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constant business and delight; he seems as it were to have lived upon it, and continually to have had his conversation in heaven ; and be 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 remarkable meek and humble temper, honouring 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.

His temperance was admirable, wholly abstaining from flesh, drinking neither wine nor strong drink, and never using the bath. 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 Melchizedec than Aaron; so he never shaved 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 whom he was consecrated even from his mother's womb. In short, he was a man of so divine a temper, that he was at once the wonder of his age; and from the reputation of his holy and religious life, was styled James the Just.

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He 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. saw a great degeneracy and declension 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 wresting the scriptures to subserve the purpose of their lust and corrupt affections; our Apostle therefore recommends that faith which works by love, purifies the heart, and brings forth obedience to the will of God.

Saint Simon the Zealot.

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T. Simon, in the catalogue of the apostles, is stiled. 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. this word has no relation to his country, or the place of his nativity, being derived from the Hebrew word knah, which signifies zeal, and denotes a warm and sprightily temper. What some of the Evangelists therefore call Canaanite, others, from the Greek word, stile 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 took upon them to execute punishments in extraordinary cases; and that not only by the connivance, but with the leave both of the rulers and the 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. JoNo. 23.

sephus 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 high priest, 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 honour 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 dishonoured their sacred profession, by their irregular and vicious lives, as many 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 re

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ceived the same miraculous gifts of the Holy Ghost; so that he was qualified with the rest of his brethren for the apostolic office. In propagating the gospel of the Son of God, we cannot doubt of his exercising his gifts with the same zeal and fidelity, as his fellow apostles, though in what art 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 in Britain; where having converted great multitudes, and sustained the greatest hardships and persecutions, he was at last crucified, and buried in some part of Great Britian, but the place where is unknown.

Saint Jude.

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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 will 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 Cyrenean 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 into Idumea, and to the cities of Arabia and the neighbouring countries, and afterwards to Syria and Mesopotamia. Nicephorus adds, that he came at last to Edessa, where Abagarus governed, and where Thaddeus, one of the seventy, had already sown the seeds of the gospel. Here he perfected what the other had begun; and having, by his sermons and miracles established the religion of Jesus, he died in peace; but others say that he was slain in Berites, and honourably buried there. The writers of the Latin church are unanimous in declaring, that he travelled into Persia, where, after great success in his apostolical ministry for many years, he was at last, for his free and open reproving the superstitious rites and customs of the Magi, cruelly put to death.

St. Jude left only one epistle, which is

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placed the last of those seven, stiled cathofic, in the sacred canon. It hath no particular inscription as the other six have, but is thought to have been primarily intended for the christian Jews, in their several dispersions, as St. Peter's epistles were. In it he tells them, that he first intended to write to them in general of the common salvation, and establish and confirm them in it: but seeing the doctrine of Christ attacked on every side by heretics, he conceived it more necessary to spend his time in exhorting them to fight manfully in defence of the faith once delivered to the saints, and oppose

the false teachers who laboured so indefatigably to corrupt it.

It was some time before this epistle was generally received in the church. The author indeed, like St. James, St. John, and | sometimes St. Paul, does not call himselfan apostle, stiling himself only the servant of Christ. But he has added what is equivalent, Jude the brother of James, a character that can belong to no one but our apostle. And surely the humility of a follower of Jesus should be no objection against his writings.

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Saint Matthias.

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duly qualified for the important office. The method of election was by lots, a way common both among the Jews and Gentiles for determining doubtful and difficult cases, especially in chusing judges or magistrates. And this course seems to have been taken by the apostles, because the Holy Ghost was not yet given, by whose immediate dictates. and inspirations they were afterwards chiefly guided. The prayer being ended, the lots were drawn, by which it appeared that Matthias was the person, and he was accordingly numbered among the twelve apostles.

Not long after this election the promised powers to the Holy Ghost were conferred upon the apostles, to qualify them for that great and difficult employment upon which they were sent, the establishing the holy religion of the Son of God among the chil dren of men.

St. Matthias spent the first year of his ministry in Judea, where he reaped a very considerable harvest of souls, and then travelled into different parts of the world, to publish the glad tidings of salvation to people who had never yet heard of a Saviour: but the particular parts he visited are not certainly known.

It is likewise uncertain by what kind of death he left the regions of mortality, and

sealed the truth of the gospel he had so assiduously preached with his blood. Dorotheus says he finished his course at Sebastople, and was buried there near the temple of the sun. An ancient Martyrology reports him to have been seized by the Jews, and as a blasphemer to have been stoned and then beheaded. But the Greek officers, supported herein by several ancient breviaries, tell us that he was crucified.

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Saint Mark.

HIS apostle was descended from Jewish parents, and of the tribe of Levi. Nor was it uncommon among the Jews to change their names on some remarkable revolution or accident of life, or when they intended to travel into any of the European provinces of the Roman empire..

The ancients generally considered him as one of the seventy disciples; and Epiphanius expressly tells us, that he was one of those, who taking exception at our Lord's discourse of eating his flesh and drinking his blood, went back, and walked no more with him. But there appears no manner of foundation for these opinions, nor likewise for that of Nicephorus, who will have him to be the son of St. Peter's sister.

Eusebius tells us, that St. Mark was sent into Egypt by St. Peter to preach the gospel,. and accordingly planted a church at Alexandria the metropolis of it: and his success was so very remarkable, that he converted multitudes both of men and women; persuading them not only to embrace the Chris tian religion, but also a life of more than ordinary strictness.

St. Mark did not confine himself to Alexandria, and the oriental parts of Egypt, but removed westward to Lybia, passing through the countries of Marmacia, Pentapolis, and others adjacent, where, though the people were both barbarous in their manners, and idolatrous in their worship, yet by his preaching and miracles he prevailed on them to embrace the tenets of the gospel; nor did he leave them till he had confirmed them in the faith.

After this long tour he returned to Alexandria, where he preached with the greatest freedom, ordered and disposed of the affairs of the church, and wisely provided for a succession, by constituting governors and pastors of it. But the restless enemy of the souls of men would not suffer our apostle to continue in peace and quietness, for while he was assiduously labouring in the vineyard of his Master, the idolatrous inhabitants, about the time of Easter, they were celebrating the solemnities of Serapis, tumultuously entered the church, forced St. Mark, then performing divine service, from thence; and binding his feet with

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