`Ìhe Epi/lle to theH E B R E w s was written. made means tokeep hisBrother from punifhment, whenhe was accufed for Extortion and Oppreffionby the Jews. Mottprobably then Patelwas fent untoRome; about the fonrtb orfiftlo year ofNero, whichwas the fifty ninthyear from the Nativity of the Lord JefusChrift. Therehe abode as wefhewed at the lea(t two years in tuftody, where the Storyof the Ads ofthe ApoJtlesends, in thefeventh year ofNero, and _racyfirfiofour Lord, or thebeginning of theyear following. That year it is prefumed, he obtaii his liberty. And this was about thirteen years after the determination of the.Contro- verfre about Mofaicallnititutions, as to their obligationontheGentiles, made by the Sy- nodat Jerufelem, Ads 13. Prefently upon his liberty, whileft he abode in fomepart of Italy, expeaing the coming of Timothy, before he entered upon the journey he had promifedunto the Philippians, Chap. a. e. 24. he wrote thisFpifk. Ilerethenwe mutt thy a little, to confider what wasthe generalftate and conditionof theWren's in thole dares, whichmightgive occafionunto the writing thereof. The time fixed on, wasabout thedeath of Fefuu, who dyed in the Province; and the beginning of the GovernmentofAlbinuswhowas fent to fucceedhim. What was the Efate ofthe people at that time,, Jofephnrdeclaresat large in his Second Book of their Wars. In brief, the Governoursthemfelves beinggreat Oppreffors, and rather mighty Rob- bers amongftthem, than Rulers, the whole Nationwas filled with Spoil and Violence. What through the furyand outrage of theSouldiers in the purfuit of their infatiable Avarice; what through thelncurfions ofThiever and Robbers in Troops andCompa- nies, wherewith the whole Land abounded, and what through the=tumults of Sediti- ousperfons daily incited and provoked by the cruelty of theRomans, there- was no peace or fafetyfor anytober bondsmen, . either in the City ofJerufalem, or anywhere elfe throughout the wholeProvince. That the Church had a great (hareof fuffering, in theoutrage and mifery of thofe dayes, (as in Inch dilfolutiona ofGovernment, and Licence for all wickedness, it commonly falls out ) no man can quellion.,tAnd this is thatwhich theApofflementions, Chap. so. 3r, 3z, 33, 34. Te endured a gr i, fight of 4lidions, partlymhikft ye were made agazing-Jtock.,, bothby reproaches and afkitions, and partlywhileft ye became companions of them thatwerefo used, and tookjoyfully the f ogling of your goads. This wasthe lotand portionof all honed and fober minded men in those dayes, as their Hftorianatlarge declares. Foras no the Chrifians had a princi- pal(hare in alltliofefufferings, fo tome others of the Jews alfo, were their Compani- onsin them; it being not a special perfecution, but a general calamity that the Apottle fpeaksof. . One Josphthe SonofCebias wasin thebeginning ofthofe dayes High-Priest, put into that Officeby Agrippa, who not long beforehad"put himout. On the death ofFefair he thruft himout again,and placed Ananus hisSon in his ffead. This man, a .young lathFellow, by Sea and Opinion a Sadduce, ( who of all others were the mott vio- lent in theirhattedof theChrijtians, being efpecially ingaged therein by the peculiar Opinionof their SeaandParty, avhich was thedenyal of the Refurreaion ) first be- gan adireet 'Perfecution of the Church. Before his advancement to the Priefthood, their Afiiaions and Calamities were for the molt part common unto them, with other peaceable men. Only therude and impious multitude, withother feditiousperfons, feem to have offered efpecialviolencesunto their Afmblies and Meetings, which Coine ofthe more urtteadfatt and weak, began toomit on that account, Chap. so. zs. Judicial pro- ceeding againft them asto their lives when this Epiftle waswritten;there Bothnot appear to have been any; for theApdfle tells them, as we before obferved , that as yet they had not refitted untoblood, Chap. r z.v.4, But this Ananus the Sadduce prefently after being placed inpower by Agrippa, taking advantage at the death ofFefur, andthetime that palled beforeAlbinus his Succeffor was felled inthe Province; convents Jamesbefore himfelf andhisAffociates. There to makeshort work he is condemned, and immedi- ately/forted. And it is not unlikely but that other private Perfons suffered together with him. The Story (by the way) of the Martyrdomeofthis James is at large reported 6y Eufebius out of HegeJippus, H f or. Ecckf.l. z. cap. 23. in theRelation whereof he is fol- lowedbyHiierom, and fundry others. I (hall fay no more of the wholeStory, but that theContideration of it, isvery fufficient toperfwade anyman to ufe die liberty of his ownReafon and Judgement in the perusal ofthe Writings ofthe Antients. For o?the Circumfanees therein reported, about thisJamesand his death, many of them (as his beingof the Line of the Priefts, his entring at his pleafure into the Sanctum Sanelorum, his being carriedup-and fet by agreatmultitude of people on a pinacleof theTemple) G are 41 4. 45° 4:6a
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