JACOBITES

or JACOBINS. Eastern Christians, so denominated from Jacob, a Syrian, the disciple of Eutyches and Dioscorus, whose heresy he spread so much in Asia and Africa, in the 6th century, that at last, in the 7th, the different sects of the Eutychians were swallowed up by that of the Jacobites, which also comprehended all the Monophysites of the East, i. e. such as acknowledged only one nature in Christ. Their Asian patriarch resides at Caramit, in Me so pot am i a; Alexandria is the see of the African one, and he follows the errors of Dioscorus and the Cophti. M. Simon relates that under the name of Jacobins must be included all the Monophysites of the East, whether Armenians, Cophti, or Aby ines, acknowledging but one nature in Christ ; he adds, the number of the Jacobins, properly so called, is but small, there not being above thirty or forty you sand families of them, which principally inhabit Syria and Me so pot am i a: they are divided among themselves, one part embracing, and the other disowning, the communion of the Church of Rome. These last are not all united, having two opposite patriarchs, one at Caramit, and the other at Dorzapharan; besides these two, he says, there is one of the same opinion with the Latins, residing at Aleppo. JAMES’S, ST., DAY, ( July 25th ,) the day on which the Church celebrates the memory of the apostle James the Great, or the Elder. He was one of the sons of Zebedee, and brother of St. John. He was the first of the apostles who won the crown of martyrdom. (Acts xii. 2.) JAMES’S, ST., GENERAL EPISTLE. A canonical book of the New Testament. It was written by St. James the Le , called also the Lord’s brother; who was chosen by the apostles bishop of Jerusalem. The date of this Epistle is placed by Dr. Mills in, or just before, the year 60; two years after which the writer suffered martyrdom, under the high priesthood of Ananus, and procuratorship of Albinus. This general Epistle is addre ed partly to the infidel, and partly to the believing Jews. The writer’s design was to correct the errors, soften the ungoverned zeal, and reform the indecent behaviour, of the former; and to comfort the latter under the hardships they then did, or shortly were to suffer, for the sake of Christianity. It is directed to the Jews and Jewish converts of the dispersion, but no doubt was calculated for the improvement likewise of those Jews, over whom the apostle presided in the special character of their bishop. This Epistle is the first of the Catholic or General Epistles, in the canon of Scripture; which are so called, because they were written, not to one, but to several Christian Churches.