378 The NEW and COMPLETE LIFE of 024r BLESSED LORD St. J U D E, the APOSTLE. ST. Jude is mentioned by three feveral names in the evangelical hiftory, namely, Jude or Judas, Thaddeus, and Lebbeus. The firft he had in common with the other Jews, and in honour of one of the twelve patriarchs ; the other two might be added to the former, partly to diltinguifh him from Judas the traitor, who had rendered the name odious. to theChrif- tians, and partly as a commendation of his wifdom and zeal : for Lebbeus, according to St. Jerom, fignifies a man of underfland- ing, and Thaddeus imports divine fervour; and hence fome of the fathers call him Zelotes, or zealous. This apoftle was brother to St. James the Lefs, afterwards bifhop of Jerufalem, being the fon of Jofeph, the reputed father of CHRIST, by a former wife. It is not known when, or by what means, he became a difciple of our bleffed Saviour, nothing being faid of him, till we find him in the catalogueof the twelve apoftles ; nor after- wards till CHRIST'S laft fupper, when dif- courfing with them about his departure, and comforting them with a promife, that he would return to them again, meaning after his refurreaion, and that the world Ihould fee him no more, though they fhould fee him ; our apoftle faid to his Mailer, Lord, how is it that thou wilt manifl thy felf unto us, and not unto the work? It feems, from this yueilion, that St. Jude expected that the Metliah would eftablifn a ieeular kingdom ; and, therefore, could not reconcile the folemnity and grandeur of it, with the privatemanifeftations ofCHRIST to his difciples only. It is affirmed by St. Jerom, that St. Tho- mas fent St. Jude the apoftle, foon after our Lord's afcenfion, to Edeffa, to heal Abagarus : but this is a miftake, it being Thaddeus, one of the feventy difciples; and not Judas Thaddeus the apoftle, who was fent to Abagarus, as in the life ofthat dif- ciple will be clearly proved. We are told by Paulinus, that the pro- vince which fell to the fhare of St. Jude in the apoftolic divifron of the provinces, was Lybia; but he does not tell us, whether it was the Cyrenean Lybia, which is thought to have received the gofpel from St. Mark, or the more fouthern part ofAfrica : but however that be, in his firft Petting out to preach the 'gofpel, 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 Mefopotamia. Nicephorus adds, that he came at lab to Edeffa, where Abagarus governed, and where Thaddeus, one of the feventy, had already fown the feeds of the gofpel. Here he perfeéted what the other had begun ; and having by his fermons and miracles eftablifhed the religion of Jesus, he died in peace ; but others fay, that he was flain at Berytes, and honourably buried there. The writers, ofthe Latin church are una- nimous in declaring, that St. Jude tra- velled into Perfia, where, after great file- eels in his apoftolical nrnülry for many years, he was at !aft, for his free and open reproving the fupc.[titious rites and cuf- toms of the Magi, cruelly put to death by the enemies of the gofpel. We do not find that St. Jude left more than one epifile; which is placed the lab ofthofe feven, [tiled catholic; in the facred canon. It hash no particular infcription, as the other fix have, but is thought to have been primarily intended for the Chrif- tian Jews, in their feveral difperfions, as St. Peter's epiftles were. In it he tells them, °° That he at firft intended towrite to them in general of the common falvation, and eftablifn
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