence, in making choice of such mean and unlikely instruments in planting and propagating the Christian religion in the world; men who were destitute of every advantage of education, and brought up to the meanest employments, were chosen to confound the wise, and overturn the learning of the prudent. Such were the persons whom the Almighty sent to propagate the religion of his Son; to silence the wise, the scribe, and the disputer of this world, and to make foolish the wisdom of the carth: for though the Jews required a sign, and the Greeks sought after wisdom; though the preaching of a crucified Saviour was a scandal to the former, and foolishness to the learned latter; yet by this foolishness of preaching, God was pleased to save them that believed; and, in the event, made it appear, that the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men ;" that so the honour of all may abound to himself, “no flesh shall glory in his presence, but he that glorieth, shall glory in the Lord," to whom alone all honour is due.

We are not told of what sect St. Peter was before he became a follower of the blessed JESUS; but it is highly probable that he was a disciple of John the Baptist. We know that his brother Andrew was a follower of that preacher of repentance; and it is very unlikely that he, who was so ready to carry his brother the early tidings of the Messiah, that the Sun of Righteousness was already risen in these parts, should not be equally solici tious to bring him under the discipline & influence of John the Baptist, the day star which appeared to usher in the appearance of the Son of God: besides, Peter's great readiness and curiosity at the first news of CHRIST'S appearing, to come to him and converse with him, shows that his expectations had been awakened, and some glimmering rays of hope conveyed to him by the preaching and ministry of John, who was " the voice of one