accuser, (and so Suidas expressly tells us it was,) having been convinced by that mighty courage and constancy which St. James shewed at the time of his trial, repented of what he had done, came and fell down at the apostle's feet, and heartily begged pardon for what he had said against him. The holy man, after a little surprise at the thing, raised him up, embraced, and kissed him "Peace, (said he,) my son, peace be to thee, and the pardon of thy faults." Whereupon, before them all, he publicly professed himself to be a Christian, and so both were beheaded at the same time. Thus fell James, the apostolic proto-martyr, the first of that number that gained the crown, cheerfully taking that cup, which he had long since told his Lord he was most ready to drink of.

IX. But the Divine vengeance, that never sleeps, suffered not the death of this innocent and righteous man to pass long unrevenged; of which, though St. Luke gives us but a short account, yet Josephus," who might himself remember it, being a youth, at that time, of seven or eight years of age, sets down the story with its particular circumstances, agreeing almost exactly with the sacred historian. Shortly after St. James's martyrdom, Herod removed to Cæsarea, being resolved to make war upon the neighbouring Tyrians and Sidonians. While he was here, he proclaimed solemn sights and festival entertainments to be held in honour of Cæsar, to which there flocked a great confluence of all the nobility thereabouts. Early in the morning on the second day, he came with great state into the theatre, to make an oration to the people, being clothed in a robe all over curiously wrought with silver; which, encountering with the beams of the rising sun, reflected such a lustre upon the eyes of the people, (who make sensible appearances the only true measures of greatness,) as begot an equal wonder and veneration in them, crying out, (prompted, no doubt, by flatterers, who began the cry,) that it was some deity which they beheld, and that he who spake to them must be something above the ordinary standard of humanity. This impious applause Herod received, without any token of dislike, or sense of that injury that was hereby done to the Supreme Being of the world. But a sudden accident changed the scene, and turned the comic part into a black fatal tragedy. Looking up, he espied an owl sitting upon Suid. in voc. 'Hpwdns. h Antiq. Jud. 1. xix, c. 7.

a rope over his head,' (as probably also he did an angel, for so St. Luke mentions it,) which he presently beheld as the fatal messenger of his death, as heretofore it had been of his prosperity and success. An incurable melancholy immediately seized upon his mind, as exquisite torments did upon his bowels, caused, without question, by those worms St. Luke speaks of, which immediately fed and preyed upon him. "Behold (said he, turning to those about him) the deity you admired, and yourselves evidently convinced of flattery and falsehood; see me here, by the laws of fate, condemned to die, whom just now you styled immortal." Being removed into the palace, his pains still increased upon him; and though the people mourned and wept, fasted and prayed for his life and health, yet his acute torments got the upper hand, and after five days put a period to his life. But to return to St. James.

k

X. Being put to death, his body is said to have taken a second voyage into Spain, where we are with confidence enough told it rests at this day. Indeed, I met with a very formal account of its translation thither, written (says the publisher) above six hundred years since, by a monk of the abbey of La Fleury in France;' the sum whereof is this. The apostles at Jerusalem designing Ctesiphon for Spain, ordained him bishop; and others being joined to his assistance, they took the body of St. James, and went on board a ship without oars, without a pilot, or any to steer and conduct their voyage, trusting only to the merits of that apostle whose remains they carried along with them. In seven days they arrived at a port in Spain, where landing, the corpse was suddenly taken from them, and, with great appearances of an extraordinary light from heaven, conveyed, they knew not whither, to the place of its interment. The men, you may imagine, were exceedingly troubled, that so great a treasure should be ravished from them; but, upon their prayers and tears, they were conducted by an angel to the place where the apostle was buried, twelve miles from the sea. Here they addressed themselves to a rich noble matron, called Luparia, who had a great

i Hunc Josephi locum laudans Eusebius, totum bubonis mentionem prætermittit, ejusque loco ǎyyeλov substituit: mente quidem pia, at mala fide.

k Joseph. loc. citat.

1 Comment. de Translat. S. Jacob, Apost. ap. Joan a Bosc. Biblioth. Floriac. par. ii, p. 183, etc.

estate in those parts, but a severe idolatress, begging of her that they might have leave to entomb the bones of the holy apostle within her jurisdiction. She entertained them with contempt and scorn, with curses and execrations, bidding them go and ask leave of the king of the country: they did so, but were by him treated with all the instances of rage and fury, and pursued by him, till himself perished in the attempt. They returned back to their Gallæcian matron, whom, by many miracles, and especially the destroying a dragon that miserably infested those parts, they at last made convert to the faith; who thereupon commanded her images to be broken, the altars to be demolished, and her own idol-temple, being cleansed and purged, to be dedicated to the honour of St. James by which means Christianity mightily prevailed, and triumphed over idolatry in all those countries. This is the sum of the account, call it romance or history, which I do not desire to impose any farther upon the reader's faith, than he shall find himself disposed to believe it. I add no more, than that his body was afterwards translated from Iria Flavia (the place of its first repose) to Compostella: though a learned person will have it to have been but one and the same place; and that after the story of St. James had gotten some footing in the belief of men, it began to be called ad Jacobum Apostolum; thence, in after times, Giacomo Postolo; which was at last jumbled into Compostella; where it were to tire both the reader and myself to tell him with what solemn veneration, and incredible miracles reported to be done here, this apostle's relics are worshipped at this day: whence Baronius calls it the great store-house of miracles," lying open to the whole world, and wisely confesses it one of the best arguments to prove that his body was translated thither; and I should not scruple to be of his mind, could I be assured that such miracles were truly done there.

m Is. Voss. Observat. in Pomp. Mel. 1. iii. c. 1.

m

n Ad Ann. 816. n. 72.

THE LIFE OF SAINT JOHN.

His kindred and relations, whether eminent for nobility. The peculiar favours conferred upon him by our Saviour. His lying in our Lord's bosom. His attending at the crucifixion. Our Lord's committing the blessed Virgin to his care. The great intimacy between him and Peter. How long he resided at Jerusalem. Asia his apostolical province. His planting Christianity there, and in other parts of the East. His being sent prisoner to Rome, and being put into a cauldron of boiling oil by the command of Domitian. His banishment into Patmos. Transportation, what kind of punishment. Capitis diminutio, what. His writing the Apocalypse there. The tradition of his hand, wherewith he wrote it, being still kept there. His return to Ephesus, and governing the affairs of that province. His great age, and death. The fancy of his being still alive, whence derived by the ancients. The tradition of his going alive into his grave, and sleeping there. Several counterfeits pretending themselves to be St. John. His celibacy; whether he was ever married. His humility. His admirable love and charity, and hearty recommending it to the last. His charity to men's souls. His endangering himself to reclaim a debauched young man. His singular vigilancy against heretics and seducers. His public disowning Cerinthus's company. Cerinthus, who, and what his principles. The heresy of Ebion, what. Nicolaitans, who; whence their original. An account of Nicolas the deacon's separating from his wife. The vile principles and practices of his pretended followers. St. John's writings. His Revelation. Dionysius Alexandrinus's judgment concerning it and its author. Asserted and proved to be St. John's. The ground of doubting, what. His gospel when and where written. The solemn preparation, and causes moving him to undertake it. The subject of it sublime and mysterious. Admired and cited by heathen philosophers. Its translation into Hebrew. His first epistle, and the design of it. His two other epistles, to whom written, and why not admitted of old. His style and way of writing considered. The great encomium given of his writings by the ancient fathers.

ST. JOHN was a Galilean, the son of Zebedee and Salome, younger brother to St. James, together with whom he was brought up in the trade of fishing. St. Jerome makes him remarkable upon the account of his nobility, whereby he became acquainted with the high-priest, and resolutely ventured himself amongst the Jews at our Saviour's trial, prevailed to introduce Peter into the hall, was the only apostle that attended our Lord at his a Hieron. Epitaph. Marcell.

crucifixion, and afterwards durst own his mother, and keep her at his own house. But the nobility of his family, and especially that it should be such as to procure him so much respect from persons of the highest rank and quality, seems not reconcileable with the meanness of his father's trade, and the privacy of his fortunes. And for his acquaintance with the high-priest, I should rather put it upon some other account; especially if it be true what Nicephorus relates," that he had lately sold his estate, left by his father in Galilee, to Annas the high-priest, and had therewith purchased a fair house at Jerusalem, about Mount Sion, whence he became acquainted with him. Before his coming to Christ, he seems for some time to have been disciple to John the Baptist, being probably that "other disciple" that was with Andrew, when they left the Baptist to follow our Saviour; so particularly does he relate all circumstances of that transaction, though modestly, as in other parts of his gospel, concealing his his own name. He was, at the same time with his brother, called by our Lord both to the discipleship and apostolate, by far the youngest of all the apostles, as the ancients generally affirm and his great age seems to evince, living near seventy years after our Saviour's suffering.

II. There is not much said concerning him in the sacred story, more than what is recorded of him in conjunction with his brother James, which we have already remarked in his Life. He was peculiarly dear to his Lord and Master, being “the disciple whom Jesus loved," that is, treated with more freedom and familiarity than the rest. And, indeed, he was not only one of the three whom our Saviour made partakers of the private passages of his life, but had some instances of a more particular kindness and favour conferred upon him. Witness his lying in our Saviour's bosom at the paschal supper; it being the custom of those times to lie along at meals upon couches, so that the second lay with his head in the bosom of him that was before him this honourable place was not given to any of the aged, but reserved for our apostle; nay, when Peter was desirous to know, which of them our Saviour meant, when he told them that one of them should betray him, and durst not himself propound the question, he made use of St. John (whose familiarity with b Hist. Eccl. 1. i. c. 28. vid. l. ii. c. 3. ubi hæreditatem hanc Caiphæ venditam fuisse dicit.