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words, "Little children, love one another." His auditors asked, why he constantly said the same thing? He replied, because it was the particular command of his LORD, and could not be too often repeated. This ' holy Apostle lived till the time of the emperor Trajan, about the beginning of whose reign he departed this life, in the ninety-eighth or ninety-ninth year of his age.

St. PHILIP having for many years exercised his apostolic office, came to Hierapolis, a rich and populous city in Phrygia, where a serpent or dragon of a monstrous size was the idol. Philp, grieved to see the people so ignorant and impious, besought GoD by prayer, and called upon the name of CHRIST, till the monster was struck dead. After this, by his constant preach, ing and holiness of life, he made many converts; but the magistrates of the city, enraged at his success, seized upon the Apostle, and caused him to be scourged, and afterwards lead him to execution. Some say that he was crucified; others, that being bound, he was hung up by the neck against a pillar.

ST BARTHOLOMEW is reported to have travelled as far as India, preaching the GOSPEL; from whence, it is said, he returned to the north-west parts of Asia. He was at Hierapolis at the time of St. Philip's martyrdom, and was then fastened to a cross, but taken down and dismissed. He afterwards removed to Albanople in Armenia, a place dreadfully over-run with idolatry, from which he endeavoured to reclaim the people; but was seized by the governor, and condemned to death. Some say he was crucified with his head downwards after having been flayed alive.

After our LORD's ascension, ST. MATTHEW is supposed to have continued with the rest of the Apostles

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about twelve years, preaching in Jerusalem and Judea, Little certainty can be had what course of travels he took, or what death he died. He wrote one of the Gospels.

ST. THOMAS preached the Gospel to the Parthians, Medes, Persians, Carminians, Hyrcanians, Bactrians, and other neighbouring nations. He is said to have been thrust through with a spear by a Brachman, as he was on his knees at prayer.

ST. JAMES was, on account (as is supposed) of his relationship to our LORD, appointed by the rest of the Apostles Bishop of Jerusalem. In this high station, which was a situation of infinite labour and hazard, he acquitted himself so well, that he was much reverenced by his brethren and all the Christians.

In the interval between the departure of Festus and the coming of Albinus, the new governor of Judea, who was to succeed him, the Jews, disappointed of their designs against Paul, who had lately appealed to Cæsar, turned all their fury upon James, and resolved to hill him. They accordingly put him to death, by first throwing him down from the battlements of the Temple, and then knocking out his brains with a fuller's club. His death was greatly resented by the citizens in general, who sent secretly to Agrippa, by whom the High Priest had been advanced to his office, and he was shortly after removed. James was universally esteemed by all 'men, excepting those who were the professed enemies of Christianity, for he lived a most exemplary life.

ST. SIMON ZELOTIS continued in worship and communion with the other Apostles and Disciples at Jerusalem after the death of CHRIST, and at the feast of Pentecost received the same miraculous gifts as they did; so that, being equally qualified with the rest,

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there is no doubt but he used his endowments for the propagation of the Gospel; but into what parts of the world he travelled is uncertain. It is related, that this Apostle suffered martyrdom by crucifixion.

ST. JUDE is distinguished in the Scripture by several names, Jude or Judas; Thaddeus and Lebbæus. His travels are also uncertain; but the Armenians regard him as the first who planted Christianity among them. It is related, that he was shot to death with arrows.

After having spent the beginning of his ministry in Judea, St. MATTHIAS is supposed to have travelled eastward. It is related that he was seized by the Jews as a blasphemer, and first stoned and then beheaded.

ST. BARNABAS, though not of the number of the twelve, is yet honoured by St. Luke and the primitive writers as an Apostle; and we find in the history of the Acts of the Apostles he makes a considerable figure.

We read, that when he and Paul had a contention about Mark, Barnabas went to Cyprus. It is said, that he did not remain constantly in that island, but returned to St. Paul again, and was sent by him to Corinth. However, it is thought that he ended his days in his own country, Cyprus, by martyrdom in the following manner, Some Jews coming from Syria to Salamis, where Barnabas then was, enraged at the great success of his labours, seized bim in the synagogue as he was preaching, and shut him up all night; and in the morning, after inflicting on him a variety of torments, stoned him to death.

ST. MARK was not the same who gave occasion to the quarrel between Paul and Barnabas, but is supposed to have been a convert of St. Peter's, who on that account calls him his son. His Gospel was composed at $ 5 Rome,

Rome, at the entreaty of the Christians there; it was perused by St. Peter, and ratified by his authority. It was anciently styled St. Peter's Gospel.

It is related, that St. Mark preached the Gospel in Egypt, and planted the church in Alexandria: and that he afterwards travelled westward, and made many converts; that after this he returned to Alexandria, where a party of idolaters broke in upon him as he was preaching, and binding his feet with cords, dragged him through the streets, till he expired under their barbarous hands.

ST. LUKE the EVANGELIST was a native of Antioch, a man of learning, and a physician; he is also said to have been skilled in painting. At what time he became a Christian is uncertain; but we read in the book of the Acts, which was written by him, that he was a companion and fellow-labourer with St. Paul, whom he followed in all his dangers. He is supposed to have written his Gospel and the Acts at Rome, during St. Paul's two years imprisonment. It is said that he suffered martyrdom at Rome a short time after Paul was set at liberty; which is probable, as he would otherwise, most likely, have continued his History of the Acts of the Apostles.

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FROM the short account given in the foregoing Section of the deaths of the Apostles, we may see how exactly our LORD's predictions concerning the treatment his disciples would meet with were verified; and that they all continued, in defiance of the greatest difficul

ties and dangers, nay, even of death itself in its most frightful shapes, to propagate the Gospel, by which they proved their own belief of it.

It is wonderful to think, that twelve illiterate men should have fortitude to engage in such an undertaking as that of spreading Christianity throughout every part of the known world*; and that they should be able to effect it, in such an age especially, when paganism was in the highest repute, believed universally by the vulgar, and patronized by the great; when the wisest men of the wisest nations assisted at its sacrifices, and consulted its oracles on the most important occasions. There is no way of accounting for the success of the Gospel in such hands, but by imputing it, as the scripture does, to the power of God in CHRIST, and the influence of the HOLY SPIRIT; for it would have been utterly impossible for the Apostles, without Divine inspiration, to have invented a religion, the most sublime and most perfect of any that was ever made known to mankind : neither could they, without Divine assistance, have esta blished it in the world, against the opposition of some of the most learned philosophers and most powerful princes that ever lived upon earth. We must therefore regard that part of sacred history which relates to the Acts of the Apostles, and which follows the account of our LORD's ascension, as the fulfilment of his repeated promises, that he would entreat the FATHER to send the HOLY SPIRIT, whom he called the Comforter or Advo cate, to supply the loss of his personal presence.

From the account we have lately read of the miraculous operations of the HOLY SPIRIT, we must be convinced, that it is the SPIRIT of GOD Himself. It also

* See Jenyns's Internal Evidence.

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appears,

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