:w \m m% Hp HBQfl weSeST ¥9HGBr JBHIHB1 IMS S? S^-^- / LIBEAEY OF THE Theological Semin ry, PRINCETON, N. J. Case, ^ .... I Shelf, Booh, - •\» .W37 A BIBLICAL AND THEOLOGICAL DICTIONARY: EXPLANATORY OF THE HISTORY, MANNERS, AND CUSTOMS OF THE JEWS, AND NEIGHBOURING NATION& WITH AN ACCOUNT OF THE MOST REMARKABLE PLACES AND PERSONS MENTIONED IN SACRED SCRIPTURE; 3Bn 4Bipo$ition PRINCIPAL DOCTRINES OF CHRISTIANITY: AND NOTICES OF JEWISH AND CHRISTIAN SECTS AND HERESIES. BY RICHARD WATSON. [REVISED BY THE AMERICAN EDITORS.] AIM'HN Z?iv aKijiavTOi, Kal tuxos appayk, Kal avpyos bazifos, Kal Sd%a avaipaipcTos, Kal 8 ttXh arpiara, Kal thQvjiia audpavro;, Kal t]5ovfj Sitjvenri;, Kal rsdvra oaa av liiroi rl$ xaXii, tZv Selwv ypcup&v r) avvuala. — Chrysostom. [An intimate acquaintance with the Holy Scriptures is a secure haven, and an impregnable bulwark, and an immovable tower, and imperishable glory, and impenetrable armour, and unfading joy, and perpetual delight, and whatever other excellence can be uttered.] NEW-YORK, PUBLISHED BY B. WAUGH AND T. MASON, FOR THE METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH, AT THE CONFERENCE OFFICE, 14 CROSBY-STREET. J. Collord, Printer. 1833. " Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1832, by B. Waugh and T. Mason, in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the Southern District of New- York." PBIKG' BIBLICAL AND THEOLOGICAL DICTION AKY, ft ■ rfi^ AAR AARON, the son of Amram and Jochebed, of the tribe of Levi. Aaron was three years older than his brother Moses; and when God appeared in the burning bush, Moses having excused himself from the undertaking commit- ted to him, by urging that he was slow of speech, Aaron, who was an eloquent man, was made his interpreter and spokesman ; and in effecting the deliverance of the Hebrews we therefore find them constantly associated. During the march of the children of Israel through the wilderness, Aaron and his sons were appointed by God to exercise for ever the office of priests in the tabernacle. Moses having ascended the mountain to re- ceive the law from God, Aaron, his sons, and seventy elders, followed him, Exod. xxiv, 1, 2, 9-11 ; not indeed to the summit, but " afar off," " and they saw the God of Israel," that is, the glory in which he appeared, "as it were the paved work of a sapphire stone, and as it were the body of heaven for clearness ;" — a clear and dazzling azure, a pure, unmingled splendour like that of the heavens. " And upon the nobles of Israel," Aaron, his sons, and the seventy elders, "he laid not his hand," — they were not destroyed by a sight which must have over- whelmed the weakness of mortal men had they not been strengthened to bear it; "and they did eat and drink," — they joyfully and devoutly feasted before the Lord, as a religious act, upon the sacrifices they offered. After this they de- parted, and Moses remained with God on the very summit of the mount forty days. During this period, the people, grown impa- tient at the long absence of Moses, addressed themselves to Aaron in a tumultuous manner, saying, " Make us gods which shall go before us : for, as for this Moses, the man that brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we wot not what is become of him." Aaron sinfully yielded to the importunities of the people ; and having ordered them to bring the pendants and the ear- rings of their wives and children, he melted them down, and then made a golden calf, pro- bably in imitation of the Egyptian Apis, an ox or calf dedicated to Osiris. In this instance the image was dedicated to Jehovah the true God ; but the guilt consisted in an attempt to establish image worship, which, when even ultimately referring to God, he has forbidden. Neither are images to be worshipped, nor the true God by images ; — this is the standing unrepealed law of Heaven. The calf was called a golden calf, as being highly ornamented with gold. Having finished the idol, the people placed it on a pedes- AAR tal, and danced around it, saying, " These be thy gods, O Israel ;" or, as it is expressed in Nehe. miah, " This is thy God," the image or symbol of thy God, "which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt." Moses, having hastened from the mount by the command of God, testified to the people, by breaking the tables of the law in their presence, that the covenant between God and them was now rendered of none effect through their offence. He also indignantly re- proved Aaron, whose sin indeed had kindled against him the anger of the Lord, so that he would "have destroyed him but that Moses prayed for him." After the tabernacle was built, Moses conse- crated Aaron to the high priesthood with the holy oil, and invested him with his priestly robes, — his garments " of glory and beauty ;" but Aaron's weakness was again manifested in concurring with Miriam, his sister, to censure and oppose Moses, through envy. Aaron, as being the elder brother, could not perhaps brook his superiority. What the motive of Miriam might be does not appear ; but she being struck with leprosy, this punishment, as being imme- diately from God, opened Aaron's eyes ; he ac- knowledged his fault, and asked forgiveness of Moses both for himself and his sister. Aaron himself became also the object of jeal, ousy; but two miraculous interpositions con- firmed him in his office of high priest, as of Divine appointment. The first was the destruc- tion of Korah, who sought that office for him- self, and of the two hundred and fifty Levites who supported his pretensions, Num. xvi. The second was the blossoming of Aaron's rod, which was designed " to cause the murmurings of the Israelites against him to cease," by show- ing that he was chosen of God. Moses having, at the command of God, taken twelve rods of an almond tree from the princes of the twelve tribes, and Aaron's separately, he placed them in the tabernacle before the sanctuary, after having written upon each the name of the tribe which it represented, and upon the rod of Aaron the name of Aaron. The day following, when the rods were taken out, that of Aaron "was budded, and brought forth buds, and bloomed blossoms, and yielded almonds." This rod therefore was laid up by the ark, to perpetuate the remembrance of the miracle, and to be a token of Aaron's right to his office. Aaron married Elisheba, the daughter of Amminadab, of the tribe of Judah, by whom he had four sons, Nadab and Abihu, Eleazar and Ithamar, Exodus vi, 23. The two first were AAR AAR killed by fire from heaven, as a punishment for presuming to offer incense with strange fire in their censers, Lev. x, 1, 2. From the two others the succession of high priests was continued in Israel. The account of the death of Aaron is pecu- liarly solemn and afFecting. As he and Moses, in striking the rock at Meribah, Num. xvi, had not honoured God by a perfect obedience and faith, he in his wrath declared unto them that they sbould not enter into the promised land. Soon after, the Lord commanded Moses, " Take Aaron, and Eleazar his son, and bring them up to mount Hor ; and strip Aaron of his garments," — his splendid pontifical vestments, — "and put them upon Eleazar, his son ; and Aaron shall be gathered unto his people, and shall die there." This command was carried into effect in the presence of all Israel, who were encamped at the foot of the mountain ; and his son being invested with the father's priestly dress, Aaron died, and all the people mourned for him thirty days. His sepulchre was left unmarked and unknown, perhaps to prevent the superstitious reverence of future ages. In Deuteronomy it is said that Aaron died at Mosera ; because that was the name of the district in which mount Hor was situated. 2. The priesthood being established in Aaron and his family, the nature of this office among the Israelites, and the distinction between the high priest and the other priests, require here to be pointed out. Before the promulgation of the law by Moses, the fathers of every family, and the princes of every tribe, were priests. This was the case both before and after the flood ; for Cain and Abel, Noah, Abraham, Job, Abimelech, Laban, Isaac, and Jacob, themselves offered their own sacri- fices. But after the Lord had chosen the family of Aaron, and annexed the priesthood to that line, then the right of sacrificing to God was reserved to that family only. The high priest- hood was confined to the first-born in succes- sion ; and the rest of his posterity were priests simply so called, or priests of the second order. Both in the high priest and the second or in- ferior priests, two tilings deserve notice, — their consecration and their office. In some things they differed, and in others agreed. In their consecration they differed thus : the high priest had the chrism, or sacred ointment, poured upon his head, so as to run down to his beard, and the skirts of his garment, Exod. xxx, 23; Lev. viii, 12 ; Psa. exxxiii, 2. But the second priests ■were only sprinkled with this oil, mixed with the blood of the sacrifice, Lev. viii, 30. They differed also in their robes, which were a neces- sary adjunct to consecration. The high priest wore at the ordinary times of his ministration in the temple, eight garments ; — linen drawers — a coat of fine linen close to his skin — an em- broidered girdle of fine linen, blue and scarlet, to surround the coat — a robe all of blue with seventy-two bells, and as many embroidered pomegranates upon the skirts of it; this was put. over the coat and girdle — an ephod of gold, and of blue, purple, scarlet, and fine linen, curiously wrought, on the shoulders of which were two stones engraved with the names of the twelve tribes ; this was put over the robe, and girt with a curious girdle of the same — a breastplate, about a span square, wrought with gold, blue, purple, scarlet, and fine linen, and fastened upon the ephod by golden chains and rings ; in this breastplate were placed the urim and thummim, also twelve several stones, con- taining the names of the twelve tribes — a mitre of fine linen, sixteen cubits long, to wrap round his head — and lastly, a plate of gold, or holy crown, two fingers broad, whereon was engrav- ed, " Holiness to the Lord ;" this was tied with blue lace upon the front of the mitre. Besido these garments, which he wore in his ordinary ministration, there were four others, which he wore only upon extraordinary occasions, viz. on the day of expiation, when he went into the holy of holies, which was once a year. These were : linen drawers — a linen coat — a linen girdle — a linen mitre, all white, Exod. xxviii ; Lev. xvi, 4. But the inferior priests had only four garments : linen drawers — a linen coat^ a linen girdle — a linen bonnet. The priest and high priest differed also in their marriage re- strictions; for the high priest might not marry a widow, nor a divorced woman, nor a harlot, but a virgin only ; whereas the other priests might lawfully marry a widow, Lev. xxi, 7. In the following particulars the high priest and inferior priests agreed in their consecra- tion : both were to be void of bodily blemish — both were to be presented to the Lord at the door of the tabernacle — both were to be washed with water — both were to be consecrated by offering up certain sacrifices — both were to have the blood of a ram put upon the tip of the right ear, the thumb of the right hand, and the great toe of the right foot, Exod. xxix, 20. In the time of consecration, certain pieces of the sacrifice were put into the priest's hand, which was called "filling his hand;" hence the He- brew phrase, "to fill the hand," signifies con- secration. In the discharge of their offices, the high priest differed from the other priests in these particulars : the high priest only, and that but once a year, might enter into the holy of holies — the high priest might not mourn for his near- est relations by uncovering his head, or tearing any part of his garments, except the skirt ; whereas the priest was allowed to mourn for these six, — father, mother, son, daughter, bro- ther, and sister if she had no husband, Lev. xxi, 2, 10, 11 ; but they agreed in these respects: they both burnt incense and offered sacrifices — they both sounded the trumpet, cither as an alarm in war, or to assemble the people and their rulers — they both slew the sacrifices — both instructed the people — and both judged of leprosy. For the more orderly performance of these offices, the high priest had his sagan, who, in case of the high priest's pollution, performed his duty. The high priest and his sagan re- sembled our bishop and his suffragan. 3. Aaron was a tvpe of Christ, not personally, but as the high priest of the Jewish church. All the priests, as offering gifts and sacrifices, ABA ABE were in their office types of Christ ; but Aaron especially, 1. As the high priest. 2. In entering into the holy place on the great day of atone- ment, and reconciling the people to God; in making intercession for them, and pronouncing upon them the blessing of Jehovah, at the ter- mination of solemn services. 3. In being anoint- ed with the holy oil by effusion, which was pre- figurative of the Holy Spirit with which our Lord was endowed. 4. In bearing the names of all the tribes of Israel upon his breast and upon his shoulders, thus presenting them always be- fore God, and representing them to him. 5. In being the medium of their inquiring of God by urim and thummim ; and of the communication of his will to them. But though the offices of Aaron were typical, the priesthood of Christ is of a different and higher order than his, name- ly, that of Melchizedeck. See Calf, Priest, Type. Ephod, Breastplate, Urim. AB, in the Hebrew chronology, the eleventh month of the civil year, and the fifth of the ecclesiastical year, which began with Nisan. This month answered to the moon of July, comprehending part of July and of August, and contained thirty days. The first day of this month is observed as a fast by the Jews, in memory of Aaron's death ; and the ninth, in commemoration of the de- struction of the temple by Nebuchadnezzar, in the year before Christ 587. Josephus observes, that the burning of the temple by Nebuchad- nezzar happened on the same day of the year on which it was afterward burned by Titus. The same day was remarkable for Adrian's edict, which prohibited the Jews to continue in Judea, or to look toward Jerusalem and lament its desolation. The eighteenth day is also kept as a fast, because the sacred lamp was extin- guished on that night, in the reign of Ahaz. On the twenty-first, or, according to Scaliger, the twenty-second day, was a feast called Xylo- phoria, from their laying up the necessary wood in the temple : and on the twenty-fourth, a feast in commemoration of the abolishing of a law by the Asmoneans, or Maccabees, which had been introduce 1 by the Sadducees, and which enact- ed, that both sons and daughters should alike inherit the estate of their parents. ABADDON, Heb. corresponding to Apollyon, Gr. that is, Destroyer, is represented, Rev. ix, 11, as king of the locusts, and the angel of the bottomless pit. Le Clerc and Dr. Hammond understand by the locusts in this passage, the zealots and robbers who infested and desolated Judea before Jerusalem was taken by the Ro- mans ; and by Abaddon, John of Gischala, who having treacherously left that town before it was surrendered to Titus, came to Jerusalem and headed those of the zealots who acknow- ledged him as their king, and involved the Jews in many grievous calamities. The learned Grotius concurs in opinion, that the locusts are designed to represent the sect of the zealots, who appeared among the Jews during the siege, and at the time of the destruction of Jerusalem. But Mr. Mcde remarks, that the title Abaddon alludes to Obodas, the common name of the ancient monarchs of that part of Arabia from which Mohammed came ; and considers the passage as descriptive of the inundation of the Saracens. Mr. Lowman adopts and confirms this interpretation. He shows that the rise and progress of the Mohammedan religion and em- pire exhibit a signal accomplishment of this prophecy. All the circumstances here recited correspond to the character of the Arabians, and the history of the period that extended from A. D. 568 to A. D. 675. In conformity to this opinion, Abaddon may be understood to denote either Mohammed, who issued from the abyss, or the cave of Hera, to propagate his pretended revelations, or, more generally, the Saracen power. Mr. Bryant supposes Abaddon to have been the name of the Ophite deity, the worship of whom prevailed very anciently and very generally. ABANA. Naaman, the leper, on being di- rected to wash in the river Jordan, says, 2 Kings v, 12, "Are not Abana and Pharpar, rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel V Probably the Abana is a branch of the Barrady, or Chrysorrhoas, which derives its source from the foot of mount Libanus, eastward; runs round and through Damascus, and continues its course till lost in the wilderness,- four or five leagues south of the city. Benjamin of Tudela will have that part of Barrady which runs through Damas- cus to be the Abana, and the streams which water the gardens without the city, to be Phar- par ; but perhaps the Pharpar is the same with Orontes, the most noted river of Syria, which, taking its rise a little to the north or north-east of Damascus, glides through a delightful plain, till, after passing Antioch, and running about two hundred miles to the north-west, it loses itself in the Mediterranean sea, 2 Kings v, 12. ABBA, a Syriac word, which signifies/a^ec. The learned Mr. Selden, from the Babylonian Gemara, has proved that slaves were not allowed to use the title abba in addressing the master of the family to which they belonged. This may serve to illustrate Rom. viii, 15j and Gal. iv, 6, as it shows that through faith in Christ all true Christians pass into the relation of sons ; are permitted to address God with filial con- fidence in prayer ; and to regard themselves as heirs of the heavenly inheritance. This adop- tion into the family of God, inseparably follows our justification ; and the power to call God our Father, in this special and appropriative sense, results from the inward testimony given to our forgiveness by the Holy Spirit. St. Paul and St. Mark use the Syriac word abba, a term which was understood in the synagogues and primitive assemblies of Christians ; but added to it when writing to foreigners the explanation, father. Figuratively, abba means also a superior, in respect of age* dignity, or affection. It is more particularly used in the Syriac, Coptic, and Ethiopic churches as a title given to their bishops. The bishops themselves bestow the title abba more eminently upon the bishop of Alexandria, which occasioned the people to give him the title of baba, or papa, that is, grandfather ; a title which he bore before the bishop of Rome. ABEDNEGO, the Chaldee name given by ABE ABE the king of Babylon's officer to Azariah, one of Daniel's companions, Dan. i, 7. This name imports the servant of Nago, orNego, which is supposed to signify the sun, or morning star, so called from its brightness. Abednego was thrown into a fiery furnace, at Babylon, with his two companions Shadrach and Meshach, for refusing to adore the statue erected by the command of Nebuchadnezzar. God suffered them not to be injured by the flames ; but made the whole to redound to his own glory, and the shame of the idols of Babylon. One like unto the Son of God, or a Divine person, probably the Angel of the Divine presence himself, ap- peared in the midst of them ; and they came out of the furnace, which had been heated seven times hotter than usual, so completely preserved from the power of the flames, that not even " the smell of fire had passed upon them." This was an illustrious instance of the courageous and hallowed spirit of martyrdom ; and the interposition was no doubt designed to encourage the Jews while in captivity, living among idolaters, to hold fast their religion. It is an instance also of those gracious visitations to the old Heathen world, by which it was loudly called from its idolatries, and aroused to the acknowledgment of the true and only Jehovah, who, in various ways, "left not him. self without witness" among them. A great temporary effect was produced by this and other miracles related in the book of Daniel; but the people relapsed again into idolatry, and justly brought upon themselves all those wasting judgments which in succession swept over the mightiest and most ancient states. ABEL. He was the second son of Adam and Eve, and born probably in the second or third year of the world ; though some will have it that he and Cain were twins. His name signifies vapour, vanity, and might be given either because our first parents now began so to feel the emptiness and vanity of all earthly things, that the birth of another son reminded them painfully of it, although in itself a matter of joy ; or it was imposed under prophetic im- pulse, and obscurely referred to his premature death. His employment was that of a shepherd ; Cain followed the occupation of his father, and was a tiller of the ground. Whether they re- mained in their father's family at the time when they brought their offerings to the Lord, or had establishments separate from that of Adam, does not clearly appear. Abel was probably unmarried, or had no children ; but Cain's wife is mentioned. "At the end of the days," — which is a more literal rendering than "in process of time," as in our translation, that is, on the Sabbath, — both brothers brought an offer- ing to the Lord. Cain " brought of the fruit of the ground;" Abel "the firstlings of his flock, and of the fat thereof." "And the Lord had respect to Abel and to his offering ; but unto Cain and his offering he had not respect." As Cain afterward complains that "he should be hid from the face or presence of the Lord," it is probable that the worship of the first family was performed before some visible manifestation of the glory of God, which thus consecrated a par- ticular place for their services. Some have thought that this was at the east gate of Eden, where "Cherubim and a flaming sword were placed ;" but this was a vengeful manifestation, and could only have inspired a dread of God inconsistent with the confidence and hope with which men through the promise of redemption * were now encouraged to draw nigh to him. The respect which God was pleased to show to Abel's offering, appears from the account to have been sensibl)' declared ; for Cain must have known by some token thai the sacrifice of Abel was accepted, the absence of which sign, as to his own offering, showed that it was rejected. Whether this was by fire going forth from "the presence of the Lord," to consume the sacrifice, as in later instances recorded in the Old Testament, or in some other way, it is in vain to inquire ; — that the token of accept- ance was a sensible one is however an almost certain inference. The effect of this upon Cain was not to humble him before God, but to ex- cite anger against his brother; and, being in the field with him, or, as the old versions have it, having said to him, "Let us go out into the field," "he rose up against Abel his brother, and slew him ;" and for that crime, by which the first blood of man was shed by man upon the earth, — a murder aggravated by the rela- tionship and the "righteous" character of tho sufferer, and having in it also the nature of re ligious persecution, — he was pronounced by the Lord " cursed from the earth." 2. As the sacrifice of Abel is the first on re- cord, and has given rise to some controversy, it demands particular attention. It was offered, says St. Paul, " in faith," and it was " a more excellent sacrifice" than that of Cain. Both these expressions intimate that it was expiatory and r-REFIGURATIVE. As to the matter of the sacrifice, it was an ani- mal offering. " Cain brought of the fruit of the ground; and Abel also brought of the firstlings of his flock, and of the fat thereof;" or, more literally, "the fat of them," that is, according to the Hebrew idiom, the fattest or best of his flock ; and in this circumstance consisted its specific character as an act of faith. This is sup- ported by the import of the phrase, zz\clova Svotav, used by the Apostle in the Epistle to the He- brews, when speaking of the sacrifice of Abel. Our translators have rendered it, " a more ex- cellent sacrifice." Wickliffe translates it, as Archbishop Magee observes, uncouthly, but in the full sense of the original, "a much more sacrifice ;" and the controversy which has arisen on this point is, whether this epithet of "much more," or " fuller," refers to quantity or quality ; whether it is to be understood in the sense of a more abundant, or of a better, a more excellent sacrifice. Dr. Kennicott takes it in the sense of measure and quantity, as well as quality ; and supposes that Abel brought a double offering of the firstlings of his flock, and of the fruit of the ground also. His criticism has been very satis- factorily refuted by Archbishop Magee. The sacrifice of Abel was that of animal victims, and it was indicative not of gratitude but of "faith :" a quality not to be made manifest by the quan. ABE ABE tity of an offering, for the one has no relation to the other. 3. This will more fully appear if we consider the import of the words of the Apostle, — "By faith Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, by which he obtained wit- ness that he was righteous, God testifying of his gifts ; and by it, he, being dead, yet speaketh." Now what is the meaning of the Apostle, when he says that it was witnessed or testified to Abel that he was righteous? His doctrine is, that men are sinners; that all, consequently, need pardon ; and to be declared, witnessed, and ac- counted righteous, are, according to his style of writing, the same as " to be justified, pardoned, and dealt with as righteous." Thus he argues that Abraham believed God, " and it was ac- counted to him for righteousness," — " that faith was reckoned to Abraham for righteousness," — "that he received the sign of circumcision, a seal," a visible confirmatory, declaratory, and witnessing mark "of the righteousness which he had by faith." In these cases we have a similarity so striking, that they can scarcely fail to explain each other. In both, sinful men are placed in the condition of righteous men ; the instrument, in both cases, is faith; and the trans- action is, in both cases also, publicly and sensi- bly witnessed, — as to Abraham, by the sign of circumcision ; as to Abel, by a visible accept- ance of his sacrifice, and the rejection of that of Cain. Abel had faith, and he expressed that faith by the kind of sacrifice he offered. It was in this way that his faith " pleased God ;" it pleased him as a principle, and by the act to which it led, which act was the offering of a sacrifice to God different from that of Cain. Cain had not this faith, whatever might be its object ; and Cain, accordingly, did not bring an offering to which God had " respect." That which vitiated the offering of Cain was the want of this faith ; for his offering was not significant of faith : that which "pleased God," in the case of Abel, was his faith; and he had "respect" to his offering, because it was the expression of that faith ; and upon his faith so expressing itself, God wit- nessed to him "that he was righteous." So forcibly do the words of St. Paul, when com- menting upon this transaction, show, that Abel's sacrifice was accepted, because of its immediate connection with his faith, for by faith he is said to have offered it; and whatever it might be, which made Abel's offering differ from that of Cain, whether abundance, or kind, or both, this was the result of his faith. So evident also is it from the Apostle, that Abel was witnessed to be " righteous," not with reference to any pre- vious " habit of a religious life," as some say, but with reference to his faith; and to this faith as expressing itself by his offering " a more ex- cellent sacrifice." 4. If, then, the faith of Abel had an immedi- ate connection with his sacrifice, and both with his being accepted as "righteous," — that is, jus- tified, in St. Paul's use of the term, — to what had his faith respect? The particular object of the faith of the elders, celebrated in Hebrews xi, is to be deduced from the circumstances mention- ed by St. Paul as illustrative of the existence and operation of this great principle, and by which it manifested itself in them. Let us explain this, and then ascertain the object of Abel's faith also from the manner of its manifestation, — from the acts in which it embodied and rendered itself conspicuous. Faith, in this chapter, is taken in the sense of affiance in God, and, as such, it can only be exercised toward God, as to all its particular acts, in those respects in which we have some warrant to confide in him. This supposes revela- tion, and, in particular, promises or declarations on his part, as the ground of every act of affiance. When, therefore, it is said that " by faith Enoch was translated that he should not see death," it must be supposed that he had some promise or intimation to this effect, on which, improbable as the event was, he nobly relied ; and in the result God honoured his faith in the sight of all men. The faith of Noah had immediate respect to the threatened flood, and to the promise of God to preserve him in the ark which he was commanded to prepare. The chapter is filled with other instances, expressed or implied ; and from the whole, as well as from the nature of things, it will appear, that, when the Apostle speaks of the faith of the elders in its particular acts, he represents it as having respect to some promise, declaration, or revelation of God. This revelation was necessarily antecedent to the faith ; but it is also to be observed, that the acts by which the faith was represented, whenever it was represented by particular acts, and when the case admitted it, had a natural and striking conformity and correspondence to the previous revelation. So Noah built the ark, which indicated that he had heard the threat of the world's destruction by water, and had re- ceived the promise of his own preservation, and that of his family, as well as that of a part of the beasts of the earth. When Abraham went into Canaan at the command of God, and upon the promise that that country should become the in. heritance of his decendants, he showed his faith by taking possession of it for them in anticipa- tion, and his residence there indicated the kind of promise which he had received. Thus these instances show, that when the faith which the Apostle commends exhibited itself in some par- ticular act, that act had a correspondency to the previous promise or revelation which was the ground of faith. We must therefore interpret the acts of Abel's faith so as to make them also correspond with an antecedent revelation. His faith had respect to some previous revelation, and the nature of the revelation is to be collect- ed from the significant manner in which he de- clared his faith in it. Now that which Abel did " by faith," was, generally, to perform an act of solemn worship, in the confidence that it would be acceptable to God. This supposes a revelation, immediate or by tradition, that such acts of worship were acceptable to God, or his faith coulu have had no warrant, and would not have been faith, but fancy. But the case must be considered more particularly. His faith led him to offer " a more excellent sacrifice" than that of Cain ; but this ABE B ABI as necessarily implies, that there was pome an- tecedent revelation to which his faith, as thus expressed, had respect, and on which that pecu- liarity of his offering, which distinguished it from the offering of Cain, was founded; a re- velation which indicated that the way in which God would he approached acceptably, in solemn worship, was by animal sacrifices. Without this, the faith to which his offering, which was an offering of the firstlings of his flock, had a special fitness and adaptation, could have had no warrant in Divine authority. But this reve- lation must have included, in order to its being the ground of faith, as " the substance of things hoped for," a promise of a benefit to be confer- red, in which promise Abel might confide. But if so, then this promise must have been connect- ed, not with the worship of God in general, or performed in any way whatever indifferently, but with his worship by animal oblations ; for it was in this way that the faith of Abel specially and distinctively indicated itself. The antece- dent revelation was, therefore, a promise of a benefit to be conferred, by means of animal sa- crifice ; and we are taught what this benefit was, by that which was actually received by the offerer, — " He obtained witness that he was righteous ;" which must be interpreted in the sense of a declaration of his personal justifica- tion, and acceptance as righteous, by the for- giveness of his sins. The reason of Abel's acceptance and of Cain's rejection is hereby made manifest; the one, in seeking the Divine favour, conformed to his established and ap- pointed method of being approached by guilty men, and the other not only neglected this, but profanely and presumptuously substituted his own inventions. 5. It is impossible, then, to allow the sacrifice of Abel, in this instance, to have been an act of faith, without supposing that it had respect to a previous revelation, which agreed with all the parts of that sacrificial action by which he expressed his faith in it. Had Abel's sacrifice been eucharistic merely, it would have express- ed gratitude, but not faith ; or if faith in the general sense of confidence in God that he would receive an act of grateful worship, and reward the worshippers, it did not more express faith than the offering of Cain, who surely believed these two points, or he would not have brought an offering of any kind. The offering of Abel expressed a faith which Cain had not; and the doctrinal principles which Abel's faith respect- ed were such as his sacrifice visibly embodied. If it was not an eucharistic sacrifice, it was an expiatory one ; and, in fact, it is only in a sacri- fice of this kind, that it is possible to see that faith exhibited which Abel had, and Cain had not. If then we refer to the subsequent sacri- fices of expiation appointed by Divine authority, and their explanation in the New Testament, it will be obvious to what doctrines and principles of an antecedent revelation the faith of Abel had respect, and which his sacrifice, the exhi- bition of his faith, proclaimed: confession of the fact of being a sinner, — acknowledgment that the demerit and penalty of sin is death, — submission to an appointed mode of expiation, — animal sacrifice offered vicariously, but in itseh a mere type of a better sacrifice, "the Seed of the woman," appointed to be offered at some future period, — and the efficacy of this appoint- ed method of expiation to obtain forgiveness, and to admit the guilty into the Divine favour. " Abel," Dr. Magee justly says, " in firm reli- ance on the promise of God, and in obedience to his command, offered that sacrifice which had been enjoined as the religious expression of his faith; whilst Cain, disregarding the gra- cious assurances that had been vouchsafed, or at least disdaining to adopt the prescribed mode of manifesting his belief, possibly as not ap- pearing to his reason to possess any efficacy or natural fitness, thought he had sufficiently ac- quitted himself of his duty in acknowledging the general superintendence of God, and ex- pressing liis gratitude to the Supreme Benefac- tor, by presenting some of those good things which he thereby confessed to have been de- rived from his bounty. In short, Cain, the first- born of the fall, exhibits the first fruits of his parents' disobedience, in the arrogance and self-sufficiency of reason rejecting the aids of revelation, because they fell not within its ap- prehension of right. He takes the first place in the annals of Deism, and displays, in his proud rejection of the ordinance of sacrifice, the same spirit which, in later days, has actu- ated his enlightened followers, in rejecting the sacrifice of Christ." Abel was killed about the year of the world, 130. ABEL-MISRAIM, the floor of Atad, beyond the river Jordan, where Joseph, his brethren, and the Egyptians mourned for the death of Jacob, Gen. 1, 11. On this occasion the funeral procession was, at the command of Joseph, at- tended by "all the elders of Egypt, and all the servants of Pharaoh, and all his house, and the house of his brethren, chariots and horsemen, a very great company ;" an affecting proof, as it has been remarked, of Joseph's simplicity and singleness of heart, which allowed him to give to the great men of Egypt, over whom he bore absolute rule, an opportunity of observing his own comparatively humble origin, by leading them in attendance upon his father's corpse to the valleys of Canaan, the modest cradle of his race, and to their simple burial places. ABEL-SHITTIM, a city situate in the plains of Moab, beyond Jordan, opposite to Jericho, Num. xxv, 1, &C ; xxiii, 49 ; Joshua xi, 1. Eu- sebius says it stood in the neighbourhood of mount Peor. Moses encamped at Abel-Shittim some time before the Hebrew army passed the Jordan. Here the Israelites fell into idolatry, and worshipped Baal-peor, for which God pun. ished them by the destruction of twenty-four thousand persons in one day. ABIAII, the second son of the prophet Sa- muel, and brother of Joel. Samuel having en- trusted to his sons the administration of public justice, and admitted them to a share in the go- vernment, they behaved so ill, that the peoplo demanded a king, 1 Sam. viii, 2. A. M. 2909. ABIATHAK, the son of Ahimelech, and the tenth high priest among the Jews, and fourth ABI ABI in descent from Eli, 2 Sam. viii, 17; 1 Chron. xviii, 16. When Saul sent to Nob to murder all the priests, Abiathar escaped the massacre, and fled to David in the wilderness. There he continued in the quality of high priest; but Saul, out of aversion to Ahimelech, whom he imagined to have betrayed his interests, trans, ferred the dignity of the high priesthood from Ithamar's family into that of Eleazar, by con- ferring this office upon Zadok. Thus there were, at the same time, two high priests in Is- rael, Abiathar with David, and Zadok with Saul. In this state things continued, until the reign of Solomon, when Abiathar, being at- tached to the party of Adonijah, was, by Solo- mon, divested of his priesthood, A. M. 2989 ; and the race of Zadok alone performed the functions of that office during the reign of So- lomon, to the exclusion of the family of Itha- mar, according to the word of the Lord to Eli, 1 Sam. ii, 30, &c. ABIB, the name of the first Hebrew sacred month, Exod. xiii, 4. This month was after- ward called Nisan ; it contained thirty days, and answered to part of our March and April. Abib signifies green ears of corn, or fresh fruits, according to Jerom's translation, Exod. xiii, 4, and to the LXX. It was so named because corn, particularly barley, was in ear at that time. It was an early custom to give names to months, from the appearances of nature ; and the custom is still in force among many nations. The year among the Jews com- menced in September, and consequently their jubilees and other civil matters were regulated in this way, Lev. xxv, 8-10 ; but their sacred year began in Abib. This change took place at the redemption of Israel from Egypt, Exod. xii, 2, " This shall be to you the beginning of months." Ravanelli observes, that as this de- liverance from Egypt was a figure of the re- demption of the church of Jesus Christ, who died and rose again in this month, it was made the " beginning of months," to lead the church to expect the acceptable year of the Lord. On the tenth day of this month the paschal lamb was taken ; and on the fourteenth they ate the passover. On the seven succeeding days they celebrated the feast of unleavened bread, on the last of which days they held a solemn convo- cation, Exod. xii, xiii. On the fifteenth they gathered the sheaf of the barley first fruits, and on the following day presented an offering of it to the Lord, which having done they might begin their harvest, Lev. xxiii. ABIHU, the son of Aaron, the high priest, was consumed, together with his brother Na- dab, by fire sent from God, because he had offered incense with strange fire, instead of taking it from the altar, Lev. x, 1, 2. This ca- lamity happened A. M. 2514 ; within eight days after the consecration of Aaron and his sons. Some commentators believe that this fire pro- ceeded from the altar of burnt offerings ; others, that it came from the altar of incense. Several interpreters, as the Rabbins, Lyra, Cajetan, and others, are of opinion, that Nadab and Abihu were overtaken with wine, and so forgot to take the sacred fire in their censers. This conjec- ture is founded on the command of God deliver- ed immediately afterward to the priests, for- bidding them the use of wine during the time they should be employed in the service of the temple. Another class allege, that there was nothing so heinous in their transgression, but it was awfully punished, to teach ministers fidelity and exactness in discharging their of- fice. It had a vastly more infportant mean- ing,— this instance of vengeance is a standing example of that divine wrath which shall con- sume all who pretend to serve God, except with incense kindled from the one altar and offer- ing by which he for ever perfects them that are sanctified. ABIJAH, the son of Jeroboam, the first king of the ten tribes, who died very young, 1 Kings xiv, 1, &c, A.M. 3046.— 2. The son of Reho- boam, king of Judah, and of Maachah, the daughter of Uriel, who succeeded his father, A. M. 3046, 2 Chron. xi, 20 ; xiii, 2, &c. The Rabbins reproach this monarch with neglecting to destroy the profane altar which Jeroboam had erected at Bethel ; and with not suppress- ing the worship of the golden calves there after his victory over that prince. ABILENE, a small province in Coelo Syria, between Lebanon and Antilibanus. Of this place Lysanias was governor in the fifteenth year of Tiberius, Luke iii, 1. Abela, or Abila, the capital, was north of Damascus, and south of Heliopolis. ABIMELECH. This seems to have been the title of the kings of Philistia, as Casar was of the Roman emperors, and Pharaoh of the sovereigns of Egypt. It was the name also of one of the sons of Gideon, who became a judge of Israel, Judges ix ; and of the Jew- ish high priest, who gave Goliah's sword, which had been deposited in the tabernacle, and part of the shew bread, to David, at the time this prince was flying from Saul, 1 Sam. xxi, 1. ABIRAM, the eldest son of Hiel, the Beth- elite. Joshua having destroyed the city of Jeri- cho, pronounced this curse: "Cursed be the man, before the Lord, that riseth up and build- eth this city, Jericho : lie shall lay the founda- tion thereof in his first-born, and in his young- est son shall he set up the gates of it," Joshua vi, 26. Hiel of Bethel, about five hundred and thirty-seven years after this imprecation, hav- ing undertaken to rebuild Jericho, whilst he was laying the foundation of it, lost his eldest son, Abiram, 1 Kings xvi, 34 ; and Segub, the youngest, when they set up the gates of it : a remarkable instance of a prophetic denuncia- tion fulfilled, perhaps on a person who would not credit the tradition, or the truth of the pre- diction. So true is the word of the Lord ; so minutely are the most distant contingencies foreseen by him ; and so exact is the accom- plishment of Divine prophecy ! 2. Abiram, the son of Eliab, of the tribe of Reuben, was one of those who conspired with Korah and Dathan against Moses in the wil- derness, and was swallowed up alive, with his companions, by the earth, which opened to re- ceive them, Num. xvi. ABISHAG, a young woman, a native of ABN 8 ABO Shunam, in the tribo of Issachar. David, at the age of seventy, finding no warmth in his bed, was advised by Jiis physicians to procure some young person, who might communicate the heat required. To this end Abishag was pre- sented to him, who was one of the most beau- tiful women in Israel, 1 Kings i, 3 ; and the king made her. his wife. After his death, Ado- nijah requested her in marriage, for which he lost his life ; Solomon perceiving in this a de- sign upon the crown also. Adonijah was his elder brother, an intriguing man, and had as- pired to be king before the death of David, and had had his life spared only upon the con- dition of his peaceable conduct. By this re- quest he convinced Solomon, that he was still actuated by political views, and this brought upon him the punishment of treason. ABISHAI, the son of Zeruiah, David's sis- ter, who was one of the most valiant men of his time, and one of the principal generals in David's armies. ABLUTION, purification by washing the body, either in whole or part. Ablutions ap- pear to be almost as ancient as external wor- ship itself. Moses enjoined them ; the Hea- thens adopted them ; and Mohammed and his followers have continued them : thus they have been introduced among most nations, and make a considerable part of all superstitious re- ligions. The Egyptian priests had their diurnal and nocturnal ablutions; the Grecians, their sprinklings ; the Romans, their lustrations and lavations ; the Jews, their washings of hands and feet, beside their baptisms ; the ancient Christians used ablution before communion, which the Romish church still retains before the mass, sometimes after ; the Syrians, Copts, &c, have their solemn washings on Good Fri- day ; the Turks their greater and less ablu- tions, &c. Lustration, among the Romans, was a solemn ceremony by which they purified their cities, fields, armies, or people, after any crime or impurity. Lustrations might be performed by fire, by sulphur, by water, and by air ; the last was applied by ventilation, or fanning the thing to be purified. All sorts of people, slaves excepted, might perform some kind of lus- tration. When a person died the house was to be swept in a particular manner ; new mar- ried persons were sprinkled by the priest with water. People sometimes, by way of purifica- tion, ran several times naked through the streets. There was scarcely any action per- formed, at the beginning and end of which some ceremony was not required to purify themselves and appease the gods. ABNER was the uncle of king Saul, and the general of his army. After Saul's death, he made Ishbosheth king; and for seven years supported the family of Saul, in opposition to David ; but in most of his skirmishes came off with loss. While Ishbosheth's and David's troops lay near each other, hard by Gibeon, Abner challenged Joab to select twelve of Da- vid's warriors to fight with an equal number of his. Joab consented : the twenty-four en- gaged ; and fell together on the spot. A fierce battle ensued, in which Abner and his troop* were routed. Abner himself was hotly pursued by Asahel, whom he killed by a back stroke of his spear. Still he was followed by Joab and Abishai, till he, who in the morning sported with murder, was obliged at even to entreat that Joab would stay his troops from the effusion of blood, 2 Sam. ii. Not long after, Abner, taking it highly amiss for Ishbosheth to charge him with lewd be- haviour toward Rizpah, Saul's concubine, vow- ed that he would quickly transfer the whole kingdom into the hands of David. He there- fore commenced a correspondence with David, and had an interview with him at Hebron. Ab- ner had just left the feast at which David had entertained him, when Joab, informed of the matter, warmly remonstrated, asserting, that Abner had come as a spy. On his own authori- ty he sent a messenger to invite him back, to have some farther communication with the king ; and when Abner was come into Joab's presence, the latter, partly from jealousy lest Abner might become his superior, and partly to revenge his brother Asahel's death, mortally stabbed him in the act of salutation. David, to show how heartily he detested the act, honour- ed Abner with a splendid funeral, and composed an elegy on his death, 2 Sam. iii. ABOMINATION. This term was used with regard to the Hebrews, who, being shepherds, are said to have been an abomination to the Egyptians ; because they sacrificed the animals held sacred by that people, as oxen, goats, sheep, &c, which the Egyptians esteemed unlawful. This word is also applied in the sacred writings to idolatry and idols, not only because the wor- ship of idols is in itself an abominable thing, but likewise because the ceremonies of idolaters were almost always of an infamous and licen- tious nature. For this reason, Chrysostom af- firms, that every idol, and every image of a man, was called an abomination among the Jews. The " abomination of desolation" foretold by the Prophet Daniel, x, 27, xi, 31, is supposed by some interpreters to denote the statue of Jupiter Olympius, which Antiochus Epiphanes caused to be erected in the temple of Jerusalem. The second of the passages above cited may proba- bly refer to this circumstance, as the statue of Jupiter did, in fact, "make desolate," by ban- ishing the true worship of God, and those who performed it, from the temple. But the former passage, considered in its whole connection, bears more immediate reference to that which the evangelists have denominated the "abomi nation of desolation," Matt, xxiv, 15, 16; Mark xiii, 14. This, without doubt, signifies the en- signs of the Roman armies under the command of Titus, during the last siege of Jerusalem. The images of their gods and emperors were delineated on these ensigns ; and the ensigns themselves, especially the eagles, which were carried at the heads of the legions, were objects of worship; and, according to the usual style of Scripture, they were therefore an abomination. Those ensigns were placed upon the ruins of the temple after it was taken and demolished ; and, as Josephus informs us, the Romans sarri- ABR ABR ficed to them there. The horror with which the Jews regarded them, sufficiently appears from the account which Josephus gives of Pi- late's introducing them into the city, when he sent his army from Csesarea into winter quar- ters at Jerusalem, and of Vitellius's proposing to march through Judea, after he had received orders from Tiberius to attack Aretas, king of Petra. The people supplicated and remonstrat. ed, and induced Pilate to remove the army, and Vitellius to march his troops another way. The Jews applied the above passage of Daniel to the Romans, as we are informed by Jerome. The learned Mr. Mede concurs in the same opinion. Sir Isaac Newton, Obs. on Daniel ix, xii, ob- serves, that in the sixteenth year of the empe- ror Adrian, B. C. 132, the Romans accomplish- ed the prediction of Daniel by building a temple to Jupiter Capitolinus, where the temple of God in Jerusalem had stood. Upon this occasion the Jews, under the conduct of Barchochab, rose up in arms against the Romans, and in the war had fifty cities demolished, nine hundred and eighty- five of their best towns destroyed, and five hundred and eighty thousand men slain by the sword; and in the end of the war, B. C. 136, they were banished from Judea upon pain of death ; and thenceforth the land remained de- solate of its old inhabitants. Others again have applied the prediction of Daniel to the invasion and desolation of Christendom by the Moham- medans, and to their conversion of the churches into mosques. From this interpretation they infer, that the religion of Mohammed will pre- vail in the east one thousand two hundred and sixty years, and be succeeded by the restoration of the Jews, the destruction of antichrist, the full conversion of the Gentiles to the church of Christ, and the commencement of the millen- nium. In general, whatever is morally or ceremo- nially impure, or leads to sin, is designated an abomination to God. Thus lying lips are said to be an abomination to the Lord. Every thing in doctrine or practice which tended to corrupt the simplicity of the Gospel is also in Scripture called abominable ; hence Babylon is represent- ed, Rev. xvii, 4, as holding in her hand a cup "full of abominations." In this view, to "work abomination," is to introduce idolatry, or any other great corruption, into the church and worship of God, 1 Kings xi, 7. ABRAM, oi3N, a high father; and ABRA- HAM, n.vuN, father of a great multitude, the son of Terah, born at Ur, a city of Chaldea, A. M.2008. The account of this eminent pa- triarch occupies so large a part of the book of Genesis, and stands so intimately connected with both the Jewish and Christian dispensa- tions,— with the one by a political and religious, and with the other by a mystical, relation, — that his history demands particular notice. Our ac- count may be divided into his personal history, and his typical, and ?nystic character. I. Abraham's personal history. 1. Chaldea, the native country of Abraham, was inhabited by a pastoral people, who were almost irresistibly invited to the study of the motions of the heavenly bodies, by the peculiar serenity of the heavens in that climate, and their habit of spending their nights in the open air in tending their flocks. The first rudiments of as- tronomy, as a science, is traced to this region ; and here, too, one of the earliest forms of idola- try, the worship of the host of heaven, usually called Tsabaism, first began to prevail. During the three hundred and fifty years which elaps- ed between the deluge and the birth of Abra- ham, this and other idolatrous superstitions had greatly corrupted the human race, perverted the simple forms of the patriarchal religion, and beclouded the import of its typical rites. The family of Abraham was idolatrous, for his "fa- thers served other gods beyond the flood," that is, the great river Euphrates ; but whether he himself was in the early period of his life an idolater, we are not informed by Moses. The Arabian and Jewish legends speak of his early idolatry, his conversion from it, and of his zeal in breaking the images in his father's house ; but these are little to be depended upon. Before his call ho was certainly a worshipper of the true God ; and that not in form only, but "in spirit and in truth." Whilst Abraham was still sojourning in Ur, " the God of glory" appeared to him, and said unto him, " Get thee out of thy country and from thy kindred, and go into the land which I shall show thee ;" and so firm was his faith in the providence and care of God, that although the place of his future abode was not indicated, nor any information given of the na- ture of the country, or the character of its in- habitants, he nevertheless promptly obeyed, and "went out, not knowing whither he went." Terah his father, Nahor his brother, and Lot his nephew, the son of Haran his deceased brother, accompanied him ; a circumstance which indi- cates that if the family had formerly been idola- trous it had now received the faith of Abraham. They first migrated to Haran, or Charran, in Mesopotamia, a flat, barren region westward of Ur ; and after a residence there of a few years, during which Terah had died, Abraham left Haran to go into Palestine, taking with him Sarah his wife, who had no child, and Lot, with his paternal property. Nahor appears to have been left in Haran. To this second migration he was incited also by a Divine command, ac- companied by the promises of a numerous issue, that his seed should become a great nation, and, above all, that " in him all the families of the earth should be blessed ;" in other words, that the Messiah, known among the patriarchs as tiie promised "seed of the woman," should be born in his line. Palestine was then inhabited by the Canaanites, from whom it was called Ca- naan. Abraham, leading his tribe, first settled at Sechem, a valley between the mountains Ebal and Gerizim, where God appeared to him and promised to give him the land of Canaan, and where, as in other places in which he remained any time, he built an altar to the Lord. He then removed to a hilly region on the north of Jericho; and as the pastures were exhausted, migrated southward, till a famine drove him into Egypt, probably the earliest, certainly the most productive, corn country of the ancient world. ABR 10 ABR 2. Here it may be observed, that the migra- tions of Abraham and his sons show the manner in which the earth was gradually covered with people. In those ages some cities had been built, and the country to some extent about them cultivated ; but wide spaces of unoccupied land lay between them. A part of society following therefore the pastoral life, led forth their flocks, and, in large family tribes, of which the parent was the head, uniting both the sovereign power and the priesthood in himself, and with a train of servants attached to the tribe by he- reditary ties, pitched their camps wherever a fertile and unappropriated district offered them pasture. A few of these nomadic tribes appear to have made the circuit of the same region, seldom going far from their native scats ; which would probably have been the case with Abra- ham, had he not received the call of God to de- part to a distant country. Others, more bold, followed the track of rivers, and the sweep of fertile valleys, and at length some built cities and formed settlements in those distant regions ; whilst others, either from attachment to their former mode of life, or from necessity, continu- ed in their pastoral occupations, and followed the supplies afforded for their flocks by the still expanding regions of the fertile earth. Wars and violences, droughts, famines, and the con- stant increase of population, continued to im- pel these innumerable, but at nrst, small streams of men into parts still more remote. Those who settled on the sea coast began to use that element, both for supplying themselves with a new species of food, and as a medium of com- munication by vessels with other countries for the interchange of such commodities as their own lands afforded with those offered by mari- time states, more or less distant. Thus were laid the foundations of commerce, and thus the mari- time cities were gradually rendered opulent and powerful. Colonies were in time transported from them by means of their ships, and settled on the coasts of still more distant and fertile countries. Thus the migrations of the three primitive families proceeded from the central regions of Armenia, Mesopotamia, and Assyria ; and in succession they established numerous communities, — the Phenicians, Arabians, Egyp- tians, Ethiopians, and Lybians southward; — the Persians, Indians, and Chinese eastward ; — the Scythians, Celts, and Tartars northward ; — and the Goths, Greeks, and Latins westward, even as far as the Peruvians and Mexicans of South America, and the Indians of North Ainc. rica. 3. Abraham, knowing the dissolute charac- ter of the Egyptians, directed Sarah to call herself his sister, which she was, although by another mother ; fearing that if they knew her to be his wife, they would not only seize her, but kill him. This circumstance indicates the vicious state of morals and government in Egypt at this early period. In this affair Abra- ham has been blamed for want of faith in God; but it was perhaps no more than an act of com- mon prudence, as the seraglio of the Egyp- tian monarch was supplied by any means, how- ever violent and lawless. Sarah, upon the report of her beauty, was seized and taken mto his harem ; and God sent great plagues upon his house, which, from their extraordinary character, he concluded to be divine judgments. This led to inquiry, and on discovering that he was detaining another man's wife by violence, he sent her back, and dismissed Abraham laden with presents. 4. After the famine Abraham returned to Canaan, and pitched his tents between Bethel and Hai, where he had previously raised an altar. Here, as his flocks and herds, and those of Lot, had greatly increased, and strifes had arisen between their herdsmen as to pasturage and water, they peaceably separated. Lot re- turning to the plain of the Jordan, which before the destruction of Sodom was as "the garden of God," and Abraham to Mamre, near Hebron, after receiving a renewal of the promise, that God would give him the whole land for a pos- session. The separation of Abraham and Lot still farther secured the unmingled descent of the Abrahamitic family. The territories of the kings of the cities of the plain were a few years afterward invaded by a confederacy of the petty < kings of the Euphrates and the neighbouring countries, and Lot and his family were taken prisoners. This intelligence being brought to Abraham, he collected the men of his tribe, three hundred and eighteen, and falling upon the kings by night, near the fountains of Jeri- cho, he defeated them, retook the spoil, and recovered Lot. On his return, passing near Salem, supposed to-be the city afterward called Jerusalem, he was blessed by its king Mel- chizedec, who was priest of the most high God ; so that the knowledge and worship of Jehovah had not quite departed at that time from the. Canaanitish nations. To him Abraham gave a tithe of the spoil. The rest he generously restored to the king of Sodom, refusing, in a noble spirit of independence, to retain so much as a "shoe lachet," except the portion which, by usage of war, fell to the young native sheiks, Aner, Eschal, and Mamre, who had joined him in the expedition. 5. After this he had another encouraging vision of God, Gen. xv, 1 ; and to his complaint that he was still childless, and that his name and property would descend to the stranger Eliezer, who held the next rank in his tribe, the promise was given, that he himself should have a son, and that his seed should be count- less as the stars of heaven. And it is emphati- cally added, "He believed in the Lord, and he counted it to him for righteousness." He was then fully assured, that he stood before God, a pardoned and accepted man, " whose iniquities were forgiven," and to whom "the Lord did not impute sin." Still the fulfilment of the promise of a son was delayed ; and Sarah, per- haps despairing that it would be accomplished in her person, and the revelation which had been made merely stating that this son should be the fruit of Abraham's body, without any reference to her, she gave to him, according to the custom of those times, one of her hand- maids, an Egyptian, to be his secondary wife, who brought forth Ishmael. Children born in ABR 11 ABR this manner had the privileges of legitimacy ; but fourteen years afterward, when Abraham was a hundred years old, and Sarah ninety, the Lord appeared to him again, established his covenant with him and with his seed, changed his name to Abraham, "the father of many nations," promised that Sarah herself should bring forth the son to whom the preceding promises had referred ; instituted circumcision as the sign of the covenant ; and changed the name of his wife from Sarai, my princess, to Sarah, the princess, that is, of many people to descend from her. 6. At this time Abraham occupied his former encampment near Hebron. Here, as he sat in the door of his tent, three mysterious strangers appeared. Abraham, with true Arabian hospi- tality, received and entertained them. The chief of the three renewed the promise of a son to be born from Sarah, a promise which she received with a laugh of incredulity, for which she was mildly reproved. As Abraham accompanied them toward the valley of the Jordan, the same divine person, for so he manifestly appears, announced the dreadful ruin impending over the licentious cities among which Lot had taken up his abode. No passage, even in the sacred writings, exhibits a more exalted view of the divine condescension than that in which Abra- ham is seen expostulating on the apparent in- justice of involving the innocent in the ruin of the guilty: "Shall the city perish, if fifty, if forty-five, if forty, if thirty, if twenty, if ten righteous men be found within its walls ?" "Ten righteous men shall avert its doom." Such was the promise of the celestial visitant ; but the guilt was universal, the ruin inevitable ; and the violation of the sacred laws of hospi- tality and nature, which Lot in his horror attempted to avert by the most revolting ex- pedient, confirmed the justice of the divine sentence. 7. Sarah having conceived, according to the divine promise, Abraham left the plain of Mamre, and went south to Gerar, where Abi- melech reigned ; and again fearing lest Sarah should be forced from him, and himself be put to death, her beauty having been, it would ap- pear, preternaturally continued, notwithstand- ing her age, he here called her, as he had done in Egypt, his sister. Abimelech took her to his house, designing to marry her; but God having, in a dream, informed him that she was Abraham's wife, he returned her to him with great presents. This year Sarah was delivered of Isaac ; and Abraham circumcised him, ac- cording to the covenant stipulation ; and when he was weaned, made a great entertainment. Sarah, having observed Ishmael, son of Hagar, mocking her son Isaac, said to Abraham, "Cast out this bondwoman and her son, for Ishmael shall not be heir with Isaac." After great reluctance, Abraham complied ; God hav- ing informed him that this was according to the appointments of his providence, with re- spect to future ages. About the same time, Abimelech came with Phicol, his general, to conclude an alliance with Abraham, who made that prince a present of seven ewe lambs out of his flock, in confirmntion that a well he had opened should be his own property ; and they called the place Beer-sheba, or "the well of swearing," because of the covenant there rati- fied with oaths. Here Abraham planted a grove, built an altar, and for some time resided, Gen. xx, xxi. 8. More than twenty years after this, (A. M. 2133,) God, for the final trial and illustration of Abraham's faith, directed him to offer up his son Isaac. Abraham took his son, and two servants, and went toward mount Moriah. When within sight of the mountain, Abraham left his servants, and ascended it with his son only; and there having bound him, he pre- pared for the affecting sacrifice ; but when he was about to give the blow, an angel from hea- ven cried out to him, "Lay not thine hand upon the lad, neither do thou anything to him. Now I know that thou fearest God, since thou hast not withheld thine only son from me." Abra- ham, turning, saw a ram entangled in the bush by his horns ; and he offered this animal as a burnt offering, instead of his son Isaac. This memorable place he called by the prophetic name, Jehovah-jirch, or the Lord will sec — or provide, Gen. xxii, 1-14, having respect, no doubt, to the true sacrifice which, in the ful- ness of time, was to be offered for the whole world upon the same mountain. 9. Twelve years afterward, Sarah, wife of Abraham, died in Hebron. Abraham came to mourn and to perform the funeral offices for her. He addressed the people at the city gate, entreating them to allow him to bury his wife among them; for, being a stranger, and having no land of his own, he could claim no right of interment in any sepulchre of that country. He, therefore, bought of Ephron, one of the inhabitants, the field of Machpelah, with the cave and sepulchre in it, at the price of four hundred shekels of silver, about forty-five pounds sterling. And here Abraham buried Sarah, with due solemnities, according to the custom of the country, Gen. xxiii. This whole tra nsaction impressively illustrates the dignity, courtesy, and honour of these ancient chiefs ; and wholly disproves the notion that theirs was a rude and unpolished age. 10. Abraham, having grown old, sent Eliezer, his steward, into Mesopotamia, with directions to obtain a young woman of his own family, as a wife for his son Isaac. Eliezer executed his commission with fidelity, and brought back Rebecca, daughter of Bethuel, grand-daughter of Nahor, and, consequently, Abraham's niece, whom Isaac married. Abraham afterward mar- ried Kcturah ; by whom he had six sons, Zim- ran, Jokshan, Medan, Midian, Ishbak, and Shuah; who became heads of different people, which dwelt in Arabia, and around it. He died, aged a hundred and seventy-five years, and was buried, with Sarah his wife, in the cave of Machpelah, which he had purchased of Ephron, Gen. xxiv, xxv, A. M. 2183, before Christ 1821. 11. From the personal history of Abraham wc may now proceed to the consideration of the typical circumstances which were con- nected with it. ABR 12 ABR 1. Abraham himself with his family may be regarded as a type of the church of God in future ages. They indeed constituted God's ancient church. Not that many scattered pa- triarchal and family churches did not remain : such was that of Melchizedec ; and such pro- bably was that of Nahor, whom Abraham left behind in Mesopotamia. But a visible church relation was established between Abraham's family and the Most High, signified by the visible and distinguishing sacrament of circum- cision, and followed by new and enlarged reve- lations of truth. Two purposes were to be answered by this, — the preservation of the true doctrine of salvation in the world, which is the great and solemn duty of every branch of the church of God, — and the manifestation of that truth to others. Both were done by Abraham. Wherever he sojourned he built his altars to the true God, and publicly celebrated his wor- ship ; and, as we learn from St. Paul, he lived in tents in preference to settling in the land of Canaan, though it had been given to him for a possession, in order that he might thus pro- claim his faith in the eternal inheritance of which Canaan was a type ; and in bearing this testimony, his example was followed by Isaac and Jacob, the " heirs with him of the same promise," who also thus " confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims," and that "they looked" for a continuing and eternal city in heaven. So also now is the same doctrine of immortality committed to the church of Christ ; and by deadness to the world ought its mem- bers to declare the reality of their own faith in it. 2. The numerous natural posterity promised to Abraham was also a type of the spiritual seed, the true members of the church of Christ, springing from the Messiah, of whom Isaac was the symbol. Thus St. Paul expressly dis- tinguishes between the fleshly and the spiritual seed of Abraham ; to the latter of which, in their ultimate and highest sense, the promises of increase as the stars of heaven, and the sands of the sea -shore, are to be referred, as also the promise of the heavenly Canaan. 3. The intentional offering up Isaac, with its result, was probably that transaction in which Abraham, more clearly than in any other, "saw the day of Christ, and was glad." He received Isaac from the dead, says St. Paul, "in a figure." This could be a figure of nothing but the resurrection of our Lord ; and, if so, Isaac's being laid upon the altar was a figure of his sacrificial death, scenically and most impressively represented to Abraham. The place, the same ridge of hills on which our Lord was crucified ; the person, an only son, to die for no offence of his own ; the sa- crijiccr, a father ; the receiving back, as it were, from death to life ; the name impressed upon the place, importing, " the Lord will provide," in allusion to Abraham's own words to Isaac, "the Lord will provide a lamb for a burnt offering;" all indicate a mystery which lay deep beneath this transaction, and which Abra- ham, as the reward of his obedience, was per- mitted to behold. "The day" of Christ's hu. miliation and exaltation was thus opened to him ; and served to keep the great truth in mind, that the true burnt offering and sacrifice for sin was to be something higher than the immolation of lambs and bulls and goats, — nay, something more than what was merely human. 4. The transaction of the expulsion of Ha- gar was also a type. It was an allegory in action, by which St. Paul teaches us to under- stand that the son of the bondwoman repre- sented those who are under the law ; and the child of the freewoman those who by faith in Christ are supernaturally begotten into the family of God. The bondwoman and her son being cast out, represented also the expulsion of the unbelieving Jews from the church of God, which was to be composed of true believ- ers of all nations, all of whom, whether Jews or Gentiles, were to become " fellow heirs." III. But Abraham appears before us invested with a mystic character, which it is of great importance rightly to understand. 1. He is to be regarded as standing in a federal or covenant relation, not only to his natural seed, but specially and eminently to all believers. "The Gospel," we are told by St. Paul, "was preached to Abraham, saying, In thee shall all nations be blessed." " Abraham believed in God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness ;" in other words, he was jus- tified. A covenant of gratuitous justification through faith was made with him and his be- lieving descendants ; and the rite of circum- cision, which was not confined to his posterity by Sarah, but appointed in every branch of his family, was the sign or sacrament of this cove- nant of grace, and so remained till it was dis- placed by the sacraments appointed by Christ. Wherever that sign was it declared the doc- trine, and offered the grace, of this covenant — free justification by faith, and its glorious re- sults— to all the tribes that proceeded from Abraham. This same grace is offered to us by the Gospel, who become " Abraham's seed," his spiritual children with whom the covenant is established, through the same faith, and are thus made "the heirs with him of the same promise." 2. Abraham is also exhibited to us as the representative of true believers; and in this especially, that the true nature of faith was exhibited in him. This great principle was marked in Abraham with the following charac- ters : — An entire unhesitating belief in the word of God; — an unfaltering trust in all his promises ; — a steady regard to his almighty power, leading him to overlook all apparent difficulties and impossibilities in every case where God had explicitly promised ; — and ha- bitual and cheerful and entire obedience. The Apostle has described faith in Heb. xi, 1 ; and that faith is seen living and acting in all its energy in Abraham. A few miscellaneous remarks are suggested by some of the circumstances of Abraham's history : — 1. The ancient method of ratifying a cove- nant by sacrifice is illustrated in the account given in Gen. xv, 9, 10. The beasts were slain ABR 13 ABS and divided in the midst, and the persons co- venanting passed between the parts. Hence, after Abraham had performed this part of the ceremony, the symbol of the Almighty's pre. sence, "a smoking furnace, and a burning lamp, passed between the pieces," verse 18, and so both parties ratified the covenant. 2. As the beauty of Sarah, which she re- tained so long as quite to conceal her real age from observers, attracted so much notice as to lead to her forcible seizure, once by Pharaoh in Egypt, and again by Abimelech in Palestine, it may appear strange, that, as in the east women are generally kept in seclusion, and seldom ap- pear without veils, she exposed herself to ob- servation. But to this day the Arab women do not wear veils at home in their tents ; and Sa- rah's countenance might have been seen in the tent by some of the officers of Pharaoh and Abimelech, who reported her beauty to their masters. 3. The intentional offering up of Isaac is not to be supposed as viewed by Abraham as an act sanctioned by the Pagan practice of human sacrifice. The immolation of human victims, particularly of that which was most precious, the favourite, the first-born child, appears to have been a common usage among many early nations, more especially the tribes by which Abraham was surrounded. It was the distin- guishing rite among the worshippers of Mo- loch ; at a later period of the Jewish history, it was practised by a king of Moab; and it was undoubtedly derived by the Carthaginians from their Phenecian ancestors on the shores of Sy- ria. Where it was an ordinary usage, as in the worship of Moloch, it was in unison with the character of the religion, and of its deity. It was the last act of a dark and sanguinary su- perstition, which rose by regular gradation to this complete triumph over human nature. The god, who was propitiated by these offerings, had been satiated with more cheap and vulgar victims ; he had been glutted to the full with human suffering and with human blood. In general it was the final mark of the subjuga- tion of the national mind to an inhuman and domineering priesthood. But the Mosaic reli- gion held human sacrifices in abhorrence ; and tho God of the Abrahamitic family, uniformly beneficent, had imposed no duties which en- tailed human suffering, had demanded no offer- ings which were repugnant to the better feel- ings of our nature. The command to offer Isaac as " a burnt offering," was for these rea- sons a trial the more severe to Abraham's faith. He must therefore have been fully assured of the divine command ; and he left the mystery to be explained by God himself. His was a simple act of unhesitating obedience to the command of God ; the last proof of perfect re- liance on the certain accomplishment of the divine promises. Isaac, so miraculously be- stowed, could be as miraculously restored ; Abraham, such is the comment of the Christian Apostle, "believed that God could even raise him up from the dead." 4. The wide and deep impression made by the character of Abraham upon the ancient world is proved by the reverence which people of almost all nations and countries have paid to him, and the manner in which the events of his life have been interwoven in their mytho- logy, and their religious traditions. Jews, Magians, Sabians, Indians, and Mohammedans have claimed him as the great patriarch and founder of their several sects ; and his history has been embellished with a variety of fictions. One of the most pleasing of these is the follow- ing, but it proceeds upon the supposition that he was educated in idolatry: "As Abraham was walking by night from the grotto where he was born, to the city of Babylon, he gazed on the stars of heaven, and among them on the beautiful planet Venus. ' Behold,' said he with- in himself, ' the God and Lord of the universe !' but the star set and disappeared, and Abraham felt that the Lord of the universe could not thus be liable to change. Shortly after, he be- held the moon at the full : ' Lo,' he cried, • the Divine Creator, the manifest Deity!' but the moon sank below the horizon, and Abraham made the same reflection as at the setting of the evening star. All the rest of the night he passed in profound rumination ; at sunrise he stood before the gates of Babylon, and saw the whole people prostrate in adoration. ' Won- drous orb,' he exclaimed, ' thou surely art the Creator and Ruler of all nature ! but thou, too, hastest like the rest to thy setting ! — neither then art thou my Creator, my Lord, or my God!'" ABRAHAMITES, reported heretical sects of the eighth and ninth centuries, charged with the Paulician errors, and some of them with idolatry. For these charges we have, however, only the word of their persecutors. Also the name of a sect in Bohemia, as late as 1782, who professed the religion of Abraham before his circumcision, and admitted no scriptures but the decalogue and the Lord's prayer. As these were persecuted, they too were probably misrepresented, and especially as their con- duct is allowed to have been good, even by their enemies. ABSALOM, the son of David by Maachah, daughter of the king of Geshur; distinguished for his fine person, his vices, and his unnatural rebellion. Of his open revolt, his conduct in Jerusalem, his pursuit of the king his father, his defeat and death, see 2 Sam. xvi-xviii, at large. ABSOLUTION, in the church of Rome, is a sacrament, in which the priests assume the power of forgiving sins. Tbe rite of absolution in the church of England is acknowledged to be declarative only — "Almighty God hath given power and commandment to his minis- ters to declare and pronounce to his people, be- ing penitent, the absolution and remission of their sins : He pardoneth," &c. In this view it is innocent ; and although any private Chris- tian has a right to declare and pronounce the same doctrine to his neighbour, the official pub- lication of the grace of the Gospel is the public duty of its ministers in the congregation, since they are Christ's " ambassadors." ABSTINENCE, forbearance of any thing ABY 14 ABY It is generally used with reference to forbear- ance from food under a religious motive. The Jewish law ordained that the priests should ab- stain from the use of wine during the whole time of their being employed in the service of the temple, Lev. x, 9. The same abstinence was enjoined upon the Nazaritcs, during the time of their Nazariteship, or separation, Num. vi, 3. The Jews were commanded to abstain from several sorts of animals. See Animal. The fat of all sorts of animals that were sacrificed was forbidden to be eaten, Lev. iii, 17; vii, 23; and the blood of every animal, in general, was prohibited under pain of death. Indeed blood was forbidden by the Creator, from the time of the grant of the flesh of beasts to man for food ; this prohibition was continued under the Jewish economy, and transmitted to the Christian church by Apostolic authority, Acts xv, 28, 29. (See Blood.) The Jews also abstained from the sinew which is upon the hollow of the thigh, Gen. xxxii, 25 ; because of the shrinking of the sinew of Jacob's thigh when touched by the angel, as though by that the part had been made sacred. Among the primitive Christians, some denied themselves the use of such meats as were pro- hibited by the law ; others treated this absti- nence with contempt. St. Paul has given his decision on these questions in his epistles, 1 Cor. viii, 7-10 ; Rom. xiv, 1-3. The council of Jerusalem, which was held by the Apostles, enjoined the Christian converts to abstain from meats strangled, from blood, from fornication, and from idolatry, Acts xv, 20. The spiritual monarchy of the western world introduced another sort of abstinence which may be termed ritual, and which consists in abstaining from particular meats at certain times and seasons, the rules of which are called rogations. The ancient Lent was observed only a few days before Easter. In the course of the third century, it extended at Rome to three weeks; and before the middle of the suc- ceeding age, it was prolonged to six weeks, and began to be called quadragesima, or the forty days' fast. ABYSS, or deep, afivecos, without bottom. The chaos ; the deepest parts of the sea ; and, in the New Testament, the place of the dead, Rom. x, 7 ; a deep place of punishment. The devils besought Jesus that he would not send them into the abyss, a place they evidently dreaded, Luke viii, 31 ; where it seems to mean that part of Hades in which wicked spirits are in torment. See Hell. In the opinion of the ancient Hebrews, and of the generality of eastern people at this day, the abyss, the sea, or waters, encompassed the whole earth. This was supposed to float upon the abyss, of which it covered a small part. According to the same notion, the earth was founded on the waters, or at least its founda- tions were on the abyss beneath, Psalm xxiv, 2; exxxvi, 6. Under these waters, and at the bottom of this abyss, they represented the wicked as groaning, and suffering the punish- ment of their sin. The Rephaim were confined there, those old giants, who, whilst living, caused surrounding nations to tremble, Trov. ix, IS; xxi, 16, &c. Lastly, in these dark dun- geons the kings of Tyre, Babylon, and Egypt are described by the Prophets as suffering the punishment of their pride and cruelty, Isaiah xxvi, 14; Ezek. xxviii, 10, &c. These depths are figuratively represented as the abodes of evil spirits, and powers opposed to God : " I saw," says St. John, " a star fall from heaven unto the earth, and to him was given the key of the bottomless pit. And he opened the bottomless pit ; and there arose a smoke out of it, as the smoke of a great furnace ; and the sun and the air were darkened by reason of the smoke of the pit. And there came out of the smoke locusts upon the earth. And they had a king over them, which is the angel of the bottomless pit," Rev. ix, 1, 2, 11. In another place, the beast is represented as ascending out of the bottomless pit, and waging war against the two witnesses of God, Rev. xi, 7. Lastly, St. John says, "I saw an angel come down from heaven, having the key of the bottomless pit, and a great chain in his hand. And he laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent, which is the devil, and Satan, and bound him a thousand years, and cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal upon him, that he should deceive the na- tions no more till the thousand years should be fulfilled : and after that he must be loosed a little season," Rev. xx, 1-3. ABYSSINIAN CHURCH, a branch of the Coptic church, in Upper Ethiopia. The Abys- sinians, by the most authentic accounts, were converted to the Christian faith about the year 330; when Frumentius, being providentially raised to a high office, under the patronage of the queen of Ethiopia, and ordained bishop of that country by Athanasius, patriarch of Alex- andria, established Christianity, built churches, and ordained a regular clergy to officiate in them. The Abyssinian Christians themselves, indeed, claim a much higher antiquity, having a tradition, that the doctrine of Christ was first introduced among them by Queen Candace, Acts viii, 27 ; or even preached there by the Apostles Matthew and Bartholomew ; but the former is supported by no collateral evidence, and the latter is in opposition to high authority. Some of them claim relation to the Israelites, through the queen of Sheba, so far back as the reign of Solomon. The Abyssinian Christians have always re- ceived their abuna, or patriarch, from Alexan- dria whence they sprang, and consequently their creed is Monophysite, or Eutychian; maintaining one nature only in the person of Christ, namely, the divine, in which they con- sidered all the properties of the humanity to be absorbed; in opposition to the Nestorians. On the power of the Saracens prevailing in the cast, all communication being nearly cut off' between the eastern and western churches, Ihe Abyssinian church remained unknown in Europe till nearly the close of the fifteenth century, when John II, of Portugal, acciden- tally hearing of the existence of such a church, sent to make inquiry. This led to a corrcs- ACA 15 ACC pondcnce between the Abyssinians and the church of Rome ; and Bermudas, a Portuguese, was consecrated by the pope patriarch of Ethio- pia, and the Abyssinians were required to re- ceive the Roman Catholic faith, in return for some military assistance afforded to the empe- ror. Instead of this, however, the emperor sent for a new patriarch from Alexandria, im- prisoned Bermudes, and declared the pope a heretic. About the middle of the sixteenth century, the Jesuits attempted a mission to Abyssinia, in the hope of reducing it to the pope's au- thority ; but Without success. In 1588 a second mission was attempted, and so far succeeded as to introduce a system of persecution, which cost many lives, and caused many troubles to the empire. In the following century, how- ever, the Jesuits were all expelled, Abyssinia returned to its ancient faith, and nothing more was heard of the church of Abyssinia, till the latter part of the last century. After the expulsion of the Jesuits, all Euro- peans were interdicted ; nor does it appear that any one dared to attempt an entrance until the celebrated Mr. Bruce, by the report of his medical skill, contrived to introduce himself to the court, where he even obtained military pro- motion ; and was in such repute, that it was with great difficulty he obtained leave to return to England. Encouraged, perhaps, by this circumstance, the Moravian brethren attempted a mission to this country, but in vain. They were compelled to retreat to Grand Cairo, from whence, by leave of the patriarch, they visited the Copts at Behrusser, and formed a small society ; but in 1783, they were driven thence, and com- pelled to return to Europe. More recently, however, the late king of Abyssinia (Itsa Tak- ley Gorges) addressed a letter to Mr. Salt, the British consul in Egypt, and requested copies of some parts of both the Old and New Testa- ments. Copies of the Psalms, in Ethiopic, as printed by the British and Foreign Bible So- ciety, were also sent to him. ACADEMICS, a name given to such phi- losophers as adopted the doctrines of Plato. They were so called from the Academia, a grove near Athens, where they frequently in- dulged their contemplations. Academia is said to derive its name from one Academus, a god or hero so called. Thus Horace, — Atque inter syl'cas Academi quccrere verum. | And in the groves of Academus to search for truth.] The academics are divided into those of the first academy, who taught the doctrines of Plato in their original purity ; those of the se- cond or middle academy, who differed materi- ally from the first, and inclined to skepticism ; and those of the new academy. The middle school laid it down as a principle, that neither our senses, nor our reason, are to be trusted ; but that in common affairs we are to conform to received opinions. The new academy main- tained that we have no means of distinguishing truth, and that the most evident appearances may lead us into error ; they granted the wise man opinion, but denied him certainty. They held, however, that it was best to follow the greatest probability, which was sufficient for all the useful purposes of life, and laid down rules for the attainment of felicity. The dif- ference betwixt the middle academy and the new seems to have been this, that though they agreed in the imbecility of human nature, yet the first denied that probabilities were of any use in the pursuit of happiness ; and the latter held them to be of service in such a design : the former recommended a conformity with re- ceived opinions, and the latter allowed men an opinion of their own. In the first academy, Speusippus filled the chair; in the second, Ar- cesilaus ; and in the new or third academy, Carneades. ACC AD, one of the four cities built by Nim- rod, the founder of the Assyrian empire. (See Nimrod.) " And the beginning of his king- dom was Babel, and Erech, and Accad, and Calneh, in the land of Shinar," Gen. x, 10. Thus it appears that Accad was contemporary with Babylon, and was one of the first four great cities of the world. It would scarcely be expected that any thing should now remain to guide us in our search for this ancient city, seeing that Babylon itself, with which it was coeval, is reduced to heaps ; and that it is not mentioned under its ancient name by any profane author. But the discove- ries of modern travellers may be brought to aid us in our inquiry. At the distance of about six miles from the modern town of Bagdad, is found a mound, surmounted by a tower-shaped ruin, called by the Arabs Tell Niinrood, and by the Turks Nemrood Tepasso ; both terms im- plying the Hill of Nimrod. This gigantic mass rises in an irregularly pyramidal or turreted shape, according to the view in which it is taken, one hundred and twenty-five or one hundred and thirty feet above the gently inclined elevation on which it stands. Its circumference, at the bot- tom, is three hundred feet. The mound which constitutes its foundation is composed of a col- lection of rubbish, formed from the decay of the superstructure; and consists of sandy earth, fragments of burnt brick, pottery, and hard clay, partially vitrified. In the remains of the tower, the different layers of sun-dried brick, of which it is composed, may be traced with great precision. These bricks, cemented to- gether by slime, and divided into courser; vary- ing from twelve to twenty feet in height, are separated from one another by a stratum of reeds, similar to those now growing in the marshy parts of the plain, and in a wonderful state of preservation. The resemblance of this mode of building to that in some of the struc- tures at Babylon, cannot escape observation ; and we may reasonably conclude it to be the workmanship of the same architects. The so- lidity and the loftiness of this pile, unfashioned to any other purpose, bespeak it to be one of those enormous pyramidal towers which were consecrated to the Sabian worship ; which, as essential to their religious rites, were probably erected in all the early cities of the Cuthites ; and, like their prototype at Babylon, answered the double purpose of altars and observatories. ACC 16 ACC Here then was the site of one of those early cities. It was not Babylon ; it was not Erech ; it was not Cain eh. It might be too much to say that therefore it must be Accad ; but the inference is at least warrantable; which is farther strengthened by the name of the place, Akarkouft"; which bears a greater affinity to that of Accad than many others which are forced into the support of geographical specu- lations, especially when it is recollected that the .Syrian name of the city was Achar. ACCESS, free admission, open entrance. Our access to God is by Jesus Christ, the way, the truth, and the life, Rom. v, 2 ; Eph. ii, 18. Under the law, the high priest alone had ac- cess into the holiest of all ; but when the veil of the temple was rent in twain, at the death of Christ, it was declared that a new and living way of access was laid open through the veil, that is to say, his flesh. By his death, also, the middle wall of partition was broken down, and Jew and Gentile had both free access to God ; whereas, before, the Gentiles had no nearer access in the temple worship than to the gate of the court of Israel. Thus the saving grace and lofty privileges of the Gospel are equally bestowed upon true believers of all nations. ACCHO, afterward called Ptolemais, and now Akka by the Arabs, and Acre by the Turks. It was given to the tribe of Asher, Judges i, 31. Christianity was planted here at an early period, and here St. Paul visited the saints in his way to Jerusalem, Acts xxi, 7. It is a seaport of Palestine, thirty miles south of Tyre, and, in the first partition of the hoi}' land, belonged to the tribe of Asher; but this was one of the places out of which the Israelites could not drive the primitive inhabitants. In succeeding times it was enlarged by the first Ptolemy, to whose lot it fell, and who named it after him- self, Ptolemais. This city, now called Acre, which, from the convenience of its port, is one of the most con- siderable on the Syrian coast, was, during almost two centuries, the principal theatre of the holy wars, and the frequent scene of the perfidies and treacheries of the crusaders. Among its antiquities, Dr. E. D. Clarke describes the remains of a very considerable edifice, exhibiting a conspicuous appearance among the buildings on the north side of the city. " In this structure the style of the archi- tecture is of the kind we call Gothic. Perhaps it has on that account borne among our coun- trymen the appellation of ' King Richard's Palace,' although, in the period to which the tradition refers, the English were hardly capa- ble of erecting palaces, or any other buildings of equal magnificence. Two lofty arches, and part of the cornice, are all that now remain to attest the former greatness of the superstruc- ture. The cornice, ornamented with enormous stone busts, exhibiting a series of hideous dis- torted countenances, whose features are in no instances alike, may either have served as allu- sions to the decapitation of St. John, or were intended for a representation of the heads of Saracens suspended as trophies upon the walls." Maundrell and Pococke consider this building to have been the church of St. Andrew ; but Dr. E. D. Clarke thinks it was that of St. John, erected by the Knights of Jerusalem, whence the city changed its name of Ptolemais for that of St. John dAcre. lie also considers the style of architecture to be in some degree the original of our ornamented Gothic, before its translation from the holy land to Italy, France, and England. Mr. Buckingham, who visited Acre in 181C, says, "Of the Canaanitish Accho it would be thought idle perhaps to seek for remains ; yet some presented themselves to my observation so peculiar in form and materials, and of such high antiquity, as to leave no doubt in my own mind of their being the fragments of buildings constructed in the earliest ages. "Of the splendour of Ptolemais, no perfect monument remains; but throughout the town are seen shafts of red and grey granite, and marble pillars. The Saracenic remains are only to be partially traced in the inner walls of the town ; which have themselves been so broken down and repaired, as to leave little visi- ble of the original work; and all the mosques, » fountains, bazaars, and other public buildings, are in a style rather Turkish than Arabic, ex. cepting only an old, but regular and well-buill khan or caravanserai, which might perhaps be attributed to the Saracen age. The Christian ruins are altogether gone, scarcely leaving a trace of the spot on which they stood." Acre has been rendered famous in our own times by the successful resistance made by our countryman Sir Sydney Smith, aided by the celebrated Djezzar Pasha, to the progress of the French under Buonaparte. Since this period, the fortifications have been considerably in- creased ; and although to the eye of an engi- neer they may still be very defective, Acre may be considered as the strongest place in Palestine. Mr. Conner says, on the authority of the English consul, that there are about ten thou- sand inhabitants in Acre, of whom three thou- sand are Turks, and the remainder Christians, chiefly Catholics. ACCUBATION, the posture used at table by the ancients. The old Romans sat at meat as we do, till the Grecian luxury and softness had corrupted them. The same custom, of lying upon couches at their entertainments, prevailed among the Jews also in our Saviour's time ; for having been lately conquered by Pompey, they conformed in this, and in many other respects, to the example of their masters. The manner of lying at meat among the Ro- mans, Greeks, and more modern Jews, was the same in all respects. The table was placed in the middle of the room, around which stood three couches covered with cloth or tapestry, according to the quality of the master of the house ; upon these they lay, inclining the su- perior part of their bodies upon their left arms, the lower part being stretched out at full length, or a little bent. Their heads were supported and raised with pillows. The first man lay at the head of the couch ; the next man lay with his head toward the feet of the other, from ACC 17 ACR which he was defended by the bolster that supported his own back, commonly reaching over to the middle of the first man ; and the rest after the same manner. The most honour- able place was the middle couch — and the mid- dle of that. Favourites commonly lay in the bosom of their friends; that is, they were placed next below them : see John xiii, 23, where St. John is said to have lain in our Saviour's bo- som. The ancient Greeks sat at the table ; for Homer observes that when Ulysses arrived at the palace of Alcinous, the king dispatched his son Laodamas to seat Ulysses in a magnificent chair. The Egyptians sat at table anciently, as well as the Romans, till toward the end of the Punic war, when they began to recline at table. ACCURSED, in the Scriptures, signifies that which is separated or devoted. With re- gard to persons, it denotes the cutting off or separating any one from the communion of the church, the number oftlte living, or the privileges of society; and also the devoting an animal, city, or other thing to destruction. Anathema was a species of excommunication among the Jews, and was often practised after they had lost the power of life and death, against those persons who, according to the Mosaic law, ought to have been executed. A criminal, af- ter the sentence of excommunication was pro- nounced, became anathema: and they had a full persuasion that the sentence would not be in vain ; but that God would interfere to punish the offender in a manner similar to the penalty of the law of Moses : a man, for instance, whom the law condemned to be stoned, would, they believed, be killed by the falling of a stone upon him ; a man to be hanged, would be choked ; and one whom the law sentenced to the flames, would be burnt in his house, &c. Maranutha, a Syriac word, signifying the Lord coineth, was added to the sentence, to express their persuasion that the Lord God would °°«ie to take vengeance upon that g-uilt vvhich they, circumstanced as thoy were, had not the power to punish, 1 Cor. xvi, 22. According to the idiom of the Hebrew lan- guage, accursed and crucified were synonymous terms. By the Jews every one who died upon a tree was reckoned accursed, Deut. xxi, 23. Excommunication is a kind of anathema also among some Christians; and by it the offender is deprived, not only of communicat- ing in prayers and other holy offices, but of admittance to the church, and of conversation with the faithful. The spirit of Judaism, rather than that of the Gospel, 1ms in this been imi- tated ; for among the Hebrews, they who were excommunicated could not perform any public duty of their employments ; could be neither judges nor witnesses ; neither be present at funerals, nor circumcise their own sons, nor sit down in the company of other men, nearer than within the distance of four cubits. If they died under excommunication, they were denied the rites of burial ; and a large stone was left on their graves, or a heap of stones was thrown over them, as over Achan, Joshua vii, 26. The . Apostolical excommunication was simply to deny to the offender, after admonition, the right 3 of partaking of the Lord's Supper, which was excision from the church of Christ. ACELDAMA, a piece of ground without tho south wall of Jerusalem, on the other side of the brook Siloam. It was called the Potter's Field, because an earth or clay was duo- in it of which pottery was made. It was likewise called the Fuller's Field, because cloth was dried in it. But it having been afterward bought with the money by which the high priest and rulers of the Jews purchased the blood of Jesus, it was called Aceldama, or the Field of Blood. ACHAIA. This name is used to denote the whole of Greece, as it existed as a Roman pro- vince; or Achaia Proper, a district in tho northern part of the Peloponnesus, on the bay of Corinth, and in which the city of that namo stood. It appears to have been used in the former sense in 2 Cor. xi, 10 ; and in the latter, in Acts xix, 21. ACHAN, the son of Carmi, of the tribe of Judah, who having taken a part of the spoils of Jericho, against the injunction of God, who had accursed or devoted the whole city, was, upon being taken by lot, doomed to be stoned to death. The whole history is recorded, Joshua vii. It would appear that Achan's family were also stoned; for they were led out with him, and all his property, " And all Israel stoned him with stones, and burned them with fire, after they had stoned them with stones." Some of the critics have made efforts to confine the stoning to Achan, and the burning to his goods ; but not without violence to the text. It is pro- bable, therefore, that his family were privy to the theft, seeing he hid the accursed things which he had stolen in the earth, in his tent. By concealment they therefore became partak- ers of his crime, and so the sentence was justified. ACHMETHA. Se<> Ecbatana. ACHOR, Valley of, between Jericho and Ai. So called from the trouble brought upon the Israelites by the sin of Achan ; Achor in the Hebrew denoting trouble. ACHZIB, a city on the coast of the Mediter- ranean, in the tribe of Asher, and one of the cities out of which that tribe did not expel the inhabitants, Judges i, 31. It was called Ecdippa by the Greeks, and is at present termed Zib. It is situated about ten miles north of Accho, or Ptolemais. Mr. Buckingham, who passed by this place, says that it is small, and situated on a hill near the sea ; having a few palm trees rearing themselves above its dwellings, ACRA, "Anpa. This Greek word signifies, in general, a citadel. The Syrians and Chaldeans use Nnpn, in the same sense. King Antiochus gave orders for building a citadel at Jerusalem, north of the temple, on an eminence, which commanded the holy place ; and for that reason was called Acra. Josephus says, that this emi- nence was semicircular, and that Simon Mac- cabams, having expelled the Syrians, who had seized Acra, demolished it, and spent three years in levelling the mountain on which it stood ; that no situation in future should com- mand the temple. On mount Acra were after- ward built, the palace of Helena ; Agrippa's pa- lace, the place where the public records were ACT IS ADA lodged ; and that where the magistrates of Je- rusalem assembled. ACRABATENE, a district of Judaea, extend- ing between Shechem (now Napolose) and Jeri- cho, inclining east. It was about twelve miles in length. The Acrabatene had its name from a place called Akrabbim, about nine miles from Shechem, eastward. This was also the name of another district of Judea on the frontier of Idumea, toward the northern extremity of the Dead Sea. ACTS OF THE AFOSTLES. This book, in the very beginning, professes itself to be a continuation of the Gospel of St. Luke ; and its style bespeaks it to be written by the same per- son. The external evidence is also very satis- factory ; for besides allusions in earlier authors, and particularly in Clement of Rome, Polycarp, and Justin Martyr, the Acts of the Apostles are not only quoted by Irenasus, as written by Luke the evangelist, but there are few things recorded in this book which are not mentioned by that ancient father. This strong testimony in favour of the genuineness of the Acts of the Apostles is supported by Clement of Alexan- dria, Tertullian, Jerome, Eusebius, Theodoret, and most of the later fathers. It may be added, that the name of St. Luke is prefixed to this book in several ancient Greek manuscripts of the New Testament, and also in the old Syriac version. 2. This is the only inspired work which gives us any historical account of the progress of Christianity after our Saviour's ascension. It comprehends a period of about thirty years, but it by no means contains a general history of the church during that time. The principal facts recorded in it are, the choice of Matlhias to be an Apostle in the room of the traitor Ju- das; the descent ofiha Holy Ghost on the day of pentecost; the preaching, minxoloo, ana sllf. ferings of the Apostles at Jerusalem ; the death of Stephen, the first martyr; the persecution and dispersion of the Christians; the preaching of the Gospel in different parts of Palestine, espe- cially in Samaria; the conversion of St. Paul: the call of Cornelius, the first Gentile convert ; the persecution of the Cbristians by Herod Agrippa ; the preaching of Paul and Barnabas to the Gentiles, by the express command of the Holy Ghost ; the decree made at Jerusalem, de- claring that circumcision, and a conformity to other Jewish rites and ceremonies, were not necessary in Gentile converts ; and the latter part of the book is confined to the history of St. Paul, of whom St. Luke was the constant com- panion for several years. 3. As this account of St. Paul is not continu- ed beyond his two years' imprisonment at Rome, it is probable that this book was written soon after his release, which happened in the year 63 ; we may therefore consider the Acts of the Apostles as written about the year 64. 4. The place of its publication is more doubt- ful. The probability appears to be in favour of Greece, though some contend for Alexandria in Egypt. This latter opinion rests upon the subscriptions at tho end of some Greek manu- ecripts, and of the copies of the Syriac version ; but the best critics think, that these subscrip- tions, which are also affixed to other books of the New Testament, deserve but little weight ; and in this case they are not supported by any ancient authority. 5. It must have been of the utmost import- ance in the early times of the Gospel, and cer- tainly not of less importance to every subse- quent age, to have an authentic account of the promised descent of the Holy Ghost, and of the success which attended the first preachers of the Gospel both among the Jews and Gen- tilps. Thf>sa?, Ecclus. xvi, 16. A stone of impenetrable hardness. Sometimes this name is given to the diamond ; and so it is rendered, Jer. xvii, 1. But the Hebrew word rather means a very hard kind of stone, proba- bly the smiris, which was also used for cutting, engraving, and polishing other hard stones and crystals. The word occurs also in Ezek. iii,9, and Zech. vii, 12. In the former place the Lord says to the Prophet, "I have made thy forehead as an adamant, firmer than a rock ;" that is, endued thee with undaunted courage. In the latter, the hearts of wicked men are de- clared to be as adamant ; neither broken by the threatenings and judgments of God, nor pene, trated by his promises, invitations, and mercies. See Diamond. ADAMITES, sects reputed to have profess- ed the attainment of a perfect innocence, so that they wore no clothes in their assemblies, But Lardner doubts their existence in ancient, and Beausobre in modern, times. ADAR, the twelfth month of the ecclesiasti- cal, and the sixth of the civil, year among the Hebrews. It contains but twenty-nine days, and answers to our February, and sometimes enters into March, according to the course of the moon, by which they regulated their seasons. ADARCONIM, DWTK, a sort of money, mentioned 1 Chron. xxix, 7, and Ezra viii, 27. The Vulgate translates it, golden pence, the LXX, pieces of gold. They were darics, a gold coin, which some value at twenty drachms of silver. ADER. Jcrom observes, that the place where the angels declared the birth of Jesus Christ to the shepherds, was called by this name, Luke ii, 8, 9. The empress Helena built a church on this spot, the remains of which are still visible. ADDER, a venomous serpent, more usually called the viper. In our translation of the Bible we find the word adder five times ; but without sufficient authority from the original. pfl, in Gen. xlix, 17, is probably the ceras- tes ; a serpent of the viper kind, of a light brown colour, which lurks in the sand and the tracks of wheels in the road, and unexpectedly bites not cn^y (he unwary traveller, but the legs of horses ana other beasts. By comparing the Danites to this artful reptile, the patriarch in- timated that by stratagem, more than by open bravery, they should avenge themselves of their enemies and extend their conquests. — jj-\fl> in Psalm lviii, 4 ; xci, 13, signifies an asp. We may perhaps trace to this the Python of the Greeks, and its derivatives. (See Asp.) — 2w3y, found only in Psalm cxl, 3, is derived from a verb which signifies to bend back on itself. The Chaldee Paraphrasts render it 8»3?J>, which wo translate elsewhere, spider : they may therefore have understood it to have been the tarantula. It is rendered asp by the Septuagint and Vul. gate, and is so taken, Rom. iii, 13. The name is from the Arabic achasa. But there are seve- ral serpents which coil themselves previously ADD 23 ADD to darting on their enemy; if this be a charac- ter of the asp, it is not peculiar to that reptile. — j?bx, or >jj?dx, Prov. xxiii, 32 ; Isaiah xi, 8 ; xiv, 29 ; lix, 5 ; and Jer. viii, 17, is that deadly ser- pent called the basilisk, said to kill with its very breath. See Cockatrice. In Psalm lviii, 5, reference is made to the effect of musical sounds upon serpents. That they might be rendered tame and harmless by certain charms, or soft and sweet sounds, and trained to delight in music, was an opinion which prevailed very early and universally. Many ancient authors mention this effect ; Virgil speaks of it particularly, JEn. vii, v, 750. Qahi el Marrubia venit de gente sacerdos, Fronde super galeam el felici comptus oliva, Archippi regis missu foriissimus Umbra ; Vipereo generi, el graviter spirantibus hydris Spargere qui somnos cantuque manuque solebat, Mulcebatque iras, et morsus arte levabat. " Umbro, the brave Marrubian priest, was there, Sent by the Marsian monarch to the war. The smiling olive with her verdant boughs Shades his bright helmet and adorns his brows ; His charms in peace the furious serpent keep ; And lull the envenom'd viper's race to sleep : His healing hand allay'd the raging pain, And at his touch the poisons fled again.1' Pitt. Mr. Boyle quotes the following passage from Sir H. Blunt's Voyage into the Levant : — " Many rarities of living creatures I saw in Grand Cairo ; but the most ingenious was a nest of serpents, of two feet long, black and ugly, kept by a Frenchman, who, when he came to handle them, would not endure him, but ran and hid in their hole. Then he would take his cittern and play upon it. They, hearing his music, came all crawling to his feet, and began to climb up him, till he gave over playing, then away they ran." The wonderful effect which music produces on the serpent tribes, is confirmed by the testi- mony of several respectable moderns. Adders swell at the sound of" a flute, raising themselves up on the one half of their body, turning them- selves round, beating proper time, and follow- ing the instrument. Their head, naturally round and long like an eel, becomes broad and flat like a fan. The tame serpents, many of which the orientals keep in their houses, are known to leave their holes in hot weather, at the sound of a musical instrument, and run upon the performer. Dr. Shaw had an oppor- tunity of seeing a number of serpents keep exact time with the Dervishes in their circula- tory dances, running over their heads and arms, turning when they turned, and stopping when they stopped. The rattlesnake acknow- ledges the power of music as much as any of his family; of which the following instance is a decisive proof: When Chateaubriand was in Canada, a snake of that sDecies entered their encampment; a young Canadian, one of the party, who could play on the flute, to divert his associates, advanced against the serpent with his new species of weapon : on the approach of his enemy, the haughty reptile curled him- self into a spiral line, flattened his head, in- flated his cheeks, contracted his lips, displayed his envenomed fangs, and his bloody throat , his double tongue glowed like two flames of fire ; his eyes were burning coals ; his body, swollen with rage, rose and fell like the bel- lows of a forge ; his dilated skin assumed a dull and scaly appearance ; and his tail, which sounded the denunciation of death, vibrated with so great rapidity as to resemble a light vapour. The Canadian now began to play upon his flute, the serpent started with surprise, and drew back his head. In proportion as he was struck with the magic effect, his eyes lost their fierceness, the oscillations of his tail be- came slower, and the sound which it emitted became weaker, and gradually died away. Less perpendicular upon their spiral line, the rings of the fascinated serpent were by degrees ex- panded, and sunk one after another upon the ground, in concentric circles. The shades of azure, green, white, and gold, recovered their brilliancy on his quivering skin, and slightly turning his head, he remained motionless, in the attitude of attention and pleasure. At this moment, the Canadian advanced a few steps, producing witii his flute sweet and simple notes. The reptile, inclining his variegated neck, opened a passage with his head through the high grass, and began to creep after the musician, stopping when he stopped, and be- ginning to follow him again, as soon as he moved forward'. In this manner he was led out of their camp, attended by a great number of spectators, both savages and Europeans, who could scarcely believe their eyes, when they beheld this wonderful effect of harmony. The assembly unanimously decreed, that the serpent which had so highly entertained them, should be permitted to escape. Many of them are carried in baskets through Hindostan, and procure a maintenance for a set of people who play a few simple notes on the flute, with which the snakes seem much delighted, and keep time by a graceful motion of the head, erecting about half their length from the ground, and following the music with gentle curves, like the undulating lines of a swan's neck. But on some serpents, these charms seem to have no power ; and it appears from Scripture, that the adder sometimes takes precautions to prevent the fascination which he sees preparing for him : " for the deaf adder shutteth her ear, and will not hear the voice of the most skilful charmer." The threatening of the Prophet Jeremiah proceeds upon the same fact : " I will send serpents" (cockatrices) "among you, which will not be charmed, and they shall bite you." In all these quotations, the sacred wri- ters, while they take it for granted that many serpents are disarmed by charming, plainly ad- mit that the powers of the charmer are in vain exerted upon others. It is the opinion of some interpreters, that the word ^rw, which in some parts of Scripture denotes a lion, in others means an adder, or some other kind of serpent. Thus, in the ninety-first Psalm, they render it the basilisk : "Thou shalt tread upon the adder and the basilisk, the young lion and the dragon thou ADO 24 ADO shalt trample under foot." Indeed, all the an- cient expositors agree, that some species of ser- pent is meant, although they cannot determine what particular serpent the sacred writer had in view. The learned Bochart thinks it ex- tremely probable that the holy Psalmist in this verse treats of serpents only ; and, by conse- quence, that both the terms ^nip and "VC3 mean some kind of snakes, as well as jnfl and p:n ; because the coherence of the verse is by this view better preserved, than by mingling lions and serpents together, as our translators and other interpreters have commonly done ; nor is it easy to imagine what can be meant by tread- ing upon the lion, and trampling the young iion under foot ; for it is not possible in walk- ing to tread upon the lion, as upon the adder, the basilisk, and other serpents. To ADJURE, to bind by oath, as under the penalty of a fearful curse, Joshua vi, 26 ; Mark v, 7. 2. To charge solemnly, as by the au- thority, and under pain, of the displeasure of God, Matt, xxvi, 63 ; Acts xix, 13. ADONAI, one of the names of God. This word in the plural number signifies my Lords. The Jews, who either out of respect or super- stition, do not pronounce the name of Jehovah, read Adonai in the room of it, as often as they meet with Jehovah in the Hebrew text. But the ancient Jews were not so scrupulous. Neither is there any law which forbids them to pronounce any name of God. ADONIS. The text of the Vulgate in Ezek. viii, 14, says, that the Prophet saw women sit- ting in the temple, and weeping for Adonis ; but according to the reading of the Hebrew text, they are said to weep for Thamuz, or Tammuz, the hidden one. Among the Egyp- tians Adonis was adored under the name of Osiris, the husband of Isis. But he was some- times called by the name of Ammuz, or Tam- muz, the concealed, probably to denote his death or burial. The Hebrews, in derision, some- times call him the dead, Psalm cvi, 28 ; Lev. xix, 28 ; because they wept for him, and repre- sented him as dead in his coffin ; and at other times they denominate him the image of jeal- ousy, Ezek. viii, 3, 5, because he was the object of the jealousy of Mars. The Syrians, Phoenicians, and Cyprians, called him Adonis ; and Calmet is of opinion that the Ammonites and Moabites designated him by the name of Baal-peor. The manner in which they celebrated the festival of this false deity was as follows : They represented him as lying dead in his coffin, wept for him, bemoaned themselves, and sought for him with great eagerness and inquietude. After this, they pretended that they had found him again, and that he was still living. At this good news they exhibited marks of the most extravagant joy, and were guilty of a thousand lewd practices, to convince Venus how much they congratulated her on the return and revival of her favourite, as they had before condoled with her on his death. The Hebrew women, of whom the Prophet Ezekiel speaks, celebrated the feasts of Tammuz, or Adonis, in Jerusalem ; and God showed the Prophet these women weeping for this infamous god, even in his temple. Fabulous history gives the following account of Adonis : He was a beautiful young shepherd, the son of Cyniras, king of Cyprus, by his own daughter Myrrha. The goddess Venus fell in love with this youth, and frequently met him on mount Libanus. Mars, who envied this rival, transformed himself into a wild boar, and, as Adonis was hunting, struck him in the groin and killed him. Venus lamented the death of Adonis in an inconsolable manner. The east- ern people, in imitation of her mourning, ge- nerally established some solemn days for the bewailing of Adonis. After his death, Venus went to the shades, and obtained from Proser- pine, that Adonis might be with her six months in the year, and continue the other six in the infernal regions. Upon this were founded those public rejoicings, which succeeded the lamentations of his death. Some say that Adonis was a native of Syria; some, of Cy- prus ; and others, of Egypt. ADOPTION. An act by which one takes another into his family, owns him for his son, and appoints him his heir. The Greeks and Romans had many regulations concerning adoption. It does not appear that adoption, properly so called, was formerly in use among the Jews. Moses makes no mention of it in his laws ; and the case of Jacob's two grand- sons, Gen. xlviii, 14, seems rather a substitution. 2. Adoption in a theological sense is that act of God's free grace- by which, upon our being justified by faith in Christ, we are received into the family of God, and entitled to the inherit- ance of heaven. This appears not so much a distinct act of God, as involved in, and neces- sarily flowing from, our justification ; so that at least the one always implies the other. Nor is there any good ground to suppose that in the New Testament the term adoption is used with any reference to the civil practice of adoption by the Greeks, Romans, or other Heathens, and therefore it is not judicious to illustrate the texts in which the word occuie by their for- malities. The Apostles in using the term appear to have had before them the simple view, that our sins had deprived us of our sonship, the favour of God, and the right to the inheritance of eternal life ; but that, upon our return to God, and reconciliation with him, our forfeited privileges were not only restored, but greatly heightened through the paternal kindness of God. They could scarcely be forgetful of the affecting parable of the prodigal son ; and it is under the same view that St. Paul quotes from the Old Testament, "Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing, and I will receive you, and I will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty." Adoption, then, is that act by which we who were alienated, and enemies, and disinherited, are made the sons of God, and heirs of his eternal glory. " If children, then heirs, heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ;" where it is to be remarked, that it is not in our own ADO 25 ADO right, nor in the right of any work done in us, or which we ourselves do, though it should be an evangelical work, that we become heirs ; but jointly with Christ, and in his right. 3. To this state belong, freedom from a ser- vile spirit, for we are not servants but sons ; the special love and care of God our heavenly Father ; a filial confidence in him ; free access to him at all times and in all circumstances ; a title to the heavenly inheritance ; and the Spirit of adoption, or the witness of the Holy Spirit to our adoption, which is the foundation of all the comfort we can derive from those privileges, as it is the only means by which we can know that they are ours. 4. The last mentioned great privilege of adoption merits special attention. It consists in the inward witness or testimony of the Holy Spirit to the sonship of believers, from which flows a comfortable persuasion or conviction of our present acceptance with God, and the hope of our future and eternal glory. This is taught in several passages of Scripture : — Rom. viii, 15, 16, " For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear, but the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Fa- ther. The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit that we are the children of God." In this passage it is to be remarked, 1. That the Holy Spirit takes away " fear," a servile dread of God as offended. 2. That the " Spirit of God" here mentioned, is not the personified spirit or genius of the Gospel, as some would have it, but "the Spirit itself," or himself, and hence he is called in the Galatians, " the Spirit of his Son," which cannot mean the genius of the Gospel. 3. That he inspires a filial confidence in God, as our Father, which is opposed to " the fear" produced by the " spirit of bondage." 4. That he excites this filial confidence, and enables us to call God our Father, by witness- ing, bearing testimony with our spirit, " that we are the children of God." Gal. iv, 4-6, " But when the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons ; and because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father." Here also are to be noted, 1. The means of our redemption from under (the curse of) the law, — the incarnation and sufferings of Christ. 2. That the adoption of sons follows upon our actual redemption from that curse, or, in other words, upon our pardon. 3. That upon our being pardoned, the "Spirit of the Son" is "sent forth into our hearts," producing the (same effect as that mentioned in the Epistle to the Romans, viz. filial confidence in God, — " crying, Abba, Father." To these texts are to be added all those passages, so numerous in the New Testament, which express the confidence and the joy of Christians ; their friendship with God ; their confident access to him as their God; their entire union and delightful inter- course with him in spirit. This has been generally termed the doctrine of assurance, and, perhaps, the expressions of St. Paul, "the full assurance of faith," and "the full assurance of hope," may warrant the use of the word. But as there is a current and generally understood sense of this term, imply- ing that the assurance of our present accept- ance and sonshjp implies an assurance of our final persoverance, and of an indefeasible title to heaven ; the phrase, a comfortable persua- sion, or conviction of our justification and adoption, arising out of the Spirit's inward and direct testimony, is to be preferred. There is, also, another reason for the sparing and cautious use of the term assurance, which is, that it seems to imply, though not necessa- rily, the absence of all doubt, and shuts out all those lower degrees of persuasion which may exist in the experience of Christians. For, our faith may not at first, or at all times, be equally strong, and the testimony of the Spirit may have its degrees of clearness. Nevertheless, the fulness of this attainment is to be pressed upon every one : "Let us draw near," says St. Paul to all Christians, " with full assurance of faith." It may serve, also, to remove an objection sometimes made to the doctrine, and to correct an error which sometimes pervades the state- ment of it, to observe that this assurance, per- suasion, or conviction, whichever term be adopted, is not of the essence of justifying faith ; that is, justifying faith does not consist in the assurance that I am now forgiven, through Christ. This would be obviously con- tradictory. For we must believe before we can be justified ; much more before we can be assured, in any degree, that we are justified : — this persuasion, therefore, follows justification, and is one of its results. But though we must not only distinguish, but separate, this persua- sion of our acceptance from the faith which justifies, we must not separate it, but only dis- tinguish it, from justification itself. With that come in as concomitants, adoption, the " Spirit of adoption," and regeneration. ADORATION, the act of rendering divine honours ; or of addressing God or any other being as supposing it to be God. (See Worship.) The word is compounded of ad, " to," and os, " mouth ;" and literally signifies to apply the hand to the mouth ; inanum ad os admovere, " to kiss the hand ;" this being in eastern coun- tries one of the great marks of respect and sub- mission. To this mode of idolatrous worship Job refers, xxxi, 26,27. See alsol Kingsxix, 18. The Jewish manner of adoration was by prostration, bowing, and kneeling. The Chris- tians adopted the Grecian, rather than the Roman, method, and always adored uncovered. The ordinary posture of the ancient Christians was kneeling; but on Sundays, standing. Adoration is also used for certain extraordi- nary acts of civil honour, which resemble those paid to the Deity, yet are given to men. We read of adorations paid to kings, princes, emperors, popes, bishops, abbots, &c, by kneel- ing, falling prostrate, kissing the feet, hands, garments, &c. The Persian manner of adoration, introduced by Cyrus, was by bending the knee, and falling ADO 26 ADU on the face at the prince's feet, striking the earth with the forehead, and kissing the ground. This was an indispensable condition on the part of foreign ministers and ambassadors, as well as the king's own vassals, of being admitted to audience, and of obtaining aiiy favour. This token of reverence was ordered to be paid to their favourites as well as to themselves, as we learn from the history of Haman and Mordecai, in the book of Esther; and even to their sta- tues and images ; for Philostratus informs us that, in the time of Apollonius, a golden statue of the king was exposed to all who entered Babylon, and none but those who adored it were admitted within the gates. The ceremony, which the Greeks called npoaicvvuv, Conon re- fused to perform to Artaxerxes, and Callis- thenes to Alexander the Great, as reputing it impious and unlawful. The adoration performed to the Roman and Grecian emperors consisted in bowing or kneel- ing at the prince's feet, laying hold of his pur- ple robe, and then bringing the hand to the lips. Some attribute the origin of this practice to Constantius. They were only persons of rank or dignity that were entitled to the honour. Bare kneeling before the emperor to deliver a petition, was also called adoration. It is particularly said of Dioclesian, that he had gems fastened to his shoes, that divine honours might be more willingly paid him, by kissing his feet. And this mode of adoration was continued till the last age of the Greek monarchy. When any one pays his respects to the king of Achen in Sumatra, he first takes oif his shoes and stockings, and leaves them at the door. The practice of adoration may be said to be still subsisting in England, in the custom of kissing the king's or queen's hand. Adoration is also used in the court of Rome, in the ceremony of kissing the pope's feet. It is not certain at what period this practice was introduced into the church : but it was proba- bly borrowed from the Byzantine court, and ac- companied the temporal power. Dr. Maclaine, in the chronological table which he has sub- joined to his translation of Mosheim's Ecclesi- astical History, places its introduction in the eighth century, immediately after the grant of Pepin and Charlemagne. Baronius traces it to a much higher antiquity, and pretends that examples of this homage to the vicars of Christ occur so early as the year 204. These prelates finding a vehement disposition in the people to fall down before them, and kiss their feet, pro- cured crucifixes to be fastened on their slippers ; by which stratagem, the adoration intended for the pope's person is supposed to be transferred to Christ. Divers acts of this adoration we find offered even by princes to the pope ; and Gre- gory XIII, claims this act of homage as a duty. Adoration properly is paid only to the pope when placed on the altar, in which posture the cardinals, conclavists, alone are admitted to kiss his feet. The peoplo are afterward admit- ted to do the like at St. Peter's church ; the ceremony is described at large by Guicciardin. Adoration is more particularly used for kiss- ing one's hand in presence of another as a token of reverence. The Jews adored by kiss- ing their hands, and bowing down their heads ; whence in their language kissing is properly used for adoration. This illustrates a passage in Psalm ii, " Kiss the Son lest he be angry;" — that is, pay him homage and worship. It was the practice among the Greek Chris- tians to worship with the head uncovered, 1 Cor. xi ; but in the east the ancient custom of worshipping with the head covered was retained. ADRAMMELECH, the son of Sennacherib, king of Assyria. The king returning to Nine- veh, after his unhappy expedition made into Judea against king Hezekiah, was killed by his two sons, Adrammelech and Sharezer, whilst at his devotions in the temple of his god Nis- roch, Isaiah xxxvii, 38 ; 2 Kings xix. It is not known what prompted these two princes to commit this parricide ; but after they had com- mitted the murder, they fled for safety to the mountains of Armenia, and their brother, Esar- haddon, succeeded to the crown. Adrammelech was also one of the gods adored by the inhabitants of Sepharvaim, who were settled in the country of Samaria, in the room of the Israelites, who were carried beyond the Euphrates. The Sepharvaites made their children pass through the fire in honour of this idol, and another, called Anammelech, 2 Kings xvii, 31. The Rabbins say, that Adrammelech was represented under the form of a mule ; but there is much more reason to believe that Adrammelech meant the sun, and Anammelech the moon; the first signifying the magnificent king, the second the gentle king, — many east- ern nations adoring the moon as a god, not as a goddess. ADRAMYTTIUM, a city on the west coast of Mysia, in Lesser Asia, over against the isle of Lesbos. It was in a ship belonging to this place, that St. Paul sailed from Cesarea to pro- ceed to Rome as a prisoner, Acts xxvii, 2. It is now called Edremit. ADRIA. This name, which occurs in Acts xxvii, 27, is now confined to the gulf lying between Italy on the one side, and the coasts of Dalmatia and Albania on the other. But in St. Paul's time it was extended to all that por- tion of the Mediterranean between Crete and Sicily. Thus Ptolemy says that Sicily was bounded on the east by the Adriatic, and Crete in a similar manner on the west; and Strabo says that the Ionian Gulf was a part of what, in his time, was called the Adriatic Sea. ADULLAM, a city in the tribe of Judah, to the west of Hebron, whose king was slain by Joshua, Josh, xii, 15. It is frequently men- tioned in the history of Saul and David ; and is chiefly memorable from the cave in its neigh- bourhood, where David retired from Achish, king of Gath, when he was joined by the dis- tressed and discontented, to the number of four hundred, over whom he became captain, 1 Sam. xxii, 1. Judas Maccabeus encamped in the plain of Adullam, where he passed the Sabbath day, 2 Mac. xii, 38. Eusebius says that, in his time, Adullam was a very great town, ten miles to the east of Eleutheropolis, ADU 27 ADU ADULTERY, the violation of the marriage bed. The law of Moses punished with death both the man and the woman who were guilty of this crime, Lev. xx, 10. If a woman was betrothed to a man, and was guilty of this in- famous crime before the marriage was com- pleted, she was, in this case, along with her paramour, to be stoned, Deut. xxii, 22-24. When any man among the Jews, prompted by jealousy, suspected his wife of the crime of adultery, he brought her first before the judges, and informed them that, in consequence of his suspicions, he had privately admonished her, but that she was regardless of his admonitions. If before the judges she asserted her innocency, he required that she should drink the waters of jealousy, that God might by these means dis- cover what she attempted to conceal, Num. v, 12, &c. The man then produced his witnesses, and they were heard. After this, both the man and the woman were conveyed to Jerusalem, and placed before the sanhedrim; the judges of which, by threats and other means, endea- voured to confound the woman, and make her confess. If she persisted in denying the fact, she was led to the eastern gate of the court of Israel, stripped of her own clothes, and dressed in black, before great numbers of her own sex. The priest then told her, that if she was really innocent, she had nothing to fear; but if guilty, she might expect to suffer all that the law had denounced against her, to which she answered, ''Amen, amen." The priest then wrote the terms of the law in this form : — " If a strange man hath not come near you, and you are not polluted by forsaking the bed of your hus- band, these bitter waters, which I have cursed, will not hurt you : but if you have polluted yourself by coming near to another man, and gone astray from your husband, — may you be accursed of the Lord, and become an example for all his people ; may your thigh rot, and your belly swell till it burst ; may these cursed wa- ters enter into your belly, and being swelled therewith, may your thighs putrefy." After this, the priest filled a pitcher out of the brazen vessel, near the altar of burnt offer- ings, cast some dust of the pavement into it, mingled something with it as bitter as worm- wood, and then read the curses, and received her answer of Amen. Another priest, in the meantime, tore off her clothes as low as her bosom — made her head bare — untied the tresses of her hair — fastened her clothes, which were thus torn, with a girdle under her breasts, and then presented her with the tenth part of an ephah, or about three pints, of barley meal. The other priest then gave her the waters of jealousy, or bitterness, to drink ; and as soon as the woman had swallowed them, he gave her the meal in a vessel like a frying-pan into her hand. This was stirred before the Lord, and part of it thrown into the fire of the altar. If the wife was innocent, she returned witli her husband, and the waters, so far from injur- ing her, increased her health, and made her more fruitful ; but if she was guilty, she grew pale immediately, her eyes swelled ; and, lest she should pollute the temple, she was instantly carried out, with these symptoms upon her, and died instantly, with all the ignominious circum- stances related in the curses. On this law of Moses, Michaelis has the fol- lowing remarks : — " This oath was, perhaps, a relic of some more severe and barbarous consuetudinary laws, whose rigours Moses mitigated ; as he did in many other cases, where an established usage could not be conveniently abolished alto- gether. Among ourselves, in barbarous times, the ordeal, or trial by fire, was, notwithstand- ing the parity of our married people, in com- mon use ; and this, in point of equity, was much the same in effect, as if the husband had had the right to insist on his wife submitting to the hazardous trial of her purity, by drink- ing a poisoned potion ; which, according to an ancient superstition, could never hurt her if she was innocent. And, in fact, such a right is not altogether unexampled ; for, according to Oldendorp's History of the Mission of the Evangelical Brethren, in the Caribbee Islands, it is actually in use among some of the savage nations in the interior parts of Western Africa. " Now, when in place of a poisoned potion like this, which very few husbands can be very willing to have administered to their wives, we see, as among the Hebrews, an imprecation- drink, whose avenger God himself promises to become, we caunot but be struck with the con- trast of wisdom and clemency which such a contrivance manifests. In the one case, (and herein consists their great distinction,) inno- cence can only be preserved by a miracle ; while, on the other, guilt only is revealed and punished by the hand of God himself. "By one of the clauses of the oath of pur- gation, (and had not the legislator been perfect- ly assured of his divine mission, the insertion of any such clause would have been a very bold step indeed,) a visible and corporeal punish- ment was specified, which the person swearing imprecated on herself, and which God himself was understood as engaging to execute. To have given so accurate a definition of the pun- ishment that God meant to inflict, and still more one that consisted of such a rare disease, would have been a step of incomprehensible boldness in a legislator who pretended to have a divine mission, if he was not, with the most assured conviction, conscious of its reality. " Seldom, however, very seldom, was it likely that Providence would have an opportunity of inflicting the punishment in question. For the oath was so regulated, that a woman of the utmost effrontery could scarcely have taken it without changing colour to such a degree as to betray herself. " In the first place, it was not administered to the woman in her own house, but she was under the necessity of going to that place of the land where God in a special manner had his abode, and took it there. Now, the solem- nity of the place, unfamiliarized to her by daily business or resort, would have a great effect upon her mind. In the next place, there was offered unto God what was termed an execra- tion offering, not in order to propitiate his ADU 28 iERA mercy, but to invoke his vengeance on the guilty. Here the process was extremely slow, which gave her more time for reflection than to a guilty person could be acceptable, and that, too, amidst a multitude of unusual ceremonies. For the priest conducted her to the front of the sanctuary, and took holy water, that is, water out of the priests' laver, which stood before it, together with some earth off its floor, which was likewise deemed holy ; and having put the earth in the water, he then proceeded to un- cover the woman's head, that her face might be seen, and every change on her countenance during the administration of the oath accurately observed : and this was a circumstance which, in the east, where the women are always veiled, must have had a great effect ; because a woman, accustomed to wear a veil, could, on so extra, ordinary an occasion, have had far less com- mand of her eyes and her countenance than a European adulteress, who is generally a perfect mistress in all the arts of dissimulation, would display. To render the scene still more awful, the tresses of her hair were loosened, and then the execration offering was put into her hand, while the priest held in his the imprecation water. This is commonly termed the bitter water; but we must not understand this as if the water had really been bitter; for how could it have been so ? The earth of the floor of the tabernacle could not make it bitter. Among the Hebrews, and other oriental nations, the word bitter was rather used for curse : and, strictly speaking, the phrase does not mean bitter water, but the water of bitternesses, that is, of curses. The priest now pronounced the oath, which was in all points so framed that it could excite no terrors in the breast of an innocent woman ; for it expressly consisted in this, that the imprecation water should not harm her if she was innocent. It would seem as if the priest here made a stop, and again left the wo- man some time to consider whether she would proceed with the oath. This I infer from the circumstance of his speech not being directly continued in verse 21st, which is rather the apodosis of what goes before ; and from the detail proceeding anew in the words of the his- torian, Then shall the priest pronounce the rest of the oath and the curses to the woman; and proceed thus. — After this stop he pronounced the curses, and the woman was obliged to de- clare her acquiescence in them by a repeated Amen. Nor was the solemn scene yet altoge- ther at an end ; but rather, as it were com- menced anew. For the priest had yet to write the curses in a book, which I suppose he did at great deliberation ; having done so, he washed them out again in the very impreca- tion water, which the woman had now to drink ; and this water being now presented to her, she was obliged to drink it, with this warn- ing and assurance, in the name of God, that if she was guilty, it would prove within her an absolute curse. Now, what must have been her feelings, while drinking, if not conscious of purity ? In my opinion she must have con- ceived that she already felt an alteration in the state of her body, and the germ, as it were, of tho disease springing within her. Conscience and imagination would conspire together, and render it almost impossible for her to drink it out. Finally, the execration offering was taken out of her hand, and burnt upon the altar. I cannot but think that, under the sanction of such a purgatorium, perjury must have been a very rare occurrence indeed. If it happened but once in an age, God had bound himself to punish it ; and if this took place but once, (if but one woman who had taken the oath was attacked with that rare disease which it threat- ened,) it was quite enough to serve as a deter- ment to all others for at least one generation." This procedure had also the effect of keep- ing in mind, among the Jews, God's high dis- pleasure against this violation of his law ; and though some lax moralists have been found, in modern times, to palliate it, yet the Christian will always remember the solemn denuncia- tions of the New Testament against a crime so aggravated, whether considered in its effects upon the domestic relations, upon the moral character of the guilty parties, or upon society at large, — " Whoremongers and adulterers God will judge." Adultery, in the prophetic scriptures, is often metaphorically taken, and signifies idolatry, and apostasy from God, by which men basely defile themselves, and wickedly violate their ecclesiastical and covenant relation to God, Hos. ii, 2 ; Ezek. xvi. ADVOCATE, riapaVA>;T05, a patron, one who pleads the cause of any one before another. In this sense the term is applied to Christ our in- tercessor, 1 John ii, 1. It signifies also a com- forter, and an instructer ; and is used of the Holy Spirit, John xiv, 16, and xv, 26. ADYTUM is a Greek word, signifying inac- cessible, by which is understood the most retir ed and secret place of the Heathen temples, into which none but the priests were allowed to enter. The adytum of the Greeks and Romans answered to the sanctum sanctorum of the Jews, and was the place from whence oracles were delivered. iERA, a series of years, commencing from a certain point of time called an epocha : thus we say, the Christian aera; that is, the number of years elapsed since the birth of Christ. The generality of authors use the terms sera and epocha in a synonymous sense ; that is, for the point of time from which any computation begins. The ancient Jews made use of several seras in their computation ; sometimes they reckon- ed from the deluge, sometimes from the division of tongues ; sometimes from their departure out of Egypt ; and at other times from the building of the temple ; and sometimes from the restora- tion after the Babylonish captivity : but their vulgar aera was from the creation of the world, which falls in with the year of the Julian period 953 ; and consequently they supposed the world created 294 years sooner than according to our computation. But when the Jews be- came subject to the Syro-Macedonian kings, they were obliged to make use of the oera of the Scleucidce in all their contracts, which from AFF 29 AGA thence was called the aera of contracts. This tera begins with the year of the world 3692, of the Julian period 4402, and before Christ 312. The rora in general use among the Christians is that from the birth of Jesus Christ, concerning the true time of which chronologers differ ; some place it two years, others four, and again others five, before the vulgar rera, which is fixed for the year of the world 4004 : but Archbishop Usher, and after him the generality of modern chrono- logers, place it in the year of the world 4000. The ancient Heathens used several asras: 1. The asra of the first olympiad is placed in the year of the world 3228, and before the vul- gar asra of Jesus Christ 776. 2. The taking of Troy by the Greeks, in the year of the world 2320, and before Jesus Christ 1884. 3. The voyage undertaken for the purpose of bringing away the golden fleece, in the year of the world 2760. 4. The foundation of Rome, in 2856. 5. The sera of Nabonassar, in 3257. 6. The aera of Alexander the Great, or his last victory over Darius, in 3674, and before Jesus Christ 330. AERI ANS, a sect which arose about the mid- dle of the fourth century, being the followers of Aerius, (who must be distinguished from Arius and Aetius,) a monk and a presbyter of Sebas- tia, in Pontus. He is charged with being an Arian, or Semi-Arian ; but the heaviest accusa- tion against him is an attempt to reform the church ; and, by rejecting prayers for the dead, with certain fasts and festivals then supersti- tiously observed, to reduce Christianity as near- ly as possible " to its primitive simplicity ; a purpose, indeed, laudable and noble," says Dr. Mosheim, " when considered in itself: though the principle-s from whence it springs, and the means by which it is executed, are sometimes, in many respects, worthy of censure, and may have been so in the case of this reformer." This gentle rebuke probably refers to a report that the zeal of Aerius originated in his being disappointed of the bishopric of Sebastia, (con- ferred on Eustathius,) which led him to affirm that the Scriptures make no distinction between a presbyter and a bishop, which he founded chiefly on 1 Tim. iv, 14. Hence he is consider- ed by many, as the father of the modern Pres- byterians.— " For this opinion, chiefly" says Dr. Turner, " he is ranked among the heretics, by Epiphanius, his contemporary, who calls it a notion full of folly and madness. His followers were driven from the churches, and out of all the towns and villages, and were obliged to as- semble in the woods, caverns, and open defiles." AETlANS, another branch (as it is said) of Arians, so called from Aetius, bishop of An- tioch, who is also charged with maintaining " faith without worV.s," as " sufficient to salva- tion," or rather justification ; and with maintain- ing "that sin is not imputed to believers." It is added, that he taught God had revealed to him things which he had "concealed from the Apostles ;" which, perhaps, is only a misrepre- sentation of what he taught on the doctrine of divine influences. AFFINITY. There are several degrees of affinity, wherein marriage was prohibited by the law of Moses : thus the son could not marry his mother, nor his father's wife, Lev. xviii, 7, &c. The brother could not marry his sister, whether she were so by the father only, or only by the mother, and much less if she were his sister both by the same father and mother. The grandfather could not marry his granddaughter, either by his son or daughter. No one could marry the daughter of his father's wife ; nor the sister of his father or mother; nor the uncle, his niece ; nor the aunt, her nephew ; nor the nephew, the wife of his uncle by the father's side. The father-in-law could not marry his daughter-in-law ; nor the brother the wife of his brother, while living ; nor even after the death of his brother, if he left children. If he left no children, the surviving brother was to raise up children to his deceased brother by marrying his widow. It was forbidden to marry the mother and the daughter at one time, or the daughter of the mother's son, or the daughter of her daughter, or two sisters, together. It is true the patriarchs, before the law, mar- ried their sisters, as Abraham married Sarah, who was his father's daughter by another mo- ther ; and two sisters together, as Jacob mar- ried Rachel and Leah ; and their own sisters, both by father and mother, as Seth and Cain. But these cases are not to be proposed as ex- amples ; because in some they were authorized by necessity ; in others, by custom ; and the law as yet was not in being. If some other examples may be found, either before or since the law, the Scripture expressly disapproves of them ; as Reuben's incest with Balah, his father's concu- bine ; and the action of Amnon with his sister Tamar ; and that of Herod Antipas, who mar- ried Herodias, his sister-in-law, his brother Philip's wife, while her husband was yet living ; and that which St. Paul reproves and punishes among the Corinthians, 1 Cor. v, 1. AGABUS, a prophet, and as the Greeks say, one of the seventy disciples of our Saviour. He foretold that there would be a great famine over all the earth ; which came to pass accordingly, under the emperor Claudius, in the fourth year of his reign, A. D. 44, Acts xi, 28. Ten years after this, as St. Paul was going to Jerusalem, and had already landed at Csesa- rea, in Palestine, the same prophet, Agabus, arrived there, and coming to visit St. Paul and his company, he took this Apostle's girdle, and binding himself hand and feet, he said, " Thus saith the Holy Ghost, So shall the Jews at Jerusalem bind the man that owneth this gir- dle, and shall deliver him into the hands of the Gentiles," Acts xxi, 10. We know no other particulars of the life of Agabus. The Greeks say that he suffered martyrdom at Antioch. AGAG. This seems to have been a common name of the princes of Amalek, one of whom was very powerful as early as the time of Moses, Num. xxiv, 7. On account of the cruelties ex- ercised by this king and his army against the Israelites, as they returned from Egypt, a bloody and long contested battle took place between Joshua and the Amalekites, in which the former was victorious, Exod. xvii, 8-13. At the same time, God protested with an oath to destroy Amalek, verses 14-16; Dent, xxv, 17-19, A.M. AGE 30 AGR 2513. About four hundred years after this, the Lord remembered the cruel treatment of his people, and his own oath ; and lie commanded Saul, by the mouth of Samuel, to destroy the Amalekites. Saul mustered his army, and found it two hundred thousand strong, 1 Sam. xv, 1, &c. Having entered into their country, he cut in pieces all he could meet with from Havilah to Slmr. Agag their king, and the best of their cattle, were however spared, an act of disobedience on the part of Saul, probably dictated by covetousness. But Agag did not long enjoy this reprieve ; for Samuel no sooner heard that he was alive, than he sent for him ; and notwithstanding his insinuating ad- dress, and the vain hopes with which he flat- tered himself that the bitterness of death was past, he caused him to be hewed to pieces in Gilgal before the Lord, saying, " As, "iti^s, in the same identical mode as, thy sword hath made women childless, so shall thy mother be child- less among women." This savage chieftain had hewed many prisoners to death ; and, therefore, by command of the Judge of the whole earth, he was visited with the same punishment which he had inflicted upon others. AGAPiE. See Love Feast. AGAR, mount Sinai, so called, Gal. iv, 24, 25. But this reading is doubtful, many MSS. having the verse, " for this Sinai is a mountain of Arabia." Some critics however contend for the reading of the received text, and urge that Agar, which signifies " a rocky mountain," is the Arabic name for Sinai. AGATE, -Dti-, Exod. xxviii, 19 ; xxxix, 12. In the Septuagint a^a'Djf, and Vulgate, achates. A precious stone, semi-pellucid. Its variega- tions are sometimes most beautifully disposed, representing plants, trees, rivers, clouds, &c. Its Hebrew name is, perhaps, derived from the country whence the Jews imported it; for the merchants of Sheba brought to the market of Tyre all kinds of precious stones, Ezek. xxvii, 22. The agate was the second stone in the third row of the pectoral of the high priest, Exod. xxviii, 19, and xxxix, 12. AGE, in the most general sense of the term, denotes the duration of any substance, animate or inanimate ; and is applied either to the whole period of its existence, or to that portion of it which precedes the time to which the description of it refers. In this sense it is used to signify either the whole natural duration of the life of man, or any interval of it that has elapsed before the period of which we speak. When age is under- stood of a cc-tain portion of the life of man, its whole duration is divided into four different ages, viz. infancy, youth, manhood, and old age : the first extending to the fourteenth year ; the second, denominated youth, adolescence, or the age of puberty, commencing at fourteen, and terminating at about twenty-five ; manhood, or the virile age, concluding at fifty ; and the last ending at the close of life. Some divide the first period into infancy and childhood ; and the last likewise into two stages, calling that which succeeds the age of seventy-five, decrepit old age. Ago is applicable to the duration of tilings inanimate or factitious; and in this use of the term we speak of the age of a house, of a country, of a state or kingdom, &c. Age, in chronology, is used for a century, or a period of one hundred years : in which sense it is the same with seculum, and differs from generation. It is also used in speaking of the times past since the creation of the world. The several ages of the world may be reduced to three grand epochas, viz. the age of the law of nature, called by the Jews the void age, from Adam to Moses. The age of the Jewish law, from Moses to Christ, called by the Jews the present age. And the age of grace, from Christ to the present year. The Jews call tho third age, the age to come, or the future age ; denoting by it the time from the advent of the Messiah to the end of the world. The Romans distinguished the time that preceded them into three ages : the obscure or uncertain age, which reached down as low as Ogyges king of Attica, in whose reign the deluge happened in Greece ; the fabulous or heroic age, which ended at the first olympiad ; and the historical age, which commenced at the building of Rome. Among the poets, the four ages of the world are, the golden, the silver, the brazen, and the iron age. Age is sometimes used among the ancient poets in the same sense as generation, or a period of thirty years. Thus Nestor is said to have lived three ages, when he was ninety years old. The period preceding the birth of Jesus Christ has been generally divided into six ages. The first extends from the creation to the deluge, and comprehends 1656 years. The second age, from the deluge to Abraham's en- tering the land of promise, A. M. 2082, com- prehends 426 years. The third age from Abra- ham's entrance into the promised land to tho Exodus, A. M. 2512, includes 430 years. The fourth age, from the Exodus to the building of the temple by Solomon, A. M. 2992, contains 480 years. The fifth age from the foundation of Solomon's temple to the Babylonish captivity, A. M. 341 6, comprehends 424 years. The sixth age, from the Babylonish captivity to the birth of Jesus Christ, A.M. 4000, the fourth year be- fore the vulgar fera, includes 584 years. Those who follow the Septuagint, or Greek version, divide this period into seven ages, viz. 1. From the creation to the deluge, 2262 years. 2. From the deluge to the confusion of tongues, 738 years. 3. From this confusion to the calling of Abraham, 460 years. 4. From this period to Jacob's descent into Egypt, 215 years; and from this event to the Exodus, 430 years, making the whole 645 years. 5. From the Exo- dus to Saul, 774 years. 6. From Saul to Cyrus, 583 years. 7. From Cyrus to the vulgar a?ra of Christians, 538 years ; the whole period from the creation to this period containing 6000 years. AGRIPPA, snrnamed Herod, the son of Aristobulus and Mariamnc, and grandson of Herod the Great, was born A. M. 3997, three years before the birth of our Saviour, and seven years before the vulgar acra. After the death of his father Aristobulus, Joscphus informs us that Herod, his grandfather, took care of his education, and sent him to Rome to make his AGR 31 AGU court to Tiberius. Agrippa, having a great in- clination for Caius, the son of Germanicus, and grandson of Antonia, chose to attach himself to this prince, as if he had some prophetic views of the future elevation of Caius, who at that time was beloved by all the world. The great assiduity and agreeable behaviour of Agrippa so far won upon this prince, that he was unable to live without him. Agrippa, being one day in conversation with Caius, was overheard by one Eutychus, a slave whom Agrippa had emancipated, to say that he should be glad to see the old emperor take his depar- ture for the other world and leave Caius master of this, without meeting with any obstacle from the emperor's grandson, Tiberius Nero. Euty- chus, some time after this, thinking he had reason to be dissatisfied with Agrippa, com- municated the conversation to the emperor ; whereupon Agrippa was loaded with fetters, and committed to the custody of an officer. Soon after this, Tiberius dying, and Caius Caligula succeeding him, the new emperor heaped many favours and much wealth upon Agrippa, changed his iron fetters into a chain of gold, set a royal diadem on his head, and gave him the tetrarchy which Philip, the son of Herod the Great, had been possessed of, that is, Batanaea and Trachonitis. To this he added that of Lysanias ; and Agrippa returned very soon into Judea, to take possession of his new kingdom. The emperor Caius, desiring to be adored as a god, commanded to have his statue set up in the temple of Jerusalem. But the Jews opposed this design with so much resolu- tion, that Petronius was forced to suspend his proceedings in this affair, and to represent, in a letter to the emperor, the resistance he met with from the Jews. Agrippa, who was then at Rome, coming to the emperor at the very time he was reading the letter, Caius told him that the Jews were the only people of all man- kind who refused to own him for a deity ; and that they had taken arms to oppose his resolu- tion. At these words Agrippa fainted away, and, being carried home to his house, continued in that state for a long time. As soon as he was somewhat recovered, he wrote a long let- ter to Caius, wherein he endeavoured to soften him; and his arguments made such an impres- sion upon the emperor's mind, that he desisted, in appearance, from the design which he had formed of setting up his statue in the temple. Caius being killed in the beginning of the fol- lowing year, A. D. 41, Agrippa, who was then at Rome, contributed much by his advice to main- tain Claudius in possession of the imperial digni- ty, to which he had been advanced by the army. The emperor, as an acknowledgment for his kind offices, gave him all Judea, and the king- dom of Chalcis, which had been possessed by Herod his brother. Thus Agrippa became of a sudden one of the greatest princes of the east, and was possessed of as much, if not more territory, than had been held by Herod the Great, his grandfather. He returned to Judea, and governed it to the great satisfaction of the Jews. But the desire of pleasing them, and a mistaken zeal for their religion, induced him to put to death the Apostle James, and to cast Peter into prison with the same design ; and, but for a miraculous interposition, which, how- ever, produced no effect upon the mind of the tyrant, his hands would have been imbrued in the blood of two Apostles, the memory whereof is preserved in Scripture. At Ctcsarea, he had games performed in honour of Claudius. Here the inhabitants of Tyre and Sidon waited on him to sue for peace. Agrippa being come early in the morning into the theatre, with a design to give them audience, seated himself on his throne, dressed in a robe of silver tissue, worked in the most admirable manner. Tho rising sun darted his golden beams thereon, and gave it such a lustre as dazzled the eyes of the spectators ; and when the king began hia speech to the Tyrians and Sidonians, the para- sites around him began to say, it was "the voice of a god and not of man." Instead of rejecting these impious flatteries, Agrippa re- ceived them with an air of complacency ; and the angel of the Lord smote him because he did not give God the glory. Being therefore carried home to his palace, he died, at the end of five days, racked with tormenting pains in his bowels, and devoured with worms. Such was the death of Herod Agrippa, A. D. 44, after a reign of seven years. He left a son of the same name, and three daughters — Bernice, who was married to her uncle Herod, her father's brother ; Mariamne, betrothed to Julius Archelaus; and Drusilla, promised to Epi- phanius, the son of Archelaus, the son of Comagena. AGRIPPA, son of the former Agrippa, was at Rome with the emperor Claudius when his father died. The emperor, we are told by Josephus, was inclined to give him all the do- minions that had been possessed by his father, but was dissuaded from it, Agrippa being only seventeen years of age ; and he kept him there- fore at his court four years. Three years after this, Herod, king of Chal- cis, and uncle to young Agrippa, dying, the emperor gave his dominions to this prince, who, notwithstanding, did not go into Judea till four years after, A. D. 53; when, Claudius taking from him the kingdom of Chalcis, gave him the provinces of Gaulonitis, Trachonitis, Batanaea, Paneas, and Abylene, which formerly had been in the possession of Lysanias. After the death of Claudius, his successor, Nero, who had a great affection for Agrippa, to his other dominions added Julias in Peraea, and that part of Galilee to which Tarichaia and Tiberias be- longed. Festus governor of Judea, coming to his government, A. D. 60, king Agrippa and Bernice, his sister, went as far as Csesarea to salute him ; and as they continued there for some time, Festus talked with the king con- cerning the affair of St. Paul, who had been seized in the temple about two years before, and within a few days previous to his visit had ap- pealed to the emperor. Agrippa wishing to hear Paul, that Apostle delivered that noble address in his presence which is recorded, Acts xxvi. AGUR. The thirtieth chapter of Proverbs begins with this title: "The words of Agur, AGU 32 AGU the son of Jakch ;" and the thirty-first, with " the words of king Lemuel ;" with respect to which some conjecture that Solomon describes himself under these appellations ; others, that these chapters are the productions of persons whose real names are prefixed. Scripture his- tory, indeed, affords us no information respect- ing their situation and character; but there must have been sufficient reason for regarding their works in the light of inspired productions, or they would not have been admitted into the sacred canon. They arc called Massa, a term frequently applied to the undoubted productions of the prophetic Spirit ; and it is not improbable that the authors meant, by the adoption of this term, to lay claim to the character of inspiration. A succession of virtuous and eminent men, fa- voured with divine illuminations, flourished in Judea till the final completion of the sacred code ; and, most likely, many more than those whose writings have been preserved. Agur may then have been one of those prophets whom Divine providence raised up to comfort or admonish his chosen people ; and Lemuel may have been some neighbouring prince, the son of a Jewish woman, by whom he was taught the Massa contained in the thirty-first chapter. These, of course, can only be con- sidered as mere conjectures ; for, in the absence of historic evidence, who can venture to pro- nounce with certainty ? The opinion, however, that Agur and Lemuel are appellations of So- lomon, is sanctioned by so many and such respectable writers, that it demands a more particular examination. The knowledge of names was anciently re- garded as a matter of the highest importance, in order to understand the nature of the per- sons or things which they designate; and, in the opinion of the rabbins, was preferable even to the study of the written law. The Heathens paid considerable attention to it, as appears from the Cratylus of Plato ; and some of the Christian fathers entertained very favourable notions of such knowledge. The Jewish doctors, it is true, refined upon the subject with an amazing degree of subtilty, grounding upon it many ridiculous ideas and absurd fancies ; yet it is unquestionable that many of the proper names in Scripture are significant and charac- teristic. Thus the names Eve, Cain, Seth, Noah, Abraham, Israel, &c, were imposed by reason of their being expressive of the several characters of the persons whom they represent. Reasoning from analogy, we may infer that all the proper names in the Old Testament, at thi'ir original imposition, were intended te de- note some quality or circumstance in the per- son or thing to which they belong ; and though many, from transference, have ceased to be personally characteristic, yet are they all sig- nificative. As the custom of imposing descriptive names prevailed in the primitive ages, it is not impossible that Agur and Lemuel may be ap- propriated to Solomon, and Jakeh to David as mystic appellations significative of their respec- tive characters. It is even some confirmation of tliis opinion, that Solomon is denominated Jedidiah (beloved of the Lord) by the Prophet Nathan ; and that in the hook of Ecclesiastes, he styles himself Koheleth, or the Preacher. Nevertheless, this hypothesis docs not appear to rest upon a firm foundation. It is foreign to the simplicity of the sacred penmen, and con- trary to their custom in similar cases, to adopt a mystic name, without either explaining it, or alleging the reasons for its adoption. In the names Eve, Cain, Seth, Noah, Sec, before allud- ed to ; in the appellation Nabal ; in the enigma- tical names in the first chapter of Hcsea ; in the descriptive names given to places, as Beer- sheba, Jehovah-jireh, Peniel, Bethel, Gilgal; and in many other instances, the meaning of the terms is either explained, or the circum- stances are mentioned which led to their selec- tion. When Solomon is called Jedidiah, it is added that it was " because of the Lord ;" and when he styles himself Koheleth, an explana- tory clause is annexed, describing himself "the son of David, the king of Jerusalem." But if Solomon be meant by the titles Agur and Lem- uel, he is so called without any statement of the reasons for their application, and without any explanation of their import ; a circumstance un- usual with the sacred writers, and the reverse to what is practised in the book of Proverbs, where his proper name, Solomon, is attributed to him in three different places. Nor is any thing cha- racteristic of the Jewish monarchs discoverable in the terms themselves. Jakeh, which denotes obedient, is no more applicable to David than to Nathan, or any other personage of eminent worth and piety among the Israelites. The name of Agur is not of easy explanation ; some giving it the sense of rccollectus, that is, reco- vered from his errors, and become penitent ; an explanation more applicable to David than to Solomon. Simon, in his lexicon, says it may perhaps denote "him who applies to the study of wisdom ;" an interpretation very suitable to the royal philosopher, but not supported by adequate authority ; and in his Onomasticon he explains it in a different manner. Others suppose that it means collector ; though it has been argued, that, as it has a passive form, it cannot have an active sense. But this is not a valid objection, as several examples may be produced from the Bible of a similar form with an active signification. If such be its mean- ing, it is suitable to Solomon, who was not the collector or compiler, but tho author, of the Proverbs. With respect to the name Lemuel, it signifies one that is for God, or devoted to God ; and is not, therefore, peculiarly descriptive of Solomon. It appears, then, that nothing can be inferred from the signification of the names Agur and Lemuel in support of the conjecture, that they are appellations of Solomon. Tho contents, likewise, of the two chapters in question strongly militate against this hypo, thesis. When all these circumstances arc taken into consideration, together with the extreme impro- bability that Solomon should be denominated three times by his proper name, and afterward, in the same work, by two different enigmatical AHA 33 AHA names, we are fully warranted in rejecting the notion, that the wise monarch is designed by the appellations Agur and Lemuel. And it seems most reasonable to consider them as denoting real persons. AHAB, the son and suocessor of Omri. He began his reign over Israel, A. M. 3086, and reigned 22 years. In impiety he far exceeded all the kings of Israel. He married Jezebel, the daughter of Ethbaal, king of Zidon, who introduced the whole abominations and idols of her country, Baal and Ashtaroth. 2. Ahab the son of Kolaiah, and Zedekiah the son of Maaseiah, were two false prophets, who, about A. M. 3406, seduced the Jewish captives at Babylon with hopes of a speedy deliverance, and stirred them up against Jeremiah. The Lord threatened them with a public and igno- minious death, before such as they had deceiv- ed ; and that their names should become a curse ; men wishing that their foes might be made like Ahab and Zedekiah, whom Nebu- chadnezzar king of Babylon roasted in the fire, Jer. xxix, 21, 22. AHASUERUS was the king of Persia, who advanced Esther to be queen, and at her request delivered the Jews from the destruction plotted for them by Hainan. Archbishop Usher is of opinion that this Ahasuerus was Darius Hy- staspes ; and that Atossa was the Vashti, and Artystona the Esther, of the Scriptures. But, according to Herodotus, the latter was the daughter of Cyrus, and therefore could not be Esther; and the former had four sons by Da- rius, besides daughters, born to him after he was king; and therefore she could not be the queen Vashti, divorced from her husband in the third year of his reign, nor he the Ahasue- rus who divorced her. Besides, Atossa retained her influence over Darius to his death, and obtained the succession of the crown for his son, Xerxes ; whereas Vashti was removed from the presence of Ahasuerus by an irrevocable decree, Esther i, 19. Joseph Scaliger main- tains that Xerxes was the Ahasuerus, and Ha- mestris his queen, the Esther, of Scripture. The opinion is founded on the similitude of names, but contradicted by the dissimilitude of the cha- racters of Hamestris and Esther. Besides, Hero- dotus says that Xerxes had a son by Hamestris that was marriageable in the seventh year of his reign ; and therefore she could not be Esther. The Ahasuerus of Scripture, according to Dr. Prideaux, was Artaxerxes Longimanus. Jose- phus positively says that this was the person. The Septuagint, through the whole book of Esther, uses Artaxerxes for the Hebrew Aha- suerus wherever the appellation occurs ; and the apocryphal additions to that book every where call the husband of Esther Artaxerxes ; and he could be no other than Artaxerxes Lon- gimanus. The extraordinary favour shown to the Jews by this king, first in sending Ezra, and afterward Nehemiah, to relieve this people, and restore them to their ancient prosperity, affords strong presumptive evidence that they had near his person and high in his regard such an advocate as Esther. Ahasuerus is also a name given in Scripture, Ezra iv, 6, to Cam- 4 byses, the son of Cyrus; and to Astyaffes, kinjr of the Medes, Dan. ix, 1. b AHAVA. The name of a river of Babylo- nia, or rather of Assyria, where Ezra assembled those captives whom he afterward brought into Judea, Ezra viii, 15. The river Ahava is thought to be that which ran along the Ada- bene, where a river Diava, or Adiava, is men- tioned, and on which Ptolemy places the city Abane or Aavane. This is probably the coun- try called Ava, whence the kings of Assyria translated the people called Avites into Pales- tine, and where they settled some of the captive Israelites, 2 Kings xvii, 24 ; xviii, 34 ; xix, 13 ; xvii, 31. Ezra, intending to collect as many Israelites as he could, who might return to Ju- dea, halted in the country of Ava, or Aahava, whence he sent agents into the Caspian mount- ains, to invite such Jews as were willing to join him, Ezra viii, 16. The history of Izates, king of the Adiabenians, and of his mother Helena, who became converts to Judaism some years after the death of Jesus Christ, sufficiently proves that there were many Jews still settled in that country. AHAZ succeeded his father Jotham, as king of Israel, at the age of twenty years, reigned till the year before Christ, 726, and addicted himself to the practice of idolatry. After the customs of the Heathen, he made his children to pass through fire; he shut up the temple, and destroyed its vessels. He became tributary to Tiglath-pileser, whose assistance he suppli- cated against the kings of Syria and Israel. Such was his impiety, that he was not allowed burial in the sepulchres of the kings of Israel, 2 Kings xvi ; 2 Chron. xxviii. AHAZIAH, the son of Ahab, king of Israel. Ahaziah reigned two years, partly alone, and partly with his father Ahab, who appointed him his associate in the kingdom a year before his death. Ahaziah imitated his father's impieties, 1 Kings xxii, 52, &c, and paid his adorations to Baal and Ashtaroth, the worship of whom had been introduced into Israel by Jezebel his mother. The Moabites, who had been always obedient to the kings of the ten tribes, ever since their separation from the kingdom of Judah, revolted after the death of Ahab, and refused to pay the ordinary tribute. Ahaziah had not leisure or power to reduce them, 2 Kings i, 1, 2, &c, for, about the same time, having fallen through a lattice from the top of his house, he was considerably injured, and sent messengers to Ekron to consult Baalzebub, the god of that place, whether he should recover, 2 Kings i, 1-17. Elijah met the messengers, and informed them he should certainly die ; and he died accordingly. 2. Ahaziah, king of Judah, the son of Jeho- ram and Athaliah. He succeeded his father in the kingdom of Judah, A. M. 3119; being in' the twenty-second year of his age, 2 Kings viii, 26, &c ; and he reigned one year only in Jerusalem. He walked in the ways of Ahab's house, to which he was related, his mother being of that family. Jorani, king of Israel, 2 Kings viii, going to attack Ramoth Gilead, which the kings of Syria had taken from his AHI 34 AIIO predecessors, was there dangerously wounded, and carried by his own appointment to Jezreel, for the purpose of surgical assistance. Ahaziah, Joram's friend and relation, accompanied him in this war, and came afterward to visit him at Jezreel. In the meantime, Jehu, the son of Nimshi, whom Joram had left besieging the fortress of Ramoth, rebelled against his master, and set out with a design of extirpating the house of Ahab, according to the commandment of the Lord, 2 Kings ix. Joram and Ahaziah, who knew nothing of his intentions, went to meet him. Jehu killed Joram dead upon the spot: Ahaziah fled, but Jehu's people overtook him at the going up of Gur, and mortally wounded him; notwithstanding which, he had strength enough to reach Megiddo, where he died. His servants, having laid him in his chariot, carried him to Jerusalem, where he was buried with his fathers, in the city of David. AHIJAH, the prophet of the Lord, who dwelt in Shiioh. He is thought to be the per- son who spoke twice to Solomon from God, once while he was building the temple, 1 Kings vi, 11, at which time he promised him the divine protection ; and again, 1 Kings xi, 11, after his falling into his irregularities, with great threatenings and reproaches. Ahijah was one of those who wrote the history or annals of this prince, 2 Chron. ix, 29. The same prophet declared to Jeroboam, that he would usurp the kingdom, 1 Kings xi, 29, &c ; and, about the end of Jeroboam's reign, he also pre- dicted the death of Abijah, the only pious son of that, prince, as is recorded 1 Kings xiv, 2, &c. Ahijah, in all probability, did not long survive the delivery of this last prophecy ; but we are not informed of the tune and manner of his death. AHIKAM, the son of Shaphan, and father of Gedaliah. He was sent by Josiah, king of Judah, to Huldah the prophetess, 2 Kings xxii, 12, to consult her concerning the book of the law, which had been found in the temple. AHIMAAZ, the son of Zadok, the high priest. Ahimaaz succeeded his father under the reign of Solomon. He performed a very important piece of service for David during the war with Absalom. While his father Zadok was in Jerusalem, 2 Sam. xv, 29, Ahimaaz and Jonathan continued without the city, xvii, 17, near En-Rogel, or the fountain of Rogel ; thi- ther a maid servant came to tell them the reso- lution which had been taken in Absalom's council : whereupon they immediately departed to give the king intelligence. But being dis- covered by a young lad who gave information concerning them to Absalom, that prince sent orders to pursue them : Ahimaaz and Jona- than, fearing to be taken, retired to a man's house at Baharim, in whose court-yard there was a well, wherein they concealed themselves. After the battle, in which Absalom was over- come and slain, xviii, Ahimaaz desired leave of Joab to carry the news thereof to David. But instead of him Joab sent Cushi to carry the news, and told Ahimaaz that he would send him to the king upon some other occasion ; but soon after Cushi was departed, Ahimaaz ap- plied again to Joab, praying to be permitted to run after Cushi; and, having obtained leave, he ran by the way of the plain, and outran Cushi. He was succeeded in the priesthood by his son Azariah. AHIMELECH. He was the son of Ahitub, and brother of Ahia, whom he succeeded in the high priesthood. He is called Abiathar, Mark ii, 26. During his priesthood the taber- nacle was at Nob, where Ahimelech, with other priests, had their habitation. David, being informed by his friend Jonathan that Saul was determined to destroy him, thought it prudent to retire. He therefore went to Nob, to the high priest Ahimelech, who gave him the shew bread, and the sword of Goliath. One day, when Saul was complaining of his officers, that no one was affected with his misfortunes, or gave him any intelligence of what w:as car- rying on against him, 1 Sam. xxii, 9, &c, Doeg related to him what had occurred when David came to Ahimelech the high priest. On this information, Saul convened the priests, and having charged them with the crime of treason, ordered his guards to slay them, which they refusing to do, Doeg, who had been their ac- cuser, at the king's command became their executioner, and with his sacrilegious hand massacred no less than eighty-five of them ; the Septuagint and Syriac versions make the number of priests slain by Doeg three hundred and five. Nor did Saul stop here ; but, send- ing a party to Nob, he commanded them to slay men, women, and children, and even cat- tle, with the edge of the sword. Only one son of Ahimelech, named Abiathar, escaped the carnage and fled to David. AHITHOPHEL, a native of Giloh, who, after having been David's counsellor, joined in the rebellion of Absalom, and assisted him- with his advice. Hushai, the friend of David, was employed to counteract the counsels of Ahithophel, and to deprive Absalom, under a pretence of serving him, of the advantage that was likely to result from the measures which he proposed. One of these measures was cal- culated to render David irreconcilable, and was immediately adopted ; and the other to secure, or to slay him. Before the last coun- sel was followed, Hushai's advice was desired; and he recommended their assembling together the whole force of Israel, putting Absalom at their head, and overwhelming David by their number. The treacherous counsel of Hushai was preferred to that of Ahithophel ; with which the latter being disgusted he hastened to his house at Giloh, where he put an end to his life. He probably foresaw Absalom's de- feat, and dreaded the punishment which would be inflicted on himself as a traitor, when David was resettled on the throne. A. M. 2981. B. C. 1023. 2 Sam. xv, xvii. AHOLIBAH. This and Aholah are two feigned names made use of by Ezckiel, xxiii, 4, to denote the two kingdoms of Judah and Sa- maria. Aholah and Aholibah are represented as two sisters of Egyptian extraction. Aholah stands for Samaria, and Aholibah for Jerusa- lem. The first signifies a tent, and the second, AIC 35 AIC my tent is in her. They both prostituted them- selves to the Egyptians and Assyrians, in imi- tating their abominations and idolatries ; for which reason the Lord abandoned them to those very people for whose evil practices they had shown so passionate an affection. They were carried into captivity, and reduced to the severest servitude. AI, called by the LXX, Gai, by Josephus Aina, and by others Ajah, a town of Palestine, situate west of Bethel, and at a small distance north-west of Jericho. The three thousand men, first sent by Joshua to reduce this city, were repulsed, on account of the sin of Achan, who had violated the anathema pronounced against Jericho, by appropriating a part of the spoil. After the expiation of this offence, the whole army of Israel marched against Ai, with orders to treat that city as Jericho had been treated, with this difference, that the plunder was to be given to the army. Joshua, having appointed an ambush of thirty thousand men, marched against the city, and by a feigned re- treat, drew out the king of Ai with his troops; and upon a signal given by elevating his shield on the top of a pike, the men in ambush enter- ed the city and set fire to it. Thus the soldiers of Ai, placed between two divisions of Joshua's army, were all destroyed ; the king alone being preserved for a more ignominious death on a gibbet, where he hung till sunset. The spoil of the place was afterward divided among the Israelites. The men appointed for ambush are, in one place, said to be thirty thousand, and in another five thousand. For reconciling this apparent contradiction, most commentators have generally supposed, that there were two bodies placed in ambuscade between Bethel .and Ai, one of twenty-five thousand and the other of five thousand men ; the latter being probably a detachment from the thirty thou- sand first sent, and ordered to lie as near to the city as possible. Masius allows only five thou- sand men for the ambuscade, and twenty -five thousand for the attack. AICHMALOTARCH, 'A^/iaAoTa'p^y, signi- fies the prince of the captivity, or chief of the captives. The Jews pretend that this was the title of him who had the government of their people during the captivity of Babylon ; and they believe these princes or governors to have been constantly of the tribe of Judah, and fami- ly of David. But they give no satisfactory proof of the real existence of these Aichmalo- tarchs. There was no prince of the captivity before the end of the second century, from which period the office continued till the eleventh century. The princes of the captivity resided at Babylon, where they were installed with great ceremony, held courts of justice, &c, and were set over the eastern Jews, or those settled in Babylon, Chaldasa, Assyria, and Persia. Thus they affected to restore the splen- dour of their ancient monarchy, and in this view the following account may be amusing. The ceremonial of the installation is thus de- scribed : The spiritual heads of the people, the masters of the learned schools, the elders, and the people, assembled in great multitudes within a stately chamber, adorned with rich curtains, in Babylon, where, during his days of splen: dour, the Resch-Glutha fixed his residence. The prince was seated on a lofty throne. The heads of the schools of Sura and Pumbeditha on his right hand and left. These chiefs of the learned men then delivered an address, exhorting the new monarch not to abuse his power; and reminded him that he was called to slavery rather than to sovereignty, for ho was prince of a captive people. On the next Thursday he was inaugurated by the laying on of hands, and the sound of trumpets, and accla- mations. He was escorted to his palace with great pomp, and received magnificent presents from all his subjects. On the Sabbath all the principal people being assembled before his house, he placed himself at their head, and, with his face covered with a silken veil, pro- ceeded to the synagogue. Benedictions and hymns of thanksgiving announced his en- trance. They then brought him the book of the law, out of which he read the first line, afterward he addressed the assembly, with his eyes closed out of respect. He exhorted them to charity, and set the example by offering liberal alms to the poor. The ceremony closed with new acclamations, and prayers to God that, under the new prince, ho would be pleased to put an end to their calamities. The prince gave his blessing to the people, and prayed for each province, that it might be preserved from war and famine. He concluded his orisons in a low voice, lest his prayer should be repeated to the jealous ears of the native monarchs, for he prayed for the restoration of the kingdom of Israel, which could not rise but on the ruins of their empire. The prince returned- to his pa- lace, where he gave a splendid banquet to the chief persons of the community. After that day he lived in a sort of stately oriental seclu- sion, never quitting his palace, except to go to the schools of the learned, where, as he entered, the whole assembly rose and continued stand- ing, till he took his seat. He sometimes paid a visit to the native sovereign in Babylon (Bag- dad.) This probably refers to a somewhat later period. On these great occasions his imperial host sent his own chariot for his guest ; but the prince of the captivity dared not accept the in- vidious distinction, he walked in humble and submissive modesty behind the chariot. Yet his own state was by no means wanting in splendour : he was arrayed in cloth of gold ; fifty guards marched before him ; all the Jews who met him on the way paid their homage, and fell behind into his train. He was received by the eunuchs, who conducted him to the throne, while one of his officers, as he marched slowly along, distributed gold and silver on all sides. As the prince approached the imperial throne, he prostrated himself on the ground, in token of vassalage. The eunuchs raised him and placed him on the left hand of the sovereign. After the first salutation, the prince represented the grievances, or discussed tho affairs, of his people. The court of the Resch-Glutha is described as splendid, In imitation of his Persian mas. ALE 36 ALE ter, he had his officers, counsellors, and cup- bearers ; and rabbins were appointed as satraps over the different communities. This state, it is probable, was maintained by a tribute raised from the body of the people, and substituted for that which, in ancient times was paid for the temple in Jerusalem. His subjects in Babylonia were many of them wealthy. AIJALON, a city of the Canaanites ; the valley adjoining to which is memorable in sacred history from the miracle of Joshua, in arresting the course of the sun and moon, that the Israelites might have sufficient light to pur- sue their enemies, Joshua x, 12, 13. Aijalon was afterward a Levitical city, and belonged to the tribe of Dan ; who did not, however, drive out the Amorite inhabitants, Judges i, 35. AIR, that thin, fluid, elastic, transparent, ponderous, compressible body which surrounds the terraqueous globe to a considerable height. In Scripture it is sometimes used for heaven; as, "the birds of the air;" "the birds of heaven." To "beat the air," and "to speak to the air," 1 Cor. ix, 26, signify to fatigue ourselves in vain, and to speak to no purpose. "The prince of the power of the air" is the head and chief of the evil spirits, with which both Jews and Heathens thought the air was filled. ALABASTER, 'A>,a6a^pov, the name of a genus of fossils nearly allied to marble. It is a bright elegant stone, sometimes of a snowy whiteness. It may be cut freely, and is capa- ble of a fine polish ; and, being of a soft nature, it is wrought into any form or figure with ease. Vases or cruises were anciently made of it, wherein to preserve odoriferous liquors and oint- ments. Pliny and others represent it as peculiar- ly proper for this purpose ; and the druggists in Egypt have, at this day, vessels made of it, in which they keep their medicines and perfumes. In Matt, xxvi, 6, 7, we read that Jesus being at table in Bethany, in the house of Simon the leper, a woman came thither and poured an alabaster box of ointment on his head. St. Mark adds, " She brake the box," which merely refers to the seal upon the vase which closed it, and kept the perfume from evaporating. This had never been removed, but was on this occa- sion broken, that is, first opened. ALBIGENSES. See Waldenses. ALEPH, N, the name of the first letter in the Hebrew alphabet, from which the alpha of the Syrians and Greeks was formed. This word signifies, prince, chief, or thousand, expressing, as it were, a leading number. ALEXANDER, commonly called the Great, son and successor of Philip, king of Macedon, is denoted in the prophecies of Daniel by a leopard with four wings, signifying his great 6trength, and the unusual rapidity of his con- quests, Dan. vii, G ; and by a one-homed he-goat running over the earth so swiftly as not to touch it, attacking a ram with two horns, overthrow- ing him, and trampling him under foot, without any being able to rescue him, Dan. viii, 4-7. The he-goat prefigured Alexander ; the ram, Darius Codomannus, the last of the Persian kings. In the statue beheld by Nebuchadnezzar in his dream, Dan. ii, 3i), the belly of brass was the emblem of Alexander. He was appointed by God to destroy the Persian empire, and to substitute in its room the Grecian monarchy. Alexander succeeded bis father Philip, A. M. 3668, and B. C. 336. He was chosen, by the Greeks, general of their troops against the Per- sians, and entered Asia at the head of thirty- four thousand men, A. M. 3670. In one cam- paign, he subdued almost all Asia Minor; and afterward defeated, in the narrow passes which led from Syria to Cilicia, the army of Darius, which consisted of four hundred thousand foot, and one hundred thousand horse. Darius fled, and left in the hands of the conqueror, his camp, baggage, children, wife, and mother. After subduing Syria, Alexander came to Tyre ; and the Tyrians refusing him entrance into their city, he besieged it. At the same time he wrote to Jaddus, high priest of the Jews, that he expected to be acknowledged by him, and to receive from him the same submis- sion which had hitherto been paid to the king of Persia. Jaddus refusing to comply under the plea of having sworn fidelity to Darius, Alexan- der resolved to march against Jerusalem, when he had reduced Tyre. After a long siege, this city was taken and sacked ; and Alexander entered Palestine, A. M. 3672, and subjected it to his obedience. As he was marching against Jerusalem, the Jews became greatly alarmed, and had recourse to prayers and sacrifices. The Lord, in a dream, commanded Jaddus to open the gates to the conqueror, and, at the head of his people, dressed in his pontifical ornaments, and attended by the priests in their robes, to advance and meet the Macedonian king. Jad- dus obeyed ; and Alexander perceiving this com ■ pany approaching, hastened toward the high priest, whom he saluted. He then adored God, • whose name was engraven on a thin plate of gold, worn by the high priest upon his fore- head. The kings of Syria who accompanied him, and the great officers about Alexander, could not comprehend the meaning of his eon- duct. Parmenio alone ventured to ask him why he adored the Jewish high priest; Alex- ander replied, that he paid this respect to God, and not to the high priest. " For," added he, " whilst I was yet in Macedonia, I saw the God of the Jews, who appeared to me in the same form and dress as the high priest at present, and who encouraged me and commanded me to march boldly into Asia, promising that he would be my guide, and give me the empire of the Persians. As soon, therefore, as I perceived this habit, I recollected the vision, and under- stood that my undertaking was favoured by God, and that under his protection I might expect prosperity." Having said this, Alexander accompanied Jaddus to Jerusalem, where he offered sacrifices in the temple according to the directions of the high priest. Jaddus is said to have showed him the prophecies of Daniel, in which the de- struction of the Persian empire by Alexander is declared. The king was therefore confirmed in his opinion, that God had chosen him to execute this great work. At his departure, Alexander bade the Jews ask of him what they ALE 37 ALE would. The high priest desired only the liberty of living under his government according to their own laws, and an exemption from tribute every seventh year, because in that year the Jews neither tilled their grounds, nor reaped their fruits. With this request Alexander readily complied. Having left Jerusalem, Alexander visited other cities of Palestine, and was every where received with great testimonies of friendship and submission. The Samaritans who dwelt at Sichem, and were apostates from the Jewish religion, observing how kindly Alexander had treated the Jews, resolved to say that they also were by religion Jews. For it was their practice, when they saw the affairs of the Jews in a pros, perous state, to boast that they were descended from Manasseh and Ephraim ; but when they thought it their interest to say the contrary, they failed not to affirm, and even to swear, that they were not related to the Jews. They came, therefore, with many demonstrations of joy, to meet Alexander, as far almost as the territories of Jerusalem. Alexander commend, ed their zeal ; and the Sichemites entreated him to visit their temple and city. Alexander pro- mised this at his return ; but as they petitioned him for the same privileges as the Jews, he asked them if they were Jews. They replied, they were Hebrews, and were called by the Phoeni- cians, Sichemites. Alexander said that he had granted this exemption only to the Jews, but that at his return he would inquire into the affair, and do them justice. This prince having conquered Egypt, and regulated it, gave orders for the building of the city of Alexandria, and departed thence, about spring, in pursuit of Darius. Passing through Palestine, he was informed that the Samaritans, in a general insurrection, had killed Androma- chus, governor of Syria and Palestine, who had come to Samaria to regulate some affairs. This action greatly incensed Alexander, who loved Andromachus. He therefore commanded all those who were concerned in his murder to be put to death, and the rest to be banished from Samaria; and settled a colony of Macedonians in their room. What remained of their lands he gave to the Jews, and exempted them from the payment of tribute. The Samaritans who escaped this calamity, retired to Sichem, at the foot of mount Gerizim, which afterward became their capital. Lest the eight thousand men of this nation, who were in the service of Alex- ander, and had accompanied him since the siege of Tyre, if permitted to return to their own country, should renew the spirit of rebel- lion, he sent them into Thebais, the most re- mote southern province of Egypt, where he assigned them lands. Alexander, after defeating Darius in a pitched battle, and subduing all Asia and the Indies with incredible rapidity, gave himself up to intemper- ance. Having drunk to excess, he fell sick and died, after he had obliged " all the world to be quiet before him," 1 Mace, i, 3. Being sen- sible that his end was near, he sent for the grandees of his court, and declared that " he gave the empire to the most deserving." Some affirm that he regulated the succession by a will. The author of the first book of Maccabees says, that he divided his kingdom among his gene- rals while he was living, 1 Mace, i, 7. This he might do ; or he might express his foresight of what actually took place after his death. It is certain, that a partition was made of Alexan- der's dominions among the four principal offi- cers of his army, and that the empire which he founded in Asia subsisted for many ages. Alex- ander died, A. M. 3684, and B. C. 323, in the thirty -third year of his age, and the twelfth of his reign. The above particulars of Alexander are here introduced because, from his invasion of Palestine, the intercourse of the Jews with the Greeks became intimate, and influenced many events of their subsequent history. On the account above given of the interview between Alexander and the Jewish high priest, by Josephus, many doubts have been cast by critics. But the sudden change of his feelings toward them, and the favour with which the nation was treated by him, render the story not improbable. ALEXANDRIA, a famous city of Egypt, and, during the reign of the Ptolemies, the regal capital of that kingdom. It was founded by Alexander the Great: who being struck with the advantageous situation of the spot where the city afterward stood, ordered its immediate erection ; drew the plan of the city himself, and peopled it with colonies of Greeks and Jews : to which latter people, in particular, he gave great encouragement. They were, in fact, made free citizens, and had all the privileges of Mace- donians granted to them; which liberal policy contributed much to the rise and prosperity of the new city ; for this enterprising and com- mercial people knew much better than either the Greeks or the Egyptians how to turn the happy situation of Alexandria to the best ac- count. The fall of Tyre happening about the same time, the trade of that city was soon drawn to Alexandria, which became the centre of com- mercial intercourse between the east and the west; and in process of time grew to such an extent, in magnitude and wealth, as to be second in point of population and magnificence to none but Rome itself. Alexandria owed much of its celebrity as well as its population to the Ptolemies. Ptolemy Soter, one of Alexander's captains, who, after the death of this monarch, was first governor of Egypt, and afterward assumed the title of king, made this city the place of his residence, about B. C. 304. This prince founded an aca- demy, called the Museum, in which a society of learned men devoted themselves to philoso- phical studies, and the improvement of all the other sciences ; and he also gave them a library, which was prodigiously increased by his suc- cessors. He likewise induced the merchants of Syria and Greece to reside in this city, and to make it a principal mart of their commerce. His son and successor, Ptolemy Philadelphus, pursued the designs of his father. In the hands of the Romans, the successors of the Macedonians in the government of Egypt, the trade of Alexandria continued to ALE 38 ALE flourish, until luxury and licentiousness paved the way, as in exery similar instance, for its overthrow. Alexandria, together with the rest of Egypt, passed from the dominion of the Romans to that of the Saracens. With this event, the sun of Alexandria may be said to have set : the blighting hand of Islamism was laid on it j and although the genius and the resources of such a city could not be immediately destroyed, it con- tinued to languish until the passage by the Cape of Good Hope, in the fifteenth century, gave a new channel to the trade which for so many centuries had been its support ; and at this day, Alexandria, like most eastern cities, presents a mixed spectacle of ruins and wretch- edness,— of fallen greatness and enslaved hu- man beings. Some idea may be formed of the extent and grandeur of Alexandria, by the boast made by Amrou: "I have taken," said he, "the great city of the west. It is impossible for me to enumerate the variety of its riches and beauty. I shall content myself with observing, that it contains four thousand palaces, four thousand baths, four hundred theatres or places of amusement, twelve thousand shops for the sale of vegetable foods, and forty thousand tributary Jews." It was in Alexandria chiefly that the Grecian philosophy was engrafted upon the stock of ancient oriental wisdom. The Egyptian me- thod of teaching by allegory was peculiarly favourable to such a union : and we may well suppose that when Alexander, in order to pre- serve by the arts of peace that extensive empire which he had obtained by the force of arms, endeavoured to incorporate the customs of the Greeks with those of the Persian, Indian, and other eastern nations, the opinions as well as the manners of this feeble and obsequious race would, in a great measure, be accommodated to those of their conquerors. This influence of the Grecian upon the oriental philosophy continued long after the time of Alexander, and was one principal occasion of the confu- sion of opinions which occurs in the history of the Alexandrian and Christian schools. Alex- ander, when he built the city of Alexandria, with a determination to make it the seat of his empire, and peopled it with emigrants from various countries, opened a new mart of phi- losophy, which emulated the fame of Athens itself. A general indulgence was granted to the promiscuous crowd assembled in this rising city, whether Egyptians, Grecians, Jews, or others, to profess their respective systems of philosophy without molestation. The conse- quence was, that Egypt was soon filled with religious and philosophical sectaries of every kind ; and particularly, that almost every Gre- cian sect found an advocate and professor in Alexandria. The family of the Ptolemies, as we have seen, who after Alexander obtained the government of Egypt, from motives of policy encouraged this new establishment. Ptolemy Lagus, who had obtained the crown of Egypt by usurpation, was particularly care- ful to secure the interest of the Greeks in his favour, and with this view invited people from every part of Greece to settle in Egypt, and removed the schools of Athens to Alexandria. This enlightened prince spared no pains to raise the literary, as well as the civil, military, and commercial credit of his country. Under the patronage first of the Egyptian princes, and afterward of the Roman emperors, Alex- andria long continued to enjoy great celebrity as the seat of learning, and to send forth emi- nent philosophers of every sect to distant coun- tries. It remained a school of learning, as well as a commercial emporium, till it was taken, and plundered of its literary treasures by the Saracens. Philosophy, during this period, suf- fered a grievous corruption from the attempt which wras made by philosophers of different sects and countries, Grecian, Egyptian, and oriental, who were assembled in Alexandria, to frame, from their different tenets, one general system of opinions. The respect which had long been universally paid to the schools of Greece, and the honours with which they were now adorned by the Egyptian princes, induced other wise men, and even the Egyptian priests and philosophers themselves, to submit to this innovation. Hence arose a heterogeneous mass of opinions, under the name of the Eclectic philosophy, and which was the foundation of endless confusion, error, and absurdity, not only in the Alexandrian school, but among Jews and Christians ; producing among the former that specious kind of philosophy, which they called their Cabala, and among the latter in- numerable corruptions of the Christian faith. At Alexandria there was, in a very early period of the Christian sera, a Christian school of considerable eminence. St. Jerome says, the school at Alexandria had been in being from the time of St. Mark. Pantaenus, placed by Lardner at the year 192, presided in it. St. Clement of Alexandria succeeded Pantaenus in this school about the year 190 ; and he was succeeded by Origen. The extensive com- merce of Alexandria, and its proximity to Pa- lestine, gave an easy entrance to the new religion, and when Adrian visited Egypt, ho found a church composed of Jews and Greeks, sufficiently important to attract the notice of that inquisitive prince. The theological sys- tem of Plato was introduced into both the phi- losophical and Christian schools of Alexandria ; and of course many of his sentiments and ex- pressions were blended with the opinions and language of the professors and teachers of Christianity. Alexandria was the source, and for some time the principal stronghold, of Arianism ; which had its name from its founder, Arius, a presbyter of the church of this city, about the year 315. His doctrines were condemned by a council held here in the year 320 ; and after- ward by a general council of three hundred and eighty fathers, held at Nice, by order of Constantine, in 325. These doctrines, how- ever, which suited the reigning taste for dis- putative theology, and the pride and self-suffi- ciency of nominal Christians, better than the unsophisticated simplicity of the Gospel, spread ALE 39 ALL widely and rapidly notwithstanding. Arius was steadfastly opposed by the celebrated Athana- sius, bishop of" Alexandria, the intrepid cham- pion of the catholic faith, who was raised to the archiepiscopal throne of Alexandria in 326. This city was, in 415, distinguished by a fierce persecution of the Jews by the patriarch Cyril. They who had enjoyed the rights of citizens, and the freedom of religious worship, for seven hundred years, ever since the founda- tion of the city, incurred the hatred of this ecclesiastic ; who, in his zeal for the extermi- nation of heretics of every kind, pulled down their synagogues, plundered their property, and expelled them, to the number of forty thousand, from the city. It was in a ship belonging to the port of Alexandria, that St. Paul sailed from Myra, a city of Lycia, on his way to Rome, Acts xxvii, 5, 6. Alexandria was also the native place of Apollos. ALEXANDRIAN LIBRARY. This cele- brated collection of books was first founded by Ptolemy Soter, for the use of the academy, or society of learned men, which he had founded at Alexandria. Beside the books which he procured, his son, Ptolemy Philadelphus, add- ed many more, and left in this library at his deatli a hundred thousand volumes ; and the succeeding princes of this race enlarged it still more, till at length the books lodged in it amounted to the number of seven hundred thousand volumes. The method by which they are said to have collected these books was this : they seized all the books that were brought by the Greeks or other foreigners into Egypt, and sent them to the academy* or mu- seum, where they were transcribed by persons employed for that purpose. The transcripts were then delivered to the proprietors, and the originals laid up in the library. Ptolemy Eu- ergetes, for instance, borrowed of the Athenians the works of Sophocles, Euripides, and iEschy- lus, and only returned them the copies, which he caused to be transcribed in as beautiful a manner as possible ; the originals he retained for his own library, presenting the Athenians with fifteen talents for the exchange, that is, with three thousand pounds sterling and up- wards. As the museum was at first in the quarter of the city called Bruchion, the library was placed there ; but when the number of books amounted to four hundred thousand volumes, another library, within the Serapeum, was erected by way of supplement to it, and, on that account, called the daughter of the former. The books lodged in this increased to the number of three hundred thousand volumes ; and these two made up the number of seven hundred thousand volumes, of which the royal libraries of the Ptolemies were said to consist. In the war which Julius Caesar waged with the inhabitants of Alexandria, the library of Bruchion was accidentally, but un- fortunately, burnt. But the library in Sera- peum still remained, and there Cleopatra de- posited the two hundred thousand volumes of the Pergamean library with which she was presented by Marc Antony. These, and others added to them from time to time, ren- dered the new library more numerous and con- siderable than the former ; and though it was plundered more than once during the revolu- tions which happened in the Roman empire, yet it was as frequently supplied with the same number of books, and continued, for many ages, to be of great fame and use, till it was burnt by the Saracens, A. D. 642. Abulpha- ragius, in his history of the tenth dynasty, gives the following account of this catastrophe : John Philoponus, surnamed the Grammarian, a famous Peripatetic philosopher, being at Alexandria when the city was taken by the Saracens, was admitted to familiar intercourse with Amrou, the Arabian general, and pre- sumed to solicit a gift, inestimable in his opinion, but contemptible in that of the barba- rians ; and this was the royal library. Amrou was inclined to gratify his wish, but his rigid integrity scrupled to alienate the least object without the consent of the caliph. He accord- ingly wrote to Omar, whose well known an- swer was dictated by the ignorance of a fanatic : " If these writings of the Greeks agree with the Koran, or book of God, they are useless, and need not be preserved ; if they disagree, they are pernicious, and ought to be destroyed." The sentence of destruction was executed with blind obedience : the volumes of paper or parch- ment were distributed to the four thousand baths of the city; and such was their number, that six months were barely sufficient for the consumption of this precious fuel. ALGUM, qjSn oro'DiAf!, 1 Kings x, 11, 12. This is the name of a kind of wood, or tree, large quantities of which were brought by the fleet of Solomon from Ophir, of which he made pillars forthe house of the Lord, and for Lis own palace ; also musical instruments. See Almug. ALLEGORY, a figure in rhetoric, whereby we make use of terms which, in their proper signification, mean something else than what they are brought to denote ; or it is a figure whereby we say one thing, expecting it shall be understood of another, to which it alludes; or which, under the literal sense of the words, conceals a foreign or distant meaning. An allegory is, properly, a continued metaphor, or a series of several metaphors in one or more sentences. Such is that beautiful allegory in Horace, lib. i, Od. 14. " O navis, referent in mare te novi Fluctus," Sfc. [O ship, shall new billows drive thee again to sea, &c] Where the ship is usually held to stand for the republic ; waves, for civil war ; port, for peace and concord ; oars, for soldiers ; and mariners for magistrates. Thus, also, in Prior's Henry and Emma, Emma describes her constancy to Henry in the following allegorical manner : — " Did I but purpose to embark with thee On the smooth surface of a summer's sea, While gentle zephyrs play with prosperous gales, And fortune's favour fills the swelling sails ; But would forsake the ship, and make the shore, When the winds whistle, and the tempests roar 1" Cicero, likewise, speaking of himself, in Pison. c. 9, torn, vi, p. 187, uses this allegorical Ian- ALL 40 ALL guage : " Nor was I so timorous, that, after I had steered the ship of the state through the greatest storms and waves, and brought her safe into port, I should fear the cloud of your forehead, or your colleague's pestilential breath. I saw other winds, I perceived other storms, I did not withdraw from other impending tem- pests ; but I exposed myself singly to them for the common safety." Here the state is com- pared to a ship, and all the things said of it under that image, are expressed in metaphors made use of to denote the dangers with which it had been threatened. We have also a very fine example of an allegory in Psalm lxxx ; in which the people of Israel are represented un- der the image of a vine, and the figure is sup- ported throughout with great correctness and lieauty. Whereas, if, instead of describing the vine as wasted by the boar from the wood, and devoured by the wild beasts of the field, the Psalmist had said, it was afflicted by Heathens, or overcome by enemies, which is the real meaning, the figurative and the literal meaning would have been blended, and the allegory yuined. The learned Bishop Lowth, De Sacra Poesi Hebrceorum, Pral. 10, 11, has specified three forms of allegory that occur in sacred poetry. The first is that which rhetoricians call a continued metaphor. When several metaphors succeed each other, they alter the form of the composition ; and this succession has very properly, in reference to the etymology .of the word, been denominated by the Greeks a'Wnyopia, an allegory ; although Aristotle, in- stead of considering it as a new species of figure, has referred it to the class of metaphors. The principle of allegory in this sense of the term, and of the simple metaphor, is the same ; nor is it an easy matter to restrict each to its proper limit, and to mark the precise termina- tion of the one, and the commencement of the other. This eminently judicious critic observes, that when the Hebrew poets use the congenial figures of metaphor, allegory, and comparison, particularly in the prophetic poetry, they adopt a peculiar mode of doing it, and seldom regu- late the imagery which they introduce by any fixed principle or standard. Not satisfied with a simple metaphor, they often run it into an allegory, or blend with it a direct comparison. The allegory sometimes follows, and sometimes precedes the simile : to this is added a frequent change of imagery, as well as of persons and tenses ; and thus are displayed an energy and boldness, both of expression and meaning, which are uneonfined by any stated rules, and which mark the discriminating genius of the Hebrew poetry. Thus, in Gen. xlix, 9, " Judah is a lion's whelp;" this metaphor is immediately drawn out into an allegory, with a change of person : " From the prey, my son, thou art gone up," that is, to the mountains, which is understood ; and in the succeeding sentences the person is again changed, the image is gradually advanced, and the metaphor is joined with a comparison that is repeated. " He stoopctli down, lie coucbeth as a lion ; And as a lioness; who shall rouse him')" A similar instance occurs in the prophecy, re- corded in Psalm ex, 3, which explicitly foretels the abundant increase of the Gospel on its first promulgation. This kind of allegory, how- ever, sometimes assumes a more regular and perfect form, and then occupies the whole subject and compass of the discourse. An ex. ample of this kind occurs in Solomon's well known allegory, Eccles. xii, 2-6, in which old age is so admirably depicted. There is also, in Isaiah xxviii, 24-29, an allegory, which, with no less elegance of imagery, is more simple and regular, as well as more just and complete, both in the form and the method of treating it. Another kind of allegory is that which, in the proper and more restricted sense, may be called a parable ; and consists of a continued narra- tion of some fictitious event, accommodated, by way of similitude, to the illustration of some important truth. The Greeks call these alle- gories airoi or apologues, and the Latins fabulce, or fables. (See Parable.) The third species of allegory, which often occurs in the pro- phetic poetry, is that in which a double mean- ing is couched under the same words, or when the same discourse, differently interpreted, de- signates different events, dissimilar in their nature, and remote as to time. These different relations are denominated the literal and mys. tical senses. This kind of allegory, which the learned prelate calls mystical, seems to derive its origin from the principles of the Jewish religion ; and it differs from the two former species in a variety of respects. In these alle- gories the writer may adopt any imagery that is most suitable to his fancy or inclination ; but the only proper materials for this allegory must be supplied from the sacred rites of the Hebrews themselves ; and it can only be intro- duced in relation to such things as are imme. diately connected with the Jewish religion, or their immediate opposites. The former kinds partake of the common privileges of poetry; but the mystical allegory has its foundation in the nature of the Jewish economy, and is adapt- ed solely to the poetry of the Hebrews. Be- sides, in the other forms of allegory, the exterior or ostensible imagery is mere fiction, and the truth lies altogether in the interior or remote sense ; but in this allegory each idea is equally agreeable to truth. The exterior or ostensible image is itself a reality ; and although it sus- tains another character, it does not wholly lay aside its own. There is also a great variety in the use and conduct of the mystical allegory ; in the modes in which the corresponding images are arranged, and in which they are obscured or eclipsed by one another. Sometimes the obvious or literal sense is so prominent and conspicuous, both in the words and sentiments, that the remote or figurative sense is scarcely permitted to glimmer through it. On the other hand, the figurative sense is more frequently found to beam forth with so much perspicuity and lustre, that the literal sense is quite cast into the shade, or becomes indiscernible. Sometimes the principal or figurative idea is exhibited to the attentive eye with a constant and equal light ; and sometimes it unexpectedly glares upon us, and breaks forth with sudden ALM 41 ALM and astonishing coruscations, like a flash of lightning bursting from the clouds. But the mode or form of this figure which possesses the chief beauty and elegance, is, when the two ima- ges, equally conspicuous, run, as it were, parallel throughout the whole poem, mutually illustrat- ing and correspondent to each other. The learn- ed author has illustrated these observations by instances selected from Psalms ii, and Ixxii. He adds, that the mystical allegory is, on ac- count of the obscurity resulting from the nature of the figure, and the style of the composition, so agreeable to the nature of the prophecy, that it is the form which it generally, and indeed lawfully, assumes, as best adapted to the pre- diction of future events. It describes events in a manner exactly conformable to the intention of prophecy; that is, in a dark, disguised, and intricate manner, sketching out, in a general way, their form and outline ; and seldom de- scending to a minuteness of description and exactness of detail. ' ALLELUIA, or Hallelu-jah, ;v-il?'?n, praise the Lord ; or, praise to the Lord : compounded of l^^n, praise ye, and n», the Lord. This word occurs at the beginning, or at the end, of many Psalms. Alleluia was sung on solemn days of rejoicing : " And all her streets shall sing Alle- luia," says Tobit, speaking of the rebuilding of Jerusalem, Tob. xiii, 18. St. John, in the Revelation, xix, 1, 3, 4, 6, says, "I heard a great voice of much people in heaven, who cried, Alleluia ; and the four living creatures fell down, and worshipped God, saying, Alle- luia." This expression of joy and praise was transferred from the synagogue to the church. At the funeral of Fabiola, "several psalms were sung with loud alleluias," says Jerom, in Epitaphio Paula, "The monks of Palestine were awaked at their midnight watchings, with the singing of alleluias." It is still occasion- ally used in devotional psalmody. ALMAH, r\tijy, a Hebrew word signifying properly a virgin, a young woman unacquainted with man. In this sense it occurs in the fa- mous passage of Isaiah, vii, 14: "Behold a virgin shall conceive and bear a son." The Hebrew has no term that more properly signi- fies a virgin than almah. St. Jerom, in his commentary on this passage, observes, that the Prophet declined using the word bethaul which signifies any young woman, or young person, but employed the term almah, which denotes a virgin never seen by man. This is the import of the word almah, which is derived from a root which signifies to conceal. It is very well known, that young women in the east do not appear in public, but are shut up in their houses, and their mothers' apartments, like nuns. The Chaldee paraphrast and the Sep- tuagint translate almah " a virgin ;" and Akiba, the famous rabbin, who was a great enemy to Christ and Christians, and lived in the second century, understands it in the same manner. The Apostles and Evangelists, and the Jews of our Saviour's time, explained it in the same sense, and expected a Messiah born of a virgin. The Jews, that they may obscure this plain text, and weaken this proof of the truth of the | Christian religion, pretend that the Hebrew word signifies a young woman, and not a vir- gin. But this corrupt translation is easily con- futed. 1. Because this word constantly denotes a virgin in all other passages of Scripture in which it is used. 2. From the intent of the passage, which was to confirm their faith by a strange and wonderful sign. It surely could be no wonder, that a young woman should conceive a child ; but it was a very extraordi- nary circumstance that a virgin should con. ceive and bear a son. ALMIGHTY, an attribute of the Deity, Gen. xvii, 1. The Hebrew name, i-\a, Shaddai, signifies also all-sufficient, or all-bountiful. See Gen. xxviii, 3; xxxv, 11; xliii, 14; xlix, 25. Of the omnipotence of God, we have a most ample revelation in the Scriptures, expressed in the most sublime language. From the annun- ciation by Moses of a divine existence who was " in the beginning," before all things, the very first step is to the display of his almighty power in the creation out of nothing, and the imme- diate arrangement in order and perfection, of the " heaven and the earth ;" by which is meant, not this globe only with its atmosphere, or even with its own celestial system, but the uni- verse itself; for "he made the stars also." We are thus at once placed in the presence of an agent of unbounded power; for we must all feel that a being which could create such a world as this, must, beyond all comparison, possess a power greater than any which we experience in ourselves, than any which we observe in other visible agents, and to which we are not authorized by our observation or know- ledge to assign any limits of space or duration. 2. That the sacred writers should so fre- quently dwell upon the omnipotence of God, has important reasons which arise out of the very design of the revelation which they were the means of communicating to mankind. Men were to be reminded of their obligations to obedience ; and God is therefore constantly exhibited as the Creator, the Preserver, and Lord of all things. His solemn worship and fear were to be enjoined upon them ; and, by the manifestation of his works, the veil was withdrawn from his glory and majesty. Idola- try was to be checked and reproved, and the true God was therefore placed in contrast with the limited and powerless gods of the Heathen : " Among the gods of the nations, is there no god like unto thee ; neither are there any works like thy works." Finally, he is exhibited as the object of trust to creatures constantly re- minded by experience of their own infirmity and dependence ; and to them it is essential to know, that his power is absolute, unlimited, and irresistible, and that, in a word, he is "mighty to save." 3. In a revelation which was thus designed to awe and control the wicked, and to afford strength of mind and consolation to good men under all circumstances, the omnipotence of God is therefore placed in a great variety of impressive views, and connected with the most striking illustrations. It is declared by the fact of creation, the ALM 42 ALM creation of beings out of nothing; which itself, though it had been confined to a single object, however minute, exceeds finite comprehension, and overwhelms the faculties. This with God required no effort : " He spake and it was done, he commanded and it stood fast." The vast- ness and variety of his works enlarge the con- ception : " The heavens declare the glory of God, and the firmament sboweth his handy work." "He spreadeth out the heavens, and treadeth upon the waves of the sea ; he maketh Arcturus, Orion, and Pleiades, and the cham- bers of the south ; he doeth great things, past finding out, yea, and wonders without number. He stretcheth out the north over the empty place, and hangeth the earth upon nothing. He bindeth up the waters in the thick clouds, and the cloud is not rent under them ; he hath compassed the waters with bounds until the day and night come to an end." The ease with which he sustains, orders, and controls the most powerful and unruly of the elements, arrays his omnipotence with an aspect of in- effable dignhy and majesty : " By him all things consist." " He brake up for the sea a decreed place, and set bars and doors, and said, Hitherto shalt thou come and no farther, and here shall thy proud waves be stayed." "He looketh to the end of the earth, and seeth under the whole heaven, to make the weight for the winds, to weigh the waters by measure, to make a decree for the rain, and a way for the lightning of the thunder." " Who hath measured the waters in the hollow of his hand, meted out heaven with a span, comprehended the dust of the earth in a measure, and weighed the mountains in scales, and the hills in a balance." The de- scriptions of the divine power are often terri- ble : " The pillars of heaven tremble, and are astonished at his reproof; he divideth the sea by his power." " He removeth the mountains, and they know it not ; he overturneth them in his anger; he shaketh the earth out of her place, and the pillars thereof tremble ; he coin- mandeth the sun and it riseth not, and sealeth up the stars." The same absolute subjection of creatures to his dominion is seen among the intelligent inhabitants of the material universe ; and angels, mortals the most exalted, and evil spirits, are swayed with as much ease as the most passive elements : " He maketh his angels spirits, and his ministers a flame of fire." They veil their faces before his throne, and acknow- ledge themselves his servants : " It is lie that Bitteth upon the circle of the earth, and the in- habitants thereof are as grasshoppers," " as the dust of the balance, less than nothing and vanity." "He bringeth princes to nothing." " He setteth up one and putteth down another ;" "for the kingdom is the Lord's, and he is go- vernor among the nations." " The angels that sinned he cast down to hell, and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved unto judgment.'' The closing scenes of this world complete these transcendent conceptions of the majesty and power of God. The dead of all ages rise from their graves at his voice : and the sea gives up the dead which are in it. Be- fore his face heaven and earth fly away ; the stars fall from heaven, and the powers of hea. ven are shaken. The dead, small and great, stand before God, and are divided as a shepherd divideth the sheep from the goats. The wicked go away into everlasting punishment, but the righteous into life eternal. 4. Of these amazing views of the omnipo- tence of God, spread almost through every page of the Scriptures, the power lies in their truth. They are not eastern exaggerations, mistaken for sublimity. Every thing in nature answers to them, and renews from age to age the energy of the impression which they cannot but make on the reflecting mind. The order of the astral revolutions indicates the constant presence of an invisible but incomprehensible power. The seas hurl the weight of their billows upon the rising shores, but every where find a " bound fixed by a perpetual decree." The tides reach their height ; if they flowed on for a few hours, the earth would change places with the bed of the sea ; but, under an invisible control, they become refluent. The expression, " He touch- eth the mountains and they smoke," is not mere imagery : — every volcano is a testimony of its truth ; and earthquakes proclaim, that, before him, "the pillars of the world tremble." Men collected into armies, or populous nations, give us vast ideas of human power ; but let an army be placed amidst the sand storms and burning winds of the desert, as, in the east ; or, before " his frost," as in our own day in Russia, where one of the mightiest armaments was seen retreating before, or perishing under, an unexpected visitation of snow and storm ; or let the utterly helpless state of a populous country which has been visited by famine, or by a resistless pestilential disease, be reflected upon ; and we feel that it is scarcely a figure of speech to say, that "all nations before him are less than nothing and vanity." 5. Nor, in reviewing this doctrine of Scrip, ture, ought the great practical uses made of the omnipotence of God, by the sacred writers, to be overlooked. By them nothing is said for the mere display of knowledge, as in Heathen writers; and we have no speculations without a subservient moral. To excite and keep alive in man the fear and worship of God, and to bring him to a felicitous confidence in that almighty power which pervades and controls all things, are the noble ends of those ample displays of the omnipotence of God, which roll through the sacred volume with a sublimity that inspiration only could supply. " Declare his glory among the Heathen, his marvellous works among all nations ; for great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised. — Glory and honour are in his presence, and strength and gladness in his place. — Give unto the Lord, ye kindreds of the people, give unto the Lord glory and strength ; give unto the Lord the glory due unto his name. — The Lord is my light and my sal- vation ; whom shall I fear ? — The Lord is the strength of my life ; of whom shall I be afraid ? If God be for us, who then can be against us? Our help standeth in the name of the Lord, who made heaven and earth. — What tune I am afraid, I will tmst in thee." — Thus, as one ob. ALM 43 ALM eerves, " our natural fears, of which we must have many, remit us to God, and remind us, since we know what God is, to lay hold oxi his almighty power." 6. Ample, however, as are these views of the power of God, the subject is not exhausted. As, when the Scriptures speak of the eternity of God, they declare it so as to give us a mere glimpse of that fearful peculiarity of the divine nature, that God is the fountain of being to himself, and that he is eternal, because he is the "I am;" so we are taught not to measure God's omnipotence by the actual displays of it which we see around us. These are the mani- festations of the fact, but not the measure of the attribute ; and should we resort to the dis- coveries of modern philosophy, which, by the help of instruments, has so greatly enlarged the known boundaries of the visible universe, and add to the stars which are visible to the naked eye, those new exhibitions of the divine power in the nebulous appearances of the hea- vens which are resolvable into myriads of distinct celestial luminaries, whose immense distances commingle their light before it reach- es our eyes ; we thus almost infinitely expand the circle of created existence, and enter upon a formerly unknown and overwhelming range of divine operation. But still we are only re- minded, that his power is truly almighty and measureless — " Lo, all these are parts of his ways ; but how little a portion is known of him, and the thunder of his power who can under- stand '.'" It is a mighty conception that we form of a power from which all other power is derived, and to which it is subordinate ; which nothing can oppose ; which can beat down and annihilate all other power whatever; which operates in the most perfect manner, at once, in an instant, with the utmost ease ; but the Scriptures lead us to the contemplation of greater and even unfathomable depths. The omnipotence of God is inconceivable and boundless. It arises from the infinite perfec- tion of God, that his power can never be actu- ally exhausted ; and, in every imaginable instant in eternity, that inexhaustible power of God can, if it please him, be adding either more creatures to those in existence, or greater per- fection to them; since " it belongs to self-exist- ent being, to be always full and communicative, and, to the communicated contingent being, to he ever empty and craving." 7. One limitation of the divine power it is true we can conceive, but it detracts nothing from its perfection. Where things in them- selves imply a contradiction, as that a body may be extended and not extended, in a certain place and not in it, at the same time ; such things cannot be done by God, because contra- dictions are impossible in their own nature. Nor is it any derogation from the divine power to say, they cannot be done ; for as the object of the understanding, of the eye, and the ear, is that which is intelligible, visible, and audi- ble ; so the object of power must be that which is possible ; and as it is no prejudice to the most perfect understanding, or sight, or hearing, that it does not understand what is not intelligible, or see what is not visible, or hear what is not audible ; so neither is it any diminution to the most perfect power, that it does not do what is not possible. In like manner, God cannot do any thing that is repugnant to his other perfec- tions : he cannot lie, nor deceive, nor deny himself; for this would be injurious to his truth. He cannot love sin, nor punish innocence ; for this would destroy his holiness and goodness : and therefore to ascribe a power to him that is inconsistent with the rectitude of his nature, is not to magnify but debase him ; for all unright- eousness is weakness, a defection from right reason, a deviation from the perfect rule of ac- tion, and arises from a want of goodness and power. In a word, since all the attributes of God are essentially the same, a power in him which tends to destroy any other attribute of the divine nature, must be a power destructive of itself. Well, therefore, may we conclude him absolutely omnipotent, who, by being able to effect all things consistent with his perfections, showeth infinite ability, and, by not being able to do any thing repugnant to the same perfections, demonstrates himself subject to no infirmity. 8. Nothing certainly in the finest writings of antiquity, were all their best thoughts collected as to the majesty and power of God, can bear any comparison with the views thus presented to us by divine revelation. Were we to forget, for a moment, what is the fact, that their noblest notions stand connected with fancies and vain speculations which deprive them of their force, still their thoughts never rise so high ; the cur- rent is broken, the round of lofty conception is not completed, and, unconnected as their views of divine power were with the eternal destiny of man, and the very reason of creation, we never hear in them, as in the Scriptures, "the THUNDER of his power." ALMOND TREE, yti. Arabic, lauz. Trans- lated hazel, Gen. xxx, 37 ; nptP, rendered almond, Gen. xliii, 11; Exod. xxv, 33, 34; xxxvii, 19, 20 ; Num. xvii, 8 ; Eccles. xii, 5 ; and Jer. i, 11. The first name may be that of the tree; the other, that of the fruit, or nut. A tree resembling the peach tree in its leaves and blossoms, but the fruit is longer and more compressed, the outer green coat is thinner and drier when ripe, and the shell of the stone is not so rugged. This stone, or nut, contains a kernel, which is the only esculent part. The whole arrives at maturity in September, when the outer tough cover splits open and discharges the nut. From the circumstance of its blossom- ing the earliest of any of the trees, beginning as soon as the rigour of winter is past, and be- fore it is in leaf, it has its Hebrew name shakad, which comes from a verb signifying to make haste, to be in a hurry, or to awake early. To the forwardness of the almond tree there seems to be a reference in Jeremiah: "The word of the Lord came unto me, saying, Jeremiah, what seest thou ? And I said, I see a rod of an almond tree. Then said the Lord unto me, Thou hast well seen : for I will hasten my word to perform it ;" or rather, " I am hastening, or watching over my word to fulfil it," Jer. i, 11, 12. In this manner it is rendered by the Seventy* ALO 44 ALO anil by the Vulgate, Vigilabo ego super verbum meum. [I will watch over my word.] This is the first vision with which the Prophet was honoured ; and his attention is roused by a very significant emblem of that severe correction with which the Most High was hastening to visit his people for their iniquity; and from the species of tree to which the rod belonged, he is warned of its near approach. The idea which the appearance of the almond rod suggested to his mind, is confirmed by the exposition of God himself: " I am watching over, or on account, of, my word to fulfil it ;" and this double mode of instruction, first by emblem, and then by exposition, was certainly intended to make a deeper impression on the mind both of Jeremiah and of the people to whom he was sent. It is probable that the rods which the princes of Israel bore, were scions of the almond tree, at once the ensign of their office, and the emblem of their vigilance. Such, we know from the testi- mony of Scripture, was the rod of Aaron ; which renders it exceedingly probable, that the rods of the other chiefs were from the same tree. The hoary head is beautifully compared by Solomon to the almond tree, covered in the ear- liest days of spring with its snow white flowers, before a single leaf has budded : "The almond tree shall flourish, and the grasshopper shall be a burden, and desire shall fail," Eccl. xii, 5. Man has existed in this world but a few days, when old age begins to appear, sheds its snows upon his head, prematurely nips his hopes, darkens his earthly prospects, and hurries him into the grave. ALMUG TREE, a certain kind of wood, mentioned 1 Kings, x, 11; 2 Chron. ii, 8; ix, 10, 11. Jerom and the Vulgate render it, ligna thyina, and the Septuagint £i)A« tzc^ckijtu, wrought loood. Several critics understand it to mean gummy wood ; but a wood abounding in resin must be very unfit for the uses to which this is said to be applied. Celsus queries if it be not the sandal; but Michaelis thinks the particular species of wood to be wholly unknown to us. Dr. Shaw supposes that the almugtree was the cypress; and he observes that the wood of this tree is still used in Italy and other places for violins, harpsichords, and other stringed instru- ments. ALOE, i1?}', a plant with broad leaves, near- ly two inches thick, prickly and serrated. It grows about two feet high. A very bitter gum is extracted from it, used for medicinal pur- poses, and anciently for embalming dead bo- dies. Nicodemus is said, John xix, 39, to have brought one hundred pounds' weight of myrrh and aloes to embalm the body of Jesus. The quantity has been exclaimed against by certain Jews, as being enough for filly bodies. But instead of Uutov it might originally have been written Hkcitov, ten pounds' weight. However, at the funeral of Herod there were five hundred ipwpuT6<]>o(»>s, spice hearers; and at that of R. Ga- maliel, eighty pounds of opobalsamum were used. The wood which God showed Moses, that with it he might sweeten the waters df Marah, is called nlvah, Exod. xv, 25. The word has some relation to aloe ; and some interpreters are of opinion that Moses used a bitter sort of wood, that so the power of God might be the more remarkable. Mr. Bruce mentions a town, or large village, by the name of Elvah. It is thickly planted with trees ; is the oasis parva of the ancients; and the last inhabited place to the west that is under the jurisdiction of Egypt. He also observes that the Arabs call a shrub or tree, not unlike our hawthorn, either in wood or flower, by the name of elvah. " It was this," say they, "with which Moses sweetened the waters of Marah; and with this, too, did Kalib Ibn el Walid sweeten those of Elvah, once bit- ter, and give the place the name of this circum- stance." It may be that God directed Moses to the very wood proper for the purpose. M. Nei- buhr, when in these parts, inquired after wood capable of this effect, but could gain no informa- tion of any such. It will not, however, from hence follow that Moses really used a bitter wood ; but, as Providence usually works by the proper and fit means to accomplish its ends, it seems likely that the wood he made use of was, in some degree at least, corrective of that quali- ty which abounded in the water, and so rendered it potable. This seems to have been the opinion of the author of Ecclesiasticus, xxxviii, 5. That other water, also, requires some correction, and that such a correction is applied to it, appears from the custom in Egypt in respect to that of the Nile, which, though somewhat muddy, is rendered pure and salutary by being put into jars, the inside of which is rubbed with a paste made of bitter almonds. The first discoverers of the Floridas are said to have corrected the stagnant and fetid water they found there, by infusing in it branches of sassafras; and it is understood that the first inducement of the Chi- nese to the general use of tea, was to correct the water of their ponds and rivers. The Licn-Aloe, or agallochum, Num. xxiv, 6 ; Psalm xlv, 9 ; and Cantic. iv, 14. r^r.N, mas- culine, *?nN, whose plural is o^nN, is a small tree about eight or ten feet high. That the flower of this plant yielded a fragrance, is assur- ed to us in the following extract from Swin- burne's Travels, letter xii: "This morning, like many of the foregoing ones, was delicious. The sun rose gloriously out of the sea, and all the air around was perfumed with the effluvia of the aloe, as its rays sucked up the dew from the leaves." This extremely bitter plant contains under the bark three sorts of wood. The first is black, solid, and weighty ; the second is of a tawny colour, of a light spongy texture, very porous, and filled with a resin extremely fra- grant and agreeable ; the third kind of wood, which is the heart, has a strong aromatic odour, and is esteemed in the east more precious than gold itself. It is used for perfuming habits and apartments, and is administered as a cordial in fainting and epileptic fits. These pieces, called calunbac, are carefully preserved in pewter boxes, to prevent their drying. When they 8 re used they are ground upon a marble with such liquids as are best suited to the purpose for which they are intended. This wood, mention- ed Cantic. iv, 14, in conjunction with several other odoriferous plants there referred to, was ALT 45 ALT in high esteem among the Hebrews for its ex- quisite exhalations. The scented aloe, and each shrub that showers Gum from its veins, and odours from its flowers. Thus the son of Sirach, Ecclesiasticus xxiv, 15 : " I gave a sweet smell like the cinnamon and aspalathus. I yielded a pleasant odour like the best myrrh; like galbanum and onyx, and fragrant storax, and like the fume of frankin- cense in the tabernacle." It may not be amiss to observe that the Persian translator renders ahalim, sandal wood ; and the same was the opinion of a certain Jew in Arabia who was consulted by Neibuhr. ALPHA, the first letter of the Greek alpha- bet ; Omega being the last letter. Hence Alpha and Omega is a title which Christ ap- propriates to himself, Rev. i, 8 ; xxi, 6 ; xxii, 13 ; as signifying the beginning and the end, the first and the last, and thus properly denoting his perfection and eternity. ALPHEUS, father of James the less, Matt. x, 3 ; Luke vi, 15. Alpheus was the husband of Mary, believed to have been sister to the mother of Christ ; for which reason, James is called the Lord's brother ; but the term brother is too general in its application to fix their relation, though the fact is probable. Many are of opinion that Cleopas, mentioned Luke xxiv, 18, is the same as Alpheus ; Alpheus be- ing his Greek name, and Cleopas his Hebrew, or Syriac name, according to the custom of this province, (or of the time,) where men often had two names ; by one of which they were known to their friends and countrymen, by the other to the Romans or strangers. 2. Alpheus, father of Levi, or Matthew, whom Jesus took to be an Apostle and Evange- list, Mark ii, 14. ALTAR. Sacrifices are nearly as ancient as worship, and altars are of almost equal an- tiquity. Scripture speaks of altars, erected by the patriarchs, without describing their form, or the materials of which they were composed. The altar which Jacob set up at Bethel, was the stone which had served him for a pillow ; Gideon sacrificed on the rock before his house. The first altars which God commanded Moses to raise, were of earth or rough stones ; and it was declared that if iron were used in con- structing them they would become impure, Exod. xx, 24, 25. The altar which Moses enjoined Joshua to build on Mount Ebal, was to be of unpolished stones, Deut. xxvii, 5 ; Josh, viii, 31 ; and it is very probable that such were those built by Samuel, Saul, and David. The altar which Solomon erected in the temple was of brass, but filled, it is believed, with rough stones, 2 Chron. iv, 1-3. It was twenty cubits long, twenty wide, and ten high. That built at Jerusalem, by Zerubbabel, after the return from Babylon, was of rough stones ; as was that of Maccabees. Josephus says that the altar which in his time was in the temple was of rough stones, fifteen cubits high, forty long, and forty wide. Among the Romans altars were of two kinds, the higher and the lower; the higher were intended for the celestial gods, and were called altaria, from altus; the lower were for tlio terrestrial and infernal gods, and were called arcs. Those dedicated to the heavenly gods were raised a great height above, the surface of the earth ; those of the terrestrial gods were almost even with the surface ; and those for the infernal deities were only holes dug in the ground called scrobiculi. Before temples were in use the altars were placed in the groves, highways, or on tops of mountains, inscribed with the names, ensigns, or characters of the respective gods to whom they belonged. The great temples at Rome generally contained three altars ; the first in the sanctuary, at the foot of the statue, for incense and libations; the second before the gate of the temple, for the sacrifices of victims ; and the third was a portable one for the offer- ings and sacred vestments or vessels to lie upon. The ancients used to swear upon the altars upon solemn occasions, such as confirm- ing alliances, treaties of peace-, &c. They were also places of refuge, and served as an asylum and sanctuary to all who fled to them, whatever their crimes were. The principal altars among the Jews were those, of incense, of burnt-offering, and the altar or table for the shew bread. The altar of incense was a small table of shittim wood covered with plates of gold. It was a cubit long, a cubit broad, and two cubits high. At the four corners were four horns. The priest, whose turn it was to officiate, burnt incense on this altar, at the time of the morning sacrifice between the sprinkling of the blood and the laying of the pieces of the victim on the altar of burnt-offering. He did the same also in the evening, between the laying of the pieces on the altar and the drink-offering. At the same time the people prayed in silence, and their prayers were offered up by the priests. The altar of burnt-offering was of shittim wood also, and carried upon the shoulders of the priests, by staves of the same wood overlaid with brass. In Moses's days it was five cubits square, and three high : but it was greatly en- larged in the days of Solomon, being twenty cubits square, and ten in height. It was cover- ed with brass, and had a horn at each corner to which the sacrifice was tied. This altar was placed in the open air, that the smoke might not sully the inside of the tabernacle or tem- ple. On this altar the holy fire was renewed from tune to time, and kept constantly burn- ing. Hereon, likewise, the sacrifices of lambs and bullocks were burnt, especially a lamb every morning at the third hour, or nine of the clock, and a lamb every afternoon at three, Exod. xx, 24, 25; xxvii, 1, 2, 4; xxxviii, 1. The altar of burnt-offering had the privilege of being a sanctuary or place of refuge. The wilful murderer, indeed, sought protection there in vain ; for by the express command of God he might be dragged to justice, even from the altar. The altar or table of shew bread was of shittim wood also, covered with plates of gold, and had a border round it adorned with sculp- ture. It was two cubits long, one wide, and one and a half in height. This table stood in AMA 46 AMA tho sanctum sanctorum, [holy of holies,] and upon it were placed the loaves of shew bread. After the return of the Jews from their cap- tivity, and the building of the second temple, the form and size of the altars were somewhat changed. Sacrifices according to the laws of Moses, could not be offered except by the priests ; and at any other place than on the altar of the tabernacle or the temple. Furthermore, they were not to be offered to idols, nor with any superstitious rites. See Lev. xvii, 1-7 ; Deut. xii, 15, 16. Without these precautionary mea. sures, the true religion would hardly have been secure. If a different arrangement had been adopted, if the priests had been scattered about to various altars, without being subjected to the salutary restraint which would result from a mutual observation of each other, they would no doubt some of them have willingly con- sented to the worship of idols ; and others, in their separate situation, would not have been in a condition to resist the wishes of the multi- tude, had those wishes been wrong. The necessity of sacrificing at one altar, (that of the tabernacle or temple,) is frequently and emphatically insisted on, Deut. xii, 13, 14 ; and all other altars are disapproved, Lev. xxvi, 30, compare Joshua xxii, 0-34. Notwithstanding this, it appears that, subsequently to the time of Moses, especially in the days of the kings, altars were multiplied ; but they fell under suspicions, although some of them were perhaps sacred to the worship of the true God. It is, nevertheless, true, that prophets, whose cha- racters were above all suspicion, sacrificed, in some instances, in other places than the one designated by the laws, 1 Sam. xiii, 3-14; xvi, 1-5 ; 1 Kings xviii, 21-40. AMALEKITES, a people whose country adjoined the southern border of the land of Canaan, in the north-western part of Arabia Petraea. They are generally supposed to have been the descendants of Amalek, the son of Eliphaz, and grandson of Esau. But Moses 6peaks of the Amalekites long before this Amalek was born ; namely in the days of Abraham, when Chcdorlaomer, king of Elam, devastated their country, Gen. xiv, 7 ; from which it may be inferred that there was some other and more ancient Amalek, from whom this people sprang. The Arabians have a tradition that this Amalek was a son of Ham ; and when we consider that so early as the march from Egypt the Amalekites were a peo- ple powerful enough to attack the Israelites, it is far more probable that they should derive their ancestry from Ham, than from the then recent stock of the grandson of Esau. It may also be said, that tbe character and fate of this people were more consonant with the dealings of Providence toward the families of the for- mer. This more early origin of the Amalek- ites will likewise explain why Balaam called them the " first of the nations." They are supposed by some to have been a party or tribe of the shepherds who invaded Egypt, and kept it in subjection for two hundred years. This will agree with the Arabian tra- dition as to their descent. It also agrees with their pastoral and martial habits, as well as with their geographical position; which was perhaps made choice of on their retiring from Egypt, adjoining that of their countrymen the Philistines, whose history is very similar. It also furnishes a motive for their hostility to the Jews, and their treacherous attempt to destroy them in the desert. The ground of this hos- tility has been very generally supposed to have been founded in the remembrance of Jacob's depriving their progenitor of his birthright. But we do not find that the Edomitcs, who had this ground for a hatred to the Jews, made any attempt to molest them, nor that Moses ever reproaches the Amalekites for attacking the Israelites as their brethren ; nor do we ever find in Scripture that the Amalekites joined with the Edomites, but always with the Ca- naanites and the Philistines. These consider- ations would be sufficient, had we no other reasons for believing them not to be of the stock of Esau. They may, however, be deduced from a higher origin ; and viewing them as Cuthite shepherds and warriors, we have an adequate explanation both of their imperious and warlike character, and of the motive of their hostility to the Jews in particular. If expelled with the rest of their race from Egypt, they could not but recollect the fatal overthrow at the Red Sea; and if not participators in that catastrophe, still, as members of the same' family, they must bear this event in remem- brance with bitter feelings of revenge. But an additional motive is not wanting for this hos- tility, especially for its first act. The Amalek- ites probably knew that the Israelites were advancing to take possession of the land of Canaan, and resolved to frustrate the purposes of God in this respect. Hence they did not wait for their near approach to that country, but came down from their settlements, on its southern borders, to attack them unawares at Rephidim. Be this as it may, the Amalekites came on the Israelites, when encamped at that place, little expecting such an assault. Moses commanded Joshua, with a chosen band, to attack the Amalekites; while he, with Aaron and Hur, went up the mountain Horeb. During the engagement, Moses held up his hands to heaven ; and so long as they were maintained in this attitude, the Israelites prevailed, but when through weariness they fell, the Ama- lekites prevailed. Aaron and Hur, seeing this, held up his hands till the latter were entirely defeated with great slaughter, Exod. xvii. The Amalekites were indeed the earliest and the most bitter enemies the Jews had to en- counter. They attacked them in the desert ; and sought every opportunity afterward of molesting them. Under the judges, the Ama- lekites, in conjunction with the Midianites, invaded the land of Israel ; when they were defeated by Gideon, Judges vi, vii. But God, for their first act of treachery, had declared that he would "utterly put out the remem- brance of Amalek from under heaven ;" a denunciation which was not long after accom- plished. Saul destroyed their entire army. AMA 47 AMB with the exception of Agag their king ; for sparing whom, and permitting the Israelites to take the spoil of their foes, he incurred the displeasure of the Lord, who took the sceptre from him. Agag was immediately afterward hewn in pieces by Samuel, 1 Sam. xv. It is remarkable, that most authors make Saul's pursuit of the Amalekites to commence from the lower Euphrates, instead of from the. south- ern border of the land of Canaan. (See Havi- lah.) David a few years after, defeated another of their armies ; of whom only four hundred men escaped on camels, 1 Sam. xxx ; after which event, the Amalekites appear to have been obliterated as a nation. AM ASA, the son of Ithra and Abigail, Da- vid's sister, whom Absalom, when he rebelled against his father, appointed general of his army, 2 Sam. xvii, 25. Amasa having thus re- ceived the command of Absalom's troops, engag- ed his cousin Joab, general of David's army, and was worsted. But, after the defeat of Ab- salom's party, David, being angry at Joab for killing Absalom, pardoned Amasa, and gave him the command of his own army. Upon the revolt of Sheba, the son of Bichri, David gave orders to Amasa to assemble all Judah and inarch against Sheba. Amasa not being able to form his army in the time prescribed, David directed Abishai to pursue Sheba with the guards. Joab, with his people, accompanied him ; and these troops were scarcely got as far as the great stone in Gibeon, before Amasa came and joined them with his forces. Then said Joab to Amasa, "Art thou in health, my bro- ther ?" and took him by the beard with his right hand to kiss him ; and treacherously smote him under the fifth rib, so that he expired. AMAZIAH, one of the kings of Judah, 2 Chron. xxiv, 27, son of Joash, succeeded his father A. M. 31G5, B. C. 839. He was twenty- five-years of age when he began to reign, and reigned twenty-nine years at Jerusalem. " He did good in the sight of the Lord, but not with a perfect heart." When settled in his kingdom, he put to death the murderers of his father, but avoided a barbarous practice then too common, to destroy also their children ; in which he had respect to the precept, " The fathers shall not be put to death for the children, neither shall the children be put to death for the fathers; every man shall be put to death for his own sin," Deut. xxiv, 16; 2 Chron. xxv, 1-3. In the muster which Amaziah made of his people, he found three hundred thousand men able to bear arms. He hired, besides, one hun- dred thousand men of Israel ; for which he paid the king of Israel a hundred talents, about thirty-four thousand pounds English. His de- sign was to employ these troops against Edom, which had revolted from Judah, in the reign of Joram, about fifty-four years before, 2 Kings, viii, 20. But a prophet of the Lord came to him, and said, " O king, let not the army of Israel go with thee; for the Lord is not with Israel." Amaziah, hereupon, sent back those troops ; and they returning, strongly irritated against Amaziah, dispersed themselves over the cities of Judah, from Bethoron to Samaria, killed three thousand men, and carried off a great booty, to make themselves amends for the loss of the plunder of Edom. Amaziah, with his own forces gave battle to the Edom- ites in the Valley of Salt, and defeated them ; but having thus punished Edom, and taken their idols, he adored them as his own deities. This provoked the Lord, who permitted Amaziah to be so blinded as to believe himself invincible. He therefore sent to defy the king of Israel, saying, "Come, let us look one another in the face." The motive of this challenge was pro. bably to oblige Joash, king of Israel, to repair the ravages which his troops had committed on their return homewards. Joash answered him by the fable of the cedar of Lebanon, and the thistle trodden down by a beast, 2 Kings xiv, 8, 9. But Amaziah, deaf to these reason- ings, advanced to Bethshemesh, and was defeat- ed and taken prisoner there, by Joash, who carried him to Jerusalem. Joash ordered the demolition of four hundred cubits of the city wall, carried to Samaria all the gold and silver, the rich vessels of the house of God, the trea- suries of the royal palace, and the sons of those among his own people who had been hostages there. Amaziah reigned after this, fifteen or sixteen years at Jerusalem, but returned not to the Lord. He endeavoured to escape from a conspiracy to Lachish ; but was assassinated. He was buried witli his ancestors in the city of David, and Uzziah, or Azariah, his son, about sixteen years of* age, succeeded him. AMBASSADOR, a messenger sent by a sovereign, to transact affairs of great moment. Ministers of the Gospel are called ambassadors, because, in the name of Jesus Christ the King of kings, they declare his will to men, and pro- pose the terms of their reconciliation to God, 2 Cor. v, 20 ; Eph. vi, 20. Eliakim, Shebna, and Joah, the servants of king Hezekiah, were called " ambassadors of peace." In their mas- ter's name they earnestly solicited a peace from the Assyrian monarch, but were made " to weep bitterly" with the disappointment and refusal, Isaiah xxxiii, 7. AMBER, Voc-n, Ezek. i, 4, 27 ; viii, 2. The amber is a hard inflammable bitumen. When rubbed it is highly endowed with that remark- able property called electricity, a word which the moderns have formed from its Greek name t]\fKTpov. But the ancients had also a mixed metal of fine copper and silver, resembling the amber in colour, and called by the same name. From the version of Ezekiel i, 4, by the LXX, Ka( iv rw fjn'cui avrv to; bpaais iiXeierpa iv piatp tov Kupds, "And in the midst of it as the appearance of electrum in the midst of the fire," it appears that those translators by rjXiicrpov, could not mean amber, which grows dim as soon as it feels the fire, and quickly dissolves into a resinous or pitchy substance ; but the mixed metal above mentioned, which is much celebrated by the ancients for its beautiful lustre, and which, when exposed to the fire like other metals, grows more bright and shining. St. Jerom, Theodoret, St. Gregory and Origen think, that, in the above cited passages from Ezekiel, a precious and highly polished metal is meant. AMM 48 AMM AMEN. }DM, in Hebrew, signifies true, faith- ful, certain. It is used likewise in affirmation ; and was often thus employed by our Saviour : " Ainen, amen," that is, " Verily, verily." It is also understood as expressing a wish, "Amen! so be it!" or an affirmation, "Amen, yes, I believe it:" Num. v, 22. iShe shall answer, "Amen! Amen!" Deut. xxvii, 15, 1G, 17, &c. " All the people shall answer, Amen ! Amen !" 1 Cor. xiv, lb*. " How shall he who ocoupieth the place of the unlearned, say, Amen ! at thy giving of thanks ? seeing he understandeth not what thou sayest." " The promises of God are Amen in Christ;" that is, certain, confirmed, granted, 2 Cor. i, 20. The Hebrews end the five books of Psalms, according to their distri- bution of them, with "Amen, amen;" which the Septuagint translate, Thotro, yevoiro, and the Latins, Fiat, fiat. The Gospels, &c, are ended with amen. The Greek, Latin, and other churches, preserve this word in their prayers, as well as alleluia and hosanna. At the conclu- sion of the public prayers, the people anciently answered with a loud 'voice, " Amen !" and Jerom says, that, at Rome, when the people answered, "Amen!" the sound was like a clap of thunder, in similitudiriem ccelestis lonilrui Amen reboot. [Amen rings again like a peal of thunder.] The Jews assert that the gates of heaven are opened to him who answers, " Amen !" with all his might. The Jewish doctors give three rules for pro- nouncing the word : 1. That it be not pronounc- ed too hastily and rapidly, but with a grave and distinct voice. 2. That it be not louder than the tone of him that blesses. 3. That it be ex- pressed in faith, with a certain persuasion that God would bless them, and hear their prayers. Amen is a title of our Lord , " The Amen, the true and faithful witness," Rev. i, 14. AMETHYST, fpit», Exod.xxviii, 19; and xxix, 12 ; and once in the New Testament, Rev. xxi, 20, afxidv^og. A transparent gem, of a colour which seems composed of a strong blue and deep red ; and, according as either prevails, affords different tinges of purple, sometimes approaching to vio- let, and sometimes even fading to a rose colour. The stone called amethyst by the ancients was evidently the same with that now generally known by this name ; which is far from being the case with regard to some other gems. The oriental is the hardest, scarcest, and most valu- able. It was the ninth stone in the pectoral of the high priest, and is mentioned as the twelfth in the foundations of the New Jerusalem. AMMINADAB, or ABINADAB, a Levite, and an inhabitant of Kirjath-jearim, with whom the ark was deposited after it was brought back from the land of the Philisl ines, 1 Sam. vii. This Amminadafa dwelt in Gibeath, that is to say, in the highest part of the city of Kirjath-jearim. 2. The chariots of Amniinadab arc mention- ed, Canticles vi, 12, as being extremely light. He is thought to have been some celebrated charioteer, whose horses were singularly swift. AMMON, or HAMMON, or JUPITER- AM MON, an epithet given to Jupiter in Lybia, where was a celebrated temple of that deity under the denomination of Jupiter Amnion, which was visited by Alexander the Great. The word Amoun, which imports "shining," according to Jablonski, denoted the effects pro- duced by the sun on attaining the equator, such as the increase of the days ; a more splendid light ; and, above all, the fortunate presage of the inundation of the Nile, and its consequent abundance. Amnion is by others derived from Ham, the son of Noah, who first peopled Egypt and Lybia, after the flood ; and, when idolatry began to gain ground soon after this period, became the chief deity of those two countries, in which his descendants continued. A temple, it is said, was built to his honour, in the midst of the sandy deserts of Lybia, unon a spot of good ground, about two leagues broad, which form- ed a kind of island or oasis in a sea of sand. He was esteemed the Zeus of Greece, and the Jupiter of Latium, as well as the Amnion of the Egyptians. In process of time, these two names were joined ; and he was called Jupiter Amnion. For this reason the city of Amnion, No-ammon, or the city of Ham, was called by the' Greeks Diospolis, or the city of Jupiter. Plutarch says, that of all the Egyptian deities which seemed to have any correspondence with the Zeus of Greece, Anion or Amnion was the most pecu- liar and appropriate. From Egypt his name and worship were brought into Greece; as indeed were almost all the names of all the deities that were there worshipped. Jupiter Amnion, or the Egyptian Jupiter, was usually represented under the figure of a ram ; though in some medals he appears of a human shape, having only two rain's horns growing out beneath his ears. The Egyptians, says Proclus, in the Timasus of Plato, had a singular veneration for the ram, because the image of Amnion bore its head, and because this first sign of the zodiac was the presage of the fruits of the earth. Eusebius adds, that this symbol marked the conjunction of the sun and moon in the sign of the ram. 2. Ammon, or Ben-Ammi, the son of Lot, by his youngest daughter, Gen. xix, 38. He was the father of the Ammonites, and dwelt on the east side, of the Dead Sea, in the mountains of Gilead. AMMONIANS, the disciples of Ammonius Saccas, of the Alexandrian school. His cha- racter was so equivocal, that it is disputed whether he was a Heathen or a Christian. Mr. Milner calls him "a Pagan Christian," who imagined "that, all religions, vulgar and philo- sophical, Grecian and barbarous, Jewish and Gentile, meant the same thing in substance. He undertook, by allegorizing and subtilizing various fables and systems, to make up a coali- tion of all sects and religions ; and from his labours, continued by his disciples, — some of whose works still remain, — his followers were taught to look on Jew, philosopher, vulgar, Pagan, and Christian, as all of the same creed," and worshippers of the same God, whether de- nominated "Jehovah, Jove, or Lord." AMMONITES, the descendants of Ammon, the son of Lot. They took possession of the country called by their name, after having AMM 49 AMM driven out the Zamzummims, who were its ancient inhabitants. The precise period at which this expulsion took place is not ascer- tained. The Ammonites had kings, and were uncircumcised, Jer. ix, 25, 26, and seem to have been principally addicted to husbandry. They, as well as the Moabites, were among the nations whose peace or prosperity the Israelites were forbidden to disturb, Deut. ii, 19, &c. However, neither the one nor the other were to be admitted into the congregation to the tenth generation, because they did not come out to relieve them in the wilderness, and were implicated in hiring Balaam to curse them. Their chief and peculiar deity is, in Scripture, called Moloch. Chemosh was also a god of the Ammonites. Before the Israelites entered Canaan, the Amorites conquered a great part of the country belonging to the Ammonites and Moabites ; but it was retaken by Moses, and divided between the tribes of Gad and Reuben. Previous to the time of Jephthah, B. C. 1188, the Ammonites engaged as principals in a war, under a king whose name is not given, against the Israelites. This prince, determining to re- cover the ancient country of the Ammonites, made a sudden irruption into it, reduced the land, and kept the inhabitants in subjection for eighteen years. He afterward crossed Jordan with a design of falling upon the tribes of Judah, Benjamin, and Ephraim. The Israel- ites resisted the invader ; and, assembling at Mizpeh, chose Jephthah for their general, and sent an expostulatory message to the king of the Ammonites, Judges x, xi. The king re- plied, that those lands belonged to the Ammon- ites, who had been unjustly dispossessed of them by the Israelites, when they came out of Egypt, and exhorted Jephthah to restore them peaceably to the lawful owners. Jephthah re- monstrated on the injustice of his claim ; but finding a war inevitable, he fell upon the Am- monites near Aroer, and defeated them with great slaughter. On this occasion the Ammon- ites lost twenty cities ; and thus an end was put, after eighteen years' bondage, to the tyranny of Ammon over the Israelites beyond Jordan. In the days of Saul, 1 Sam. xi, B. C. 1095, the old claim of the Ammonites was re- vived by Nahash their king, and they laid siege to the city of Jabesh. The inhabitants were inclined to acknowledge Nahash as their sove- reign ; but he would accept their submission only on condition that every one of them should consent to lose his right eye, and that thus he might fix a lasting reproach upon Israel : but from this humiliating and severe requisition they were delivered by Saul, who vanquished and dispersed the army of Nahash. Upon the death of Nahash, David sent ambas- sadors to his son and successor Hanun, to con- gratulate him on his accession ; but these ambassadors were treated as spies, and dis- missed in a very reproachful manner, 2 Sam. x. This indignity was punished by David with rigour. Rabbah, the capital of Hanun, and the other cities of Ammon, which resisted the progress of the conqueror, were destroyed and razed to the ground ; and the inhabitants were 5 put to death or reduced to servitude. In the reign of Jehoshaphat the Ammonites united with their brethren, the Moabites, and tho inhabitants of Mount Seir, against the king of Judah ; but they were completely routed. They were afterward overthrown by Uzziah, king of Judah, and made tributary, 2 Chron. xxvi, 8 ; and rebelling in the reign of his son Jotham, they were reduced to the necessity of purchas- ing peace at a very dear rate. After the tribes of Reuben, Gad, and the half tribe of Manas, seh, were carried into captivity by Tiglath Pileser, B. C. 740, the Ammonites and Moab- ites took possession of the cities belonging to these tribes, and were reproached for it by Jeremiah, xlix, 1. Their ambassadors were exhorted to submit to Nebuchadnezzar, and threatened, on their refusal, with captivity and slavery, Jer. xxvii, 2, 3, 4. The Prophet Ezekiel, xxv, 4-10, denounces their entire destruction, and informs them, that God would deliver them up to the people of the east ; and that the Am- monites should no more be mentioned among the nations : and this punishment they were to suffer for insulting the Israelites on account of their calamities, and the destruction of their temple by the Chaldeans. This malediction began to be inflicted upon them in the fifth year after the taking of Jerusalem, when Nebu- chadnezzar made war against aH tho people around Judea, A. M. 3420 or 3421, B. C. 583. It is probable that Cyrus granted to the Ammon- ites and Moabites liberty to return into their own country, whence they had been removed by Nebuchadnezzar ; for they were exposed to the revolutions that were common to the peo- ple of Syria and Palestine, and were subject sometimes to the kings of Egypt, and some- times to the kings of Syria. Polybius informs us, that Antiochus the Great took Rabboth, or Philadelphia, the capital of the Ammonites, demolished the walls, and put a garrison into it, A. M. 3806, B. C. 198. During the persecu- tions of Antiochus Epiphanes, the Ammonites manifested their hatred to the Jews, and exer- cised great cruelties against such of them as lived in their parts. At length their city Jaser, and the neighbouring town, fell a prey to the Jews, who smote the men, carried their wives and children into captivity, and plundered and burned the city. Thus ended their last conflict with the descendants of Israel. Ammon was, however, a highly productive and populous country when the Romans became masters of all the provinces of Syria ; and several of tho ten allied cities, which gave name to the cele- brated Decapolis, were included within its boundaries. Even when first invaded by the Saracens, this country, including Moab, was enriched by the various benefits of trade, covered with a line of forts, and possessed some strong and populous cities. Volney bears wit- ness, "that in the immense plains of the Hau- ran, ruins are continually to be met with, and that what is said of its actual fertility perfectly corresponds with the idea given of it in the Hebrew writings." The fact of its natural fer- tility is corroborated by every traveller who has visited it. And " it is evident," says Burck- AMM 50 AMM hardt, " that the whole country must have been extremely well cultivated in order to have afforded subsistence to the inhabitants of so many towns," as are now visible only in their ruins. While the fruitfulness of the land of Amnion, and the high degree of prosperity and power in which it subsisted long prior and long subsequent to the date of the predictions, are thus indisputably established by historical evi- dence and by existing proofs, the researches of recent travellers (who were actuated by the mere desire of exploring these regions and ob- taining geographical information) have made known its present aspect ; and testimony the most clear, unexceptionable, and conclusive, has been borne to the state of dire desolation to which it is and has long been reduced. It was prophesied concerning Amnion, " Son of man, set thy face against the Ammonites, and prophesy against them. I will make Rab- bah of the Ammonites a stable for camels and a couching place for flocks. Behold, I will stretch out my hand upon thee, and deliver thee for a spoil to the Heathen ; I will cut thee off from the people, and cause thee to perish out of the countries ; I will destroy thee. The Ammonites shall not be remembered among the nations. Rabbah" (the chief city) "of the Ammonites shall be a desolate heap. Ammon shall be a parpetual desolation," Ezek. xxv, 2, 5, 7, 10 ; xxi, 32 ; Jer. xlix, 2 ; Zeph. ii, 9. Ammon was to be delivered to be a spoil to the Heathen — to be destroyed, and to be a per- petual desolation. " All this country, formerly so populous and flourishing, is now changed into a vast desert." (Seetzeri's Travels.) Ruins are seen in every direction. The country is divided between the Turks and the Arabs, but chiefly possessed by the latter. The extortions of the one, and the depredations of the other, keep it in " perpetual desolation," and make it "a spoil to the Heathen." "The far greater part of the country is uninhabited, being aban- doned to the wandering Arabs, and the towns and villages are in a state of total ruin." (Ibid.) " At every step are to be found the vestiges of ancient cities, the remains of many temples, public edifices, and Greek churches." (Burck- hardt's Travels.) The cities are left desolate. "Many of the ruins present no objects of any interest. They consist of a few walls of dwell- ing houses, heaps of stones, the foundations of some public edifices, and a few cisterns filled up ; there is nothing entire, though it appears that the mode of building was very solid, all the remains being formed of large stones. In the vicinity of Ammon there is a fertile plain interspersed with low hills, which for the great- er part arc covered with ruins." (BurckhardVs Travels in Syria.) While the country is thus despoiled and desolate, there are valleys and tracts throughout it which "are covered with a fine coat of verdant pasture, and are plaees of resort to the Bedouins, where they pasture their camels and their sheep." (Buckingham's Travels in Palestine.) "The whole way we traversed," says Scetzen, " we saw villages in ruins, and met numbers of Arabs with their camels," &c. Mr. Buckingham describes a building among the ruins of Ammon, " the ma- sonry of which was evidently constructed of materials gathered from the ruins of other and older buildings on the spot. On entering it at the south end," he adds, " we came to an open square court, with arched recesses on each side, the sides nearly facing the cardinal points. The recesses in the northern and southern wall were originally open passages, and had arched door ways facing each other ; but the first of these was found wholly closed up, and the last was partially filled up, leaving only a narrow passage, just sufficient for the entrance of one man and of the goats, which the Arab keepers drive in here occasionally for shelter during the night." He relates that he lay down among " flocks of sheep and goats," close beside the ruins of Ammon ; and particularly remarks that, during the night, he " was almost entirely prevented from sleeping by the bleating of flocks." So literally true is it, although Seet- zen, and Burckhardt, and Buckingham, who relate the facts, make no reference or allusion whatever to any of the prophecies, and travelled for a different object than the elucidation of the Scriptures, — that "the chief city of the Ammonites is a stable for camels, and a couch- ing place for flocks." "The Ammonites shall not be remembered" among the nations." While the Jews, who were long their hereditary enemies, continue as distinct a people as ever, though dispersed among all nations, no trace of the Ammonites remains; none are now designated by their name, nor do any claim descent from them. They did exist, however, long after the time when the eventual annihilation of their race was foretold ; for they retained their name, and continued a great multitude until the second century of the Christian rera. (Justin Martyr.) "Yet they are cut off from the people. Am- nion has perished out of th? countries ; it is destroyed." No people is attached to its soil ; none regard it as their country and adopt its name : " And the Ammonites are not remem- bered among the nations." "Rabbah" (Rabbah Ammon, the chief city of Ammon) "shall be a desolate heap." Situ- ated, as it was, on each side of the borders of a plentiful stream, encircled by a fruitful region, strong by nature and fortified by art, nothing could have justified the suspicion, or warranted the conjecture in the mind of an uninspired mortal, that the royal city of Ammon, what- ever disasters might possibly befal it in the fate of war or change of masters, would ever un- dergo so total a transmutation as to become a desolate heap. But although, in addition to such tokens of its continuance as a city, more than a thousand years had given uninterrupted experience of its stability, ere the prophets of Israel denounced its fate ; yet a period of equal length has now marked it out, as it exists to this day, a desolate heap, a perpetual or per- manent desolation. Its ancient name is still preserved by the Arabs, and its site is now " covered with the ruins of private buildings — nothing of them remaining except the founda- tions and some of the door posts. The build. AMO 51 AMY ings, exposed to the atmosphere, are all in decay," (Burckhardfs Travels in Syria,) so that they may be said literally to form a desolate heap. The public edifices, which once strength, ened or adorned the city, after a long resistance to decay, are now also desolate ; and the re- mains of the most entire among them, sub- jected as they are to the abuse and spoliation of the wild Arabs, can be adapted to no better object than " a stable for camels." Yet these broken walls and ruined palaces, says Mr. Keith, which attest the ancient splendour of Amnion, can now be made subservient, by means of a single act of reflection, to a far nobler purpose than the most magnificent edi- fices on earth can be, when they are contem- plated as monuments on which the historic and prophetic truth of Scripture is blended in one bright inscription. AMORITES, the descendants of Amori, or Hsemorri, or Amorrhseus, Gen. x, 16, the fourth son of Canaan, whose first possessions were in the mountains of Judea, among the other fami- lies of Canaan : but, growing strong above their fellows, and impatient of confinement within the narrow boundaries of their native district, they passed the Jordan, and extended their conquests over the finest provinces of Moab and Ammon ; seizing and maintaining posses- sion of that extensive and almost insulated por- tion of country included between the rivers Jordan, Jabbok, and Arnon. This was the kingdom, and Heshbon the capital, of the Amorites, under Sihon their king, when the Israelites, in their way from Egypt, requested a passage through their country. This request, however, Sihon refused ; and came out against them with all his force, when he was slain, his people extirpated, and his kingdom taken pos- session of by the Israelites. It was subse- quently divided between the tribes of Reuben and Gad, Num. xiii, 29 ; xxi, 13, 25 ; Joshua v, 1 ; xi, 3 ; Judges xi, 19, 22. AMOS, the fourth of the minor prophets, who in his youth had been a herdsman in Te- koa, a small town about four leagues southward of Jerusalem. He was sent to the people of Samaria, to bring them back to God by repent- ance, and reformation of manners. Hence it is natural to suppose that he must have been born within the territories of Israel, and that he only retired to Tekoa, on being expelled from Bethel by Amaziah, the priest of the calves at Bethel. He frequently complains of the vio- lence offered him by those who endeavoured to impose silence on him. He boldly inveighs against the crying sins of the Israelites, such as idolatry, oppression, wantonne'ss, and obsti- nacy. Nor does he spare the sins of Judah, such as their carnal security, sensuality, and injustice. He utters frequent threatenings against them both, and predicts their ruin. It is observable in this prophecy, that, as it begins with denunciations of judgment and destruc- tion against the Syrians, Philistines, Tyrians, and other enemies of the Jews, so it concludes with comfortable promises of the restoration of the tabernacle of David, and the establishment of the kingdom of Christ. Amos was called to the prophetic office in the time of Uzziah, king of Judah, and Jeroboam, the son of Joash, king of Israel. Some writers, in adverting to the condition of Amos, have, with a minute affectation of criticism, pretended to discover a certain rude- ness and vulgarity in his style ; and even Je- rom is of opinion that he is deficient in mag- nificence and sublimity. He applies to him the words which St. Paul speaks of himself, that he was rude in speech, though not in knowledge ; and his authority, says Bishop Lowth, "has influenced many commentators to represent him as entirely rude, and void of elegance ; whereas it requires but little atten tion to be convinced that he is not a whit be hind the very chiefest of the prophets ;" equal to the greatest in loftiness of sentiment, and scarcely inferior to any in the splendour of his diction, and in the elegance of his composition. Mr. Locke has observed, that his comparisons are chiefly drawn from lions, and other ani mals, because he lived among, and was convers ant with, such objects. But, indeed, the finest images and allusions, which adorn the poetical parts of Scripture, in general are drawn from scenes of nature, and from the grand objects that range in her walks ; and true genius ever delights in considering these as the real sources of beauty and magnificence. The whole book of Amos is animated with a fine and masculine eloquence; AMULET, a Aarm or supposed preservative against diseases, witchcraft, or any other mis- chief. They were very frequent among the Jews, the Greeks, and the Romans, and were made of stone, metal, animal substances, or, in short, any thing which A weak imagination suggested. The Jews were very superstitious in the use of amulets, but the Mishna forbids them, unless received from some person of whose cures, at least, three instances could be produced. The phylacteries worn by the Pha. risees and others of the Jewish nation were a sort of amulets. Amulets among the Greeks were called, ipia, TrcpiaTTTa, a-rroTiXtaijtaTa, TTtpia^jiara, /?(»5- 6ia, and ei-K6\ma. The Latins called them amu- leta, appensa, pentacula, Qc. Remains of this superstition continue among ignorant people even in this country, which ought to be strongly discountenanced as weak or wicked. The word amulet is probably derived from amuld, a small vessel witli lustral water in it, anciently carried in the pocket for the sake of purification and expiation. AMYRALDISM, a name given by some writers to the doctrine of universal grace, as explained and asserted by Amyraldus, or Mo- ses Amyraut, and his followers, among the reformed in France, toward the middle of the seventeenth century. This doctrine princi- pally consisted of the following particulars, viz. that God desires the happiness of all men, from which none are excluded by a divine de- cree ; that none can obtain salvation without faith in Christ ; that God refuses to none the power of believing, though he does not grant to all his assistance, that they may improve ANA 52 ANA this power to saving purposes ; and that many perish through their own fault. Those who embraced this doctrine were called Universal- ists, although,, it is evident that they rendered grace universal in words, but partial in reality, and are chargeable with greater inconsisten- cies than the Supralapsarians. Amyraldus is said to have formed his system with a view of producing a reconciliation between the Luther- ans and Calvinists. This theory was supported in England by Baxter. See Baxterianism. ANABAPTISTS, a name given to those Christians who maintain that baptism ought always to be performed by immersion ; that it ought not to be administered to children before the age of discretion; and that at this age it ought to be readministered to those who have been baptized in their infancy. They affirm that the administration of this sacrament is neither valid nor useful, if it be done by sprinkling only, and not by immersion ; or if the persons who receive it be not in a condition to give the reasons of their belief. The Anabaptists of Germany brought the name into great odium by their turbulent conduct ; but by the people of this persuasion generally, the conduct of these fanatics was at all times condemned. In Eng- land they form a most respectable, though not a very numerous body. The word Anabaptist is compounded of ava, new, and tSairTish1;, a baptist ; and has been in- discriminately applied to people of very differ- ent principles. Many of them object to the name, because the baptism of infants by sprink- ling is, in their opinion, no baptism ; and others hold nothing in common excepting some one or other of the above mentioned opinions con- cerning baptism. See Baptism. ANAGOGICAL. This is one of the four senses in which Scripture may be interpreted, viz. the literal, allegorical, anagogical, and tropological. The anagogical sense is given when the text is explained with regard to the end which Christians should have in view, that is, eternal life : for example, the rest of the Sabbath, in the anagogical sense, corresponds to the repose of everlasting blessedness. ANAK, ANAKIM, famous giants in Pales- tine. Anak, father of the Anakim, was son of Arba, who gave his name to Kirjath-Arba, or Hebron. Anak had three sons, Sheshai, Ahi- man, and Tahnai, whose descendants were terrible for their fierceness and stature. The Hebrew spies reported that in comparison of those monstrous men, they themselves were but grasshoppers. Some have thought that the name Phoenician, given to the Canaanites, and particularly to the Sidonians, was origi- nally from Bene-Anak, sons of Anak. Caleb, assisted by the tribe of Judah, took Kirjath- Arba, and destroyed the Anakim, A. M. 2559. Josh, xv, 14; Judg. i, 20. ANALOGY OF FAITH. This has been often and largely descanted upon as an import- ant rule for interpreting Scripture, founded, as it is said, upon Rom. xii, 6, " Let us prophesy ac- cording to the proportion" (analogy) "of faith." The principle of this rule has been thus stated: It is evident the Almighty doth not act without a design in the system of Chris, tianity, any more than in the works of nature. Now thisdesign must be uniform ; for as in the system of the universe every part is propor- tioned to the whole, and made subservient to it, — so, in the system of the Gospel, all the various truths, doctrines, declarations, precepts, and promises must correspond with, and tend to, the end designed. For instance, supposing the glory of God in the salvation of sinners by free grace be the grand design, — then, what- ever doctrine, assertion, or hypothesis agrees not with this, it is to be considered as false. The effect however of this view of the case appears to be often delusive. If nothing more be meant than that, what is obscure in a reve- lation should be interpreted by that which is plain, the same rule applies to all sober inter- pretations of any book whatever ; but if we call our opinions, perhaps hastily taken up, or ad- mitted on some authority without examination by the light of Scripture, "the analogy of faith," we shall greatly err. On this subject Dr. Camp- bell remarks : — " In vain do we search the Scriptures for their testimony concerning Christ, if, independ- ently of these Scriptures, we have received a testimony from another quarter, and are deter- mined to admit nothing as the testimony of Scripture which will not perfectly quadrate with that formerly received. This was the very source of the blindness of the Jews in our Sa- viour's tune. They searched the Scriptures as much as we do ; but, in the disposition they were in, they would never have discovered what that sacred volume testifies of Christ. Why ? because their great rule of interpreta- tion was the analogy of the faith ; or, in other words, the system of the Pharisean scribes, the doctrine then in vogue, and in the profound veneration of which they had been educated. This is that veil by which the understandings of that people were darkened, even in reading the law, and of which the Apostle observed, that it remained unremoved in his day, and of which we ourselves have occasion to observe, that it remains unremoved in ours. And is it not precisely in the same way that the phrase is used by every sect of Christians, for the par- ticular system or digest of tenets for which they themselves have the greatest reverence ? The Latin church, and even the Greek, are ex- plicit in their declarations on this article. With each, the analogy of the faith is their own system alone. And that different parties of Protestants, though more reserved in their manner of speaking, aim at the same thing, is undeniable ; the same, I mean, considered rela- tively to the speakers; for, absolutely con- sidered, every party means a different thing. ' But,' say some, ' is not this mode of interpre- tation warranted by Apostolical authority? Does not Paul, Rom. xii, 6, in speaking of the exercise of the spiritual gifts, enjoin the pro- phets to prophesy Karu tt)i/ iia^oytav Tjj; rc/j-toif, according to the proportion of faith, as our translators render it, but as some critics ex- plain it, according to the analogy of the faith ?' Though this exposition has been admitted into ANA 53 ANA some versions, and adopted by Hammond and other commentators, and may be called literal, it is suited neither to the ordinary meaning of the words, nor to the tenor of the context. The word avaKoyia strictly denotes proportion, measure, rate, but by no means that complex notion conveyed in the aforesaid phrase by the term analogy, which has been well observed by Whitby to be particularly unsuitable in this place, where the Apostle treats of those who speak by inspiration, not of those who explain what has been thus spoken by others. The context manifestly leads us to understand avaXoyta ro/s"^?, verse 6, as equivalent to fiirpov roig-Ews, verse 3. And for the better understand- ing of this phrase, the measure of faith, it may be proper to observe, 1. That a strong convic- tion of any tenet, from whatever cause it arises, is in Scripture sometimes termed faith. Thus in the same epistle, Rom. xiv, 22, the Apostle says, ' Hast thou faith ? have it to thyself be- fore God.' The scope of his reasoning shows that nothing is there meant by faith, but a con- viction of the truth in regard to the article of which he had been treating, namely, the equal- ity of days and meats, in point of sanctity, un- der the Gospel dispensation. The same is evidently the meaning of the word, verse 23, •Whatsoever is not of faith, is sin;' where, without regard to the morality of an action abstractly considered, that is concluded to be sin which is done by one who doubts of its lawfulness. 2. As to spiritual gifts, prophecy and inspiration in particular, they appear to have been accompanied with such a faith or conviction that they came from the Spirit, as left no room for hesitation. And indeed it is easy to perceive that something of this kind was absolutely necessary to enable the inspired person to distinguish what proceeded from the Spirit of God, from what was the creature of his own imagination. The prophets of God were not acted upon like machines in deliver- ing their predictions, as the diviners were sup- posed to be among the Heathen, but had then, as at other times, the free use of their faculties, both of body and mind." This caution is therefore with great propriety given them by the Apostle, to induce them to be attentive in prophesying, not to exceed the precise measure allowed them, (for different measures of the same gift were committed to different persons,) and not to mingle aught of their own with the things of God's Spirit. Let him prophesy ac- cording to the proportion in which he has received this gift, which is in proportion to his faith. Though a sense somewhat different has been given to the words by some ancient Greek expositors, none of them seems to have formed a conception of that sense, which, as was ob- served above, has been given by some moderns. This has, nevertheless, a sound and sober prin- ciple included in it, although capable of great abuse. Undoubtedly there is a class of great and leading truths in the Scriptures so clearly revealed as to afford principles of interpreta- tion in doubtful passages, and these are so obvious that persons of sound minds and hearts will not need those formal rules for the appli- cation of the analogy of faith to interpretation, which have been drawn up by several writer?, and which when not misleading, are generally superfluous. ANANIAS was the son of Nebedseus, high priest of the Jews. According to Josephtjs, lie succeeded Joseph, the son of Camith, in the forty-seventh year of the Christian sera ; and was himself succeeded by Ishmael, the son of Tabseus, in the year 63. Quadratus, governor of Syria, coming into Judsea, on the rumours which prevailed among the Samaritans and Jews, sent the high priest Ananias to Rome, to vindicate his conduct to the emperor. The high priest justified himself, was acquitted, and returned. St. Paul being apprehended at Jeru- salem by the tribune of the Roman troops that guarded the temple, declared to him that he was a citizen of Rome. This obliged the offi- cer to treat him with some regard. As he was ignorant of what the Jews accused him, the next day he convened the priests, and placed St. Paul in the midst of them, that he might justify himself. St. Paul began as follows : " Men and brethren, I have lived in all good conscience before God until this day." He had scarcely spoken this, when the high priest, Ananias, commanded those who were near him to smite him on the face. The Apostle imme- diately replied, " God shall judge thee, thou whited wall ; for, sittest thou to judge me after the law, and commandest me to be smitten contrary to the law ?" They that stood by said, " Revilest thou God's high priest ?" And Paul answered, " I wist not, brethren, that he was the high priest ; for it is y/ritten, Thou shalt not speak evil of the ruler of thy people," Acts xxii, 23, 24 ; xxiii, 1-5 ; by which words many suppose that the Apostle spake in bitter irony; or at least that he considered Ananias as a usurper of the office of the priesthood. After this, the assembly being divided in opinion, St. Paul was sent by the tribune to Caesarea, that Felix, governor of the province, might take cognizance of the affair. When it was known that the Apostle had arrived at Cffisarea, Ananias the high priest, and other Jews, went thither to accuse him ; but the af- fair was adjourned, and St. Paul continued two years in prison in that city, Acts xxiv. The Apostle's prediction that God would smite Ananias, was thus accomplished : Albi- nus, governor of Judsea, being come into that country, Ananias found means to gain him by presents; and Ananias, by reason of this pa- tronage, was considered as the first man of his nation. However, there were in his party some violent persons, who plundered the coun- try, and seized the tithes of the priests ; and this they did with impunity, on account of the great credit of Ananias. At the same time, several companies of assassins infested Judsea, and committed great ravages. When any of their companions fell into the hands of the governors of the province, and were about to be executed, they failed not to seize some do- mestic or relation of the high priest Ananias, that he might procure the liberty of their asso- ciates, in exchange for those whom they de- ANA 54 ANG tamed. Having taken Eleazcr, one of Ana- nias's sons, they did not release liim till ten of their companions were liberated. By this means their number considerably increased, and the country was exposed to their ravages. At length, Eleazer, the son of Ananias, heading a party of mutineers, seized the temple, and for- bade any sacrifices for the emperor. Being joined by the assassins, he pulled down the house of his father Ananias, with his brother, hid himself in the .aqueducts belongin g to the roy- al palace, but was soon discovered, and both of them were killed. Thus God smote this whited wall, in the very beginning of the Jewish wars. 2. Ananias, one of the first Christians of Jerusalem, who being converted, with his wife Sapphira, sold his estate; (as did the other Christians at Jerusalem, under a temporary regulation that they were to have all things in common ;) but privately reserved a part of the purchase money to himself. Having brought the remainder to St. Peter, as the whole price of the inheritance sold, the Apostle, to whom the Holy Ghost had revealed this falsehood, rebuked him severely, as having lied not unto men but unto God, Acts v. At that instant, Ananias, being struck dead, fell down at the Apostle's feet ; and in the course of three hours after, his wife suffered a similar punishment. This happened, A. D. 33, or 34. It is evident, that in this and similar events, the spectators and civil magistrates must have been convinced thai some extraordinary power was exerted ; for if Peter had himself slain Ananias, he would have been amenable to the laws as a murderer. But, if by forewarning him that he should im- mediately die, and the prediction came to pass, it is evident that the power which attended this word of Peter was not from Peter, but from God. This was made the more certain by the death of two persons, in the same manner, and under the same circumstances, which could not be attributed to accident. 3. Ananias, a disciple of Christ, at Damas- cus, whom the Lord directed to visit Paul, then lately converted. Ananias answered, " Lord, I have heard by many of this man, how much evil he hath done to thy saints at Jerusalem ; and how he hath authority from the chief priests to bind all that call upon thy name." But the Lord said unto him, " Go thy way, for he is a chosen vessel unto me." Ananias, therefore, went to the house in which God had revealed unto him that Paul was, and putting his hands on him, said, " Brother Saul, the Lord Jesus who appeared unto thee in the way, hath sent me that thou mightest receive thy sight, and be filled with the Holy Ghost," Acts ix, 10-12, &,c. We are not informed of any other circumstance of the life of Ananias. ANATHEMA, from dvarfe>;/«, signifies some- thing set apart, separated, or devoted, Mic. iv, 13, or the formula by which this is effected. To anathematize is generally understood to denote the cutting off or separating any one from the communion of the faithful, the num- ber of the living, or the privileges of society ; or the devoting of an animal, city, or other thing, to destruction. See Accursed. ANATHEMA MARANATHA. "If any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be Anathema Maranatha," 1 Cor. xvi, 22. Why these two words, one Greek and the other Sy- riac, were not translated, is not obvious. They are the words with which the Jews began their greater excommunication, whereby they not only excluded sinners from their society, but delivered them up to the divine cherem, or anathema, that is, to misery in this life, and perdition in the life to come. " Let him be Anathema" is, " Let him be accursed." Ma- ranatha signifies, " The Lord cometh," or, " will come ;" that is, to take vengeance. See Ac- cursed. ANDREW, an Apostle of Jesus Christ, a native of Bethsaida, and the brother of Peter. He was at first a disciple of John the Baptist, whom he left to follow our Saviour, after the testimony of John, "Behold the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world," John i, 29, and was the first disciple received by our Saviour. Andrew then introduced his brother Simon, and they went with him to the marriage in Cana, but afterward returned to their ordi- nary occupation, not expecting, perhaps, to be farther employed in his service. However, some months after, Jesus meeting them, while fishing together, called them to a regular at- tendance upon him, and promised to make them fishers of men, Matt, iv, 19. After our Saviour's ascension, tradition states that Andrew was appointed to preach in Scy- thia and the neighbouring countries. Accord- ing to Eusebius, after this Apostle had planted the Gospel in several places, he came to Patrae, in Achaia, where, endeavouring to convert the pro-consul iEgeas, he was, by that governor's orders, first scourged, and then crucified. The time of his suffering martyrdom is not known ; but all the ancient and modern martyrologies of the Greeks and Latins agree in celebrating his festival on the 30th of November. His body was embalmed, and decently interred at Patrffi, by Maximilla, a lady of great quality and estate. It was afterward removed to Con- stantinople, by Constantine the Great, who buried it in the great church which he had built to the honour of the Apostles. It is not known for what reason painters represent St. Andrew's cross like an X. Peter Chrysologus says that he was crucified upon a tree ; and the spurious Hippolytus assures us that it was an olive tree. Nevertheless, the tradition which describes him to have been nailed to a cross is very ancient. ANGEL, a spiritual, intelligent substance, the first in rank and dignity among created beings. The word angel, ayylXos, is not pro- perly a denomination of nature but of office ; denoting as much as mincius, messenger, a person employed to carry one's orders, or de- clare his will. Thus it is St. Paul represents angels, Hcb. i, 14, where he calls them "minis- tering spirits;" and yet custom has prevailed so much, that angel is now commonly taken for the denomination of a particular order of spiritual beings, of great understanding and power, superior to the souls or spirits of men. Some of these are spoken of in Scripture in ANG 55 ANG such a manner as plainly to signify that they are real beings, of a spiritual nature, of high power, perfection, dignity, and happiness. Others of them are distinguished as not hav- ing kept their first station, Jude 6. These are represented as evil spirits, enemies of God, and intent on mischief. The devil as the head of them, and they as his angels, are represented as the rulers of the darkness of this world, or spiritual wickednesses, or wicked spirits, tu ZuvnuartKa rrjg zsovrjpiai h toIs iirxpaviois, Eph. vi, 12 ; which may not be unfitly rendered, " the spi- ritual managers of opposition to the kingdom of God." The existence of angels is supposed in all religions, though it is incapable of being proved a priori. Indeed, the ancient Sadducees are represented as denying all spirits ; and yet the Samaritans, and Caraites, who are reputed Sadducees, openly allowed them : witness Abusaid, the author of an Arabic version of the Pentateuch ; and Aaron, a Caraite Jew, in his comment on the Pentateuch ; both extant in manuscript in the king of France's library. In the Alcoran we find frequent mention of angels. The Mussulmen believe them of dif- ferent orders or degrees, and to be destined for different employments both in heaven and on earth. They attribute exceedingly great power to the angel Gabriel, as that he is able to de- scend in the space of an hour from heaven to earth ; to overturn a mountain with a single feather of his wing, &c. The angel Asrael, they suppose, is appointed to take the souls of such as die; and another angel, named Esra- phil, they tell us, stands with a trumpet ready in his mouth to proclaim the day of judgment. The Heathen philosophers and poets were also agreed as to the existence of intelligent beings, superior to man ; as is shown by St. Cyprian in his treatise of the vanity of idols ; from the testimonies of Plato, Socrates, Tris- megistus, &c. They were acknowledged under different appellations ; the Greeks calling them daemons, and the Romans genii, or lares. Epi- curus seems to have been the only one among the old philosophers who absolutely rejected them. Authors are not so unanimous about the na- ture as about the existence of angels. Clemens Alexandrinus believed they had bodies ; which was also the opinion of Origen, Coesarius, Ter- tullian, and several others. Athanasius, St. Basil, St. Gregory Nicene, St. Cyril, St. Chry- sostom, &c, held them to be mere spirits. It has been the more current opinion, especially in later times, that they are substances entirely spiritual, who can, at any time, assume bodies, and appear in human or other shapes. Ecclesi- astical writers make a hierarchy of nine orders of angels. Others have distributed angels into nine orders, according to the names by which they are called in Scripture, and reduced these orders into three hierarchies; to the first of whichbelong seraphim, cherubim, and thrones; to the second, dominions, virtues, and powers ; and to the third, principalities, archangels, and angels. The Jews reckon four orders or com- panies of angels, each headed by an archangel ; the first order being that of Michael ; the second, of Gabriel ; the third, of Uriel ; and the fourth, of Raphael. Following the Scripture account, we shall find mention made of different orders of these superior beings ; for such a distinction of orders seems intimated in the names given to different classes. Thus we have thrones, dominions, principalities, or princedoms, powers, authorities, living ones, cherubim and seraphim. That some of these titles may indicate the same class of angels is probable ; but that they all should be but different appellations of one common and equal order is improbable. We learn also from Scripture, that they dwell in the immediate presence of God ; that they " excel in strength ;" that they are immortal ; and that they are the agents through which God very often accomplishes his special pur- poses of judgment and mercy. Nothing is more frequent in Scripture than the missions and appearances of good and bad angels, whom God employed to declare his will ; to correct, teach, reprove, and comfort. God gave the law to Moses, and appeared to the old patri- archs, by the mediation of angels, who repre- sented him, and spoke in his name, Acts vii, 30, 35; Gal. iii, 19 : Heb. xiii, 2. Though the Jews, in general, believed the existence of angels, there was a sect among them, namely, the Sadducees, who denied the existence of all spirits whatever, God only ex- cepted, Acts xxiii, 8. Before the Babylonish captivity, the Hebrews seem not to have known the names of any angel. The Talmudists say they brought the names of angels from Baby- lon. Tobit, who is thought to have resided in Nineveh some time before the captivity, men- tions the angel Raphael, Tob. iii, 17 ; xi, 2, 7 ; and Daniel, who lived at Babylon some time after Tobit, has taught us the names of Michael and Gabriel, Dan. viii, 16; ix, 21; x, 21. In the New Testament, we find only the two latter mentioned by name. There are various opinions as to the time when the angels were created. Some think this took place when our heavens and the earth were made. For this opinion, however, there is no just foundation in the Mosaic account. Others think that angels existed long before the formation of our solar system; and Scrip- ture seems to favour this opinion, Job xxxviii, 4, 7, where God says, "Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the earth ? — and all the sons of God shouted for joy." Though it be a universal opinion that angels are of a spi- ritual and incorporeal nature, yet some of the fathers, misled by a passage in Gen. vi, 2, where it is said, "The sons of God saw the daughters of men, that they were fair, and they took them wives of all which they chose," imagined them to be corporeal, and capable of sensual pleasures. But, without noticing all the wild reveries which have been propagated by bold or ignorant persons, let it suffice to observe, that by " the sons of God " we are evi- dently to understand the descendants of Seth, who, for the great piety wherein they continued for some time, were so called; and that "the daughters of men" were the progeny of wicked Cain. ANG 56 ANG As to the doctrine of tutelary or guarding angels, presiding over the affairs of empires, nations, provinces, and particular persons, though received by the later Jews, it appears tc be wholly Pagan in its origin, and to have no countenance in the Scriptures. The pas- sages in Daniel brought to favour this notion are capable of a much better explanation ; and when our Lord declares that the " angels" of little children "do always behold the face of God," he cither speaks of children as being the objects of the general ministry of angels, or, still jnore probably, by angels he there means the disembodied spirits of children ; for that the Jews called disembodied spirits by the name of angels, appears from Acts xii, 15. On this question of guardian angels, Bishop Horsley observes: "That the holy angels are often employed by God in his government of this sublunary world, is indeed to be clearly proved by holy writ. That they have power over the matter of the universe, analogous to the powers over it which men possess, greater in extent, but still limited, is a thing which might reasonably be supposed, if it were not declared. But it seems to be confirmed by many passages of holy writ ; from which it seems also evident that they are occasionally, for certain specific purposes, commissioned to exercise those powers to a prescribed extent. That the evil angels possessed before their fall the like powers, which they are still occasion- ally permitted to exercise for the punishment of wicked nations, seems also evident. That they have a power over the human sensory, which they are occasionally permitted to exer- cise, and by means of which they may inflict diseases, suggest evil thoughts, and be the in- struments of temptation, must also be admitted. But all this amounts not to any thing of a dis- cretional authority placed in the hands of tutelar angels, or to an authority to advise the Lord God with respect to the measures of his government. Confidently I deny that a single text is to be found in holy writ, which, rightly understood, gives the least countenance to the abominable doctrine of such a participation of the holy angels in God's government of the world. In what manner then, it may be asked, are the holy angels made at all subservient to the purposes of God's government? This ques- tion is answered by St. Paul in his Epistle to the Hebrews, in the last verse of the first chap- ter ; and this is the only passage in the whole Bible in which we have any thing explicit upon the office and employment of angels : ' Are they not all,' saith he, ' ministering spirits, sent forth to minister for them that shall be heirs of salvation ?' They are all, however high in rank and order, nothing more than 'minister- ing spirits,' or, literally, 'serving spirits;' not invested with authority of their own, but 'sent forth,' occasionally sent forth, to do such serv- ice as maybe required of them, 'for them that shall be heirs of salvation.'" The exact number of angels is no where mentioned in Scripture ; but it is always repre- sented as very great. Daniel, vii, 10, says of the Ancient of Days, "A fiery stream came from before him; thousand thousands ministered unto him, and ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him." Jesus Christ says, that his heavenly Father could have given him more than twelve legions of angels, that is, more than seventy-two thousand, Matt, xxvi, 53 ; and the Psalmist declares, that the chariots of God are twenty thousand, even thousands of angels, lxviii, 17. These are all intended not to express any exact number, but indefinitely a very large one. Though all the angels were created alike good, yet Jude informs us, verse 6, that some of them "kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation," and these God hath "reserved in everlasting chains under dark- ness, unto the judgment of the great day." Speculations on the cause and occasion of their fall are all vain and trifling. Milton is to be read on this subject, as on others, not as a divine, but as a poet. All we know, is, that they are not in their first "estate," or in their original place ; that this was their own fault, for "they left their own habitation;" that they are in chains, yet with liberty to tempt; and that they are reserved to the general judgment. Dr. Prideaux observes, that the minister of the synagogue, who officiated in offering the public prayers, being the mouth of the congre- gation, delegated by them, as their representa- tive, messenger, or angel, to address God in prayer for them, was in Hebrew called sheliack- zibbor, that is, the angel of the church ; and that from hence the chief ministers of the seven churches of Asia are in the Revelation, by a name borrowed from the synagogue, called angels of those churches. THE ANGEL OF THE LORD, or H,e Angel Jehovah, a title given to Christ in his different appearances to the patriarchs and others in the Old Testament. When the Angel of the Lord found Hagar in the wilderness, " she called the name of Jehovah that spake to her, Thou God seest me." — Jehovah appeared unto Abraham in the plains of Mamre. Abraham lifted up his eyes, and three men, three persons in human form, "stood by him." One of the three is called Jehovah. And Jehovah said, " Shall I hide from Abraham the thing that I do ?" Appearances of the same personage occur to Isaac and to Jacob under the name of "the God of Abra- ham, and of Isaac." After one of these mani- festations, Jacob says, "I have seen God face to face;" and at another, "Surely the Lord (Jehovah) is in this place." The same Jehovah was made visible to Moses, and gave him his commission ; and God said, " I am that I am ; thou shaft say to the children of Israel, I am hath sent me unto you." The same Jehovah went before the Israelites by day in a pillar of cloud, and by night in a pillar of fire ; and by Him the law was given amidst terrible displays of power and majesty from Mount Sinai. " I am the Lord (Jehovah) thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage : Thou shalt have no other gods before me," &c. The collation of a few passages, or of the different parts of the ANG 57 ANG same passages, of Scripture, will show that Jehovah, and "the Angel of the Lord," when used in this eminent sense, are the same person. Jacob says of Bethel, where he had exclaimed, " Surely Jehovah is in this place ;" " The Angel of God appeared to me in a dream, saying, I am the God of Bethel." Upon his death bed he gives the names of God and Angel to this same person: "The God which fed me all my life long unto this day, the Angel which re- deemed me from all evil, bless the lads." So in Hosea xii, 2, 5, it is said, " By his strength lie had power with God; yea, he had power over the Angel, and prevailed." "We found him in Bethel, and there he spake with us, even the Lord God of Hosts ; the Lord is his memorial." Here the same person has the names, God, Angel, and Lord God of Hosts. " The Angel of the Lord called to Abraham a second time from heaven, and said, By myself have I sworn, saith the Lord, (Jehovah,) that, since thou hast done this thing, in blessing will I bless thee." The Angel of the Lord appeared to Moses in a flame of fire ; but this same Angel " called to him out of the bush, and said, I am the God of thy fathers, the God of Abra- ham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob ; and Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look upon God." To omit many other pas- sages, St. Stephen, in alluding to this part of the history of Moses, in his speech before the council, says, "There appeared to Moses in the wilderness of Mount Sinai, an Angel of the Lord in a flame of fire," showing that that phraseology was in use among the Jews in his day, and that this Angel and Jehovah were re- garded as the same being ; for he adds, " Moses was in the church in the wilderness with the Angel which spoke unto him in Mount Sinai." There is one part of the history of the Jews in the wilderness, which so fully shows that they distinguished this Angel of Jehovah from all created angels, as to deserve particular atten- tion. In Exodus xxiii, 20, God makes this promise to Moses and the Israelites : " Behold, I send an Angel before thee to keep thee in the way, and to bring thee into the place which I have prepared. Beware of him, and obey his voice ; provoke him not ; for he will not pardon your transgressions, for my name is in him." Of this Angel let it be observed, that he is here represented as the guide and pro- tector of the Israelites ; to him they were to owe their conquests and their settlement in the promised land, which are in other places often attributed to the immediate agency of God; that they are cautioned to "beware of him," to reverence and stand in dread of him ; that the pardoning of transgressions belongs to him ; finally, " that the name of God was in him." This name must be understood of God's own peculiar name, Jehovah, I am, which he as- sumed as his distinctive appellation at his first appearing to Moses ; and as the names of God are indicative of his nature, he who had a right to bear the peculiar name of God, must also have his essence. This view is put beyond all doubt by the fact, that Moses and the Jews so understood the matter; for afterward when their sins had provoked God to threaten not to go up with them himself, but to commit them to " an angel who should drive out the Canaan- ite," &c, the people mourned over this as a great calamity, and Moses betook himself to special intercession, and rested not until he obtained the repeal of the threat, and the re- newed promise, " My presence shall go with thee, and I will give thee rest." Nothing, therefore, can be more clear than that Moses and the Israelites considered the promise of the Angel, in whom was " the name of God," as a promise that God himself would go with them. With this uncreated Angel, this presence of the Lord, they were satisfied, but not with "an angel" indefinitely, who was by nature of that order of beings usually so called, and therefore a created being; for at the news of God's de- termination not to go up with them, Moses hastens to the tabernacle to make his inter- cessions, and refuses an inferior conductor : — " If thy presence go not with me, carry us not up hence." The Jews held this Word, or Angel of the Lord, to be the future Messiah, as appears from the writings of their older rabbins. So that he appears as the Jehovah of all the three dis- pensations, and yet is invariably described as a separate person from the unseen Jehovah who sends him. He was then the Word to be made flesh, and to dwell for a time among us, to open the way to God by his sacrifice, and to rescue the race, whose nature he should assume, from sin and death. This he has now actually effected; and the Patriarchal, Mosaic, and Christian religions are thus founded upon the same great principles, — the fall and misery of mankind, and their deliverance by a Divine Redeemer. ANGELICS, worshippers of angels. Those who consider this as a sect of the Apostolic age, think St. Paul, Coloss. ii, 18, cautions Christians against a superstitious reverence of these celestial agents of the Deity, which they conceive to have been borrowed from the idola- trous reverence paid by the Heathen to genii and demons. The Jews of that time are also accused of worshipping angels, and probably this superstition might through them influence the Judaizing members of some of the Apostolic churches. This idolatry may now be too justly charged upon the Romish and some other cor- rupt churches. ANGER, a resentful emotion of the mind, arising upon the receipt, or supposed receipt, of an affront or injury ; and also simple feel- ing of strong displacency at that which is in itself evil, or base, or injurious to others. In the latter sense it is not only innocent but com- mendable. Strong displeasure against evil dofrs, provided it be free from hatred and rrfalice, and interferes not with a just placable- ness, is also blameless, Eph. iv, 26. When it is vindictive against the person of our neigh- bour, or against the innocent creatures of God, it is wicked, Matt, v, 22. When anger, hatred, wrath, and fury, are ascribed to God, they de- note no tumultuous passion, but merely his holy and just displeasure with sin and sinners; AN I 58 ANI nnd the evidence of it in his terrible threaten- ings, or righteous judgments, Psalm vi, 1, and vii, 11. We must, however, take care that we refine not too much. These are Scriptural terms, and are often used of God ; and though they express not a tumultuous, much less an unjust, passion, there is something in God which answers to them. In him they are principles arising out of his holy and just na- ture ; and for this reason they are more steady and uniform, and more terrible, than if they were emotions, or as we say passions. Nor can we rightly regard the severity of the judg- ments which God has so often executed upon sin without standing in awe of him, "as a consuming fire" to the ungodly. ANIMAL, is an organized and living body, endowed with sensation. Minerals are said to grow or increase, plants to grow and live, and animals alone to have sensation. The Hebrews distinguished animals into pure and impure, clean and unclean; or those which might be eaten and offered, and those whose use was prohibited. The sacrifices which they offered, were, 1. Of the beeve kind; a cow, bull, or calf. The ox could not be offered, because it was mutilated ; and when it is said oxen were sacrificed, we are to understand bulls, Lev. xxii, 18, 19. Calmet thinks, that the mutila- tion of animals was neither permitted, nor used, among the Israelites. 2. Of the goat kind ; a he-goat, a she-goat, or kid, Lev. xxii, 24. 3. Of the sheep kind ; a ewe, ram, or lamb. When it is said sheep are offered, rams are chiefly meant, especially in burnt-offerings and sacrifices for sin ; for as to peace-offerings, or sacrifices of pure devotion, a female might be sometimes offered, provided it was pure, and without blemish, Lev. iii, 1. Besides these three sorts of animals, used in sacrifices, many others might be eaten, wild or tame ; as the stag, the roe-buck, and in gene- ral all that have cloven feet, or that chew the cud, Lev. ix, 2, 3, &c. All that have not cloven hoofs, and do not chew the cud, were esteemed impure, and could neither be offered nor eaten. The fat of all sorts of animals sacrificed was forbidden to be eaten. The blood of all kinds of animals generally, and in all cases, was prohibited on pain of death, Lev. iii, 17; vii, 23-27. Neither did the Israelites eat animals which had been taken and touched by a devouring or impure beast, as a dog, a wolf, a boar, &c, Exodus xxii, 3 ; nor of any animal that died of itself. Whoever touched its carcass was impure until the even- ing : and till that time, and before he had washed his clothes, he did not return to the com- pany of other Jews, Lev. xi, 39, 40 ; xvii, 15 ; xxii, 8. Fish that had neither fins nor scales were unclean, Lev. xi, 20. Birds which walk on the ground with four feet, as bi^s, and flies that have many feet, were impure. The law, however, excepts locusts, which have their hind feet higher than those before, and rather leap than walk. These were clean, and might be eaten, Lev. xi, 21, 22, as they still ere in Palestine. The distinction between clean and unclean animals has been variously accounted for. Some have thought it symboli- cal, intended to teach the avoidance of those evil qualities for which the unclean animals were remarkable ; others, that, in order that the Hebrews might be preserved from idolatry, they were commanded to kill and eat many animals which were sacred among the Egyp- tians, and were taught to look with abhorrence upon others which they reverenced. Others have found a reason in the unwholesomeness of the flesh of the creatures pronounced by the law to be unclean, so that they resolve the whole into a sanative regulation. But it is not to be forgotten that this division of ani- mals into clean and unclean existed both before the law of Moses, and even prior to the flood. The foundation of it was therefore clearly sa- crificial; for before the deluge it could not have reference to health, since animal food was not allowed to man prior to the deluge ; and as no other ground for the distinction appears, ex- cept that of sacrifice, it must therefore have had reference to the selection of victims to be solemnly offered to God, as a part of worship, and as the means of drawing near to him by expiatory rites for the forgiveness of sins. Some it is true, have regarded this distinction of clean and unclean beasts as used by Moses by way of prolepsis, or anticipation, — a notion which, if it could not be refuted by the con- text, would be perfectly arbitrary. Not only are the beasts, which Noah was to receive, spoken of as clean and unclean ; but it will be noticed, that, in the command to -take them into the ark, a difference is made in the num- ber to be preserved — the clean being to be received by sevens, and the unclean by two of a kind. This shows that this distinction among beasts had been established in the time of Noah ; and thus the assumption of a prolepsis is refut- ed. The critical attempts which have been made to show that animals were allowed to man for food, previous to the flood, have wholly failed. A second argument is furnished by the pro- hibition of blood for food, after animals had been granted to man for his sustenance along with the " herb of the field." This prohibition is repeated by Moses to the Israelites, with this explanation : — " I have given it upon the altar to make an atonement for your souls." From this it has indeed been argued, that the doctrine of the atoning power of blood was new, and was then, for the first time, announc- ed by Moses, or the same reason for the pro- hibition would have been given to Noah. To this we may reply, 1. That unless the same be supposed as the ground of the prohibition of blood to Noah, as that given by Moses to the Jews, no reason at all can be conceived for this restraint being put upon the appetite of mankind from Noah to Moses. 2. That it is a mistake to suppose, that the declaration of Moses to the Jews, that God had " given them the blood for an atonement," is an additional reason for the interdict, not to be found in the original prohibition to Noah. The whole pas- sage in Lev. xvii, is, " And thou shalt say to them, Whatsoever man there be of the house ANI 59 ANO of Israel, or of the strangers that sojourn among you, that eateth any manner of blood, I will even set my face against that soul that eateth blood, and I will cut him oft from among his people : for the life of the flesh is in the blood ; and I have given it upon the altar, to make atonement for your souls : for it is the blood (or life) that maketh atonement for the soul." The great reason, then, of the prohibi- tion of blood is, that it is the life ; and what follows respecting atonement is exegetical of this reason ; the life is in the blood, and the blood or life is given as an atonement. Now, by turning to the original prohibition in Gene- sis, we find that precisely the same reason is given : " But the flesh with the blood, which is the life thereof, shall ye not eat." The reason, then, being the same, the question is, whether the exegesis added by Moses must not neces- sarily be understood in the general reason given for the restraint to Noah. Blood is prohibited for this cause, that it is the life ; and Moses adds, that it is "the blood," or life, "which makes atonement." Let any one attempt to discover any cause for tiie prohibi- tion of blood to Noah, in the mere cffcumstance that it is " the life," and he will find it impos- sible. It is no reason at all, moral or institut- ed, except that as it was life substituted for life, the life of the animal in sacrifice for the life of man, and that it had a sacred appropria- tion. The manner, too, in which Moses in- troduces the subject is indicative that, although he was renewing a prohibition, he was not publishing a "new doctrine;" he does not teach his people that God had then given, or appointed, blood to make atonement ; but he prohibits them from eating it, because he had made this appointment, without reference to time, and as a subject with which they were familiar. Because the blood was the life, it was sprinkled upon, and poured out at, the altar : and we have in the sacrifice of the pas- chal lamb, and the sprinkling of its blood, a sufficient proof, that, before the giving of the law, not only was blood not eaten, but was appropriated to a sacred sacrificial purpose. Nor was this confined to the Jews; it was customary with the Romans and Greeks, who, in like manner, poured out and sprinkled the blood of victims at their altars, a rite derived, probably, from the Egyptians, as they derived it, not from Moses, but from the sons of Noah. The notion, indeed, that the blood of the vic- tims was peculiarly sacred to the gods, is im- pressed upon all ancient Pagan mythology. If, therefore, the distinction of animals into clean and unclean existed before the flood, and was founded upon the practice of animal sa- crifice, we have not only a proof of the antiquity of that practice, but that it was of divine insti- tution and appointment, since almighty God gave laws for its right and acceptable perform- ance. Still farther, if animal sacrifice was of divine appointment, it must be concluded to be typical only, and designed to teach the great doctrine of moral atonement, and to flirect faith to the only true sacrifice which , could take away the sins of men ; — " the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world,"— the victim " without spot," who suffered the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God. See Sacrifices. ANISE, an annual umbeliferous plant, the seeds of which have an aromatic smell, a plea- sant warm taste, and a carminative quality. But by avrjOov, Matt, xxiii, 23, the dill is meant. Our translators seem to have been first misled by a resemblance of the sound. No other ver- sions have fallen into the mistake." The Greek of anise is avioov ', but of dill, avydov, ANNA, the daughter of Phanuel, a prophetess and widow, of the tribe of Asher, Luke ii, 36, 37. She was married early, and had lived only seven years with her husband. Being then disengaged from the ties of marriage, she thought only of pleasing the Lord ; and con- tinued without ceasing in the temple, serving God night and day, with fasting and prayer, as the Evangelist expresses it. However, her serving God at the temple night and day, says Dr. Prideaux, is to be understood no otherwise than that she constantly attended the morning and evening sacrifice at the temple ; and then with great devotion offered up her prayers to God ; the time of morning and evening sacri- fice being the most solemn time of prayer among the Jews, and the temple the most solemn place for this devotion. Anna was fourscore years of age when the holy virgin came to present Jesus in the temple ; and en- tering accidentally, while Simeon was pro- nouncing his thanksgiving, she likewise began to praise God, and to speak of the Messiah to all those who waited for redemption in Jeru- salem. We know nothing more either of the life or death of this holy woman. ANNAS, or ANANUS, as Josephus calls him, was the son of Seth, and high priest of the Jews. He succeeded Joazar, the son of Simon, enjoyed the high priesthood eleven years, and was succeeded by Ishmael, the son of Phabi. After he was deposed, he still pre- served the title of high priest, and had a great share in the management of public affairs. He is called high priest in conjunction with Caia- phas, when John the Baptist entered upon the exercise of his mission ; though Calmet thinks that at that time he did not, strictly speaking, possess or officiate in that character, Luke iii, 2. On the contrary, Macknight and some others are of opinion, that at this time Caiaphas was only the deputy of Annas. He was father-in- law to Caiaphas ; and Jesus Christ was carried before him, directly after his seizure in the garden of Olives, John xviii, 13. Josephus remarks, that Annas was considered as one of the happiest men of his nation, for five of his sons were high priests, and he himself pos- sessed that great dignity many years. This was an instance of good fortune which, till that time, had happened to no person. ANOINT, to pour oil upon, Gen. xxviii, 18 ; xxxi, 13. The setting up of a stone and anointing it by Jacob, as here recorded, in grateful memory of his celestial vision, proba- bly became the occasion of idolatry in succeed- ing ages, and gave rise to the erection of tern- ANO 60 ANT pics composed of shapeless masses of unhewn stone, of which so many astonishing remains are scattered up and down the Asiatic and the European world. Under the law persons and things set apart for sacred purposes were anointed with the holy oil ; which appears to have been a typical representation of the communication of the Holy Ghost to Christ and to his church. See Exod. xxviii, xxix. Hence the Holy Spirit is called an itnction or anointing, 1 John ii, 20, 27 ; and our Lord is called the " Messiah," or " Anointed One," to denote his being called to the offices of mediator, prophet, priest, and king, to all of which he was consecrated by the anointing of the Holy Ghost, Matt, iii, 16, 17. When we hear of the anointing of the Jew- ish kings, we are to understand by it the same as their inauguration ; inasmuch as anointing was the principal ceremony on such an oc- casion, 2 Sam. ii, 4; v, 3. As far as we are informed, however, unction, as a sign of inves- titure with the royal authority, was bestowed only upon Saul and David, and subsequently upon Solomon and Joash, who ascended the throne under such circumstances, that there was danger of their right to the succession be- ing forcibly disputed, 1 Sam. x, 24 ; 2 Sam. ii, 4; v, 1-3; 1 Chron. xi, 1, 2; 2 Kings xi, 12- 20 ; 2 Chron. xxiii, 1-21. The ceremony of regal anointing needed not to be repeated in every instance of succession to the throne, be- cause the unction which the first one who held the sceptre in any particular line of princes had received was supposed to suffice for the suc- ceeding incumbents in the same descent. In the kingdom of Israel, those who were inducted into the royal office appear to have been inaugurated with some additional cere- monies, 2 Kings ix, 13. The private anoint- ings which we learn to have been performed by the prophets, 2 Kings ix, 3, comp. 1 Sam. x, 1 ; xvi, 1-13, were only prophetic symbols or intimations that the persons who were thus anointed should eventually receive the kingdom. The holy anointing oil which was made by Moses, Exod. xxx, 22-33, for the maintaining and consecrating of the king, the high priest, and all the sacred vessels made use of in the house of God, was one of those things, as Dr. Prideaux observes, which was wanting in the second temple. The oil made and consecrated for this use was commanded to be kept by the children of Israel, throughout their genera- tions, and therefore it was laid up in the most holy place of the tabernacle and the first temple. ANOMCEANS, the name by which the pure Arians were called in the fourth century, in contradistinction to the Semi- Arians. The word is formed from the Greek dvtyoioj, different. For the pure Arians asserted, that the Son was of a nature different from, and in nothing like, that of the Father; whereas the Semi-Arians acknowledged a likeness of nature in the Son, at the same time that they denied, with the pure Arians, the consubstantiality of the Word. The Semi-Arians condemned the Anomceans in the council of Seleucia ; and the Anomceans, in their turn, condemned the Semi-Arians in the councils of Constantinople and Antiocli, erasing the word like out of the formula of Rimini and Constantinople. ANSWER. Beside the common usage of this word, in the sense of a reply, it has other significations. Moses, having composed a thanksgiving, after the passage of the Red Sea, Miriam, it is said, answered, " Sing ye to the Lord," &c, — meaning, that Moses, with the men on one side, and Miriam, with the women on the other side, sung the same song, as it were, in two choruses, or divisions ; of which one answered the other. Num. xxi, 17, "Then Israel sung this song, Spring up, O well, answer unto it ;" that is, sing responsively, one side (or choir) singing first, and then the other. 1 Sam. xxix, 5, "Is not this David of whom they sung one to another in dances, saying, Saul hath slain his thousands, and David his ten thousands?" They sung this song to his honour in distinct choruses. This word is taken likewise for, to accuse or to defend any one, judicially. Gen. xxx, 33, " My righteousness shall answer for me ;" it shall be my advocate before thee. Deut. xxxi, 21, "The song which thou shalt compose and teach them shall testify (answer) against them as a witness." Isaiah says, "The show of their countenance will testify (answer) against them ;" their impudence will be like a witness and an accuser. Hosea, v, 5, "The pride of Israel doth testify (answer) to his face." To answer, is likewise taken in a bad sense ; as when it is said that a son ansicers his father insolently, or a servant his master. Rom. ix, 20, "Who art thou that repliest against God?" that is, to contest or debate with him. John xviii, 22, " Answerest thou the high priest so ?" St. Paul declares that he "had in himself the answer (or sentence) of death ;" 2 Cor. i, 9 ; like a man who has had notice of condemna- tion, he had a certain assurance of dying. To answer is also used in Scripture for the commencement of a discourse, when no reply to any question or objection is intended. This mode of speaking is often used by the evangel- ists, "And Jesus answered and said." It is a Hebrew idiom. ANT, h^dj, in the Turkish and Arabic, neml, Prov. vi, 6; xxx, 25. It is a little insect, fa- mous from all antiquity for its social habits, its economy, unwearied industry, and prudent fore- sight. It has afforded a pattern of commenda- ble frugality to the profuse, and of unceasing diligence to the slothful. Solomon calls the ants " exceeding wise ; for though a race not strong, yet they prepare their meat in the sum- mer." He therefore sends the sluggard to these little creatures, to learn wisdom, foresight, care, and diligence. " Go to the ant ; learn of its ways, be wise ; It early heaps its stores, lest want surprise. Skill'd in the various year, the prescient sage Beholds the summer chill'd in winter's rage. Survey its arts ; in each partition'd cell Economy and plenty deign to dwell." That the ant hoarded up grains of corn against winter for its sustenance, was very generally believed by the ancients, though ANT 61 ANT modern naturalists seem to question the fact. Thus Horace says, " Sicut Parvula {nam exemplo est) magni formica laburis Ore traldt quodcunque potest, atque addit acervo Quern struit, hand ignara ac non incauta J'uturi ; Qua?, simul inversum contristat aquarius annum, Non usquam prorepit, et illis utitur ante Qu&sitis sapiens." Sat. i, 1. i, v. 33. " For thus the little ant (to human lore No mean example) forms her frugal store, Gather'd with mighty toil on every side, Nor ignorant nor careless to provide For future want ; yet, when the stars appear That darkly sadden the declining year, No more she comes abroad, but wisely lives On the fair stores industrious summer gives." The learned Bochart, in his Hierozoicon, has displayed his vast reading on this subject, and has cited passages from Pliny, Lucian, iElian, Zoroaster, Origen, Basil, and Epiphanius, the Jewish rabbins and Arabian naturalists, all concurring in opinion that ants cut off the heads of grain, to prevent their germinating; and it is observable that the Hebrew name of the insect is derived from the verb Sqj, which signifies to cut off, and is used for cutting off ears of corn, Job xxiv, 24. The following remarks are from " the Intro- duction to Entomology," by Kirby and Spence : " Till the manners of exotic ants are more accurately explored, it would be rash to affirm that no ants have magazines of provisions ; for, although, during the cold of our winters in this country, they remain in a state of torpidity, and have no need of food, yet in warmer regions, during the rainy seasons, when they are proba- bly confined to their nests, a store of provisions may be necessary for them. Even in northern climates, against wet seasons, they may provide in this way for their sustenance and that of the young brood, which, as Mr. Smeatham ob- serves, are very voracious, and cannot bear to be long deprived of their food ; else why do ants carry worms, living insects, and many other such things, into their nests ? Solomon's lesson to the sluggard has been generally ad- duced as a strong confirmation of the ancient opinion : it can, however, only relate to the species of a warm climate, the habits of which are probably different from those of a cold one ; so that his words, as commonly interpreted, may be perfectly correct and consistent with nature, and yet be not at all applicable to the species that are indigenous to Europe." The ant, according to the royal preacher, is one of those things which are little upon the earth, but exceeding loise. The superior wis- dom of the ant has been recognised by many writers. Horace in the passage from which the preceding quotation is taken, praises its sagacity ; Virgil celebrates its foresight, in pro- viding for the wants and infirmities of old age, while it is young and vigorous : — atque inopi meluens formica senectm. [And the ant dreading a destitute old age.] And we learn from Hesiod, that among the earliest Greeks it was called Idris, that is, wise, because it foresaw the coming storm, and the inauspicious day, and collected her store Cicero believed that the ant is not only fur- nished with senses, but also with mind, reason and memory : — In formica von modo sensus sed etiam mens, ratio, memoria. [The ant possesses not only senses, but also mind, reason, me- mory.] The union of so many noble qualities in so small a corpuscle, is indeed one of the most remarkable phenomena in the works of nature. ANTHROPOMORPHITES, a sect of an- cient heretics, who were so denominated from two Greek words avOpu-xos, man, and udpipr), shape. They understood every thing spoken in Scrip- ture in a literal sense, and particularly that passage of Genesis in which it is said, "God made man after his own image." Hence they maintained, that God had a human shape. ANTHROPOPATHY, a metaphor by which things belonging to creatures and especially to man are ascribed to God. Instances of this abound in the Scriptures, by which they adapt themselves to human modes of speaking, and to the limited capacities of men. These an- thropopathies we must however interpret in a manner suitable to the majesty of the divine nature. Thus, when the members of a hmnan body are ascribed to God, we must understand by them those" perfections of which such mem- bers in us are the instruments. The eye, for instance, represents God's knowledge and watchful care ; the arm, his power and strength ; the cars, the regard he pays to prayer and to the cry of oppression and misery, &c. Farther, when human affections are attributed to God, we must so interpret them as to imply no im- perfection, such as perturbed feeling in him. When God is said to repent, the antecedent, by a frequent figure of speech, is put for the consequent; and in this case we are to under- stand an altered mode of proceeding on the part of God, which in man is the effect of repenting. ANTICHRIST, compounded of ivri, con- tra, against, and Xpis-S;, Christ, in a general sense, denotes an adversary of Christ, or one who denies that the Messiah is come. In this sense, Jews, infidels, &c, may be said to be antichrists. The epithet, in the general sense of it, is also applicable to any power or person acting in direct opposition to Christ or his doc- trine. Its particular meaning is to be collected from those passages of Scripture in which it occurs. Accordingly, it may either signify one who assumes the place and office of Christ, or one who maintains a direct enmity and oppo- sition to him. The Fathers all speak of anti- christ as a single man ; though they also assure us, that he is to have divers precursors, or fore- runners. Yet many Protestant writers apply to the Romish church, and the pope who is at the head of it, the several marks and signa- tures of antichrist enumerated in the Apoca- lypse, which would imply antichrist to be, not a single person, but a corrupt society, or a long series of persecuting pontiffs, or rather, a cer- tain power and government, that may be held for many generations, by a number of indivi- duals succeeding one another. The antichrist mentioned by the Apostle John, first Epistle ii, 18, and more particularly described in the book ANT 62 ANT of Revelation, seems evidently to be the same with the man of sin, &c, characterized by St. Paul in his Second Epistle to the Thessalonians, chap, ii ; and the whole description literally applies to the Papal power. A late writer, after collecting the principal prophecies relating to antichrist, infers from them that a power, some- times represented as the little horn, the man of sin, the antichrist, the beast, the harlot, the star falling from heaven, the false prophet, the dra- gon, or as the operation of false teachers, was to be expected to arise in the Christian world to persecute and oppress, and delude the disci- ples of Christ, corrupt the doctrine of the primi- tive church, enact new laws, and establish its dominion over the minds of mankind. He then proceeds to show, from the application of prophecy to history, and to the remarkable train of events that are now passing in the world, how exactly Popery, Mohammedanism, and Infidelity, correspond with the character given in Scripture of the power of antichrist, which was to prevail a certain time for the especial trial and punishment of the corrupted church of Christ. Upon this system, the dif- ferent opinions of the Protestants and Papists, concerning the power of antichrist, derived from partial views of the subject, are not wholly incompatible with each other. With respect to the commonly received opinion, that the church of Rome is antichrist, Mede and New- ton, Daubuz and Clarke, Lowman and Hurd, Jurieu, Vitringa, and many other members of the Protestant churches who have written upon the subject, concur in maintaining, that the prophecies of Daniel, St. Paul, and St. John, point directly to this church. This was like- wise the opinion of the first reformers; and it was the prevalent opinion of Christians, in the earliest ages, that antichrist would appear soon after the fall of the Roman empire. Gregory the Great, in the sixth century, applied the prophecies concerning the beast in the Reve- lation, the man of sin, and the apostasy from the faith mentioned by St. Paul, to him who should presume to claim the title of universal priest, or universal bishop, in the Christian church; and yet his immediate successor, Boni- face III, received from the tyrant Phocas the precise title which Gregory had thus censured. At the synod of Rheims, held in the tenth cen- tury, Arnulphus, bishop of Orleans, appealed to the whole council, whether the bishop of Rome was not the antichrist of St. Paul, " sitting in the temple of God," and perfectly correspond- ing with the description of him given by St. Paul. In the eleventh century, all the charac- ters of antichrist seemed to be so united in the person of Pope Hildebrand, who took the name of Gregory VII, that Johannes Aven- tinus, a Romish historian, speaks of it as a subject in which the generality of fair, candid, and ingenuous writers agreed, that at that time began the reign of antichrist. And the Albigcnses and Waldenses, who may be called the Protestants of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, expressly asserted in their declar- ations of faith, that the church of Rome was the whore of Babylon. The Papists imagine they view in the prophetical picture of anti christ, imperial Rome, elated by her victories,- exulting in her sensuality and her spoils, pol- luted by idolatry, persecuting the people of God, and finally falling like the first Babylon ; whilst a new and holy city, represented by their own communion, filled with the spotless votaries of the Christian faith, rises out of its ruins, and the victory of the cross is completed over the temples of Paganism. This scheme has had its able advocates, at the head of whom may be placed Bossuet, bishop of Meaux, Gro- tius, and Hammond. Some writers have main- tained, that Caligula was antichrist ; and others have asserted the same of Nero. But in order to establish the resemblance, they violate the order of time, disregard the opinions of the primitive Christians, and overlook the ap- propriate descriptions of the Apostles. After: the point had been maturely debated at the council of Gap, held in 1603, a resolution was" taken thereupon to insert an article in the con- fession of faith, whereby the Pope is formally declared to be antichrist. Pope Clement VIII was stung with this decision ; and even king Henry IV, of France was not a little mortified, to be thus declared, as he said, an imp of antichrist. In the book of Daniel it is foretold, that this power should exercise dominion until a time and times, and the dividing of time, Dan. vii, 25. This expression is generally admitted to denote 1260 years. The Papal power was com- pletely established in the year 755, when it obtained the exarchate of Ravenna. Some, however, date the rise of antichrist in the year of Christ 606 ; and Mede places it in 456. If the rise of antichrist be not reckoned till he was possessed of secular authority, his fall will happen when this power shall be taken away. If his rise began, according to Mede in 456, he must have fallen in 1716; if in 606, it must be in 1866 ; if in 755, in 2015. If, however, we use prophetical years, consisting of three hun- dred and sixty days, and date the rise of anti- christ in the year 755, his fall will happen in the year of Christ 2000. Every thing however in the state of the world betokens a speedy overthrow of the Papal and Mohammedan pow- ers, both of which have indeed been already greatly weakened. ANTI-LIB ANUS. The Greeks give this name to that chain of mountains east of Liba- nus, which, properly speaking, forms, together with Libanus, but one ridge of mountains, ex- tending from north to south, and afterward from south to north, in the shape almost of a horse shoe, for the space of about fourscore leagues. The western part of these mountains was called Libanus ; the eastern wTas called An- tilibanus; the former reached along the Medi- terranean, from Sidon, almost to Arada, of Symira. The Hehrew text never mentions An- tilibanus; but uses the general name Libanus: and the coins struck at Laodicea and Hierapo- lis, have the inscription, " cities of Libanus," though they belong rather to Antilibanus. The Septuagint, on the contrary, puts Antilibanus often instead of Libanus. The valley which ANT 63 ANT separates Libanus from Antilibanus is very fruit- ful : it was formerly, on the side of Syria, in- closed with a wall, whereof there are now no traces. Strabo says, that the name of C02I0- Syria, or " the hollow Syria," belongs principally to the valley between Libanus and Antilibanus. ANTINOMIANS are those who maintain that the law is of no use or obligation under the Gospel dispensation, or who hold doctrines that clearly supersede the necessity of good works and a virtuous life. The Antinomians took their origin from John Agricola, about tb,e year 1538, who taught that the law was in no wise necessary under the Gospel ; that good works do not promote our salvation, nor ill ones hinder it ; that repentance is not to be preach- ed from the decalogue, but only from the Gos- pel. This sect sprung up in England during the protectorate of Oliver Cromwell ; and ex- tended their system of libertinism much farther than Agricola, the disciple of Luther. Some of their teachers expressly maintained, that as the elect cannot fall from grace nor forfeit the divine favour, the wicked actions they commit are not really sinful, nor are to be considered as instances of their violation of the divine law; and that consequently they have no occasion either to confess their sinSj or to break them off by repentance. According to them, it is one of the essential and distinctive characters of the elect, that they cannot do any thing which is displeasing to God. Luther, Rutherford, Schlus- selburgh, Sedgwick, Gataker, Witsius, Bull, Williams, &c, have written refutations ; Crisp, Richardson, Saltmarsh, &c, defences, of the Antinomians ; Wigandus, a comparison be- tween ancient and modern Antinomians. The doctrine of Agricola was in itself obscure, and is thought to have been represented worse than it really was by Luther, who wrote against him with acrimony, and first styled him and his followers Antinomians. Agricola, in defending himself, complained that opinions were imput- ed to him which he did not hold. The writings of Dr. Crisp in the seventeenth century are con- sidered as highly favourable to Antinomianism, though he acknowledges that, " in respect of the rules of righteousness, or the matter of obedience, we are under the law still, or else," as he adds, " we are lawless, to live every man as seems good in his own eyes, which no true Christian dares so much as think of." The following sentiments, however, among others, are taught in his sermons : " The law is cruel and tyrannical, requiring what is naturally impossible." "The sins of the elect were so imputed to Christ, as that though he did not commit them, yet they became actually his transgressions, and ceased to be theirs." " The feelings of conscience, which tell them that sin is theirs, arise from a want of knowing the truth." " It is but the voice of a lying spirit in the hearts of believers, that saith they have yet sin wasting their consciences, and lying as a burden too heavy for them to bear." " Christ's righteousness is so imputed to the elect, that they, ceasing to be sinners, are as righteous as he was, and all that he was." " An elect per- son is not in a condemned state while an un- believer ; and should he happen to die before God call him to believe, he would not be lost." " Repentance and confession of sin are not necessary to forgiveness. A believer may cer- tainly conclude before confession, yea, as soon as he hath committed sin, the interest he hath in Christ, and the love of Christ embracing him." These dangerous sentiments, and others of a similar bearing, have been fully answered by many writers ; but by none more ably than by the Rev. John Fletcher, in his "Checks to Antinomianism." ANTIOCH, a city of Upper Syria, on the river Orontes, about twenty miles from the place where it discharges itself into the Mediter- ranean. It was built by Seleucus Nicanor, about three hundred years before Christ ; and became the seat of empire of the Syrian kings of the Macedonian race, and afterward of the Roman governors of the eastern provinces ; being very centrally and commodiously situat- ed midway between Constantinople and Alex- andria, about seven hundred miles from each, in 37° 17' north latitude, and 36° 45' east lon- gitude. No city perhaps, Jerusalem excepted, has experienced more frequent revolutions, or suffered more numerous and dire calamities, than Antioch ; as, besides the common plagues of eastern cities, pestilence, famine, fire, and sword, it has several times been entirely over- thrown by earthquakes. In 3G2, the emperor Julian spent some months at Antioch ; which were chiefly occupied in his favourite object of reviving the mythology of Paganism. The grove at Daphne, planted by Seleucus, which, with its temple and oracle, presented, during the reigns of the Macedonian kings of Syria, the most splendid and fashion- able place of resort for Pagan worship in the east, had sunk into neglect since the establish- ment of Christianity. The altar of the god was deserted, the oracle was silenced, and the sacred grove itself defiled by the interment of Chris- tians. Julian undertook to restore the ancient honours and usages of the place ; but it was first necessary to take away the pollution occa- sioned by the dead bodies of the Christians, which were disinterred and removed ! Among these was that of Babylas, a bishop of Antioch, who died in prison in the persecution of Decius, and after resting near a century in his grave within the walls of Antioch, had been removed by order of Gallus into the midst of the grove of Daphne, where a church was built over him ; the remains of the Christian saint effectually supplanting the former divinity of the place, whose temple and statue, however, though ne- glected, remained uninjured. The Christians of Antioch, undaunted by the conspiracy against their religion, or the presence of the emperor himself, conveyed the relics of their former bishop in triumph back to their ancient reposito- ry within the city. The immense multitude who joined in the procession, chanted forth their execrations against idols and idolaters ; and on the same night the image and the temple of the Heathen god were consumed by the flames. A dreadful vengeance might be expected to have followed these scenes J but the real or affected ANT 64 ANT clemency of Julian contented itself with shut- ting up the cathedral, and confiscating its wealth. Many Christians, indeed, suffered from the zeal of the Pagans ; but, as it would appear, without the sanction of the emperor. In 1268, Antioch was taken by Bibars, or Bondocdar, sultan of Egypt. The slaughter of seventeen thousand, and the captivity of one hundred thousand of its inhabitants, mark the final siege and fall of Antioch; which, while they close the long catalogue of its public woes, attest its extent and population. From this time it remained in a ruinous and nearly de- serted condition, till, with the rest of Syria, it passed into the hands of the Ottoman Turks, with whose empire it has ever since been in- corporated. To distinguish it from other cities of the same name, the capital of Syria was called Anteochia apud Daphnem, or Antioch near Daphne, a village in the neighbourhood, where was a temple dedicated to the goddess of that name; though, in truth, the chief deity of the place was Apollo, under the fable of his amor- ous pursuit of the nymph Daphne ; and the worship was worthy of its object. The temple stood in the midst of a grove of laurels and cypresses, where every thing was assembled which could minister to the senses ; and in whose recesses the juvenile devotee wanted not the countenance of a libertine god to aban- don himself to voluptuousness. Even those of riper years and graver morals could not with safety breathe the atmosphere of a place where pleasure, assuming the character of religion, roused the dormant passions, and subdued the firmness of virtuous resolution. Such being the source, the stream could scarcely be ex- pected to be more pure ; in fact, the citizens of Antioch were distinguished only for their lux- ury in life and licentiousness in manners. This was an unpromising soil for Christianity to take root in. But here, nevertheless, it was planted at an early period, and flourished vigor- ous^'. It should be observed, that the inhabit- ants of Antioch were partly Syrians, and partly Greeks ; chiefly, perhaps, the latter, who were invited to the new city by Seleucus. To these Greeks, in particular, certain Cypriot and Cy- renian converts, who had fled from the perse- cution which followed the death of Stephen, addressed themselves ; " and a great number believed, and turned unto the Lord." When the heads of the church at Jerusalem were in- formed of this success, ihey sent Barnabas to Antioch, who encouraged the new disciples, and added many to their number ; and finding how great were both the field and the harvest, went to Tarsus to solicit the assistance of Paul. Both this Apostle and Barnabas then taught conjointly at Antioch ; and great numbers were, by their labours during a whole year, added to the rising church, Acts xi, 19-26 ; xv, 22-35. Here they were also joined by Peter, who was reproved by Paul for his dissimulation, and his concession to the Jews respecting the observ- ance of the law, Gal. ii, 11-14. Antioch was the birthplace of St. Luke and Theophilus, and the see of the martyr Ignatius. In this city the followers of Christ had first the name of Christians given them. We have the testimony of Chrysostom, both of the vast in- crease of this illustrious church in the fourth century, and of the spirit of charity which con- tinued to actuate it. It consisted at this time of not less than a hundred thousand persons, three thousand of whom were supported out of the public donations. It is painful to trace the progress of declension in such a church as this. But the period now referred to, namely, the age of Chrysostom, toward the close of the fourth century, may be considered as the brigl'4- est of its history subsequent to the Apostolic age, and that from which the church at Anti- och may date its fall. It conlinucd, indeed, outwardly prosperous ; but superstition, secular ambition, the pride of life ; pomp and formality in the service of God, in place of humility and sincere devotion; the growth of faction, and the decay of charity ; showed that real religion was fast disappearing, and that the foundations were laid of that great apostasy which, in two centuries from this time, overspread the whole Christian world, led to the entire extinction of the church in the east, and still holds dominion over the fairest portions of the west. Antioch, under its modern name of Antakia, is now but little known to the western nations. It occupies, or rather did till lately occupy, a remote corner of the ancient enclosure of its walls. Its splendid buildings were reduced to hovels ; and its population of half a million, to ten thousand wretched beings, living in the usual debasement and insecurity of Turkish subjects. Such was nearly its condition when visited by Pocock about the year 1738, and again by Kinneir in 1813. But its ancient subterranean enemy, which, since its destruc- tion in 587, never long together withheld its assaults, has again triumphed over it : the earth- quake of the 13th of August, 1822, laid it once more in ruins ; and every thing relating to An- tioch is past. ANTIOCH, of Pisidia. Beside the Syrian capital, there was another Antioch visited by St. Paul when in Asia, and called, for the sake of distinction, Antiochia ad Pisidiam, as belong- ing to that province, of which it was the capi- tal. Here Paul and Barnabas preached ; but the Jews, jealous, as usual, of the reception of the Gospel by the Gentiles, raised a sedition against them, and obliged them to leave the city, Acts xiii, 14, to the end. There were several other cities of the same name, sixteen in number, in Syria and Asia Minor, built by the Seleucidae, the successors of Alexander in these countries ; but the above two are the only ones which it is necessary to describe as oc- curring in Scripture. ANTIOCHUS. There were many kings of this name in Syria, much celebrated in the Greek, Roman, and Jewish histories, after the time of Seleucus Nicanor, the father of Antio- chus Soter, and reckoned the first king of Syria, after Alexander the Great. 1. Antiochus Soter was the son of Seleucus Nicanor, and obtained the surname of Soter, or Saviour, from having hindered the invasion ANT 65 ANT nf Asia by the Gauls. Some think that it was on the following occasion : The Galatians hav- ing marched to attack the Jews in Babylon, whose army consisted only of eight thousand men, reinforced with four thousand Macedon- ians, the Jews defended themselves with so much bravery, that they killed one hundred and twenty thousand men, 2 Mac. viii, 20. It was perhaps, too, on tbis occasion, that Antio- chus Soter made the Jews of Asia free of the cities belonging to the Gentiles, and permitted them to live according to their own laws. 2. Antiociius Tiieos, or, the God, was the son and successor of Antiociius Soter. He married Berenice, daughter of Ptolemy Phila- delphus, king of Egypt. Laodice, his first wife, seeing herself despised, poisoned Antiociius, Berenice, and their son, who was intended to eucceed in the kingdom. After this, Laodice procured Seleucus Callinicus, her son by Antio- ciius, to be acknowledged king of Syria. These events were foretold by Daniel: "And in the end of years," the king of Egypt, or of the south, and the king of Syria, or of the north, " shall join themselves together ; for the king's daughter of the south shall come to the king of the north to make an agreement : but she shall not retain the power of the arm; neither shall he stand, nor his arm : but she shall be given up, and they that brought her, and he that begat her, and he that strengthened her in these times," Dan. xi, 6. 3. Antiociius the Great was the son of Seleucus Callinicus, and brother to Seleucus Ceraunus, whom he succeeded in the year of the world 3781, and before Jesus Christ 223. He made war against Ptolemy Philopator, king of Egypt, but was defeated near Raphia, 3 Mac. i. Thirteen years after, Ptolemy Philopator being dead, Antiociius resolved to become master of Egypt. He immediately seized Coelo-Syria, Phenicia, and Judea ; but Scopas, general of the Egyptian army, entered Judea while Antiociius was occupied by the war against Attalus, and retook those places. However, he soon lost them again to Antiociius. On this occasion happened what Josephus relates of this prince's journey to Jerusalem. After a victory which he had obtained over Scopas, near the springs of Jordan, he became master of the strong places in Ccclo-Syria and Sama- ria ; and the Jews submitted freely to him, re- ceived him into their city and furnished his army plentifully with provisions. In reward for their affection, Antiociius granted them, according to Josephus, twenty thousand pieces of silver, to purchase beasts for sacrifice, one thousand four hundred and sixty measures of meal, and three hundred and seventy-five mea- sures of salt to be offered with the sacrifices, and timber to rebuild the porches of tlie Lord's house. He exempted the senators, scribes, and singing men of the temple, from the capitation tax ; and he permitted the Jews to live accord- ing to their own laws in every part of his do- minions. He also remitted the third part of their tribute, to indemnify them for their losses in the war ; he forbade the Heathens to enter the temple without being purified; and to bring 6 into the city the flesh of mules, asses, and horses to sell, under a severe penalty. In the year of the world 3815, Antiociius was overcome by the Romans, and obliged to cede all his possessions beyond Mount Taurus to give twenty hostages, among whom was bis own son Antiociius, afterward surnamed Epi- phanes, and to pay a tribute of twelve thousand Euboic talents, each fourteen Roman pounds in weight. To defray these charges, he re- solved to seize the treasures of the tomple of Belus, at Elymais ; but the people of that coun- try, informed of his design, surprised and de- stroyed him, with all his army, in the year of the world 3817, and before Jesus Christ 187. He left two sons, Seleucus Philopator, and Antiociius Epiphancs, who succeeded biin. 4. Antiociius Epipiianes, the. son of Antio- ciius the Great, having continued a hostage at Rome fourteen years, his brother Seleucus re- solved to procure his return to Syria, and sent his own son Demetrius to Rome in the place of Antiociius. Whilst Antiociius was on his journey to Syria, Seleucus died, in the year of the world 3829. When, therefore, Antiociius landed, the people received him as some pro- pitious deity come to assume the government, and to oppose the enterprises of Ptolemy, king of Egypt, who threatened to invade Syria. For this reason Antiociius obtained the surname of Epiphan.es, the illustrious, or of one appearing like a god. Antiochus quickly turned his attention to the possession of Egypt, which was then en- joyed by Ptolemy Philometor, his nephew, son to his sister Cleopatra, whom Antiociius the Great had married to Ptolemy Epiphancs, king of Egypt. He sent Apollonius, one of his officers, into Egypt, apparently to honour Pto- lemy's coronation, but in reality to obtain intelligence whether the great men of the king- dom were inclined to place the government of Egypt in his hands during the minority of the king his nephew, 2 Mac. iv, 21, &c. Apollo- nius, however, found them not disposed to favour his master ; and this obliged Antiochus to make war against Philometor. He came to Jerusalem in 3831, and was received there by Jason, to whom he had sold the high priest- hood. He designed to attack Egypt, but re- turned without effecting any thing. The am- bition of those Jews who sought the high priesthood, and bought it of Antiochus, was the beginning of those calamities which over- whelmed their nation under this prince. Jason procured himself to be constituted in this dig- nity in the stead of Onias III ; but Menelaus offering a greater price, Jason was deprived, and Menelaus appointed in his place. These usurpers of the high priesthood, to gratify the Syrians, assumed the manners of the Greeks, their games and exercises, and neglected the worship of the Lord, and the temple service. War broke out between Antiochus Epiphancs and Ptolemy Philometor. Antiochus entered Egypt in the year of the world 3833, and re- duced almost the whole of it to his obedience, •2 Mae. v, 3-5. The next year he returned ; and whilst he was engaged in the siege of ANT 66 ANT Alexandria, a false report was spread of his death. The inhabitants of Jerusalem testifying their joy at this news, Antiochus, when re- turning from Egypt, entered this city by force, treated the Jews as rebels, and commanded his troops to slay all they met. Eighty thousand were killed, made captives, or sold on this occasion. Antiochus, conducted by the cor- rupt high priest Menclaus, entered into the holy of holies, whence he took and carried off the- most precious vessels of that holy place, to the value of one thousand eight hundred talents. In the year 3835, Antiochus made a third expedition against Egypt, which he en- tirely subdued. The year following, he sent Apollonius into Judea, with an army of twenty- two thousand men, and commanded him to kill all the Jews who were of full age, and to sell the women and young men, 2 Mac. v, 24, 25. These orders were too punctually executed. It vexation. In this condition he wrote to the Jews very humbly, promised them many things, and engaged even to turn Jew, if God would restore him to health. He earnestly recom- mended to them his son Antiochus, who was to succeed him, and entreated them to favour the young prince, and to continue faithful to him. He died, overwhelmed with pain and grief, in the mountains of Paratacene, in the little town of Tabes, in the year of the world 3840, and before Jesus Christ 164. 5. Antiochus Eupatok, son of Antiochus Epiphanes, was only nine years old when his father died and left him the kingdom of Syria. Lysias, who governed the kingdom in the name of the young prince, led against Judea an army of one hundred thousand foot, twenty thousand horse, and thirty elephants, 1 Mac. vi ; 2 Mac. xiii. He besieged and took the fortress of Bethsura, and thence marched against Jerusa- was on this occasion that Judas Maccaboeus lem. The city was ready to fall into his hands retired into the wilderness with his father and his brethren, 2 Mac. v, 29. These misfortunes were only preludes of what they were to suffer ; for Antiochus, apprehending that the Jews would never be constant in their obedience to him, unless he obliged them to change their religion, and to embrace that of the Greeks, issued an edict, enjoining them to conform to the laws of other nations, and forbidding their usual sacrifices in the temple, their festivals, and their Sabbath. The statue of Jupiter Olympus was placed upon the altar of the tem- ple, and thus the abomination of desolation was seen in the temple of God. Many corrupt Jews complied with these orders ; but others resisted them. Mattathias and his sons retired to the mountains. Old Eleazar, and the seven brethren, suffered death with great courage at Antioch, 2 Mac. vii. Mattathias being dead, Judas Maccaboeus headed those Jews who con- tinued faithful, and opposed with success the generals whom king Antiochus sent into Judea. The king, informed of the valour and resist- ance of Judas, sent new forces ; and, finding his treasures exhausted, he resolved to go into Persia to levy tributes, and to collect large sums which he had agreed to pay to the Ro- mans, 1 Mac. iii, 5-31; 2 Mac. ix, 1, &c; 1 Mac. vi, 1, &c. Knowing that very great riches were lodged in the temple of Elymais, he determined to carry it off; but the inhabit- ants of the country made so vigorous a resist- ance, that he was forced to retreat toward Babylonia. When he was come to Ecbatana, he was informed of the defeat of Nicanor and Timotheus, and that Judas Maccaboeus had retaken the temple of Jerusalem, and restored the worship of the Lord, and the usual sacrifi- On receiving this intelligence, the king was transported with indignation ; and, threat- ening to make Jerusalem a grave for the Jews, commanded the driver of his chariot to urge the horses forward, and to hasten his journey. However, divine vengeance soon overtook him : ho fell from his chariot, and bruised all his limbs. Ho was also tormented with such pains in his bowels, as allowed him no rest ; and his disease waa aggravated by griof and when Lysias received the news that Philip, whom Antiochus Epiphanes had entrusted with the regency of the kingdom, had come to Antioch to take the government, according to the disposition of the late king. He therefore proposed an accommodation with the Jews, that he might return speedily to Antioch and oppose Philip. After concluding a peace, he immediately returned into Syria, with the young king and his army. In the meantime, Demetrius Soter, son of Seleucus Philopator, and nephew to Antiochus Epiphanes, to whom by right the kingdom belonged, having escaped from Rome, came into Syria. Finding the people disposed for revolt, Demetrius headed an army, and marched directly to Antioch, against Antiochus and Lysias. However, the inhabitants did not wait till he besieged the city ; but opened the gates, and delivered to him Lysias and the young king Antiochus Eupator, whom Demetrius caused to be put to death, without suffering them to appear in his presence. Antiochus Eupator reigned only two years, and died in the year of the world 3842, and before Jesus Christ 162. 6. Antiochus Theos, or the Ditinc, the son of Alexander Balas, king of Syria, was brought up by the Arabian prince Elmachuel, or, as he is called in the Greek, Simalcue, 1 Mac. xi, 39, 40, &.c. Demetrius Nicanor, king of Syria, having rendered himself odious to his troops, one Diodotus, otherwise called Tryphon, came to Zabdiel, a king in Arabia, and desired him to entrust him with young Antiochus, whom he promised to place on the throne of Syria, which was then possessed by Demetrius Nica- nor. After some hesitation, Zabdiel complied with the request ; and Tryphon carried Antio- chus into Syria, and put the crown on his head. The troops dismissed by Demetrius, came and joined Tryphon, who, having formed a powerful army, defeated Demetrius, and forced him to retreat to Seleucia. Tryphon seized his elephants, and rendered himself master of Antioch, in the year of the world 3859, and before Jesus Christ 145. Antiochus Theos, to strengthen himself in his new acqui- sition, 6cnt letters to Jonathan Maccaboeus, ANT 67 ANT high priest and prince of the Jews, confirming him in the high priesthood, and granting him four toparchies, or four considerable places, in Judea. He also received Jonathan into the number of his friends, sent him vessels of gold, permitted him to use a gold cup, to wear purple, and a golden buckle ; and he gave his brother, Simon Maccabreus, the command of all bis troops on the coast of the Mediterranean, from Tyre to Egypt. Jonathan, engaged by so many favours, declared resolutely for Antiochus, or rather for Tryphon, who reigned under the name of this young prince ; and on several occasions, he attacked the generals of Deme- trius, who still possessed many places beyond Jordan and in Galilee, 1 Mace, xi, 63, &c ; xii, 24, 34. Tryphon, seeing young Antiochus in peaceable possession of the kingdom of Syria, resolved to usurp his crown. He thought it necessary, in the first place, to secure Jonathan Maccabseus who was one of the most powerful supporters of Antiochus's throne. He came, therefore, with troops into Judea, invited Jona- than to Ptolemais, and there, on frivolous pre- tences, made him prisoner. However, Simon, Jonathan's brother, headed the troops of Judea, and opposed Tryphon, who intended to take Jerusalem. Tryphon, being disappointed, put Jonathan to death at Bassa or Bascama, and returned into Syria, where, without delay, he executed his design of killing Antiochus. He corrupted the royal physicians, who, having published that Antiochus was tormented with the stone, murdered him, by cutting him with- out any necessity. Thus Tryphon was left master of Syria, in the year of the world 3861, and before Jesus Christ 143. 7. Antiochus Sidetes, or Soter the Saviour, or Eusebcs the pious, was the son of Demetrius Soter, and brother to Demetrius Nicanor. Try- phon, the usurper of the kingdom of Syria, having rendered himself odious to his troops, they deserted him, and offered their services to Cleopatra, the wife of Demetrius Nicanor. She lived in the city of Seleucia, shut up with her children, while her husband Demetrius was a prisoner in Persia, where he had married Rodeguna, the daughter of Arsaces king of Persia. Cleopatra, therefore sent to Antiochus Sidetes, her brother-in-law, and offered him the crown of Syria, if he would marry her; to which Antiochus consented. This prince was then at Cnidus, where his father, Demetrius Soter had placed him with one of his friends. He came into Syria, and wrote to Simon Mac- Cabreus, to engage him against Tryphon, 1 Mace, xv, 1, 2, 3, &c. He confirmed the privileges which the kings of Syria had granted to Simon, permitted him to coin money with his own stamp, declared Jerusalem and the temple exempt from royal jurisdiction, and promised other favours as soon as he should obtain peaceable possession of the kingdom which had belonged to his ancestors. Antiochus Sidetes having married his sister-in-law, Cleopatra, in the year of the world 3865, the troops of Try- phon resorted to him in crowds. Tryphon, thus abandoned, retired to Dora, in Phoenicia, whither Anticchus pursued him with an army of 120,000 foot, 800 horse, and a powerful fleet. Simon Maccabreus sent Antiochus two thousand chosen men, but the latter refused them and revoked all his promises. He also sent Athenobius to Jerusalem to oblige Simon to restore to him Gazara and Joppa, with the citadel of Jerusalem ; and to demand of him five hundred talents more, as reparation for injuries the king had suffered, and as tribute for his own cities. At the same time he threatened to make war upon him, if he did not comply. Simon showed Athenobius all the lustre of his wealth and power, told him he had in his pos- session no place whicli belonged to Antiochus, and said that the cities of Gazara and Joppa had greatly injured his people, and he would give the king for the property of them one hundred talents. Athenobius returned with great indignation to Antiochus, who was ex- tremely offended at Simon's answer. In the meantime, Tryphon having escaped privately from Dora, embarked in a vessel and fled. An- tiochus pursued him, and sent Cendebeus with troops into the maritime parts of Palestine, and commanded him to rebuild Cedron, and fight the Jews. John Hircanus, son of Simon Mac- cabseus, was then at Gaza, and gave notice to his father of the coming of Cendebeus. Simon furnished his sons, John Hircanus and Judas with troops, and sent them against Cendebeus, whom they routed in the plain and pursued to Azotus. Antiochus followed Tryphon, till he forced him to kill himself in the year of the world 3869. After this, Antiochus thought only of reducing to his obedience those cities which, in the beginning of his father's reign, had shaken oft' their subjection. Simon Maccabsus, prince and high priest of the Jews, being treacherously murdered by Ptolemy, his son-in-law, in the castle of Docus, near Jericho, the murderer immediately sent to Antiochus Sidetes to de- mand troops, that he might recover for him the country and cities of the Jews. Antiochus came in person with an army, and besieged Jerusa- lem, which was bravely defended by John Hir- canus. The siege was long protracted ; and the king divided his army into seven parts, and guarded all the avenues of the city. It being the time for celebrating the feast of taberna- cles, the Jews desired of Antiochus a truce for seven days. The king not only granted this request, but sent them bulls with gilded horns, and vessels of gold and silver filled with incense, to be offered in the temple. He also ordered such provisions as they wanted, to be given to the Jewish soldiers. This courtesy of the king so won the hearts of the Jews, that they sent ambassadors to treat of peace, and to desire that they might live according to their own laws. Antiochus required that they should surrender their arms, demolish the city walls, pay tribute for Joppa and the other cities they possessed out of Judea, and receive a garrison into Jerusalem. To these conditions, except the last, the Jews consented; for they could not be induced to see an army of strangers in their capital, and chose rather to give hostages and five hundred talents of silver. The king ANT 68 ANT entered the city, beat down the breast work above the walls, and returned to Syria, in the year of the world 3870, and before Jesus Christ 134. Three years after, Antiochus marched against the Persians, or Partbians, and demand. ed the liberty of his brother Demetrius Nicanor, who had been made prisoner long before by Arsaces, and was detained for the purpose of being employed in exciting a war against Antio- chus. This war, therefore, Antiochus thought proper to prevent. With an army of eighty thousand, or, as Orosius says, of one hundred thousand men, he marched toward Persia, and no sooner appeared on the frontiers of that country, than several eastern princes, detesting the pride and avarice of the Persians, came and surrendered. Antiochus defeated his enemies in three engagements, and took Babylon. He was accompanied in these expeditions by John Hircanus, high priest of the Jews, who, it is supposed, obtained the surname of Hircanus from some gallant action which he performed. As the army of Antiochus was too numerous to continue assembled in any one place, he was obliged to divide it, to put it into winter quar- ters. These troops behaved with so much in- solence, that they alienated the minds of all men. The cities in which they were, privately surrendered to the Persians ; and all resolved to attack, in one day, the garrisons they contained, that the troops being separated might not assist each other. Antiochus at Babylon obtained intelligence of this design, and, with the few soldiers about him, endeavoured to succour his people. He was attacked in the way by Phraa- Antipas, returning to Judea, took great pains in adorning and fortifying the principal places of his dominions. He married the daughter or Aretas, king of Arabia, whom he divorced about A. D. 33, that he might marry his sister-in-law, Herodias, the wife of his brother Philip, who was still living. John the Baptist, exclaiming against this incest, was seized by order of An- tipas, and imprisoned in the castle of Machaerus. Josephus says, that Antipas caused John to be taken, because he drew too great a concourse after him ; and Antipas was afraid he should use his influence over the people to induce them to revolt. But Josephus has reported the pretence for the true cause. The evangelists, who were better informed than Josephus, as being eye witnesses of what passed, and particularly ac- quainted with John and his disciples, assure us, I hat the true reason of imprisoning John was the aversion of Herod and Herodias against him, on account of his liberty in censuring their scandalous marriage, Matt, xiv, 3, 4 ; Mark vi, 14, 17, 18; Luke hi, 19, 20. When the king was celebrating his birth day, with the princi- pal persons of his court, the daughter of He- rodias danced before them, and pleased him so well that he swore to give her whatever she should ask. She consulted her mother, who advised her to ask the head of John the Bap- tist. Returning, therefore, to the hall, she ad- dressed herself to the king, and said, " Give me here John Baptist's head in a charger." The king was afflicted at this request; but in con- sideration of his oath, and of the persons at table with him, he sent one of his guards, who The head was tes, king of Persia, whom he fought with great beheaded John in prison bravery; but being at length deserted by his [ brought in, and given to the young woman, own forces, according to the generality of his- who delivered it to her mother, Matt, xiv, 5, 6, Kcording torians, he was overpowered and killed by the Persians or Partbians. Appian, however, says that he killed himself, and jElian, that he threw himself headlong from a precipice. This event took place in the year of the world 3874, and before Jesus Christ 130. After the death of Sidetes, Demetrius Nicanor, or Nicetor, reas- cended the throne of Syria. ANTIP^EDOBAPTISTS, a denomination given to those who object to the baptism of in- fants. The word is derived from aim, against, aats, izat&bs, a child, fia-nri^i, I baptize. See Baptism. ANTIPAS, Antipas-Herod, or Herod-Anti- pas, was the son of Herod the Great, and Cleo- patra of Jerusalem. Herod the Great, in his first will, declared him his successor in the king- dom ; but he afterward named his son Arche- laus king of Judea, and gave to Antipas only the title of tetrarch of Galilee and Perrea. Ar- chelaus going to Rome, to persuade the empe- ror to confirm his father's will, Antipas also went thither. The emperor bestowed on Ar- ehelaus one moity of what had been assigned him by Herod, with the quality of ethnarch, and promised to grant him the title of king when he had shown himself deserving of it by his virtues. To Antipas, \ugustus gave Galilee and Perrea; and to Philip, Herod's other son, the Batann>a, Trachonitis, and Auranitis, with soma other places. &c. Aretas, king of Arabia, to revenge the affront which Herod had offered to his daugh- ter, declared war against him, and vanquished him in a very obstinate contest. Josephus tells us, that the Jews attributed the defeat of Herod to the death of John the Baptist. In the year of the Christian cera 39, Herodias being jealous of the prosperity of her brother Agrippa, who from a private person had become king of Ju- dea, persuaded her husband, Herod-Antipas, to visit Rome, and desire the same dignity of the emperor Caius. She resolved to accompany him ; and hoped that her presents and appear- ance would contribute to procure the emperor's favour. However, Agrippa obtaining intelli- gence of this design, wrote to the emperor and accused Antipas. The messenger of Agrippa arrived at Baire, where the emperor was, at the very time when Herod received his first audience. Caius, on the delivery of Agrippa's letters, read them with great earnestness. In these letters, Agrippa accused Antipas of having been a par- ty in Sejanus's conspiracy against Tiberius, and said that he still carried on a correspondence with Artabanus, king of Partha, against the Romans. As a proof of this, he affirmed that. Antipas had in his arsenals arms for seventy thousand men. Caius being angry, demanded hastily of Antipas, if it were true that he had such a quantity of arms ? The king not daring to deny it, was instantly banished to Lyons in APE 69 APO Gaul. The emperor offered to forgive Hero- dias, in consideration of her brother Agrippa ; but she chose rather to follow her husband, and to share his fortune in banishment. This is that Antipas, who, being at Jerusalem at the time of our Saviour's passion, ridiculed Jesus whom Pilate had sent to him, dressed him in worn-out royalty, and sent him back to Pilate as a mock king, whose ambition gave him no umbrage, Luke xxiii, 7, 11. The year of the deatli of Antipas is unknown ; but it is certain that he, as well as Herodias, died in exile. Jo- sephus says, that he died in Spain, whither Caius, on his coming into Gaul the first year of his banishment, might order him to be sent. 2. Antipas, the faithful martyr or witness mentioned in the book of Revelation, ii, 13. He is said to have been one of our Saviour's first disciples, and to have suffered martyrdom at Pergamus, of which he was bishop. His Acts relate that he was burnt in a brazen bull. Though ancient ecclesiastical history furnishes no account of this Antipas, yet it is certain that, according to all the rules of language, what is said concerning him by St. John must be understood literally, and not mystically, as some interpreters have done. ANTIPATRIS, Acts xxiii, 31, a town in Pa- lestine, anciently called Caphar-Saba, accord- ing to Josephus ; but named Antipatris by He- rod the Great, in honour of his father Antipatcr. It was situated in a pleasant valley, near the mountains, in the way from Jerusalem to Cagsa- rea. Josephus places it at about the distance of seventeen miles from Joppa. To this place St. Paul was brought in his way to the governor of Judea at Crosarea, Acts xxiii, 31. ANTITYPE, that which answers to a type or figure. A type is a model, mould, or pat- tern ; that which is formed according to it is an antitype. See Type. ANTONIA, one of the towers of Jerusalem, called by Herod after M. Antony. The Romans generally kept a garrison in this tower; and from thence it was that the tribune ran with his soldiers to rescue St. Paul out of the hands of the Jews, who had seized him in the temple, and designed to have murdered him, Acts xxi, 31, 32. APE, cip, K>jos and nrjiros, cephus, 1 Kings x, 22 ; 2 Chron. ix, 21. This animal seems to be the same with the ceph of the Ethiopians, of which Pliny speaks, 1. viii, c. 19 : " At the games given by Pompey the Great," says he, " were shown cephs brought from Ethiopia, which had their fore feet like a human hand, their hind legs and feet also resembled those of a man." The Scripture says that the fleet of Solomon brought apes, or rather monkeys, &c, from Ophir. The learned are not agreed re- specting the situation of that country ; but Major Wilford says that the ancient name of the River Landi sindh in India was Cophes. May it not have been so called from the rjiBp inhabiting its banks ? We now distinguish this tribo of creatures into 1. Monkeys, those with long tails ; 2. Apes, those with short tails ; 3. Baboons, those with- out tails. The ancient Egyptians are said to have worshipped apes; it is certain that they are still adored in many places in India. Maf- feus describes a magnificent temple dedicated to the ape, with a portico for receiving the victims sacrificed, supported by seven hundred columns. " With glittering gold and sparkling gems they shine, But apes and monkeys are the gods within." Figures of apes are also made and reverenced as idols, of which we have several in Moore's " Hindoo Pantheon ;" also in the avatars, given in Maurice's " History of India," &,c. In some parts of the country the apes are held sacred, though not resident in temples ; and incautious Engljsh gentlemen, by attempting to shoot these apes, (rather, perhaps, monkeys,) have been exposed, not only to all manner of insults and vexations from the inhabitants of the vil- lages, &c, adjacent, but have even been in danger of their lives. APHARSACHITES, a people sent by the kings of Assyria to inhabit the country of Sa- maria, in the room of those Israelites who had been removed beyond the Euphrates, Ezra v, 6, They, with the other Samaritans, opposed the rebuilding of the walls of Jerusalem, Ezra iv, 9, APIS, a symbolical deity worshipped by the Egyptians. It was an ox, having certain ex. terior marks, in which animal the soul of the great Osiris was supposed to subsist. The ox was probably made the symbol of Osiris be- cause he presided over agriculture. APOCALYPSE, ' AnoKdXvipig, signifies revela. lion. It is, however, particularly applied to the Revelations which St. John had in the isle of Patmos, whither he had been banished. The testimonies in favour of the book of the Reve- lation being a genuine work of St. John the Evangelist are very full and satisfactory. An. drew, bishop of Caesarea in Capadocia, in the fifth century, assures us that Papias acknow- ledged the Revelation to be inspired. But the earliest author now extant who mentions this book is Justin Martyr, who lived about sixty years after it was written, and he ascribes it to St. John. So does Iraeneus, whose evidence is alone sufficient upon this point ; for he was the disciple of Polycarp, who was the disciple of John himself; and he expressly tells us that he had the explanation of a certain passage in this book from those who had conversed with St. John the author. These two fathers are followed by Clement of Alexandria, Theophi- lus of Antioch, Tertullian, Origen, Cyprian, Lactantius, Jerome, Athanasius, and many other ecclesiastical writers, all of whom concur in considering the Apostle John as the author of the Revelation. Some few persons, how- ever, doubted the genuineness of this book in the third and fourth centuries; but since that time it has been very generally acknowledged to be canonical ; and, indeed, as Mr. Lowman observes, " hardly any one book has received more early, more authentic, and more satisfac- tory attestations." The omission of this book in some of the early catalogues of the Scrip, tures, was probably not owing to any suspicion concerning its authenticity or genuineness, but because its obscurity and mysteriousness were thought to render it less fit to be read publicly and generally. It is called the Revelation of Aro 70 APO John the Divine ; and this appellation was first given to St. John by Eusebius, not to dis- tinguish him from any other person of the same name, but as an honourable title, inti- mating that to him was more fully revealed the system of divine counsels than to any other prophet of the Christian dispensation. .St. John was banished to Patmos in the latter part of tbe reign of Domitian, and he returned to Ephesus immediately after the death of that emperor, which happened in the year 96 ; and as the Apostle states, that these visions appeared to him while he was in that island, we may consider this book as written in the year 95 or 96. In the first chapter, St. John asserts the divine authority of the predictions which he is about to deliver; addresses himself to the churches of the Proconsular Asia : and describes the first vision, in which he is commanded to write the things then revealed to him. The second and third chapters contain seven epis- tles to the seven churches in Asia ; namely, of Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamus, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia, and Laodicea, which relate chiefly to their then respective circumstances and situation. At the fourth chapter the prophetic visions begin, and reach to the end of the book. They contain a prediction of all the most re- markable revolutions and events in the Chris- tian church from the time of the Apostle to the final consummation of all things. An attempt to explain these prophecies does not fall within the design of this work ; and there- fore those who are disposed to study this sub- lime and mysterious book are referred to Mede, Daubuz, Sir Isaac Newton, Lowman, Bishop Newton, Bishop Hurd, and many other excel- lent commentators. These learned men agree in their general principles concerning the in- terpretation of this book, although they differ in some particular points; and it is not to be expected that there should be a perfect coinci- dence of opinion in the explanation of those predictions which relate to still future times; for, as the incomparable Sir Isaac Newton ob- serves, " God gave these and the prophecies of the Old Testament, not to gratify men's curiosity, by enabling them to foreknow things, but that after they were fulfilled they might be interpreted by the event, and his own pre- science, not that of the interpreters, be then manifested thereby to the world." '.' To explain this book perfectly," says Bishop Newton, " is not the work of one man, or of one age ; but probably it never will be clearly understood, till it is all fulfilled." It is graciously designed, that the gradual accomplishment of these pre- dictions should afford, in every succeeding period of time, additional testimony to the divine origin of our holy religion. APOCRYPHA, books not admitted into the sacred canon, being either spurious, or at least not acknowledged to be divine. The word Apocrypha is of Greek origin, and is cither derived from the words and rrjs Kpimijg, because the books in question were removed from the crypt, chest, ark, or other receptacle in which the sacred books were deposited whose authority was never doubted, or more probably from tne verb a-oKpi-TTw, to hide or conceal, because they were concealed from the generality of readers, their authority not being recognised by the church, and because they are books which are destitute of proper testimonials, their original being obscure, their authors unknown, and their character either heretical or suspected. The advocates of the church of Rome, indeed, affirm that some of these books are divinely inspired ; but it is easy to account for this : the apocryphal writings serve to countenance some of the corrupt practices of that church. The Pro- testant churches not only account those books to be apocryphal and merely human composi- tions which are esteemed such by the church of Rome, as the Prayer ef Manasseh, the third and fourth books of Esdras, the addition at the end of Job, and the hundred and fifty-first Psalm ; but also the books of Tobit, Judith, the additions to the book of Esther, Wisdom, Ec- clesiasticus, Baruch the Prophet, with the Epistle of Jeremiah, the Song of the Three Children, the Story of Susanna, the Story of Bel and the Dragon, and the first and second books of Maccabees. The books here enume- rated are unanimously rejected by Protestants for the following reasons : — 1. They possess no authority whatever, either external or internal, to procure their admission into the sacred canon. None of them are extant in Hebrew ; all of them are in the Greek language, except the fourth book of Esdras, which is only extant in Latin. They were written for the most part by Alexandrian Jews, subsequently to the cessation of the pro- phetic spirit, though before the promulgation of the Gospel. Not one of the writers in direct terms advances a claim to inspiration ; nor were they ever received into the sacred canon by the Jewish church, and therefore they were not sanctioned by our Saviour. No part of the apocrypha is quoted, or even alluded to, by him or by any of his Apostles ; and both Philo and Josephus, who flourished in the first century of the Christian aera, are totally silent concerning them. 2. The apocryphal books were not admitted into the canon of Scripture during the first four centuries of the Christian church. They are not mentioned in the catalogue of inspired writings made by Melito bishop of Sardis, who flourished in the second century, nor in those of Origen in the third century, of Athanasius, Hilary, Cyril of Jerusalem, Epiphanius, Gre- gory Nazianzen, Amphilochius, Jerom, Rufi- nus, and others of the fourth century ; nor in the catalogue of canonical books recognised by the council of Laodicea, held in the same cen- tury, whose canons were received by the catho- lic church; so that as Bishop Burnet well observes, we have the concurring sense of the whole church of God in this matter. To this decisive evidence against the canonical autho- rity of the apocryphal books, we may add that they were never read in the Christian church until the fourth centuiy ; when, as Jerom in- forms us, they were read " for example of life, I and instruction of manners ; but were not APO 71 APO applied to establish any doctrine." And eon- temporary writers state, that although they were not approved as canonical or inspired writings, yet some of them, particularly Judith, Wisdom, and Ecclesiasticus, were allowed to be perused by catechumens. As a proof that they were not regarded as canonical in the fifth century, Augustine relates, that when the book of Wisdom and other writings of the • same class were publicly read in the church, they were given to the readers or inferior eccle- siastical officers, who read them in a lower place than those which were universally ac- knowledged to be canonical, which were read by the bishops and presbyters in a more emi- nent and conspicuous manner. To conclude : notwithstanding the veneration in which these books were held by the western church, it is evident that the same authority was never ascribed to them as to the Old and New Tes- tament until the last council of Trent, at its fourth session, presumed to place them all (except the Prayer of Manasseh and the third and fourth books of Esdras) in the same rank with the inspired writings of Moses and the Prophets. APOLLINARIANS, or Apollinarists, or, as they are called by Epiphanius, Dimaritoe, a sect who derive their principal name from Apolli- naris, bishop of Laodicea, in the fourth century. Apollinaris strenuously defended the divinity of Christ against the Arians; but by indulging too freely in philosophical distinctions and subtleties, he denied in some measure his hu- manity. He maintained that the body which Christ assumed was endowed with a sensitive, and not a rational, soul ; and that the divine nature performed the functions of reason, and supplied the place of the intellectual principle in man. Hence it seemed to follow, that the divine nature in Christ was blended with the human and suffered with it the pains of cruci- fixion and death. Apollinaris and his follow- ers have been charged with other errors by certain ancient writers ; but it is not easy to determine how far their charge is worthy of credit. The doctrine of Apollinaris was first condemned by a council at Alexandria in 362, and afterward in a more formal manner by a council at Rome in 375, and by another council in 378, which deposed Apollinaris from his bi- shopric. In short, it was attacked at the same time by the laws of the emperors, the decrees of councils, and the writings of the learned ; and sunk by degrees under their united force. APOLLOS was a Jew of Alexandria, who came to Ephesus in the year of our Lord 54, during the absence of St. Paul, who had gone to Jerusalem, Acts xviii, 24. He was an elo- quent man, and mighty in the Scriptures ; but he knew only the baptism of John, and was not fully informed of the higher branches of Gospel doctrine. However, he acknowledged that Jesus Christ was the Messiah, and declar- ed himself openly as his disciple. At Ephesus, therefore, he began to speak boldly in the synagogue, and demonstrated by the Scriptures that Jesus was the Christ. Aquila and Pris- cilla, having heard him there, took him with them, and instructed him more fully in the ways of God. Some time after, he was inclined to go into Achaia, and the brethren wrote to the disciples there, desiring them to receive him. He was very useful at Corinth, where he watered what St. Paul had planted, 1 Cor. iii, 6. It has been supposed, that the great admiration of his disciples for him tended to produce a schism. Some said, " I am of Paul ;" some, " I am of Apollos ;" and others, " I am of Cephas." But this division, which St. Paul mentions and reproves in his First Epistle to the Corinthians, did not prevent Paul and Apollos, personally, from being closely united in the bonds of Christian charity and affection. Apollos, hearing that the Apostle was at Ephe- sus, went to meet him, and was there when St. Paul wrote the First Epistle to the Corin- thians ; hi which he observes, that he had earn- estly entreated Apollos to return to Corinth : but though he had not prevailed with him, Apollos gave him room to hope that he would visit that city at a favourable opportunity. Some have supposed, that the Apostle names Apollos and Cephas, not as the real persons in whose name parties had been formed in Co- rinth, but that, in order to avoid provoking a temper which he wished to subside, he trans- fers "by a figure" to Apollos and himself what was really meant of other parties, whom from prudence he declines to mention. However this might be, the reluctance of Apollos to return to Corinth seems to countenance thp general opinion, St. Jerom says that Apollos was so dissatisfied witli the division which had happened on his account at Corinth, that he retired into Crete with Zeno, a doctor of the law; but that the evil having been corrected by the letter of St. Paul to the Corinthians, Apollos returned to that city, of which he after- ward became bishop. The Greeks say that he was bishop of Duras ; some, that he was bishop of Iconium, in Phrygia; and others of Cajsarea, APOLLYON. Sec Abaddon. APOLOGIES, in ecclesiastical history, were defences (so the Greek word means) of Christianity, presented to Heathen emperors, by the Christian fathers, who were therefore called Apologists. The first was presented to the emperor Adrian, by Quadratus, A. D. 126, a fragment of which is preserved by Eusebius; but another, presented soon after to the same, by Aristides, a converted Athenian philosopher, is totally lost. Justin Martyr wrote two apolo- gies; the latter (to the Roman senate) is im- perfect at the beginning; but the former, ad. dressed to Antoninus Pius, is preserved entire, and was published in English, in 1709, by the Rev. W. Reeves, together with one by Ter- tullian, the Octavius (a dialogue) of Minucius Felix, and the Commentary of Vincentius Lirinensis, with notes and preliminary disser- tations to each, in 2 vols. 8vo. The Apologies are curious and valuable remains of antiquity, as showing what were the objections of the Heathens, and the manner in which they were rebutted by the early Christians. APOSTASY, a deserting or abandoning of the true religion. The word is borrowed from APO 72 APO the Latin aposlatare, or apostare, to despise or violate any thing. Hence aposlatare leges anciently signified to transgress the lavs. The Latin apostatare, again, comes from d-d, from, and iV»;/«, / stand. Among the Romanists, apostasy also signifies the forsaking of a re- ligious order, whereof a man had made pro- fession, without a lawful dispensation. The ancients distinguished three kinds of apostasy : the first, a supererogatione, is committed by a priest, or religious, who abandons his profes- sion, and returns to his lay sjate ; the second, a mandatis Dei, by a person of any condition, who abandons the commands of God, though he retains his faith ; the third, a fide, by him who not only abandons his works, but also the faith. There is this difference between an apostate and a heretic ; that the latter only abandons a part of the faith, whereas the former renounces the whole. The primitive Chris- tian church distinguished several kinds of apostasy. The first was that of those who relapsed from Christianity into Judaism; the second, that of those who blended Judaism and Christianity together; and the third was that of those who, after having been Christians, voluntarily relapsed into Paganism. APOSTLE, arr6^o'\og, one of the twelve dis- ciples of Jesus Christ, commissioned by him to preach his Gospel, and propagate it to all parts of the earth. The word originally signifies a person delegated or sent; from aKo^fXXui, mitto; in which sense it occurs in Herodotus, and other profane authors. Hence, in the New Testament, the term is applied to divers sorts of delegates; and to the twelve disciples by way of eminence. They were limited to the number twelve, in allusion to the twelve tribes of Israel. See Matt, xix, 28 ; Luke xxii, 30 ; Rev. xxi, 12-14 ; and compare Exod. xxiv, 4 ; Deut. i, 23 ; and Josh, iv, 2, 3. Accord- ! ingly care was taken, on the death of Judas, to choose another, to make up the number, Acts i, 21, 22, 26. Of the first selection and com- mission of the twelve Apostles, we have an account, Luke vi, 13, &.c ; Matt, x, 1, &c. Having chosen and constituted twelve persons, under the name of Apostles, our blessed Lord determined that for some time they should be continually with him, not only to attend upon his public ministry, but to enjoy the benefit of his private conversation, that he might furnish them the better for the great work in which they were to be employed ; and that, at length, after suitable preparation, he might, with greater advantage, send them abroad to preach his Gospel, and thus make way for his own visits to some more distant parts, where he had not yet been ; and to enable them more effec- tually to do this, he endowed them with the power of working miracles, of curing diseases, and casting out demons. About the com- mencement of the third year of his ministry, according to the common account of its dura- tion, he sent them out two by two, that they might be assistants to each other in their work ; and commanded them to restrict their teaching and services to the people of Israel, and to avoid goins to the Gentiles or to the Samari- tans ; to declare the approach of the kingdom of heaven, and the establishment of the Gos- pel dispensation ; to exercise the miraculous powers with which they had been endowed gratuitously; and to depend for their subsist- ence on the providence of God, and on the donations of those to whom they ministered. Their names were, Simon Peter ; Andrew, his brother ; James the greater, the son of Zebedee ; and John his brother, who was the beloved • disciple ; Philip of Bethsaida ; Bartholomew ; Thomas, called Didymus, as having a twin brother; Matthew or Levi, who had been a publican ; James, the son of Alpheus, called James the less ; Lebbeus, surnamed Tiiaddeus, and who was also called Judas or Jude, the brother of James; Simon, the Canaanite, so called, as some have thought, because he was a native of Cana, or, as Dr, Hammond thinks, from the Hebrew Xjp, signifying the same with Zelotes, or the Zelot, a name given to him on account of his having before professed a dis- tinguishing zeal for the law ; and Judas Isca- riot, or a man of Carioth, Josh, xv, 25, who afterward betrayed him, and then laid violent hands on himself. Of these, Simon, Andrew, James the greater, and John, were fishermen ; Matthew, and James the son of Alpheus, were publicans ; and tire other six were probably fishermen, though their occupation is not dis- tinctly specified. After the resurrection of our Saviour, and not long before his ascension, the place of Ju- das the traitor was supplied by Matthias, sup- posed by some to have been Nathanael of Galilee, to whom our Lord had given the dis- tinguishing character of an " Israelite indeed, in whom there was no guile ;" and the twelve Apostles, whose number was now completed, received a new commission, of a more exten- sive nature than the first, to preach the Gospel to all nations, and to be witnesses of Christ, not only in Jerusalem, in all Judea, and in Samaria, but unto the uttermost parts of the earth ; and they were qualified for the execu- tion of their office by a plenteous effusion of miraculous powers and spiritual gifts, and par- ticularly the gift of tongues. In consequence of this commission, they preached first to the Jews, then to the Samaritans, and afterward to the idolatrous Gentiles. Their signal suc- cess at Jerusalem, where they opened their commission, alarmed the Jewish sanhedrim, before which Peter and John were summoned, and from which they received a strict charge never more to teach, publicly or privately, in the name of Jesus of Nazareth. The noble reply and subsequent conduct of the Apostlea are well known. Thic court of the Jews was so awed and incensed, as to plot the death of the twelve Apostles, as the only effectual mea- sure for preventing the farther spread of Chris- tianity. Gamaliel interposed, by his prudent and moderate counsel; and his speech had so good an effect upon the sanhedrim, that, in- stead of putting Peter and John to death, they scourged them, renewed their charge and threats, and then dismissed them. The Apos- tles, however, were not discpuraged nor re. APO 73 APO strained ; they counted it an honour to suffer such indignities, in token of their affection to their Master, and zeal in his cause ; and they persisted in preaching daily in the courts of the temple, and in other places, that Jesus of Nazareth was the promised and long expected Messiah. Their doctrine spread, and the num- ber of converts in Jerusalem still increased. During the violent persecution that raged at Jerusalem, soon after the martyrdom of St. Stephen, several of the leading men among the Christians were dispersed ; some of them travelled through the regions of Judea and Samaria, and others to Damascus, Phoenicia, the Island of Cyprus, and various parts of Syria ; but the twelve Apostles remained, with undaunted firmness, at Jerusalem, avowing their attachment to the persecuted interest of Christ, and consulting how they might best provide for the emergencies of the church, in its infant and oppressed state. When the Apostles, during their abode at Jerusalem, heard that many of the Samaritans had embraced the Gospel, Peter and John were deputed to confer upon them the gift of the Holy Spirit ; for to the Apostles belonged the prerogative of conferring upon others spiritual gifts and miraculous powers. In their return to Jerusalem, from the city of Samaria, they preached the Gospel in many Samaritan vil- lages. The manner of its being sent to Ethiopia, by the conversion of the eunuch who was chief treasurer to Candace, queen of the country, is related in Acts viii, 26, &c. After the Chris- tian religion had been planted in Jerusalem, Judea, and Samaria, and sent into Ethiopia, one of the uttermost parts of the earth, Acts i, 8 ; and after it had been preached about eight years to the Jews only, God, in his wise and merciful providence, disposed things for the preaching of it among the Gentiles. Csesarea was the scene in which the Apostle Peter was to open his commission for this purpose ; and Cornelius, one of the devout Gentiles, and a man distinguished by his piety and charity, was the first proselyte to Christianity. After Peter had laid the foundation of a Christian church among the devout Gentiles, others imi- tated his example, and a great number of per- sons of this description embraced the Christian faith, more especially at Antioch, where the disciples, whom their enemies had hitherto called Galileans, Nazarenes, and other names of reproach, and who, among themselves, had been called " disciples," " believers," " the church," " the saints," and " brethren," were denominated, probably not without a divine direction, Christians. When Christianity had been preached for about eight years among the Jews only, and for about three years more among the Jews and devout Gentiles, the next stage of its progress was to the idolatrous Gentiles, in the year of Christ 44, and the fourth year of the emperor Claudius. Barnabas and Saul were selected for this purpose, and constituted in an extra- ordinary manner Apostles of the Gentiles, or uncireumcision. Barnabas was probably an elder of the first rank ; he had seen Christ in the flesh, had been an eye witness of his being alive again after his crucifixion, and had re- ceived the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost, as being one of the hundred and twenty. Saul also, since his conversion had preached as a superior prophet, about seven years to the Jews only, and about two years more to the Jews and devout Gentiles. They had both been born in Gentile countries ; and therefore may be supposed to have had more respect and affec- tion for the Gentiles than most of the Jews, who were natives of Judea. Saul had been converted, and had hitherto preached chiefly on Gentile ground ; and he had joined with Barnabas in teaching devout Gentiles for a whole year, at Antioch in Syria ; by all which previous steps they were regularly conducted to the last gradation, or the conversion of the idolatrous Gentiles. But it was necessary, in order to the being an Apostle, to have seen our Lord Jesus Christ alive after his crucifixion, for the Apostles were in a peculiar manner the witnesses of his resurrection. Some have sup- posed that Saul saw the person of Jesus, when he was converted, near the city of Damascus ; but others, who conceive from the history of this event, that this could not have been the case, as he was instantly struck blind, are of opinion that the season, when his Apostolic qualification and commission were completed, was that mentioned by himself, Acts xxii, 17, when he returned to Jerusalem the second time after his conversion, saw the Lord Jesus Christ in person, and received the command to go quick- ly out of Jerusalem, that he might be sent unto the Gentiles. See also Acts xxvi, 16-20, where he gives an account of the object of his com- mission. He also received a variety of gifts and powers, which, superadded to his own genius and learning, as well as fortitude and patience, eminently qualified him for the office of an Apostle, and for that particular exercise of it which was assigned to him. St. Paul is frequently called the Apostle, by way of emi- nence ; and the Apostle of the Gentiles, because his ministry was chiefly employed for the con- version of the Gentiles, as that of St. Peter was for Jews, who is therefore styled the Apostle of the circumcision. The Apostles having continued at Jerusalem twelve years after the ascension of Christ, as tradition reports, according to his command, determined to disperse themselves in different parts of the world. But what were the par- ticular provinces assigned to each, does not certainly appear from any authentic history. Socrates says, that Thomas took Parthia for his lot; Matthew, Ethiopia, and Bartholomew, India. Eusebius gives the following account: "Thomas, as we learn by tradition, had Parthia for his lot ; Andrew, Scythia ; John, Asia, who having lived there a long time, died at Ephe- sus. Peter, as it seems, preached to the dis- persed Jews in Pontus and Galatia, Bithynia, Cappadocia, and Asia ; at length, coming to Rome, he was crucified with his head down- ward, as he had desired. What need I to speak of St. Paul, who fully preached the Gospel of Christ, from Jerusalem to Illyricum, and at last APO 74 APP died a martyr at Rome, in the time of Nero ?" From this passage we may conclude, that at the beginning of the fourth century, there were not any certain and well attested accounts of the places out of Judea, in which several of the Apostles of Christ preached ; for if there had, Eusebius must have been acquainted with them. The stories that are told concerning their arrival and exploits among the Gauls, the Eng- lish, the Spaniards, the Germans,the Americans, the Chinese, the Indians, and the Russians, are too romantic in their nature, and of too recent a date, to be received by an impartial inquirer after truth. These fables were for the most part forged after the time of Charlemagne, when most of the Christian churches contend- ed about the antiquity of their origin, with as much vehemence as the Arcadians, Egyptians, and Greeks disputed formerly about their se- niority and precedence. It appears, however, that all of the Apostles did not die by martyrdom. Heraclion, cited by Clemens Alexandrinus, reckons among the Apostles who did not suffer martyrdom, Mat- thew, Thomas, Philip, and Levi, probably meaning Lebbeus. To the Apostles belonged the peculiar and exclusive prerogative of writing doctrinal and preceptive books of authority in the Christian church ; and it sufficiently appears that no epistles or other doctrinal writings of any per- son who was of a rank below that of an Apos- tle, were received by Christians as a part of their rule of faith. With respect to the writ- ings of Mark and Luke, they are reckoned historical, not doctrinal or dogmatical ; and Augustine says, that Mark and Luke wrote at a time when their writings might be approved not only by the church, but by Apostles still living. The appellation of Apostles was also given to the ordinary travelling ministers of the church. Thus St. Paul, in the Epistle to the Romans, xvi, 7, says, " Salute Andronicus and Junia, my kinsmen and fellow prisoners, who are of note among the Apostles." In this inferior sense the appellation is applied, by Clement of Alexandria, to Barnabas ; who was not an Apostle in the highest sense of the word, so as the twelve and Paul were Apostles. Tertullian calls all the seventy disciples Apostles; and Clement calls Barnabas Apostolical merely in another place, and says that he was one of the seventy, and fellow labourer of Paul. These, says Dr. Lardner, are the highest characters which he really intends to give to Barnabas, and what he means when he styles him Apos- tle ; therefore he need not he supposed to ascribe to Barnabas that largo measure of in- spiration and high authority, which was pecu- liar to the Apostles, strictly and properly so called. In a similar subordinate form, St. Clement of Rome is called Apostle. Timothy also is called by Salvian, Apostle, meaning merely Apostolical, or a companion and disci- ple of Apostles. Apostle wss likewise a title given to those sent by the churches, to carry their alms to the poor of other churches. This usage they borrowed from the synagogues, who called those whom they sent on this message, by the same name ; and the function or office itself aiwy Palestine and the Dead Sea, on the east by Arabia Deserta, on the south by Arabia Felix, and on the west by the Heroo]" olitan branch of the Red Sea and the Isthmus of Suez. The greater parWof this division was more exclu- sively the possession of the Midianites, or land of Midian ; where Moses, having fled from Egypt, married the daughter of Jethro, and spent forty years keeping the flocks of his fa- ther-in-law : no humiliating occupation in those days, and particularly in Midian, which was a land of shepherds ; the whole people having no other way of life than that of rearing and tend- ing their flocks, or in carrying the goods they received from the east and so^h into Phenicia and Egypt. The word flock, used here, must not convey the idea naturally entertained in our own country of sheep only, but, together with these or goats, horned cattle and camels, the most indispensable of animals to the Midian- ite. It was a mixed flock of this kind which was the sole care of Moses, during a third part of his long life; in which he must have had abundance of leisure, by night and by day, to reflect on the unhappy condition of his own people, still enduring all the rigours of slavery in Egypt. It was a similar flock also which the daughters of Jethro were watering when first encountered by Moses ; a trifling event in itself, but important in the history of the future leader of the Jews ; and showing, at the same time, the simple life of the people among whom he was newly come, as well as the scanty supply of water in their country, and the strifes frequently occasioned in obtaining a share of it. Through a considerable part of this region, the Israelites wandered after they had escaped from Egypt ; and in it were situated the mountains Horeb and Sinai. Beside the tribes of Midian, which gradually became blended with those of Ishmael, this was the country of the Edomites, the Amalekites, and the Nabathaei, the only tribe of pure Ishmaelites within its precincts. But all those families have long since been con- founded under the general name of Arabs. The greater part of this district consists of naked rocks and sandy and flinty plains ; but it con- tained also some fertile spots, particularly in the peninsula of Mount Sinai, and through the long range of Mount Seir. The second region, or Arabia Deserta, is bounded on the north and north-east by the Euphrates, on the east by a ridge of mountains which separates it from Chaldea, on the south by Arabia Felix, and on the west by Syria, Ju- dea, and Arabia Petraea. This was more par- ticularly the country first of the Cushites, and afterward of the Ishmaelites; as it is still of their descendants, the modern Bedouins, who maintain the same predatory and wandering habits. It consists almost entirely of one vast and lonesome wilderness, a boundless level of sand, whose dry and burning surface denies existence to all but the Arab and his camel. Yet, widely scattered over this dreary waste, some spots of comparative fertility are to be found, where, spread around a feeble spring of ARA 77 ARA brackish water, a stunted verdure, or a few palm trees, fix the principal settlement of a tribe, and afford stages 6f refreshment in these otherwise impassable deserts. Here, with a few dates, the milk of his faithful camel, and perhaps a little corn, brought by painful jour- neys from distant regions, or plundered from a passing caravan, the Arab supports a hard ex- istence, until the failure of his resources impels him to seek another oasis, or the scanty herb- age furnished on a patch of soil by transient rains ; or else, which is frequently the case, to resort, by more distant migration, to the banks of the Euphrates ; or, by hostile inroads on the neighbouring countries, to supply those wants which the recesses of the desert have denied. The numbers leading this wandering and pre- carious mode of life are incredible. From these deserts Zerah drew his army of a million of men; and the same deserts, fifteen hundred years after, poured forth the countless swarms, which, under Mohammed and his successors, devastated half of the then known world. The third region, or Arabia Felix, so de- nominated from the happier condition of its soil and climate, occupies the southern part of the Arabian peninsula. It is bounded on the north by the two other divisions of the country : on the south and south-east by the Indian Ocean ; on the east by part of the same ocean and the Persian Gulf; and on the west by the Red Sea. This division is subdivided into the kingdoms or provinces of Yemen, at the south- ern extremity of the peninsula ; Hejaz, on the north of the former, and toward the Red Sea ; Nejed, in the central region; and Hadramant and Oman, on the shores of the Indian Ocean. The four latter subdivisions partake of much of the character of the other greater divisions of the country, though of a more varied surface, and with a larger portion capable of cultivation. But Yemen seems to belong to another country and climate. It is very mountainous, is well watered with rains and springs, and is blessed with an abundant produce in corn and fruits, and especially in coffee, of which vast quanti- ties are exported. In this division were the ancient cities of Nysa, Musa or Moosa, and Aden. This is also supposed to have been the country of the queen of Sheba. In Hejaz are the celebrated cities of Mecca and Medina. Arabia Felix is inhabited by a people who claim Jotkan for their father, and so trace their descent direct from Shem, instead of Abraham and Ham. They are indeed a totally different people from those inhabiting the other quarters, and pride themselves on being the only pure and unmixed Arabs. Instead of being shep- herds and robbers, they are fixed in towns and cities ; and live by agriculture and commerce, chiefly maritime. Here were the people who were found by the Greeks of Egypt enjoying an entire monopoly of the trade with the east, and possessing a high degree of wealth and consequent refinement. It was here, in the ports of Sabiea, that the spices, muslins, and precious stones of India, were for many ages obtained by the Greek traders of Egypt, before they had acquired skill or courage sufficient to pass the straits of the Red Sea ; which were long considered by the nations of Europe to be the produce of Arabia itself. These articles, before the invention of shipping, or the esta- blishment of a maritime intercourse, were con- veyed across the deserts by the Cushite, Ish- maclite, and Midianite carriers. It was the produce partly of India, and partly of Arabia, which the travelling merchants, to whom Jo- seph was sold, were carrying into Egypt. The balm and myrrh were probably Arabian, as they are still the produce of the same country ; but the spicery was undoubtedly brought farther from the east. These circumstances are ad- verted to, to show how extensive was the com- munication, in which the Arabians formed the principal link: and that in the earliest ages of which we have any account, in those of Joseph, of Moses, of Isaiah, and of Ezekiel, "the mingled people" inhabiting the vast Arabian deserts, the Cushites, Ishmaelites, and Midian- ites, were the chief agents in that commercial intercourse which has, from the most remote period of antiquity, subsisted between the ex- treme east and west. And although the cur- rent of trade is now turned, caravans of merchants, the descendants of these people, may still be found traversing the same deserts, conveying the same articles, and in the same manner as described by Moses I The singular and important fact that Arabia has never been conquered, has already been cursorily adverted to. But Mr. Gibbon, un- willing to pass by an opportunity of cavilling at revelation, says, " The perpetual independ- ence of the Arabs has been the theme of praise^ among strangers and natives; and the arts of controversy transform this singular event into a prophecy and a miracle in favour of the pos- terity of Ishmael. Some exceptions, that can neither be dissembled nor eluded, render this mode of reasoning as indiscreet as it is super- fluous. The kingdom of Yemen has been successively subdued by the Abyssinians, the Persians, the Sultans of Egypt, and the Turks ; the holy cities of Mecca and Medina have re- peatedly bowed under a Scythian tyrant ; and the Roman province of Arabia embraced the peculiar wilderness in which Ishmael and his sons must have pitched their tents in the face of their brethren." But this learned writer has, with a peculiar infelicity, annulled his own ar- gument ; and we have only to follow on the above passage, to obtain a complete refutation of the unworthy position with which it begins : "Yet these exceptions," says Mr. Gibbon, "are temporary or local; the body of the nation has escaped the yoke of the most powerful mo- narchies : the arms of Sesostris and Cyrus, of Pompey, and Trajan, could never achieve the^ conquest of Arabia ; the present sovereign of the Turks may exercise a shadow of jurisdic- tion, but his pride is reduced to solicit the- friendship of a people whom it is dangerous to. provoke, and fruitless to attack. The obvious- causes of their freedom are inscribed on the character and country of the Arabs. Many ages before Mohammed, their intrepid valour had been gCYerely felt by their neighbours, in often. ARA 78 ARA sivc and defensive war. The patient and ac- tive virtues of a soldier are insensibly nursed in the habits and discipline of a pastoral life. The care of the sheep and camels is abandoned to the women of the tribe ; but the martial youth, under the banner of the emir, is ever on horse- hack and in the field, to practise the exercise of the bow, the javelin, and the scimitar. The long memory of their independence is the firmest pledge of its perpetuity ; and succeed- ing generations are animated to prove their descent, and to maintain their inheritance. Their domestic feuds are suspended on the ap- proach of a common enemy ; and in their last hostilities against the Turks, the caravan of Mecca was attacked and pillaged by four score thousand of the confederates. When they ad- vance to battle, the hope of victory is in the front, in the rear the assurance of a retreat. Their horses and camels, who in eight or ten days can perform a march of four or five hun- dred miles, disappear before the conqueror; the secret waters of the desert elude his search ; and his victorious troops are consumed with thirst, hunger, and fatigue, in the pursuit of an invisible foe, who scorns his efforts, and safely reposes in the heart of the burning soli- tude. The arms and deserts of the Bedouins are not only the safeguards of their own free- dom, but the barriers also of the happy Arabia, whose inhabitants, remote from war, are ener- vated by the luxury of the soil and climate. The legions of Augustus melted away in dis- ease and lassitude ; and it is only by a naval power that the reduction of Yemen has been successfully attempted. When Mohammed erected his holy standard, that kingdom was a province of the Persian empire ; yet seven princes of the Homerites still reified in the mountains ; and the vicegerent of Chosroes was tempted to forget his distant country and his unfortunate master." Yemen was the only Arabian province which had the appearance of submitting to a foreign yoke ; but even here, as Mr. Gibbon himself acknowledges, seven of the native princes re- mained unsubdued: a"nd even admitting its subjugation to have been complete, the per- petual independence of the Ishmaelites remains unimpeached. For this is not their country. Petra, the capital of the Stony Arabia, and the principal settlement of the Nabathrei, it is true, was long in the hands of the Persians and Ro- mans ; but this never made them masters of the country. Hovering troops of Arabs con- fined the intruders within their walls, and cut off" their supplies ; and the possession of this fortress gave as little reason to the Romans to exult as the conquerors of Arabia Petroea, as that of Gibraltar does to us to boast of the con- quest of Spain. The Arabian tribes were confounded by the Greeks and Romans under the indiscriminate appellation of Saracens; a name whose ety- mology has been variously, but never satisfac- torily, explained. This was their general name when Mohammed appeared in the beginning of the seventh century. Their religion at this time was Sabianism, or the worship of the sun, moon, &.c ; variously transformed by the dif- ferent tribes, and intermingled with some Jew- ish and Christian maxims and traditions. The tribes themselves were generally at variance, from some hereditary and implacable animosi- ties ; and their only warfare consisted in de- sultory skirmishes arising out of these feuds, and in their predatory excursions, where supe- riority of numbers rendered courage of less value than activity and vigilance. Yet of such materials Mohammed constructed a mighty em- pire ; converted the relapsed Ishmaelites into good Musselmen ; united the jarring tribes un- der one banner ; supplied what was wanting in personal courage by the ardour of religious zeal ; and out of a banditti, little known and little feared beyond their own deserts, raised an armed multitude, which proved the scourge of the world. Mohammed was born in the year 569, of the noble tribe of the Koreish, and descended, ac- cording to eastern historians, in a direct line from Ishmael. His person is represented as beautiful, his manners engaging, and his elo- quence powerful ; but he was illiterate, like the rest of his countrymen, and indebted to a Jew- ish or Christian scribe for penning his Koran. Whatever the views of Mohammed might have been in the earlier part of his life, it was not till the fortieth year of his age that he avowed his mission as the Apostle of God: when so little credit did he gain for his pretensions, that in the first three years he could only number fourteen converts ; and even at the end of ten years his labours and his friends were alike confined witAin the walls of Mecca, when the designs of his enemies compelled him to fly to Medina, where he was favourably received by a party of the most considerable inhabitants, who had recently imbibed his doctrines at Mec- ca. This flight, or Hegira, was made the Mo- hammedan ffira, from which time is computed, and corresponds with the 16th of July, 622, of the Christian ffira. Mohammed now found himself sufficiently powerful to throw aside all reserve ; declared that he was commanded to compel unbelievers by the sword to receive the faith of one God, and his prophet Mohammed ; and confirming his credulous followers by the threats of eternal pain on the one hand, and the allurements of a sensual paradise on the other, he had, before his death, which happened in the year 632, gained over the whole of Ara- bia to his imposture. His deatli threw a tem- porary gloom over his cause, and the disunion of his followers threatened its extinction. Any other empire placed in the same circum- stances would have crumbled to pieces ; but the Arabs felt their power ; they revered their founder as the chosen prophet of God ; and their ardent temperament, animated by a re- ligious enthusiasm, gave an earnest of future success, and encouraged the zeal or the ambi- tion of their leaders. The succession, after some bloodshed, was settled, and unnumbered hordes of barbarians were ready to carry into execution the sanguinary dictates of their pro- phet ; and, with " the Koran, tribute, or death," as their motto, to invade the countries of the ARA 79 ARA infidels. During the whole of the succeeding century, their rapid career was unchecked ; the disciplined armies of the Greeks and Romans were unable to stand against them ; the Chris, tian churches of Asia and Africa were annihi- lated ; and from India to the Atlantic, through Persia, Arabia, Syria, Palestine, Asia Minor, Egypt, with the whole of northern Africa, Spain, and part of France, the impostor was acknowledged. Constantinople was besieged ; Rome itself was plundered ; and nothing less than the subjection of the whole Christian world was meditated on the one hand and tremblingly expected on the other. All this was wonderful; but the avenging justice of an incensed Deity, and the sure word of prophecy, relieve our astonishment. It was to punish an apostate race, that the Saracen locusts were let loose upon the earth ; and the countries which they were permitted to ravage were those in which the pure light of revela- tion had been most abused. The eastern church was sunk in gross idolatry; vice and wicked- ness prevailed in their worst forms ; and those who still called themselves Christians trusted more to images, relics, altars, austerities, and pilgrimages, than to a crucified Saviour. About a hundred and eighty years from the foundation of Bagdad, during which period the power of the Saracens had gradually declined, a dreadful reaction took place in the conquered countries. The Persians on the east, and the Greeks on the west, were simultaneously roused from their long thraldom, and, assisted by the Turks, who, issuing from the plains of Tar- tary, now for the first time made their appear- ance in the east, extinguished the power of the caliphate, and virtually put ah end to the Ara- bian monarchy in the year 936. A succession of nominal caliphs continued to the year 1258 : but the provinces were lost ; their power was confined to the walls of their capital ; and they were in real subjection to the Turks and the Persians until the above year, when Mostacem, the last of the Abbassides, was dethroned and murdered by Holagou, or Hulaku, the Tartar, the grandson of Zingis. This event, although it terminated the foreign dominion of the Ara- bians, left their native independence untouched. They were no longer, indeed, the masters of the finest parts of the three great divisions of the ancient world : their work was finished ; and returning to the state in which Moham- med found them three centuries before, with the exception of the change in their religion, they remained, and still remain, the unconquer- ed rovers of the desert. It is not the least singular circumstance in the history of this extraordinary people, that those who, in the enthusiasm of their first suc- cesses, were the sworn foes of literature, should become for several ages its exclusive patrons. Almansor, the founder of Bagdad, has the merit of first exciting this spirit, which was encou- raged in a still greater degree by his grandson Almamon. This caliph employed his agents in Armenia, Syria, Egypt, and at Constantin- ople, in collecting the most celebrated works on Grecian science, and had them translated into the Arabic language. Philosophy, astro- nomy, geometry, and medicine, were thus in- troduced and taught ; public schools were established ; and learning, which had altogether fled from Europe, found an asylum on the banks of the Tigris. Nor was this spirit con- fined to the capital : native works began to appear ; and by the hands of copyists were mul- tiplied out of number, for the information of the studious, or the pride of the wealthy. The rage for literature extended to Egypt and to Spain. In the former country, the Fatimites collected a library of a hundred thousand manu- scripts, beautifully transcribed, and very ele- gantly bound ; and in the latter, the Ommiades formed another of six hundred thousand vo- lumes ; forty-four of which were employed in the catalogue. Their capital, Cordova, with the towns of Malaga, Almeria, and Murcia, produced three hundred writers ; and seventy public libraries were established in the cities of Andalusia. What a change since the days of Omar, when the splendid library of the Ptole- mies was wantonly destroyed by the same peo- ple ! A retribution, though a slight one, was thus made for their former devastations ; and many Grecian works, lost in the original, have been recovered in their Arabic dress. Neither was this learning confined to mere parade, though much of it must undoubtedly have been so. Their proficiency in astronomy and geo- metry is attested by their astronomical tables, and by the accuracy with which, in the plain of Chaldea, a degree of the great circle of the earth was measured. But it was in medicine that, in this dark age, the Arabians shone most : the works of Hippocrates and Galen had been translated and commented on ; their physicians were sought after by the princes of Asia and Europe ; and the names of Rhazis, Albucasis, and Avicenna are still revered by the members of the healing art. So little, indeed, did the physicians of Europe in that age know of the history of their own science, that they were astonished, on the revival of learning, to find in the ancient Greek authors those systems for which they thought themselves indebted to the Arabians ! The last ren nant of Arabian science was found in Spain ; from whence it was expelled in the beginning of the seventeenth century, by the intemperate bigots of that country, who have never had any thing of their own with which to supply its place. The Arabians are the only people who have preserved their de- scent, their independence, their language, and their manners and customs, from the earliest ages to the present times ; and it is among them that we are to look for examples of pa- triarchal life and manners. A very lively sketch of this mode of life is given by Sir R. K. Por- ter, in the person and tribe of an Arab sheik, whom he encountered in the neighbourhood of the Euphrates. " I had met this warrior," says. Sir R. K. P., " at the house of the British re- sident at Bagdad ; and came, according to hi3 repeated wish, to see him in a place more con- sonant with his habits, the tented field ; and, as he expressed it, ' at the head of his children.' ARA &0 ARA As soon as we arrived in sight of his camp, we were met by crowds of its inhabitants, who, with a wild and hurrying delight, led us toward the tent of their chief. The venerable old man came forth to the door, attended by his subjects of all sizes and descriptions, and greet- ed us with a countenance beaming kindness ; while his words, which our interpreter explain- ed, were demonstrative of patriarchal welcome. One of my Hindoo troopers spoke Arabic ; hence the substance of our succeeding discourse was not lost on each other. Having entered, I sat down by my host ; and the whole of the persons present, to far beyond the boundaries of the tent, (the sides of which were open,) seated themselves also, without any regard to those more civilized ceremonies of subjection, the crouching of slaves, or the standing of vassalage. These persons, in rows beyond rows, appeared just as he had described, the offspring of his house, the descendants of his fathers, from age to age ; and like brethren, whether holding the highest or the lowest rank, they seemed to gather round their common parent. But perhaps their sense of perfect equality in the mind of their chief could not be more forcibly shown, than in the share they took in the objects which appeared to interest his feelings ; and as I looked from the elders or leaders of the people, seated immediately around him, to the circles beyond circles of brilliant faces, bending eagerly toward him and his guest, (all, from the most respectably clad to those with hardly a garment covering their active limbs, earnest to evince some at- tention to the stranger he bade welcome,) I thought I had never before seen so complete an assemblage of fine and animated countenances, both old and young : nor could I suppose a better specimen of the still existing state of the true Arab ; nor a more lively picture of the scene which must have presented itself, ages ago, in the fields of Haran, when Terah sat in his tent door, surrounded by his sons, and his sons' sons, and the people born in his house. The venerable Arabian sheik was also seated on the ground with a piece of carpet spread under him ; and, like his ancient Chaldean an- cestor, turned to the one side and the other, graciously answering or questioning the groups around him, with an interest in them all which clearly showed the abiding simplicity of his government, and their obedience. On the smallest computation, such must have been the manners of these people for more than three thousand years ; thus, in all things, veri- fying the prediction given of Ishmael at his birth, that he, in his posterity, should 'be a wild man,' and always continue to be so, though ' he shall dwell for ever in the presence of his brethren.' And that an acute and active peo- ple, surrounded for ages by polished and luxu- rious nations, should from their earliest to their latest times, be still found a icild people, dwell- ing in the presence of all their brethren, (as we may call these nations,) unsabdued and un- changeable, is, indeed, a standing miracle : one of those mysterious facts which establish the truth of prophecy." But although the manners of the Arabians have remained un- altered through so many ages, and will proba- bly so continue, their religion, as we have seen, has sustained an important change; and must again, in the fulness of time, give place to a faith more worthy of the people. St. Paul first preached the Gospel in Arabia, Gal. i, 17. Christian churches were subse- quently founded, and many of their tribes em- braced Christianity prior to the fifth century ; most of which appear to have been tinctured with the Nestorian heresy. At this time, how- ever, it does not appear that the Arabians had any version of the Scriptures in their own language, to which some writers attribute the ease with which they were drawn into the Mo- hammedan delusion ; while the " Greeks, Sy- rians, Armenians, Abyssinians, Copts, and others," who enjoyed that privilege, were able to resist it. ARAM, the fifth son of Shem, Gen. x, 22, He was the father of the Syrians, who from him were called Aramaeans, or Aramites. ARARAT, a mountain of Asia, in Armenia, on which the ark of Noah rested after the ces- sation of the deluge. Concerning the etymo- logy of the name, Dr. Bryant observes, that it is a compound of Ar-Arat, and signifies "the mountain of descent," being equivalent to Tt'~"\n, of the Hebrews. Of the precise situation of this mountain, different accounts have been given. Some have supposed that it was one of the mountains which divide Armenia on the south from Mesopotamia, and that part of As- syria inhabited by the Curds, from whom those mountains took the name of Curdue, or Cardu ; by the Greeks denominated Gordyai. It is called by the Arabs Al-Judi, and also Thama. nin. In confirmation of this opinion, it is alleged that the remains of the ark were to be seen on these mountains ; and it is said, that Berosus and Abydenus both declare, that such a report existed in their time. Epiphanius pretends, if we may credit his assertion, that the relics of the ark were to be seen in his day ; and we are farther told, that the emperor Heraclius went from the town of Thamanin, up the mountain Al-Judi, and saw the place of the ark. Others maintain, that mount Ararat was situated toward the middle of Armenia, near the river Araxes, or Aras, about twelve miles from it, according to Tournefort, above two hundred and eighty miles distant from Al-Judi, to the north-east. Ararat seems to be a part of that vast chain of mountains call- ed Caucasus and Taurus; and upon these mountains, and in the adjacent country, were preserved more authentic accounts of the ark than in almost any other part of the world. The region about Ararat, called Araratia, was es- teemed among the ancients as nearly a central part of the earth; and it is certainly as well calculated as any other for the accommodation of its first inhabitants, and for the migration of colonies, upon the increase of mankind. The soil of the country was very fruitful, and espe- cially of that part where the patriarch made his first descent. The country also was very high, though it luul line plains and valleys ARA 81 ARC between the mountains. Such a country, there- fore, must, after the flood, have been the soon- est exsiccated, and, consequently, the soonest habitable. The mountain which has still the name of Ararat, has retained it through all ages. Tour- nefort has particularly described it, and from his account it seems to consist chiefly of free- stone, or calcareous sandstone. It is a de- tached mountain in form of a sugar loaf, in the midst of a very extensive plain, consisting of two summits ; the lesser, more sharp and point- ed ; the higher, which is that of the ark, lies north-west of it, and raises its head far above the neighbouring mountains, and is covered with perpetual snow. When the air is clear, it does not appear to be above two leagues from Erivan, and may be seen at the distance of four or five days' journey. Its being visible at such a distance, however, is ascribed not so much to its height, as to its lonely situation, in a large plain, and upon the most elevated part of the country. The ascent is difficult and fatiguing. Tournefort attempted it ; and, after a whole day's toil, he was obliged, by the snow and intense cold, to return without ac- complishing his design, though in the middle of summer. On the side of the mountain that looks toward Erivan, is a prodigious precipice, very deep, with perpendicular sides, and of a rough, black appearance, as if tinged with smoke. The summit of Ararat has nevor been reach- ed, though several attempts have been made ; and if the ark rested on the summit, it is certain that those who have spoken of its fragments being seen there in different ages, must have been imposed upon. It is, however, not neces- sary to suppose that the ark rested upon either of its tops ; and that spot would certainly be chosen which would afford the greatest facility of de- scent. Sir Robert Ker Porter is among the modern travellers who have given us an ac- count of this celebrated mountain : — " As the vale opened beneath us in our descent, my whole attention became absorbed in the view before me. A vast plain, peopled with count- less villages ; the towers and spires of the churches of Eitch-mai-adzen, arising from amidst them; the glittering waters of the Arax- es, flowing through the fresh green of the vale ; and the subordinate range of mountains, skirt- ing the base of the awful monument of the antediluvian world. It seemed to stand a stu- pendous link in the history of man, uniting the two races of men before and after the flood. But it was not until we had arrived upon the flat plain, that I beheld Ararat in all its ampli- tude of grandeur. From the spot on which I stood, it appeared as if the hugest mountains of the world had been piled upon each other, to form this one sublime immensity of earth, and rock, and snow. The icy peaks of its double heads rose majestically into the clear and cloudless heavens; the sun blazed bright upon them ; and the reflection sent forth a dazzling radiance, equal to other suns. This point of the view united the utmost grandeur of plain and height. But the feelings I expe- 7 rienced while looking on the mountain, are hardly to be described. My eye, not able to rest for any length of time upon the blinding glory of its summits, wandered down the appa- rently interminable sides, tiil I could no longer trace their vast lines in the mists of the hori- zon ; when an inexpressible impulse, immedi- ately carrying my eye upward again, refixed my gaze upon the awful glare of Ararat ; and this bewildered sensibility of sight being an- swered by a similar feeling in the mind, for some moments I was lost in a strange suspen- sion of the powers of thought." The separate peaks are called Great and Little Ararat, and the space between them is about seven miles. " These inaccessible sum- mits," continues Sir R. K. Porter, " have never been trodden by the foot of man since the days of Noah, if even then ; for my idea is, that the ark rested in the space between these heads, and not on the top of either. Various attempts have been made in different ages to ascetid these tremendous mountain-pyramids, but in vain : their form, snows, and glaciers, are in- surmountable obstacles : the distance being so great from the commencement of the icy region to the highest points, cold alone would be the destruction of any person who should have the hardihood to persevere. On viewing mount Ararat from the northern side of the plain, its two heads are separated by a wide cleft, or rather glen, in the body of the mountain. The rocky side of the greater head runs almost perpendicularly down to the north-east, while the lesser head rises from the sloping bottom of the cleft, in a perfectly conical shape. Both heads are covered with snow. The form of the greater is similar to the less, only broader and rounder at the top; and shows to the north- west a broken and abrupt front, opening, about half way down, into a stupendous chasm, deep, rocky, and peculiarly black. At that part of the mountain, the hollow of the chasm receives an interruption from the projection of minor mountains, which start from the sides of Ara- rat like branches from the root of a tree, and run along, in undulating progression, till lost in the distant vapours of the plain." Dr. Shuck- ford argues that the true Ararat lies among the mountains of the north of India ; but Mr. Faber has answered his reasoning, and proved by a comparison of geographical notices incidentally mentioned in the Old Testament, that the Ara- rat of Armenia is the true Ararat. ARCHANGEL, according to some, means an angel occupying the eighth rank in the celestial order or hierarchy ; but others reckon it a title only applicable to our Saviour ; Jude 9 ; Dan. xii, 1 ; 1 Thess. iv, 16. On this point Bishop Horsley has the following observa- tions : — " It has been for a long time a fashion in the church to speak very frequently and familiarly of archangels as beings of an order with which we are perfectly well acquainted. Some say there are seven of them. Upon what solid ground that assertion stands, I know not ; but this I know, the word ' archangel' is not to be found in any one passage of the Old Testa- ment : in the New Testament it occurs twice, ARC 82 ARC and only twice. One of the two passages is in the First Epistle to the Thessalonians ; where the Apostle, among the circumstances of the pomp of our Lord's descent from heaven to the final judgment, mentions ' the voice of the arch- angel ;' the other passage is in the Epistle of St. Jude, where the title of archangel is coupled with the name of 'Michael the archangel.' This passage is so remarkably obscure that I shall not attempt to draw any conclusion from it but this, which manifestly follows, be the par- ticular sense of the passage what it may : since this is one of the two texts in which alone the w7ord ' archangel' is found in the whole Bible ; since in this one text only the title of archan- gel is coupled with any name ; and since the name with which it is here coupled is Michael ; it follows undeniably that the archangel Mi- chael is the only archangel of whom we know any thing from holy writ. It cannot be prov- ed from holy writ, and, if not from holy writ, it cannot be proved at all, that any archangel exists but the one archangel Michael, and this one archangel Michael is unquestionably the Michael of the book of Daniel. " I must observe by the way, with respect to the import of the title of archangel, that the . word, by etymology, clearly implies a supe- riority of rank and authority in the person to whom it is applied. It implies a command over angels ; and this is all that the word of necessity implies. But it follows not, by any sound rule of argument, that, because no other superiority than that of rank and authority is implied in the title, no other belongs to the person distinguished by the title, and that he is in all other respects a mere angel. Since we admit various orders of intelligent beings, it is evident that a being highly above the an- gelic order may command angels. " To ascertain, if we can, to what order of beings the archangel Michael may belong, let us see how he is described by the Prophet Daniel, who never mentions him by that title ; and what action is attributed to him in the book of Daniel and in another book, in which he bears a principal part. " Now Daniel calls him ' one of the chief princes,' or ' one of the capital princes,' or ' one of the princes that are at the head of all :' for this I maintain to be the full and not more than the full import of the Hebrew words. Now we are clearly got above the earth, into the order of celestials, who are the princes that are first, or at the head of all ? Are they any other than the three persons in the Godhead ? Michael, therefore, is one of them; but which of them ? This is not left in doubt. Gabriel, speaking of him to Daniel, calls him ' Michael your prince,' and ' the great prince which standeth for the children of thy people ;' that is, not for the nation of the Jews in particular, but for the children, the spiritual children, of that holy seed the elect people of God ; a de- scription which applies particularly to the Son of God, and to no one else ; and in perfect consistence with this description of Michael in the book of Daniel, is the action assigned to him in the Apocalypse, in which we find him fighting with the old serpent, the deceiver of the world, and victorious in the combat. That combat who was to maintain ? in that combat who was to be victorious, but the seed of the woman ? From all this it is evident, that Michael is a name for our Lord himself, in his particular character of the champion of his faithful people, against the violence of the apostate faction and the wiles of the devil." To this opinion there is nothing irreconcilable in the " voice of the archangel" mentioned in 1 Thess. iv, 16 : since the " shout," the " voice," the " trump of God," may all be the majestic summons of the Judge himSelf. At the same time we must feel that the reasoning of Bi- shop Horsley, though ingenious, is far from being conclusive against the existence of oue or more archangels. ARCHBISHOP, a bishop of the first class, who superintends the conduct of other bishops. Archbishops were not known in the east till about the year 320; and though there were some soon after this, who had the title, yet it was only a personal honour, by which the bishops of considerable cities were distinguish- ed. It was not till of late that archbishops became metropolitans, and had suffragans un- der them. Athanasius appears to have been the first who used the title archbishop, which he gave occasionally to his predecessor. Gre- gory Nazianzen, in like manner, gave it to Athanasius ; not that either of them was en- titled to any jurisdiction, or even any prece- dency, in virtue of this title. Among the Latins, Isidore Hispalensis is the first who speaks of archbishops. ARCHELAUS, son of Herod the Great, and Maltace, his fifth wife. Herod having put to death his sons Alexander, Aristobulus, and Antipater, and expunged out of his will Herod Antipas, whom he had declared king, he sub- stituted Archelaus, and gave Antipas the title of tetrarch only. After the death of Herod, Archelaus ordered that king's will to be read, wherein he, Archelaus, was declared king, on condition that Augustus consented. Hereupon the assembly cried, "Long live king Arche- laus !" and the soldiers promised the same fidelity to him as they had shown to his father. Archelaus buried his father magnificently, came to Jerusalem, and there mourned seven days, according to custom. He then gave a splendid entertainment to the people, went to the temple, harangued the multitude, promised them good treatment, and declared he would not assume the title of king till the emperor had confirmed it, A. M. 4001 ; B. C. 3. The people, notwithstanding, tumultuously demand- ed the execution of those who advised Herod to slay certain zealots, who had pulled down a golden eagle from one of the temple gates. They also required Archelaus to divest Joazar of the high priesthood ; and they vehemently reproached the memory of the late king. Ar- chelaus sent troops to suppress the mutineers, and killed near three thousand of them about the temple. After this he embarked at Cacsa- rea for Rome, to procure from Augustus the confirmation of Herod's will. Antipas, his ARC 83 ARI brother, went to Rome likewise, to dispute his title, pretending that Herod's first will should be preferred to his last, which he alleged to have been made by him when his understand- ing was not sound. The two brothers, Archelaus and Antipas, procured able orators to display their preten- sions before the emperor; and when they had done speaking, Archelaus threw himself at Augustus's feet. Augustus gently raised him, said he would do nothing contrary to Herod's intention or his interest, but refused to decide the affair at that time. Some time afterward, the Jews sent a solemn embassy to Rome, to desire Augustus would permit them to live ac- cording to their own laws, and on the footing of a Roman province, without being subject to kings of Herod's family, but only -to the go- vernors of Syria. Augustus heard them, and likewise heard Archelaus in reply ; then broke up the assembly without declaring himself. After some days, he sent for Archelaus, gave him the title, not of king, but of ethnarch, with one moiety of the territories which his father Herod had enjoyed ; promising him the crown likewise, if his good conduct deserved it. Ar- chelaus returned to Judea, and, under pretence that he had countenanced the seditious against him, he deprived .Toazar of the high priesthood, and gave that dignity to his brother Eleazar. He governed Judea with so much violence, that, after seven years, the chiefs of the Sama- ritans and Jews accused him before Augustus. The emperor immediately sent for his agent at Rome, and without condescending to write to Archelaus he commanded the agent to depart instantly for Judea, and order Archelaus to Rome, to give an account of his conduct. On his arrival at Rome, the emperor called for his accusers, and permitted him to defend himself; which he did so insufficiently, that Augustus banished him to Vienne, in Gaul, where he continued in exile to the end of his life. See Antipas. ARCHI-SYNAGOGUS, the ruler of a syna- gogue. See Synagogue. ARCHITRICLINUS, if>XiT9U\tvos, generally translated steward, signifies rather the master or superintendent of the feast ; "one," says Gaudentius, "who is the husband's friend, and commissioned to conduct the order and econo- my of the feast." He gave directions to the servants, superintended everything, command- ed the tables to be covered, or to be cleared of the dishes, as he thought proper: whence his name, as regulator of the. triclinium, or festive board. He also tasted the wine, and distribut- ed it to the guests. The author of Ecclesias- ticus thus describes this office, xxxii, 1, 2: "If thou be made the master of a feast, lift not thyself up, but be among them as one of the rest : take diligent care of them, and so sit down. And when thou hast done all thy office, take thy place, that thou mayest be merry with them, and receive a crown for the well order- ing of the feast." This office is mentioned, John ii, 8, 9, upon which Theophylact re- marks : " That no one might suspect that their taste was vitiated by having drunk to excess, so as not to know water from wine, our Sa- viour orders it to be first carried to the govern- or of the feast, who certainly was sober ; for those who on such occasions are intrusted with this office, observe the strictest sobriety, that they may be able properly to regulate the whole." AREOPAGUS, the high court at Athens, famed for the justice of its decisions ; and so called, because it sat on a hill of the same name, or in the suburbs of the city, dedicated to Mars, the god of war, as the city was to Minerva, his sister. St. Paul, Acts xvii, 19, &c, having preached at Athens, was carried before the Areopagites, as "a setter forth of strange gods." On this occasion he delivered that fine sermon which is in substance record- ed in Acts xvii. Dionysius, one of the judges, was converted; and the Apostle was dismissed without any farther trouble. ARGOB, a canton lying beyond Jordan, in the half tribe of Manasseh, and in the country of Bashan, one of the most fruitful on the other side of Jordan. In the region of Argob there were sixty cities, called Bashan-havoth- Jair, which had very high walls and strong gates, without reckoning many villages and hamlets, which were not inclosed, Deut. hi, 4-14; 1 Kings iv, 13. But Argob was more peculiarly the name of the capital city of the region of Argob, which Eusebius says was fif- teen miles west of Gerara. ARIANS, this ancient sect, was unquestion- ably so called from Arius, a presbyter of Alex- andria, in the early part of the fourth century. It is said that he aspired to episcopal honours ; and after the death of Achilles, in A. D. 313, felt not a little chagrined that Alexander should be preferred before him. Whether this circumstance had any influence on his opinions, it is impossible to say ; but on/3 day, when his rival (Alexander) had been addressing the clergy in favour of the orthodox doctrine, and maintaining, in strong and pointed language, "that the Son of God was co-eternal, co-essen- tial, and co-equal with the Father," Arius con- sidered this as a species of Sabellianism, and ventured to say, that it was inconsistent and impossible, since the Father, who begat, must be before the Son, who was begotten : the lat- ter, therefore, could not be absolutely eternal. Alexander at first admonished Arius, and en- deavoured to convince him of his error ; but without effect, except that lie became the more bold in contradiction. Some of the clergy thought their bishop too forbearing, and it is possible he felt his inferiority of talent; for Arius was a man of accomplished learning, and commanding eloquence; venerable in per- son, and fascinating in address. At length Alexander was roused, and attempted to silence Arius by his authority ; but this not succeed- ing, as the latter was bold and pertinacious, Alexander, about the year 320, called a coun- cil of his clergy, by whom the reputed heretic was deposed and excommunicated. Arius now retired into Palestine, where his talents and address soon made a number of converts ; and among the rest, the celebrated Eusebius, bishop ARI 84 ARI of Nicomedia, and other bishops and clergy of those parts, who assembled in council, and re- ceived the excommunicated presbyter into their communion. Eusebius also, having great interest with Constantia, the sister of Constan- tine, and wife of Licinius, recommended Arius to her protection and patronage ; through which, and by his own eloquent letters to the clergy in various parts, his system spread with great rapidity, and to a vast extent. The em- peror Constantine, who had no great skill in these matters, was grieved to see the Christian church (but just escaped from the red dragon of persecution) thus torn by intestine animosi- ty and dissensions ; he therefore determined to summon a general council of the clergy, which met at Nice, A. D. 325, and contained more than 300 bishops. Constantine attended in person, and strongly recommended peace and unanimity. Athanasius was the chief oppo- nent of the Arians. Both parties were willing to subscribe to the language of the Scriptures, but each insisted on interpreting for them- selves. " Did the Trinitarians," says Mr. Milner, "assert that Christ was God? The Arians allowed it, but in the same sense as holy men and angels, are styled gods in Scrip- ture. Did they affirm that .he was truly God ? The others allowed that he was made so by God. Did they affirm that the Son was natu- rally of God ? It was granted : Even we, said they, are of God, ' of whom are all things.' " At length the Athanasians collected a number of texts, which they conceived amounted to full proof of the Son being of one and the xumc substance with the Father ; the Arians admit- ted he was of like substance, the difference in the Greek phrases being only in a single let- ter,— bjioovuios, homoottsios, and bpowvows, homoi- ousios. At length the former was decreed to be the orthodox faith, and the Nicene creed was framed as it remains at this day so far as concerns the person of the Son of God, who is said to be " begotten of his Father before all worlds ; God of God, Light of Light, very God of very God, begotten, not made, of one sub- stance with the Father, by whom all things were made," &c. Arius was now excommunicated. The sen- tence of the council pronounced against him and his associates was followed by another of the emperor, wherebythe excommunicated per- sons were condemned to banishment, that they might be debarred the society of their country- men whom the church had judged unworthy to remain in her communion. Soon after which, Eusebius of Nicomedia, and Theognis of Nice, being found to continue their countenance and protection to the Arian cause, to communicate with those whom they had anathematized, and to concur in those sentiments which they had condemned by their subscriptions ; they were both subjected to the same penalty of exile by the emperor, and were actually deposed, (as we learn from Athanasius,) and had successors or- dained to their sees, though history is silent as to the council by which this was done. But such was the good nature and credulity of Con- stantine, that these men, by their usual artifices, easily imposed upon him, and brought hjm to such a full persuasion of their agreement with the Nicene faith, that in about three years' time they were not only recalled from banishment, but restored to their sees, and to a considerable degree of interest at court. Their thorough attachment to the cause of Arius, and their hatred of Athanasius, who had so vigorously withstood them in the council, and was now advanced to the see of Alexandria, made them watchful of every opportunity to defeat the de- cisions of the council. In the meantime one who wished well to their designs, and whom Constantia had upon her death bed recommended to the emperor, did so far prevail upon the easy credulity of Con- stantine, by complaining that Arius had been misrepresented, and differed nothing in his sen- timents from the Nicene fathers, that the indul- gent emperor recalled him from his banishment, and required him to exhibit in writing, a con- fession of his faith. He did this in such terms as, though they admitted of a latent reservation, yet bore the appearance of being entirely catho- lic ; and therefore not only gave satisfaction to the emperor, but even offended some of his own followers, who from that time forth separated from him. The discerning Athanasius was not so easily imposed upon as Constantine ; but, well assured of the heretic's prevarication, v^s resolute in refusing to admit him to commu- nion, whom the Nicene council had so openly condemned. Upon this the emperor sent for Arius to Constantinople, and insisted upon his being received into communion, by Alexander, bishop of that city. However, on the day be- fore tb is was to have taken place, Arius died sud- denly from a complaint in his bowels. Some attributed this to poison ; others to the judg- ment of God. The emperor did not long sur- vive ; and Constantius, his successor, became warmly attached to the Arian cause, as were all the court party. Successive emperors took different sides, and thus was the peace of the church agitated for many years, and practical religion sacrificed alternately to the dogmas or the interests of one party or the other ; and each was in turn excommunicated, fined, imprisoned, or banished. Constantius supported Arianism triumphantly. Julian laughed at both parties, but persecuted neither. Jovian supported the Nicene doctrine. Valentinian, and his brother Valens, took contrary sides ; the former sup- porting Athanasianism in the west, and the latter Arianism in the east ; so that what was orthodoxy at Rome was heresy at Constantino- ple, and vice versa. The Arians themselves were not unanimous, but divided into various shades of sentiment, under their respective leaders ; as Eusebians, Eudoxians, Acasians, Aetians, &c; but the more general distinction was into Ari- ans and Semi-Arians : the former sinking the character of the Son of God into that of a mere creature, while the latter admitted every thing but the ho7iioousian doctrine, or his absolute equality with the Father. After this period we hear little of Arianism, till it was revived in England in the beginning of the last century by the eccentric Mr Winston, by Mr. Emlyn, and ARK 85 ARK Dr. Samuel Clarke. The latter was what may- be called a high or Semi-Arian, who came with- in a shade of orthodoxy ; the two former were low Arians, reducing the rank of our Saviour to the scale of angelic beings — a creature "made out of nothing." Since this time, however, both Arians and Socinians are sunk into the com- mon appellation of Unitarians, or rather Hu- manitarians, who believe our Saviour (as Dr. Priestley expresses it) to be " a man like them- selves." The last advocates of the pure Arian doctrine, of any celebrity, were Mr. Henry Tay- lor, (under the signature of Ben Mordecai,) and Dr. Richard Price," in his " Sermons on the Christian Doctrine." It may be proper to ob- serve, that the Arians, though they denied the absolute eternity of 'the Son, strongly contended for his preexistence, as the Logos, or the Word of God, "by whom the worlds were made ;" and admitted, more or less explicitly, the sacrifice which he offered for sin upon the cross. ARIEL, the capital city of Moab, frequently mentioned in Scripture, Ezraviii, 16. See Moab. ARIMATHEA, or RAMAH, now called Ramie, or Ramla, a pleasant town, beautifully situated on the borders of a fertile and exten- sive plain, abounding in gardens, vineyards, olive and date trees. It stands about thirty miles north-west of Jerusalem, on the high road to Jaffa. At this Rama, which was likewise called Ramathaim Zophim, as lying in the dis- trict of Zuph, or Zoph, Samuel was born, 1 Sam. i. This was likewise the native place of Joseph, called Joseph of Arimathea, who begged and obtained the body of Jesus from Pilate, Matt, xxvi, 57. There was another Ramah, about six miles north of Jerusalem, in a pass which separated the kingdoms of Israel and Judah, which Baasha, king of Israel, took and began to fortify ; but he was obliged to re- linquish it, in consequence of the alliance form- ed between Asa, king of Judah, and Benhadad, king of Syria, 1 Kings xv. This is the Ramah, supposed to be alluded to in the lamentation of Rachel for her children. ARISTARCHUS, spoken of by St. Paul in his Epistle to the Colossians, iv, 10, and often mentioned in the Acts of the Apostles. He was a Macedonian, and a native of Thessalo- nica. He accompanied St. Paul to Ephesus, and there continued with him during the two years of his abode in that place, sharing with him in all the dangers and labours of the minis- try, Acts xix, 29 ; xx, 4 ; xxvii, 2. He was near losing his life in a tumult raised by the Ephe- sian silversmiths. He left Ephesus with the Apostle, and went with him into Greece. From thence he attended him into Asia ; from Asia into Judea, and from Judea to Rome. ARK, area, denotes a kind of floating vessel built by Noah, for the preservation of himself and family, with several species of animals during the deluge. The Hebrew word by which the ark is expressed, is nan or n^n, the con- structive form of nan, which is evidently the Greek Sifa ; and so the LXX render the word in Exod. ii, 3, where only it again occurs. They also render it Kt6u>Tbv ; Josephus, \apvdica ; and the Vulgate, arcam; signifying an ark, coffer, or chest. Although the ark of Noah answered, in some respects, the purpose of a ship, it is not so certain that it was of the same form and shape. It has been inconclusively argued by Michaelis and some others, that if its form had not been like that of a ship, it could not have resisted the force of the waves ; because it was not intended to be conducted, like a ship, from one place to another, but merely "to float on the surface of the waters," Gen. vii, 17. It appears to have had neither helm, nor mast, nor oars; but was merely a bulky capacious vessel, light enough to be raised aloft with all its contents, by the gradual rise of the deluge. Its shape, therefore, was of little importance ; more especially as it seems to have been the purpose of Providence, in this whole transac- tion, to signify to those who were saved, as well as to their latest posterity, that their preservation was not in any degree effected by human con- trivance. The ark in which Moses was expos- ed bears the same name ; and some have thought that both were of the same materials. With respect to the etymology of the Hebrew word, the most rational seems to be that of Clodius, who derives it from the Arabic word a«n, " he collected," from which is formed nan, or n^n, denoting a place in which things are collected. Foster deduces it from two Egyptian words, t hoi, " a ship," and bai, " a palm tree branch ;" and such ships are still to be seen not only in Egypt, but in India and other countries ; par- ticularly in some isles of the Pacific Ocean. To the insufficiency of the ark to contain all the creatures said to have been brought into it, objections have, at different times, been made. Bishop Wilkins and others have learnedly dis- cussed this subject, and afforded the most satis- factory answers. Dr. Hales proves the ark to have been of the burden of forty-two thousand four hundred and thirteen tons ; and asks, " Can we doubt of its being sufficient to contain eight persons, and about two hundred or two hundred and fifty pair of four-footed animals, (a number to which, according to M. Buffon, all the various distinct species may be reduced,) together with all the subsistence necessary for a twelvemonth, with the fowls of the air, and such reptiles and insects as cannot live under water ?" All these various animals were con- trolled by the power of God, whose special agen- cy is supposed in the whole transaction, and "the lion was made to lie down with the kid." Whether Noah was commanded to bring with him, into the ark, a pair of all living creatures, zoologically and numerically considered, has been doubted. During the long period between the creation and the flood, animals must have spread themselves over a great part of the an- tediluvian earth, and certain animals would, as now, probably become indigenous to certain climates. The pairs saved must therefore, if all the kinds were included, have travelled from immense distances. But of such marches no intimation is given in the history ; and this seems to render it probable that the animals which Noah was "£ that swarm of them which has appeared in these last days. Dr. Samuel Clarke, in his " Demonstration of the Being of a God," says, that Atheism arises either from stupid ignorance, or from corruption of principles and manners, or from the reasonings of false philosophy ; and he adds, that the latter, who are the only Atheisti- cal persons capable of being reasoned with at all, must of necessity own that, supposing it cannot be proved to be true, yet it is a thing very desirable, and which any wise man would wish to be true, for the great benefit and hap- piness of man, that there was a God, an intel- ligent and wise, a just and good Being, to govern the world. Whatever hypothesis these men can possibly frame, whatever argument they can invent, by which they would exclude God and providence out of the world; that very argument or hypothesis, will of necessity lead them to this concession. If they argue, that our notion of God arises not from nature and reason, but from the art and contrivance of politicians ; that argument itself forces them to confess, that it is manifestly for the interest of human society, that it should be believed there is a- God. If they suppose that the world was made by chance, and is every moment subject to be destroyed by chance again ; no man can be so absurd as to contend, that it is as comfortable and desirable to live in such an uncertain state of things, and so continually liable to ruin, without any hope of renovation, as in a world that is under the preservation and conduct of a powerful, wise, and good God. If they argue against the being of God, from the faults and defects which they imagine they can find in the frame and constitution of the visible and material world ; this supposition obliges them to acknowledge that it would have been better the world had been made by an intelligent and wise Being, who might have prevented all faults and imperfections. If they argue against providence, from the faultiness and inequality which they think they discover in the management of the moral world ; this is a plain confession, that it is a thing more fit and desirable in itself, that the world should be governed by a just and good Being, than by mere chance or unintelligent necessity. Lastly, if they suppose the world to be eternally and necessarily self-existent, and consequently that every thing in it is established by a blind and eternal fatality ; no rational man can at the same time deny, but that liberty and choice, or a free power of acting, is a more eligible state, than to be determined thus in all our actions, as a stone is to move downward, by an absolute and inevitable fate. In a word, which way soever they turn themselves, and whatever hypothesis they make, concerning the original and frame of things, nothing is so certain and undeniable, as that man, considered without the protection and conduct of a supe- rior Being, is in a far worse case than upon supposition of the being and government of God, and of men's being under his peculiar conduct, protection, and favour. ATHENS, a celebrated city of Greece, too well known to be here described. St. Paul's celebrated sermon, Acts xvii, was preached on the Areopagus, or Hill of Mars, where a cele- brated court was held which took cognizance of matters of religion, blasphemies against the gods, the building of temples, &c. (See Are. opagus.) The inscription on the altar, " to the unknown God," which St. Paul so appropriate- ly made the text of his discourse, was adopted on the occasion of the city having been re- lieved from a pestilence; and they erected altars to "the God unknown," either as not knowing to which of their divinities they were indebted for the favour, or, which is more pro- bable, because there was something in the cir- cumstances of this deliverance, which led them to refer it to a higher power than their own gods, even to the supreme God, who was not unfrequently styled, the "unknown," by the wiser Heathens. The existence of such altars is expressly mentioned by Lucian. On the place where the great Apostle bore his noble testimony against idols, and declared to them the God whom they ignorantly worshipped, Dr. E. D. Clarke, the traveller, remarks, " It is not possible to conceive a situation of great- er peril, or one more calculated to prove the sincerity of a preacher, than that in which the Apostle was here placed ; and the truth of this, perhaps, will never be better felt than by a spectator, who from this eminence actually beholds the monuments of Pagan pomp and superstition by which he, whom the Athenians considered as the set-er forth of strange gods, was then surrounded : representing to the imagination the disciples of Socrates and of Plato, the dogmatist of the porch, and the skeptic of the academy, addressed by a poor and lowly man, who, ' rude in speech,' without the ' enticing words of man's wisdom,' enjoined precepts contrary to their taste, and very hostile to their prejudices. One of the peculiar privi- leges of the Areopagita? seems to have been set at defiance by the zeal of St. Paul on this occasion ; namely, that of inflicting extreme and exemplary punishment upon any person who should slight the celebration of the holy mysteries, or blaspheme the gods of Greece. We ascended to the summit by means of steps cut in the natural stone. The sublime scene here exhibited is so striking, that a brief de- scription of it may prove how truly it offers to us a commentary upon the Apostle's words, as they were delivered upon the spot. He stood upon the top of the rock, and beneath the ca- nopy of heaven. Before him there was spread a glorious prospect of mountains, islands, seas, and skies ; behind him towered the lofty Acro- polis, crowned with all its marble temples. Thus every object, whether in the face of na- ture, or among the works of art, conspired to elevate the mind, and to fill it with reverence toward that Being who made and governs the world, Acts xvii, 24, 28 ; who sitteth in that light which no mortal eye can approach, and yet is nigh unto the meanest of his creatures ; in whom we live, and move, and have our being." ATO 108 ATO ATONEMENT, the satisfaction offered to divine justice by the death of Christ for the sins of mankind, by virtue of which all true penitents who believe in Christ are personally reconciled to God, are freed from the penalty of their sins, and entitled to eternal life. The atonement for sin made by the death of Christ, is represented in the Christian system as the means by which mankind may be delivered from the awful catastrophe of eternal death ; from judicial inflictions of the displeasure of a Governor, whose authority has been contemned, and whose will has been resisted, which shall know no mitigation in their degree, nor bound to their duration. This end it professes to ac- complish by means which, with respect to the Supreme Governor himself, preserve his cha- racter from mistake, and maintain the authority of his government; and with respect to man, give him the strongest possible reason for hope, and render more favourable the condition of his earthly probation. These are considera- tions which so manifestly show, from its own internal constitution, the superlative import- ance and excellence of Christianity, that it would be exceedingly criminal to overlook them. How sin may be forgiven without leading to such misconceptions of the divine character as would encourage disobedience, and thereby weaken the influence of the divine govern- ment, must be considered as a problem of very difficult solution. A government which ad- mitted no forgiveness, would sink the guilty to despair; a government which never punishes offence, is a contradiction, — it cannot exist. Not to punish the guilty, is to dissolve au- thority ; to punish without mercy, is to destroy, and where all are guilty, to make the destruc- tion universal. That we cannot sin with im- punity, is a matter determined. The Ruler of the world is not careless of the conduct of his creatures ; for that penal consequences are at- tached to the offence, is not a subject of argu- ment, but is matter of fact evident by daily observation of the events and circumstances of the present life. It is a principle therefore already laid down, that the authority of God must be preserved ; but it ought to be remarked, that in that kind of administration which re- strains evil by penalty, and encourages obe- dience by favour and hope, we and all moral creatures are the interested parties, and not the divine Governor himself, whom, because of his independent and all-sufficient nature, our trans- gressions cannot injure. The reasons, there- fore, which compel him to maintain his au- thority do not terminate in himself. If he treats offenders with severity, it is for our sake, and for'the sake of the moral order of the uni- verse, to which sin, if encouraged by a negli- gent administration, or by entire or frequent impunity, would be the source of endless dis- order and misery; and if the granting of par- don to offence be strongly and even severely guarded, so that no less a satisfaction could 'be accepted than the death of God's own Son, we are to'refer this to the moral necessity of -the .case as arising out of the general welfare of accountable creatures, liable to the deep evil of sin, and not to any*reluctance on the part of our Maker to forgive, much less to any thing vindictive in his nature, — charges which have been most inconsiderately and unfairly said to be implied in the doctrino of Christ's vicarious sufferings. If it then be true, that the release of offending man from future pun- ishment, and his restoration to the divine fa- vour, ought, for the interests of mankind them- selves, and for the instruction and caution of other beings, to be so bestowed, that no license shall be given to offence ; — that God himself, whilst he manifests his compassion, should not appear less just, less holy, than he really is ; — that his authority should be felt to be as com- pelling, and that disobedience should as truly, though not unconditionally, subject us to the deserved penalty, as though no hope of forgive- ness had been exhibited; — we ask, On what scheme, save that which is developed in the New Testament, are these necessary conditions provided for? Necessary they are, unless we contend for a license and an impunity which shall annul all good government in the uni- verse, a point for which no reasonable man will contend ; and if so, then we must allow that there is strong internal evidence of the truth of the doctrine of Scripture, when it makes the offer of pardon consequent only upon the securities we have before mentioned. If it be said, that sin may be pardoned in the ex- ercise of the divine prerogative, the reply is, that if this prerogative were exercised toward a part of mankind only, the passing by of the rest would be with difficulty reconciled to the divine character ; and if the benefit were ex- tended to all, government would be at an end. This scheme of bringing men within the ex- ercise of a merciful prerogative, does not there- fore meet the obvious difficulty of the case ; nor is it improved by confining the act of grace only to repentant criminals. For in the immediate view of danger, what offender, sur- rounded with the wreck of former enjoyments, feeling the vanity of guilty pleasures, now past for ever, and beholding the approach of the delayed penal visitation, but would repent? Were the principle of granting pardon to re- pentance to regulate human governments, every criminal would escape, and judicial forms would become a subjeret for ridicule. Nor is it re- cognised by the divine Being in his conduct to men in the present state, although in this world punishments are not final and absolute. Repentance does not restore health injured by intemperance ; property, wasted by profusion ; or character, once sta.ned by dishonourable practices. If repentance alone could secure pardon, then all must be pardoned, and govern- ment dissolved, as in the case of forgiveness by the exercise of mere prerogative ; but if an arbitrary selection be made, then different and discordant principles of government are in- troduced into the divine administration, which is a "derogatory supposition. The question proposed abstractedly, How may mercy be extended to offending creatures, the subjects of the divine government, without ATO 109 ATO encouraging vice, by lowering the righteous and holy character of God, and the authority of his government, iv. the maintenance of which the whole universe of beings are inter- ested ? is, therefore, at once one of the most important and one of the most difficult that can employ the human mind. None of the theories which have been, opposed to Chris- tianity affords a satisfactory solution of the problem. They assume principles either de- structive of moral government, or which can- not, in the circumstances of man, be acted upon. The only answer is found in the Holy Scriptures. They alone show, and, indeed, they alone profess to show, how God may be "just," and yet the "justifier" of the ungodly. Other schemes show how he may be merciful ; but the difficulty does not lie there. The Gos- pel meeto it, by declaring "the righteousness of God," at the same time that it proclaims his mercy. The voluntary sufferings of the Divine Son of God " for us," that is, in our room and stead, magnify the justice of God ; display his hatred to sin ; proclaim "the exceeding sinful- ness" of transgression, by the deep and painful manner in which they were inflicted upon the Substitute ; warn the persevering offender of the terribleness, as well as the certainty, of his punishment ; and open the gates of salvation to every penitent. It is a part of the same divine plan also to engage the influence of the Holy Spirit, to awaken penitence in man, and to lead the wanderer back to himself; to re- new our fallen nature in righteousness, at the moment we are justified through faith, and to place us in circumstances in which we may henceforth "walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit." An the ends of government are here answered — no license is given to offence, — the moral law is unrepealed, — a day of judg- ment is still appointed, — future and eternal punishments still display their awful sanctions, — a new and singular display of the awful purity of the divine character is afforded, — yet par- don is offered to all who seek it; and the whole world may be saved. With such evidence of suitableness to the case of mankind, under such lofty views of connection with the principles and ends of moral government, does the doctrine of the atonement present itself. But other important considerations are not wanting to mark the united wisdom and goodness of that method of extending mercy to the guilty, which Chris- tianity teaches us to have been actually and exclusively adopted. It is rendered, indeed, "worthy of all acceptation," by the circum- stance of its meeting the difficulties we have just dwelt upon, — difficulties which could not otherwise have failed to make a gloomy im- pression upon every offender awakened to a sense of his spiritual danger; but it must be very inattentively considered, if it does not farther commend itself to us, by not only re- moving the apprehensions we might feel as to the severity of the divine Lawgiver, but as ex- alting him in our esteem as "the righteous Lord, who loveth righteousness," who sur- rendered his beloved Son to suffering and death, that the influence of moral goodness might not be weakened in the hearts of his creatures; and as a God of love, affording in this instance a view of the tenderness and benignity of his nature infinitely more impres- sive and affecting than any abstract descrip- tion could convey, or than any act of creating and providential power and grace could ex- hibit, and, therefore, most. suitable to subdue that enmity which had unnaturally grown up in the hearts of his creatures, and which, when corrupt, they so easily transfer from a law which restrains their inclination to the Law- giver himself. If it be important to us to know the extent and reality of our danger, by the death of Christ it is displayed, not in descrip- tion, but in the most impressive action ; if it be important that we should have an assurance of the divine placability toward us, it here receives a demonstration incapable of being heightened ; if gratitude be the most powerful motive of future obedience, and one which renders command on the one part, and active service on the other, " not grievous but joy- ous," the recollection of such obligations as those which the " love of Christ" has laid us under, is a perpetual spring to this energetic affection, and will be the means of raising it to higher and more delightful activity for ever. All that can most powerfully illustrate the united tenderness and awful majesty of God, and the odiousness of sin ; all that can win back the heart of man to his Maker and Lord, and render future obedience a matter of affec tion and delight as well as duty; all that can extinguish the angry and malignant passions of man to man ; all that can inspire a mutual benevolence, and dispose to a self-denying charity for the benefit of others; all that can arouse by hope, or tranquillize by faith ; is to be found in the vicarious death of Christ, and the principles and purposes for which it was endured. The first declaration, on this subject, after the appearance of Christ, is that of John the Baptist, when he saw Jesus coming unto him, " Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world ;" where it is obvious, that when John called our Lord, " the Lamb of God," he spoke of him under a sacrificial character, and of the effect of that sacrifice as an atonement for the sins of mankind. This was said of our Lord, even before he entered on his public office ; but if any doubt should exist respecting the meaning of the Baptist's expression, it is removed by other passages, in which a similar allusion is adopted, and in which it is specifically applied to the death of Christ, as an atonement for 'sin. In the Acts of the Apostles, the following words of Isaiah are, by Philip the evangelist, distinctly applied to Christ, and to his death : " He was led as a sheep to the slaughter ; and like a lamb dumb before his shearer, so opened he not his mouth . in his humiliation his judgment was taken away: and who shall declare his generation? for his life is taken from the earth." This par- ticular part of the prophecy being applied to our Lord's death, the whole must relate to the ATO 110 AUG same subject ; for it is undoubtedly one entire prophecy, and the other expressions in it are still stronger : " He was wounded for our transgressions ; he was bruised for our iniqui- ties ; the chastisement of our peace was upon him ; and with his stripes we are healed : the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all." In the First Epistle of Peter, is also a strong and very apposite -text, in which the application of the term "lamb" to our Lord, and the sense in which it is applied, can admit of no doubt : " Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not re- deemed with corruptible things, but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot," 1 Peter i, 18, 19. It is therefore evident that the Prophet Isaiah, six hundred years before the birth of Jesus; that John the Baptist, on the commencement of his ministry ; and that St. Peter, his friend, companion and Apostle, subsequent to the transaction ; speak of Christ's death as an atonement for sin, under the figure of a lamb sacrificed. The passages that follow, plainly and dis- tinctly declare the atoning efficacy of Christ's death : " Now once in the end of the world hath he appeared to put away sin by the sacri- fice of himself." " Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many ; and unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time without sin unto salvation," Heb. ix, 26, 28. " This man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sin, for ever sat down on the right hand of God ; for by one offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified," Heb. x, 12. It is observable, that nothing similar is said of the death of any other person, and that no such efficacy is imputed to any other martyr- dom. " While we were yet sinners Christ died for us ; much more then, being now justi- fied by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him : for if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life," Rom. v, 8-10. The words, " reconciled to God by the death of his Son," show that his death had an efficacy in our reconciliation ; but reconciliation is only preparatory to salvation. " He has reconciled us to his Father in his cross, and in the body of his flesh through death," Col. i, 20, 22. What is said of reconciliation in these texts, is in some others spoken of sanctification, which is also preparatory to salvation. " We are sanctified," — how ? " by the offering of the body of Christ once for all," Heb. x, 10. In the same epistle, the blood of Jesus is called " the blood of the covenant by which we are sanctified." In these and many other-passages that occur in different parts of the New Testa- ment, it is therefore asserted that the death of Christ had an efficacy in the procuring of hu- man salvation. Such expressions are used concerning no other person, and the death of no other person ; and it is therefore evident, that Christ's death included something more than a confirmation of his preaching ; some, thing more than a pattern of a holy and patient martyrdom ; something more than a necessary antecedent to his resurrection, by which he gave a grand and clear proof of our resurrec- tion from the dead. Christ's death was all these, but it was something more. It was an atonement for the sins of mankind; and in this way only it became the accomplishment of our eternal redemption. See Day of Expia- tion. AUGSBURGH, or AUGUSTAN CONFES- SION. In 1530, a diet of the German princes was convened by the emperor Charles V, to meet at Augsburgh, for the express purpose of composing the religious troubles which then distracted Germany. On this occasion Melanc- thon was employed to draw up this famous con- fession of faith which may be considered as the creed of the German reformers, especially of the more temperate among them. It consist ed of twenty-one articles, including the follow- ing points : — The Trinity, original sin, the incarnation, justification by faith, the word and sacraments, necessity of good works, the per- petuity of the church, infant baptism, the Lord's Supper, repentance and confession y the proper use of the sacraments, church order, sjtes and ceremonies, the magistracy, a future judgment, free will, the worship of saints, &c. It then proceeds to state the abuses of which the re- formers chiefly complained, as the denial of the sacramental cup to the laity, the celibacy of the clergy, the mass, auricular confession, forced abstinence from meats, monastic vows, and the enormous power of the church of Rome. The confession was read at a full meeting of the diet, and signed by the elector of Saxony, and three other princes of the German empire. John Faber, afterward archbishop of Vienna, and two other Catholic divines, were employed to draw up an answer to this confession, which was replied to by Melancthon in his " Apology for the Augsburgh Confession" in 1531. This confession and defence ; the articles of Smal- cald, drawn up by Luther ; his catechisms, &c, form the symbolical books of the Lutheran church ; and it must be owned that they con- tain concessions in favour of some parts of popery, particularly the real presence, that few Protestants in this country would admit. AUGUSTINE, or, as he is sometimes called in the court style of the middle ages, St. Aus- tin, one of the ancient fathers of the church, whose writings for many centuries had almost as potent an influence on the religious opinions of Christendom as those of Aristotle exercised over philosophy. Indeed, it has often been men- tioned as a fact, with expressions of regret, that the writings of no man, those of the Stagirite excepted, contributed more than those of St. Augustine to encourage that spirit of subtle dis- quisition which subsequently distinguished the era of the Schoolmen. He was born, Novem- ber 13th, A. D. 354, at Tagasta, an episcopal city of Numidia in Africa. His parents, Patri- cius and Monica, were Christians of respect- able rank in life, who afforded their son all the means of instruction which his excellent genius and wonderful aptitude for learning seemed to require. He studied grammar and rhetoric at Madura, until he was sixteen years old ; and AUG 111 AUG afterward removed to Carthage, to complete his studies. In both these cities, in all the fervour of unregenerate youth, he entered eagerly into the seducing scenes of dissipation and folly with which he was surrounded, and became not only depraved but infamous in his conduct. In this respect he was not unproved by his subse- quent connection with the Manichees, whose unhallowed principles afforded an excuse for his immorality, and threw a veil over the vilest of his actions. The simplicity and minuteness with which he has narrated the numerous inci- dents of his childhood, youth, and mature age, in his celebrated book of " Confessions," have afforded abundant matter of ridicule to the pro- fane and infidel wits of this and the last age. The reflections, however, which accompany his narrative, are generally important and judi- cious, and furnish to the moral philosopher copious materials for a history of the varieties of the human heart, and are of superior value to the humble Christian for the investigation and better knowledge of his own. With a strange though not uncommon inconsistency, few books have been more frequently quoted as authority on matters relating to general liter- ature and philosophy by infidels themselves, than St. Augustine's otherwise despised " Con- fessions," and his "City of God." But, what- ever else is taught in this remarkable piece of autobiography, every pious reader will be de- lighted with the additional proofs which it con- tains of the ultimate prevalence of faithful prayer, especially on the part of Christian pa- rents. Monica's importunate prayers to heaven followed the aberrations of her graceless son, — when he settled at Carthage as a teacher of rhetoric ; when he removed to Rome, and lodg- ed with a Manichee ; — and when he finally set- tled at Milan as professor of rhetoric. St. Ambrose was at that time, A. D. 384, bishop of Milan, and to his public discourses Augus- tine began to pay much attention. His heart became gradually prepared for the reception of divine truth, and for that important change of heart and principles which constitutes " con- version." The circumstances attending this change, though often related, are not unwor- thy of being repeated, if only to show that the mode of the Holy Spirit's operations was in vsubstance the same in those early days as they are now ; and time was when some of the sound- est divines and most worthy dignitaries of the church of England were in the habit of refer- ing with approbation to this well attested in- stance of change of heart. One of his Chris- tian countrymen, Pontinius, who held a high situation at court, having perceived a copy of St. Paul's Epistles lying on the table, entered one day into conversation with him and his friend Alipius about the nature of faith and the happiness of those who lived in the enjoyment of religion. Augustine was deeply affected at the close of this visit ; and when Pontinius had retired, giving vent to his feelings he address- ed Alipius in a most animated strain: "How is this ? What shall we do ? Ignorant people come, and seize upon heaven ; and we, with our learning, (senseless wretches that we are ') behold we are immersed in flesh and blood ! Are we ashamed to follow them ? Yet is it not a still greater shame, not even to be able to fol- low them?" Full of remorse and contrition Augustine left the house and retired to a secret part of the garden, followed by his friend, who seemed on this occasion to be a partaker of his grief only because he saw him grieved in spi- rit. Unwilling to unman himself, as he ac- counted it, before Alipius, he left him; and throwing himself down under the branches of a large fig tree he poured out a torrent of tears which he was unable any longer to restrain, and exclaimed in bitterness of soul, "When, O Lord, when will thy anger cease ? Why to- morrow ? Why not at this time ?" He instantly heard what he considered to be the voice of a child, saying Tolle, lege, " Take and read." These two Latin words were repeated several times ; Augustine reflected upon them, check, ed his tears, received them as the voice of God, and running into the house, opened, according to the divine direction, the Epistles of St. Paul which he had left on the table, and attentively read the first passage which he found. It was Romans xiii, 13, 14; a passage peculiarly ap- plicable to him, in reference to his former habits and present state of mind : " Not in rioting and drunkenness, not in chambering and wanton- ness, not in strife and envying : but put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provi- sion for the flesh to fulfil the lusts thereof." He shut up the book, and was amazed that all his doubts and fears had vanished. Alipius was speedily informed of this wonderful change in bis feelings and views; and after having desir- ed to see the two verses, in the spirit of a true seeker he pointed out to Augustine the passage which immediately follows, and which he con- sidered as peculiarly adapted to his own case : " Him that is weak in the faith receive ye," &c, Rom. xiv, 1. The two friends then ran to acquaint Monica with these circumstances, the knowledge of which transported her with joy. In a frame of mind not unfamiliar to those who have themselves had " much forgiven," Augustine wished to retire at once from so' wicked a world as that in which he had passed the first thirty-two years of his dissolute life. His secession, however, was only a temporary one ; for he and Alipius were, a few months afterward, received by baptism into the Chris- tian church. After having composed several religious treatises in his retreat near Tagasta, especially against the errors of the Manichees, from which he had been so recently reclaimed, he was, in the year 392, ordained priest by Va- lerius, bishop of Hippo, now a part of the Bar- bary States on the coast of Africa. He there held a public disputation with Fortunatus, a celebrated priest among the Manichees, and acquitted himself with great spirit and success , he also wrote and preached largely and to great effect against the Donatists and Manichees. His reputation as a divine increased ; and he was, at the close of the year 395, ordained bishop of Hippo, in which high station he continued with great advantage to wage war against va- rious orders of heretics. AUG 112 AUG Augustine had hitherto directed his theolo- gical artillery principally against the predesti- narian errors of the Manichees ; but he was soon called upon to change his weapons and his mode of warfare, in attacking a new and not less dan- gerous class of heretics. In the year 412 he began to write against the injurious doctrines of Pelagius, a native of Britain, who had resided for a considerable time at Rome, and acquired universal esteem by the purity of his manners, his piety, and his erudition. Alarmed at the consequences which seemed to him obviously to result from allowing that Adam's sin is trans- mitted to all his posterity, and fortified in his sentiments on this subject by those of Origen and Ruffinus, with the latter of whom he had associated, he boldly denied tenets which he did not believe. In the defence of his opinions, Pelagius, was seconded by Celestius, a man equally eminent for his talents and his virtues. Their principles were propagated at first rather by hints and intimations, than by open avowal and plain declarations ; but this reserve was laid aside when they perceived the ready recep- tion which their doctrines obtained ; and Celes- tius began zealously to disseminate them in Africa, while Pelagius sowed the same tares in Palestine, whence they were speedily trans- planted to almost every corner of Christendom. If the brief notices, which have come down to us respecting their tenets, in the writings of their adversaries, be correct, they affirmed, " It is not free will if it requires the aid of God ; because every one has it within the power of his own will to do any thing, or not to do it. Our victory over sin and Satan proceeds not from the help which God affords, but is owing to our own free will. The prayers which the church offers up either for the conversion of unbelievers and other sinners, or for the perse- verance of believers, are poured forth in vain. The unrestricted capability of men's own free will is amply sufficient for all these things, and therefore no necessity exists for asking of God those things which we are able of ourselves to obtain ; the gifts of grace being only neces- sary to enable men to do that more easily and completely which yet they could do themselves though more slowly and with greater difficulty ; and that they are perfectly free creatures," in opposition to all the current notions of predes. tination and reprobation. These novel opin- ions were refuted by St. Augustine and St. Je- rom, as well as by Orosius a Spanish presbyter, and they were condemned as heresies in the council of Carthage and in that of Milevum. The discussions which then arose have been warmly agitated in various subsequent periods of the Christian church, though little new light has been thrown upon them from that age to the present. In his eagerness to confute these opponents St. Augustine employed language so strong as made it susceptible of an interpreta- tion wholly at variance with the accountability of man. This led to farther explanations and modifications of his sentiments, which were multiplied when the Semi-Pelagians arose, who thought that the truth lay between his doctrines and those of the Pelagians. Concerning origi- nal sin, he maintained that it was derived from our first parents ; and he believed he had ascer- tained in what the original sin conveyed by Adam to his posterity consisted. In his senti- ments, however, upon the latter point he was rather inconsistent, at one time asserting that the essence of original sin was concupiscence, and at another expressing doubts respecting his own position. This subject was bequeath- ed as a legacy to the schoolmen of a subsequent age, who exercised their subtle wits upon all its ramifications down to the period of the coun- cil of Trent. On the consequences of the fall of our first parents, St. Augustine taught that by it human nature was totally corrupted, and deprived of all inclination and ability to do good. Before the age in which he lived, the early fathers held what, in the language of systematic theology, is termed the synergestic system, or the needfulness of human coopera- tion in the works of holiness ; but though the freedom of the will was not considered by them as excluding or rendering unnecessary the grace of God, yet much vagueness is percepti- ble in the manner in which they express them- selves, because they had not examined the subject with the same attention as the theolo- gians by whom they were succeeded. Those early divines generally used the language of Scripture, the fertile hrvention of controversial writers, not having as yet displayed itself, ex- cept on the divine nature of Jesus Christ, and subsidiary terms and learned distinctions not being then required by any great differences of opinion. But as soon as Pelagius broached his errors, the attention of Christians was natur- ally turned to the investigation of the doctrine of grace. The opinions of St. Augustine on this subject, which soon became those of the great body of the Christian church, admitted the necessity of divine grace, or the influence of the Holy Spirit, for our obedience to the law of God. He ascribed the renovation of our moral constitution wholly to this grace, denied all cooperation of man with it for answering the end to be accomplished, and represented it as irresistible. He farther affirmed that it was given only to a certain portion of the human race, to those who showed the fruits of it in their sanctification, and that it secured the per- severance of all upon whom it was bestowed. Plaiferc in his " Appello Etangelium" has given the following as the substance of that opinion of the order of predestination of which "many do say that St. Austin was the first author: 1. That God from all eternity decreed to cre- ate mankind holy and good. 2. That he fore- saw man, being tempted by Satan, would fall into sin, if God did not hinder it ; he decreed not to hinder. 3. That out of mankind, seen fallen into sin and misery, he chose a certain number to raise to righteousness and to eternal lite, and rejected the rest, leaving them in their sins. 4. That for these his chosen he decreed to send his Son to redeem them, and his Spirit to call them and sanctify them ; the rest he decreed to forsake, leaving them to Satan and themselves, and to punish them for their sins." After St. Augustine had thus in a great de AUG 113 AUG gree new moulded the science of theology, and had combined with it as an essential part of divine truth, that the fate of mankind was de- termined by the divine decree independently of their own efforts and conduct, and that they were thus divided into the elect and reprobate, it became necessary, in order to preserve con- sistency, to introduce into his system a limita- tion with respect to baptism, and to prevent the opinions concerning it from interfering with those which flowed from the doctrine of predestination. He accordingly taught, that baptism brings with it the forgiveness of sins ; that it is so essential, that the omission of it will expose us to condemnation ; and that it is attended with regeneration. He also affirmed that the virtue of baptism is not in the water ; that the ministers of Christ perform the external ceremony, but that Christ accompanies it with invisible grace ; that baptism is common to all, whilst grace is not so ; and that the same ex- ternal rite may be death to some, and life to others. By this distinction he rids himself of the difficulty which would have pressed upon his scheme of theology, had pardon, regenera- tion, and salvation been necessarily connected with the outward ordinance of baptism ; and limits its proper efficacy to those who are com- prehended, as the heirs of eternal life, in the decree of the Almighty. Many, however, of those who strictly adhere to him in other parts of his doctrinal system, desert him at this point. Bishop Bedell speaks thus in disparage- ment of his baptismal views, in a letter to Dr. Ward : " This I do yield to my Lord of Sarum most willingly, that the justification, sanctifi- cation, and adoption which children have in baptism, is not univoce [univocally] the same with that which adulti [adults] have. I think the emphatical speeches of Augustine against the Pelagians, and of Prosper, are not so much to be regarded (who say the like of the eucha- rist also) touching the necessity and efficacy in the case of infants ; and they are very like the speeches of Lanfranc and Guitmund of Christ's presence in the sacrament, opposing veraciter, [truly] and vere [truly] to sacramenta- litir ; [sacramentally ;] which is a false and absurd contraposition. The opinion of the Franciscans out of Scotus and Bernard, men- tioned in the council of Trent, seems to be the true opinion; for they make the sacra- ments to be effectual, ' because God gives them effectus regulariter concomitantes,' [regularly accompanying effects,] and to contain grace no otherwise than as an effectual sign; and that grace is received by them as an investiture by a ring or staff, which is obsignando, [by signation.] Consider that if you will aver, that baptism washes away otherwise than sacra- mentally, that is, obsignatorily, original sin ; yet you must allow that manner of washing for future actual sins ; and you must make two sorts of justification, one for children, another for adulti; [adults;] and (which passes all the rest) you must find some promise in God's covenant wherein he binds himself to wash Away sin without faith or repentance. By this doctrine, you must also maintain that children do spiritually eat the flesh of Christ and drink his blood, if they receive the eucharist, as for ages they did, and by the analogy of the pass- over they may ; and sith [if] the use of this sacrament toties quoties [as often as it is used] must needs confer grace, it seems it were necessary to let them communicate, and the oftener the better, to the intent they might be stronger in grace : which opinion, though St. Austin and many more of the ancients do maintain, I believe you will not easily conde- scend unto, or that children dying without baptism are damned." These remarks are im- portant, as proceeding from the pen of the personal friend of Father Paul, who wrote the History of the council of Trent. In the various discussions which have arisen concerning predestination and the doctrines with which it is connected, some modern di- vines have quoted the arguments of St. Agus- tine against the Manichees, and others those which he employed against the Pelagians, ac- cording to the discordant views which the combatants severally entertain on these contro- verted points. One of them has thus expressed himself, in his endeavour to reconcile St Au- gustine with himself: — "The heresy of Pela- gius being .suppressed, the catholic doctrine in that point became more settled and confirmed by the opposition ; such freedom being left to the will of man, as was subservient unto grtice, cooperating in some measure with those hea- venly influences. And so much is confessed by St. Augustine himself, where he asks this question, ' Doth any man affirm that free will is perished utterly from man by the fall of Adam ?' And thereunto he makes this answer : ' Freedom is perished by sin ; but it is that freedom only which we had in paradise, of having perfect righteousness with immortality.' For, otherwise, it appears to be his opinion, that man was not merely passive in all the acts of grace which conduced to glory, according to the memorable saying of his, so common in the mouths of all men, ' He who first made us without our help will not vouchsafe to save us at last without our concurrence.' If any harsher expressions have escaped his pen, (as commonly it happeneth in the heats of a disputation,) they are to be qualified by this last rule, and by that before, in which it was affirmed, that ' God could not v/ith justice judge and con- demn the world, if all men's sins proceeded not from their own free will, but from some overruling providence which inforced them to it.' " Another admirer of this father offers the following as an attempt at reconciliation : " St. Augustine denied that the cooperation of man is at all exerted to produce the renewal of our nature ; but, when the renewal had been pro- duced, he admitted that there was an exercise of the will combined with the workings of grace. In the tenth chapter of his work against the Manichaeans, the bishop of Hippo thus expresses himself: ' Who is it that will not exclaim, How foolish it is to deliver precepts to that man who is not at liberty to perform ickat is commanded! And how unjust it is to con- demn him who had not power to fulfil the com. AUG 114 AUG mands ! Yet these unhappy persons [the Mani- chees] do not perceive that they are ascribing such injustice and want of equity to God. But what greater truth is there than this, that God has delivered precepts, and that human spirits have freedom of will V Elsewhere he says, ' Nothing is more within our power than our own will. The will is that by which we com- mit sin, and by which we live righteously.' Nothing can be plainer than that the writer of these passages admitted the liberty of the hu- man will, and the necessity of our own exer- tions in conjunction with divine grace. How this is to be reconciled with his general doc- trine, is perhaps indicated in the following passage from his book De Gratia, et lib. Arbi- trio, c. 17. Speaking of grace he says, 'That we may will God icorks without us; but when we will, and so will as to do, he co-works with us ; yet unless he either works that we may will, or co-works when we do will, we are utterly incapable of doing any thing in the good works of piety.' " These are but very slight specimens of the mode in which learned and ingenious men have tried to give a kind of symmetrical proportion to this father's doc- trinal system. Several large treatises have been published with the same praiseworthy intention ; the pious authors of them either entirely forgetting, or having never read, the rather latitudinarian indulgence of opinion which St. Augustine claims for himself in his "Retractations," in which he has qualified the harshness of his previous assertions on many subjects. If, however, an estimate may be formed of what this father intended in his va- rious pacifacatory doctrinal explanations from what he has actually admitted and expressed, it may be safely affirmed that no systematic writer of theology seems so completely to have entered into the last and best views of the bishop of Hippo, or so nearly reconciled the apparent discordances in them, as Arminius has done ; and few other authors have rendered more ample justice to his sentiments, talents, and character, than the famous Dutch Professor. Many were the theological labours to which he was invited by the most eminent of his con- temporaries ; and hastily as some of his lucu- brations were executed, it is not surprising that among two hundred and seventy -two treatises on different subjects, some are of inferior value and unworthy of the fame which he had ac- quired in the church. After a life of various changes, and of a mixed character, he died A. D. 430, in the seventy-sixth year of his age ; having been harassed at the close of life by seeing his country invaded by the Vaiukils, and the city of which he was the bishop be- sieged. Though those barbarians took Hippo and burned it, they saved his library, which contained his voluminous writings. St. Augustine was a diligent man in the sacred calling ; and that the office of a bishop even in that age of the church was no sinecure, is evident from several notices in his letters. At the close of one addressed to Marcellinus he gives the subjoined account: "If I were able to give you a narrative of the manner in which I spend my time, you would be both sur- prised and distressed on account of the great number of affairs which oppress me without my being able to suspend them. For when some little leisure is allowed me by those who daily attend upon me about business, and who are so urgent with me that I can neither shun them nor ought to despise them, I have always some other writings to compose, which indeed ought to be preferred, [to those which Marcel- linus requested,] because the present juncture will not permit them to be postponed. For the rule of charity is, not to consider the greatness of the friendship, but the necessity of the affair. Thus I have continually something or other to compose which diverts me from writing what would be more agreeable to my inclinations, during the little intervals in that multiplicity of business with which I am burdened either through the wants or the passions of others." He frequently complains of this oppressive weight of occupation in which his love of his flock had engaged him, by obeying the Apos- tolical precept, which forbids Christians from going to law before Pagan tribunals. In refer- ence to this employment his biographer, Posi- donius, says : " At the desire of Christians, or of men belonging to any sect whatever, he would hear causes with patience and attention, sometimes till the usual hour of eating, and sometimes the whole day without eating at all, observing the dispositions of the parties, and how much they advanced or decreased in faith and good works ; and when he had opportunity he instructed them in the law of God, and gave them suitable advice, requiring nothing of them except Christian obedience. He sometimes wrote letters, when desired, on temporal sub- jects; but looked upon all this as unprofitable occupation, which drew him aside from that which was better and more agreeable to him- self." The character of this eminent father has been much misrepresented both as a man and as a writer. Whoever looks into his writings for accurate and enlarged views of Christian doctrine, looks for that which could not be ex- pected in the very infancy of Biblical criticism. He was a rhetorician by profession, and the degenerate taste of that age must be blamed, rather than the individual who wrote in the style which then prevailed. The learning of. St. Augustine, and particularly his knowledge of Greek, have been disputed ; and hence the importance of his Biblical criticisms has been depreciated. In the account of the early part of his life he confesses his great aversion to the study of that language ; and as he tells us, in his maturer age, that he read the Platonists in a Latin version, it has perhaps been too hastily concluded that he never made any great proficiency in it. But though it be allowed that his comments on Scripture consist chiefly of popular reflections, spiritual and moral, or allegorical and mystical perversions of the lite- ral meaning ; yet the works of this father are not wholly destitute of remarks and critical interpretations, that are pertinent and judi- cious : to such, after a series of extracts from his AVE 115 AZA writings, Dr. Lardner has referred his readers. With regard to his knowledge of Greek, this impartial and candid author is of opinion, that he understood that language better than some have supposed ; and he has cited several pas- sages from which it may be perceived, that St. Augustine frequently compared his copies of the Latin version with those of the Greek ori- ginal. Le Clerc himself allows that he some- times explains Greek words and phrases in a very felicitous manner. Indeed, the com- mencement of his correspondence with St. Jerom proves him to have been no contempti- ble critic. In this he besought him, in the name of all the African churches, to apply himself to the translation into Latin of the Greek interpreters of Scripture, rather than to enter upon a new translation from the original Hebrew ; and to point out those passages in which the Hebrew differed from the Septua- gint, as he had previously done in the book of Job. Voltaire and other profane wits have, in the exercise of their buffoonery, impeached his moral conduct ; but their charges, when impar- tially examined, will be seen to be founded in ignorance or in malice. They resemble those which the same parties prefer against Prophets, Apostles, and against Christ himself. Mosheim observes that Augustine's high reputation filled the Christian world ; and " not without reason, as a variety of great and shining qualities were unhed in the character of that illustrious man. A sublime genius, an uninterrupted and zeal- ous pursuit of truth, an indefatigable applica- tion, an invincible patience, a sincere piety, and i subtle and lively wit, conspired to esta- blish his fame upon the most lasting founda- tions." Such a testimony as this far outweighs the vituperative remarks and petty sneers of a thousand infidel-s. See Pelagians and Sy- nods. AUGUSTUS, emperor of Rome, and suc- cessor of Julius Cassar. The battle of Actium, which he fought with Mark Antony, and which made him master of the empire, happened fif- teen years before the birth of Christ. This is the emperor who appointed the enrolment mentioned Luke ii, 1, which obliged Joseph and the Virgin Mary to go to Bethlehem, the place where Jesus Christ was born. Augustus procured the crown of Judea for Herod, from the Roman senate. After the defeat of Mark Antony, Herod adhered to Augustus, and was always faithful to him ; so that Augustus load- ed him with honours and riches. AVEN, a city of Egypt, afterward called Heliopolis, and On, Ezek. xxx, 17. Herodotus informs us that in this city there was an annual assembly in honour of the sun, and a temple dedicated to him. It appears, however, highly probable, by the behaviour of Pharaoh to Jo- seph and Jacob, and especially by Joseph's care to preserve the land to the priests, Gen. xlvii, 22, 26, that the true religion prevailed in Egypt in his time ; and it is incredible that Joseph should have married the daughter of the priest of On, had that name among the Egyptians denoted only the material light; which, however, no doubt they, like all the rest of the world, idolized in after times, and to which we find a temple dedicated among the Canaanites, under this name, Joshua vii, 2. AVENGER OF BLOOD. He who prose- cuted the man-slayer under the law was called the avenger of blood, and had a right to slay the person, if he found him without a city of refuge. See Goel. AVlMS, a people descended from Hevus, the son of Canaan. They dwelt at first in the country which was afterward possessed by the Caphtorims, or Philistines. The Scripture says expressly, that the Caphtorims drove out the Avims, w«o dwelt in Hazerim, even unto Azzah, Deut. ii, 23. There were also Avims, or Hivites, at Shechem, or Gibeon, Joshua xi, 19 ; for the inhabitants of Shechem were Hivites. Lastly, there were some of them beyond Jordan, at the foot of Mount Hermon. Bochart thinks, that Cadmus, who conducted a colony of the Phoenicians into Greece, was a Hivite. His name, Cadmus, comes from the Hebrew Kedem, "the east," because he came from the eastern parts of the land of Canaan. The name of his wife Hermione was taken from Mount Hermon, at the foot whereof the Hivites dwelt. The metamorphoses of the companions of Cadmus into serpents is founded upon the signification of the name of Hivites, which, in the Phoenician language, signifies serpents. AZARIAH, or UZZIAH, king of Judah, son of Amaziah. He began to reign at the age of sixteen years, and reigned fifty-two years in Jerusalem ; his mother's name being Jecholiah, 2 Kings xv. Azariah did that which was right in the sight of the Lord ; nevertheless- he did not destroy the high places ; and, against the express prohibition of God, the people con- tinued to sacrifice there. Having taken upon him to offer incense in the temple, which office belonged entirely to the priests, he was struck with a leprosy, and continued without the city, separated from other men until the day of his death, 2 Chron. xxvi. Josephus says, that upon this occasion a great earthquake happened ; and that the temple opening at the top, a ray of light darted upon the king's forehead, the very moment he took the censer into his hand, and he instantly became a leper ; nay, that the earthquake was so very violent, that it tore irt sunder a mountain west of Jerusalem, and rolled one half of it over and over to the dis- tance of four furlongs, till at length it was stopped by another mountain which stood over against it; but choked up the highway, and covered the king's gardens with dust. This is what Josephus adds to the history related in the Chronicles ; but the truth of it may be justly suspected. We know, indeed, that there was a very great earthquake in the reign of Uzziah ; for Amos, chap, i, 1, and Zechariah, chap, xiv, 5, make mention of it : however, it is not certain that it happened at the very time that Uzziah took upon him to offer incense. During the time that Uzziah was a leper, his son Jotham, as his father's viceroy, took the public administration upon himself, and suc- ceeded him after his death, which happened in the fifty -second year of his reign, A. M. 3246. BAA 116 BAA He was not buried in the royal sepulchre ; but in the same field, at some distance, on account of his leprosy. The first part of Uzziah's reign was very successful : he obtained great advantages over the Philistines, Ammonites, and Arabians. He made additions to the fortifications at Je- rusalem, and always kept an army on foot of three hundred and seven thousand men, and upwards, 2 Chron. xxvi; and he had great magazines, well stored with all sorts of arms, as well offensive as defensive ; and he was a great lover of agriculture. BAAL, BEL, or BELUS, denoting lord, a divinity among several ancient nations ; as the Canaanites, Phoenicians, Sidonians, Cartha- ginians, Babylonians, Chaldeans, and Assy- rians. The term Baal, which is itself an appellative, served at first to denote the true God, among those who adhered to the true re- ligion. Accordingly, the Phoenicians, being originally Canaanites, having once had, as well as the rest of their kindred, the knowledge of the true God, probably called him Baal, or lord. But they, as well as other nations, gra- dually degenerating into idolatry, applied this appellation to their respective idols ; and thus were introduced a variety of divinities, called Baalim, or Baal, with some epithet annexed to it, as Baal Berith, Baal Gad, Baal Moloch, Baal Peor, Baal Zebub, &c. Some have sup- posed that the descendants of Ham first wor- shipped the sun under the title of Baal, 2 Kings xxiii, 5, 11 ; and that they afterward as- cribed it to the patriarch who was the head of their line ; making the sun only an emblem of his influence or power. It is certain, how- ever, that when the custom prevailed of deify- ing and worshipping those who were in any respect distinguished among mankind, the ap- pellation of Baal was not restricted to the sun, but extended to those eminent persons who were deified, and who became objects of wor- ship in different nations. The Phoenicians had several divinities of this kind, who were not intended to represent the sun. It is probable that Baal, Belus, or Bel, the great god of the Carthaginians, and also of the Sidonians, Babylonians, and Assyrians, who, from the testimony of Scripture, appears to have been delighted with human sacrifices, was the Mo- loch of the Ammonites ; the Chronus of the Greeks, who was the chief object of adoration in Italy, Crete, Cyprus, and Rhodes, and all other countries where divine honours were paid him; and the Saturn of the Latins. In process of time, many other deities, beside the princi- pal ones just mentioned, were distinguished by the title of Baal among the Phoenicians, particularly those of Tyre, and of course among the Carthaginians, and other nations. Such were Jupiter, Mars, Bacchus, and Apollo, or the sun. The temples and altars of Baal were gene- rally placed on eminences : they were places inclosed by walls, within which was maintained a perpetual fire ; and some of them had statues or images, called in Scripture " Chamanim." Maundrell, in his journey from Aleppo to Je- rusalem, observed, some remains of these en- closures in Syria. Baal had his prophets and his priests in great numbers; accordingly, we read of four hundred and fifty of them that were fed at the table of Jezebel only ; and they conducted the worship of this deity, by offering sacrifices, by dancing round his altar with vio- lent gesticulations and exclamations, by cutting their bodies with knives and lancets, and by raving and pretending to prophesy, as if they were possessed by some invisible power. It is remarkable that we do not find the name Baal so much in popular use east of Babylonia ; but it was general west of Baby- lonia, and to the very extremity of western Europe, including the British isles. The wor- ship of Bel, Belus, Belenus, or Belinus, was general throughout the British islands; and certain of its rites and observances are still maintained among us, notwithstanding the establishment of Christianity during so many ages. A town in Perthshire, on the borders of the Highlands, is called Tilliebeltane or Tulliebeltane ; that is, the eminence, or rising ground, of the fire of Baal. In the neighbour- hood is a Druidical temple of eight upright stones, where it is supposed the fire was kin- dled. At some distance from this is anothsr temple of the same kind, but smaller ; and near it a well still held in great veneration. On Beltane morning, superstitious people go to this well, and drink of it ; then they make a procession round it nine times. After this tbey in like manner go round the temple. So deep- rooted is this Heathenish superstition in the minds of many who reckon themsdves good Protestants, that they will not neglect these rites, even when Beltane falls on the Sabbath. In Ireland, Bel-tein is celebrated on the twenty-first of June, at the time of tie solstice. There, as they make fires on the tops of hills, every member of the family is made to pass through the fire ; as they reckon wis ceremony necessary to ensure good fortune through the succeeding year. This resembles the rites used by the Romans in the Palilia. Bel-tein is also observed in Lancashire. In Wales, this annual fire is kindled in au. tumn, on the first day of November; which being neither at the solstice nor equinox, de- serves attention. It may be accounted for by supposing that the lapse of ages has removed it from its ancient station, and that the observ- ance is kept on the same day, nominally, though that be now removed some weeks back- ward from its true station. However that may be, in North Wales especially, this fire is at- tended by many ceremonies; such as running through the fire and smoke, each participator casting a stone into the fire. The Hebrews often imitated the idolatry of the Canaanites in adoring Baal. They offered human sacrifices to him in groves, upon high places, and upon the terraces of houses. Baal had priests and prophets consecrated to his service. All sorts of infamous and immodest actions were committed in the festivals of Baal and Astarte. See Jer. xxxii, 35 ; 2 Kings xvii, BAA 117 BAB 16; xxiii, 4, 5, 12; 1 Kings xviii, 22 ; 2 Kings x, 19 ; 1 Kings xiv, 24; xv, 12; 2 Kings xxiii, 7 ; Hosea iv, 14. This false deity is frequently mentioned in Scripture in the plural number, Baalim, which may intimate that the name Baal was given to several different deities. There were many cities in Palestine, whose names were compounded of Baal and some other word : whether it was that the god Baal was adored in them, or that these places were looked upon as the capital cities, — lords of their respective provinces, — is uncertain. BAAL BERITH, the god of the Shechem- ites, Judges viii, 33 ; ix, 4, 46. BAAL PEOR. Peor is supposed to have been a part of Mount Abarim; and Baal was the great idol or chief god of the Phoenicians, and was known and worshipped under a similar name, with tumultuous and obscene rites, all over Asia. He is the same as the Bel of the Babylonians. Baal, by itself, signifies lord, and was a name of the solar or principal god. But it was also variously compounded, in allu- sion to the different characters and attributes of the particular or local deities who were known by it, as Baal Peor, Baal Zebub, Baal Zephon, &c. Baal Peor, then, was probably the temple of an idol belonging to the Moab- ites, on Mount Abarim, which the Israelites worshipped when encamped at Shittim ; this brought a plague upon them, of which twenty- four thousand died, Num. xxxv. Chemosh, the abomination of Moab, to whom Solomon erected an altar, 1 Kings xi, 7, is supposed to have been the same deity. Baal Peor has been farther supposed by some to have been Priapus ; by others, Saturn ; by others, Pluto ; and by others again, Adonis. Mr. Faber agrees with Calmet in making Baal Peor the same with Adonis ; a part of whose worship consisted in bewailing him with funeral rites, as one lost or dead, and afterward welcoming, with extrava- gant joy, his fictitious return to life. He was in an eminent degree the god of impurity. Hosea, speaking of the worship of this idol, emphatically calls it " that shame," Hos. ix, 10. Yet in the rites of this deity the Moabite and Midianite women seduced the Israelites to join. BAAL ZEBUB, BEELZEBUB, or BEL- ZEBUB, signifies the god of flies, and was an idol of the Ekronites. It is not easy to dis- cover how this false deity obtained its name. Some commentators think that he was called Baal Samin, or the lord of heaven ; but that the Jews, from contempt, gave him the name of Baal-zebub. Others with greater reason be- lieve that he was denominated "the god of flies" by his votaries, because he defended them from flies, which are extremely troublesome in hot countries; in the same manner as the Eleans worshipped Hercules under the appella- tion of 'Amfyiutoj, the fly chaser. Pliny is of opinion, that the name of Achor, the god in- voked at Cyrene against flies, is derived from Accaron, or Ekron, where Baal-zebub was worshipped, and where he had a famous temple and oracle. Winkelman has given the figures of two heads, "both of them images of Jupiter, called by the Greeks 'A^utoj, and by the Ro- mans Muscarius; that is to say, fly driver; for to this Jupiter was attributed the function of driving away flies." It is evident that Beelzebub was considered as the patron deity of medicine ; for this is plainly implied in the conduct of Ahaziah, 2 Kings i. The Greek mythology considered Apollo as the god of medicine, and attributed also to him those possessions by a pythonic spirit which occasionally perplexed spectators, and of which we have an instance in Acts xvi, 19. Apollo, too, was the sun. Hence we pro- bably see the reason why Ahaziah sent to Beel- zebub to inquire the issue of his accident ; since Beelzebub was Apollo, and Apollo was the god of physic. The Jews, who changed Beelzebub into Beelzebul, "god of a dunghill," perhaps had a reference to the Greek of pytho, which signifies putrefied. In Scripture Beelzebub is called " the prince of devils," Matt, xii, 24 ; Luke xi, ]5; merely, it would seem, through the application of the name of the chief idol of the Heathen world to the prince of evil spirits. This was natural, since the Jews were taught in their own Scriptures to consider all the idols of the Heathens " devils." Those commenta- tors who think that the idol of Ekron himself is intended, have indulged in an improbable fancy. See Hornet. BAAL ZEPHON, or the god of the watch tower, was probably the temple of some idol, which served at the same time for a place of observation for the neighbouring sea and coun- try, and a beacon to the travellers by either. It was situated on a cape or promontory on the eastern side of the western or Heroopolitan branch of the Red Sea, near its northern ex- tremity, over against Pihahiroth, or the open- ing in the mountains which led from the de- sert, on the side of Egypt, to the Red Sea. BAASHA, the son of Ahijah, commander- in-chief of the armies belonging to Nadab, the son of Jeroboam, king of Israel. Baasha kill- ed his master treacherously at the siege of Gibbethon, a city of the Philistines, A. M. 3051, and usurped the crown, which he pos- sessed twenty-four years, 1 Kings xv, 27, &c. And, to secure himself in his usurpation, he massacred all the relatives of his predecessor; which uarbarous action proved the accomplish- ment of the prophecy denounced against the house of Jeroboam by Ahijah, the prophet, 1 Kings xiv, 1, &c. BABEL, the tower and city founded by the descendants of Noah in the plain of Shinar. The different tribes descended from Noah were here collected, and from this point were dis- persed, through the confusion of their language, The time when this tower was built is differ- ently stated in the Hebrew and Samaritan chronologies. The former fixes it in the year 101 after the flood, which Mr. Faber thinks encumbered with insuperable difficulties. This writer then goes on to show, that the chrono- logy of the Samaritan Pentateuch reconciles every date, and surmounts every difficulty. It represents Shem as dying nearly a century and a half before the death of Peleg, instead of more than that number of years afterward, and BAB 118 BAB almost four centuries and a half before the death of Abraham; whom, in accordance with the history, it makes to survive his father Terah precisely a hundred years. It removes the difficulties with which the Hebrew chro- nology invests the whole history, by giving time, while it allows the dispersion to have taken place in the latter part of Peleg's life, for the thirteen sons of his younger brother Joktan to have become heads of families; for Noah and his sons to have died, as it is proved they must have done, prior to the emigration from Armenia; for Nimrod, instead of being a boy, to have been of an age suitable to his exploits, and to have acquired the sovereign command, not, in the face of all probability, while the four great patriarchs were living, but after their decease ; and for the families of mankind to have multiplied sufficiently to undertake the stupendous work of the tower. It explains also the silence respecting Sheni in the history of Abraham, by making the former die in Ar- menia four hundred and forty years before the latter was born, instead of surviving him thirty- five years ; and, lastly, it makes sacred history accord with profane ; the Babylonic history of Berosus, and the old records consulted by Epiphanius, both placing the death of Noah and his sons before the emigration from Armenia. The sum of the whole is as follows : All the descendants of Noah remained in Armenia in peaceable subjection to the patriarchal religion and government during the lifetime of the four royal patriarchs, or till about the begin- ning of the sixth century after the flood; when, gradually falling off from the pure worship of God, and from their allegiance to the respective heads of families, and seduced by the schemes of the ambitious Nimrod, and farther actuated by a restless disposition, or a desire for a more fertile country, they migrated in a body southwards, till they reached the plains of Shinar, probably about sixty years after the death of Shem. Here, under the command of their new leader, and his domi- nant military and sacerdotal Cuthites, by whom the original scheme of idolatry, the groundwork of which was probably laid in Armenia, was now perfected ; and, with the express view to counteract the designs of the Almighty in their dispersion into different countries, they began to build the city and tower, and set up a banner which should serve as a mark of national union, and concentrate them in one unbroken empire ; when they were defeated and dispersed by the miraculous confusion of tongues. All this probably occu- pied the farther space of twenty or twenty-one years; making eighty-one from the death of Shem, and five hundred and eighty-three after the flood. All of which also will come within the .life of Peleg, who, according to the Sama- ritan Pentateuch, died in the year 640. The tower of Belus in Babylon, mentioned by Herodotus, was probably either the original tower of Babel repaired, or it was constructed upon its massive foundations. The remains of this tower are still to be seen, and arc thus described by Captain Mignan, in his Travels in Chaldea : — "At day light I departed for the ruins, with a mind absorbed by the objects which I had seen yesterday. An hour's walk, indulged in intense reflection, brought me to the grandest and most gigantic northern mass, on the east- ern bank of the Euphrates, and distant about four miles and a half from the eastern suburb of Hillah. It is called by the natives, El Mv- jellibah, 'the overturned;' also Haroot and Ma root, from a tradition handed down, with little deviation, from time immemorial, that near the foot of the ruin there is a well, invisi- ble to mortals, in which those rebellious angels were condemned by God to be hung with their heels upward, until the day of judgment, as a. punishment for their wickedness. This solid mound, which I consider, from its situation and magnitude, to be the remains of the Tower of Babel, (an opinion likewise adopted by that venerable and highly distinguished geographer, Major Rennell,) is a vast oblong square, com- posed of kiln-burnt and sun-dried bricks, rising irregularly to the height of one hundred and thirty-nine feet, at the south-west; whence it slopes toward the north-east to a depth of one hundred and ten feet. Its sides face the four cardinal points. I measured them carefully, and the following is the full extent of each face : that to the north, along the visible face, is two hundred and seventy-four yards ; to the south, two hundred and fifty -six yards ; to the east, two hundred and twenty-six yards ; and to the west, two hundred and forty yards. The summit is an uneven flat, strewed with broken and unbroken bricks, the perfect ones measuring thirteen inches square, by three thick. Many exhibited the arrow-headed character, which appeared remarkably fresh. Pottery, bitumen, vitrified and petrified brick, shells, and glass, were all equally abundant. The principal materials composing this ruin are, doubtless, mud bricks baked in the sun, and mixed up with straw. It is not difficult to trace brick work along each front, particu- larly at the south-west angle, which is faced by a wall, composed partly of kiln-burnt brick, that in shape exactly resembles a watch tower or small turret. On its summit there are still considerable traces of erect building ; at the western end is a circular mass of sold brick work, sloping toward the top, and rising from a confused heap of rubbish. The chief ma- terial forming this fabric appeared similar to that composing the ruin called Akercouff, a mixture of chopped straw, with slime used as cement; and regular layers of unbroken reeds between the horizontal courses of the bricks. The base is greatly injured by time and the elements; particularly to the south-east, where it is cloven into a deep furrow from top to bottom. The sides of the ruin exhibit hol- lows worn partly by the weather, but more generally formed by the Arabs, who are inces- santly digging for bricks, and hunting for antiquities." BABYLON, 2 Kings xxiv, 1. The capital of Chaldea, built by Nimrod, Gen. x, 10. It BAB 119 BAB was under Nebuchadnezzar that Babylon, then become the seat of universal empire, is sup- posed to have acquired that extent and mag- nificence, and that those stupendous works were completed which rendered it the wonder of the world and of posterity : and accordingly, this prince, then the most potent on lhe earth, arrogated to himself the whole glory of its erection; and in the pride of his heart ex- claimed, " Is not this great Babylon that I have built ?" The city at this period stood on both sides of the river, which intersected it in the middle. It was, according to the least compu- tation, that of Diodorus Siculus, 45 miles in circumference ; and according to Herodotus, the older author of the two, 60 miles. Its shape was that of a square, traversed each way by 25 principal streets ; which of course intersected each other, dividing the city into 626 squares. These streets were terminated at each end by gates of brass, of prodigious size and strength, with a smaller one opening toward the river. The walls, from the most moderate accounts, were 75 feet in height and 32 in breadth ; while Herodotus makes them 300 in height and 75 in breadth : which last measurement, incredible as it may seem, is worthy of credit, as Herodotus is much the oldest author who describes them, and who gives their original height; whereas, those who follow him in their accounts of these stupendous walls, describe them as they were after they had been taken down to the less elevation by Darius Hystaspes. They were built of brick, cemented with bitumen instead of mortar ; and were encompassed by a broad and deep ditch, lined with the same materials, as were also the banks of the river in its course through the city : the inhabitants descending to the water by steps through the smaller brazen gates before mentioned. The houses were three or four stories high, separated from each other by small courts or gardens, with open spaces and even fields interspersed over the immense area enclosed within the walls. Over the river was a bridge, connecting the two halves of the city, which stood, the one on its eastern, and the other on its western, bank ; the river running nearly north and south. The bridge was 5 furlongs in length, and 30 feet in breadth, and had a palace at each end, with, it is said, a subterraneous passage beneath the river, from one to the other : the work of Se- miramis. Within the city was the temple of Belus, or Jupiter, which Herodotus describes as a square of two stadia, or a quarter of a mile : in the midst of which arose the cele- brated tower, to which both the same writer, and Strabo, give an elevation of one stadium, or 660 feet ; and the same measure at its base ; the whole being divided into eight separate towers, one above another, of decreasing dimensions to the summit; where stood a chapel, containing a couch, table, and other things of gold. Here the principal devotions were performed ; and over this, on the highest platform of all, was the observatory, by the help of which the Babylonians arrived to such perfection in astronomy, that Calisthenes the philosopher, who accompanied Alexander to Babylon, found astronomical observations for 1903 years backwards from that time ; which reach as high as the 115th year after the flood. On either side of the river, according to Dio- dorus, adjoining to the bridge, was a palace ; that on the western bank being by much the larger. This palace was eight miles in cir- cumference, and strongly fortified with three walls one within another. Within it were the celebrated pensile or hanging gardens, enclosed in a square of 400 feet. These gardens were raised on terraces, supported by arches, or rather by piers, laid over with broad flat stones ; the arch appearing to be unknown to the Baby- lonians : which courses of piers rose above one another, till they reached the level of the top of the city walls. On each terrace or platform, a deep layer of mould was laid, in which flow- ers, shrubs and trees were planted ; some of which are said to have reached the height of 50 feet. On the highest level was a reservoir, with an engine to draw water up from the river by which the whole was watered. This novel and astonishing structure, the work of a monarch who knew not how to create food for his own pampered fancy, or labour for his de. based subjects or unhappy captives, was under, taken to please his wife Amyitis ; that she might see an imitation of the hills and woods of her native country, Media. Yet, while in the plenitude of its power, and, according to the most accurate chronologers, 160 years before the foot of an enemy had en- tered it, the voice of an enemy had entered it, the voice of prophecy pronounced the doom of the mighty and unconquered Babylon. A succession of ages brought it gradually to the dust ; and the gradation of its fall is marked till it sinks at last into utter desolation. At a time when nothing but magnificence was around this city, emphatically called the great, fallen Babylon was delineated by the pencil of inspiration exactly as every traveller now de- scribes its ruins. The immense fertility of Chaldea, which retained also the name of Babylonia till after the Christian £era,. corresponded with the great- ness of Babylon, It was the most fertile re- gion of the whole east. Babylonia was one vast plain, adorned and enriched by the Eu- phrates and the Tigris, from which, and from the numerous canals that intersected the coun, try from the one river to the other, water was distributed over the fields by manuai labsur and by hydraulic machines, giving rise, in that warm climate and rich exhaustless soil, to an exuberance of produce without a known paral- lel, over so extensive a region, either in ancient or modern times. Herodotus states, that he knew not how to speak of its wonderful fer- tility, which none but eye witnesses would credit ; and, though writing in the language of Greece, itself a fertile country, he expresses his own consciousness that his description of what he actually saw would appear to be improbable, and to exceed belief. Such was the " Chaldees' excellency," that it departed not on the first conquest, nor on the final extinction of its BAB 120 BAB capital, but one metropolis of Assyria arose after another in the land of Chaldea, when Babylon had ceased to be "the glory of kingdoms." 2. Manifold are the prophecies respecting Babylon and the land of the Chaldeans ; and the long lapse of ages has served to confirm their fulfilment in every particular, and to ren- der it at last complete. The judgments of Heaven are not casual, but sure ; they are not arbitrary, but righteous. And they were de- nounced against the Babylonians, and the in- habitants of Chaldea, expressly because of their idolatry, tyranny, oppression, pride, covetous- ness, drunkenness, falsehood, and other wick- edness. The burden of Babylon, which Isaiah the son of Amos did see : " The noise of a multitude in the mountains, like as of a great people : a tumultuous noise of the kingdoms of nations gathered together : the Lord of Hosts mustereth the host of the battle. They come from a far country, from the end of heaven, even the Lord and the weapons of his indigna- tion, to destroy the whole land. Behold, the day of the Lord cometh, cruel both with wrath and fierce anger, to lay the land desolate : and he shall destroy the sinners thereof out of it. Babylon, the glory of kingdoms, the beauty of the Chaldees' excellency, shall be as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah. It shall never be inhabited, neither shall it be dwelt in from generation to generation : neither shall the Arabian pitch tent there : neither shall the shepherds make their fold there. But wild beasts of the desert shall lie there : and their houses shall be full of doleful creatures ; and owls shall dwell there, and satyrs shall dance there. And the wild beasts of the islands shall cry in their desolate houses, and dragons in their pleasant palaces." "Thou shalt take up this proverb against the king of Babylon, and say, flow hath the oppressor ceased ! the golden city ceased! Thy pomp is brought down to the grave, and the noise of thy viols : the worm is spread under thee, and the worms cover thee. Thou shalt be brought down to hell, to the sides of the pit. Thou art cast out of the grave like an abominable branch. — I will cut off from Babylon the name, and remnant, the son, and nephew, saith the Lord. I will also make it a possession for the bittern, and pools of water : and I will sweep it with the besom of destruc- tion, saith the Lord of Hosts." " Babylon is fallen, is fallen ; and all the graven images of her gods he hath broken unto the ground." " Thus saith the Lord, that saith unto the deep, Be dry ; and I will dry up thy rivers : that saith of Cyrus, He is my shepherd, and shall perform all my pleasure, — and I will loose the loins of kings, to open before him the two- leaved gates ; and the gates shall not be shut." " Bel boweth down," &c. " Come down, and sit in the dust, O virgin daughter of Babylon : sit on the ground, there is no throne, O daugh- ter of the Chaldeans. Sit thou silont, and get thee into darkness, O daughter of the Chal- deans; for thou shalt no more be called the lady of kingdoms." Many other prophecies against Babylon, and the whole land of Chaldea, are found in the Old Testament ; and though the limits of this article will only allow a reference to be made to the exact fulfilment of a few, there is not one of the great number of predictions on record, the accomplishment of which has not been remarked by numerous writers, and more especially by those who have visited the spot. For, though for many centuries the site of Babylon was unknown, or the ruins of other Chaldean cities mistaken for its remains, its true situation and present condition have been, within a few years, satisfactorily ascertained, and accurately described, by several most intel- ligent and enterprising travellers. When in the plenitude of its greatness, splendour and strength, Babylon first yielded to the arms of Cyrus, whose name, and the manoeuvre by which the city was taken, were mentioned by Isaiah nearly two hundred years before the event ; which was also predicted by Jeremiah: "Go up, O Elam, (or Persia,) be- siege, O Media. The Lord hath raised up the spirit of the kings of the Medes, for his device is against Babylon, to destroy it." The kings of Persia and Media, prompted by a common interest, freely entered into a league against Babylon, and with one accord entrusted the command of their united armies to Cyrus, the relative and eventually the successor of them both. — But the taking of Babylon was not reserved for these kingdoms alone : other na- tions had to be " prepared against her." " Set up a standard in the land ; blow the trumpet among the nations, prepare the nations against her, call together against her the kingdoms of Ararat, Minni, and Aschenaz : Lo, I will raise and cause to come up against Babylon an as- sembly of great nations from the north coun- try," &c. Cyrus subdued the Armenians, who had revolted against Media, spared their king, bound them over anew to their allegiance, by kindness rather than by force, and incorporated their army with his own. — "The mighty men of Babylon have foreborne to fight. They have remained in their holds ; their might hath fail- ed, they became as women." So dispirited became its people, that Babylon, which had made the world to tremble, was long besieged, without making any effort to drive off the enemy. But, possessed of provisions for twenty years, which in their timid caution they had plentifully stored, they derided Cyrus from their impregnable walls, within which they remained. Their profligacy, their wickedness and false confidence were unabated ; they continued to live carelessly in pleasures : and Babylon the great, unlike to many a small fortress and un- walled town, made not one struggle to regain its freedom or to be rid of the foe. — Much time having been lost, and no progress being made in the siege, the anxiety of Cyrus was strongly excited, and he was reduced to great perplexity, when at last it was suggested and immediately determined to divert the course of the Euphra- tes. And while the unconscious and reckless citizens were engaged in dancing and merri- ment, the river was suddenly turned into the lake, the trench, and the canals ; and the Per- sians, both foot and horse, so soon as the sub- BAB 121 BAB Biding of the water permitted, entered by its channel, and were followed by the allies in array, along the dry part of the river. " I will dry up thy sea, and make thy springs dry. That saith to the deep, Be dry, I will dry up thy rivers." — One detachment was placed where the river first enters the city, and another where it leaves it. And " one post did run to meet another, and one messenger to meet an- other, to show the king of Babylon that his city is taken at the end, and that the passages are shut." "They were taken," says Herodo- tus, " by surprise ; and such is the extent of the city, that, as the inhabitants themselves affirm, they who lived in the extremities were made prisoners before any alarm was communicated to the centre of the place," where the palace stood. Thus a " snare was laid for Babylon, it was taken, and it was not aware ; it was found and also caught ; for it had sinned against the Lord. How is the praise of the whole earth surprised !" — " In their heat I will make their feasts, and I will make them drunken, that they may rejoice and sleep a perpetual sleep, and not wake, saith the Lord. I will bring them down like lambs to the slaughter," &c. " I will make drunken her princes and her wise men, her captains and her rulers, and her mighty men, and they shall sleep a per- petual sleep," &c. Cyrus, as the night drew on, stimulated his assembled troops to enter the city, because in that night of general revel within the walls, many of them were asleep, many drunk, and confusion universally pre- vailed. On passing, without obstruction or hinderance, into the city, the Persiins, slaying some, putting others to flight, and joining with the revellers, as if slaughter had been merri- ment, hastened by the shortest way to the palace, and reached it ere yet a messenger had told the king that his city was taken. The gates of the palace, which was strongly forti- fied, were shut. The guards stationed before them, were drinking beside a blazing light, when the Persians rushed impetuously upon them. A louder and altered clamour, no longer joyous, caught the ear of the inmates of the palace, and the bright light showed them the work of destruction, without revealing its cause. And not aware of the presence of an enemy in the midst of Babylon, the king him- self, (who had been roused from his revelry by the hand writing on the wall,) excited by the warlike tumult at the gates, commanded those within to examine from whence it arose ; and according to the same word, by which "the gates" (leading from the river to the city) " were not shut, the loins of kings were loosed to open before Cyrus the two-leaved gates" of the palace. The eager Persians sprang in. "The king of Babylon heard the report of them; anguish took hold of him;" he and all who were about him perished ; God had " num- bered" his kingdom and finished it; it was "divided," and given to the Medes and Per- sians; the lives of the Babylonian princes, and lords, and rulers, and captains, closed with that night's festival ; the drunken slept " a per- petual sleep, and did not wake." — " I will fill thee with men as with caterpillars." Not only did the Persian army enter with ease as cater- pillars, together with all the nations that had come up against Babylon, but they seemed also as numerous. Cyrus, after the capture of the city, made a great display of his cavalry in the presence of the Babylonians, and in the midst of Babylon. Four thousand guards stood before the palace gates, and two thousand on each side. These advanced as Cyrus approach- ed ; two thousand spearmen followed them. These were succeeded by four square masses of Persian cavalry, each consisting of ten thousand men : and to these again were added, in their order, the Median, Armenian, Hyrca- nian, Caducian, and Sacian horsemen, — all, as before, "riding upon horses, every man in array," — with lines of chariots, four abreast, concluding the train of the numerous hosts. Cyrus afterward reviewed, at Babylon, the whole of his army, consisting of one hundred and twenty thousand horse, two thousand chariots, and six hundred thousand foot. Baby- lon, which was taken when not aware, and within whose walls no enemy, except a cap- tive, had been ever seen, was thus "filled with men as with caterpillars," as if there had not been a wall around it. The Scriptures do not relate the manner in which Babylon was taken, nor do they ever allude to the exact fulfilment of the prophecies. But there is, in every par- ticular, a strict coincidence between the pre- dictions of the prophets and the historical narratives, both of Herodotus and Xenophon. 3. Every step in the progress of the decline of Babylon was the accomplishment of a pro- phecy. Conquered, for the first time, by Cyrus, it was afterward reduced from an imperial to a tributary city. " Come down and sit in the dust, O daughter of Babylon : sit on the ground, there is no throne, O daughter of the Chal- deans." After the Babylonians rebelled against Darius, the walls were reduced in height, and all the gates destroyed. "The wall of Baby- lon shall fall, her walls are thrown down." — Xerxes, after his ignominious retreat from Greece, rifled the temples of Babylon, the golden images alone of which were estimated at 20,000,000/, beside treasures of vast amount. " I will punish Bel in Babylon, and I will bring forth out of his mouth that which he has swal- lowed up ; I will do judgment upon the graven images of Babylon." — Alexander the Great at- tempted to restore it to its former glory, and designed to make it the metropolis of a uni- versal empire. But while the building of the temple of Belus, and the reparation of the em- bankments of the Euphrates, were actually carrying on, the conqueror of the world died, at the commencement of this his last undertak- ing, in the height of his power, and in the flower of his age. "Take balm for her pain, if so be that she may be healed. We would have healed Babylon, but she is not healed." The building of the neighbouring city of Se- leucia was the chief cause of the decline of Babylon, and drained it of a great part of its population. And at a later period, or about 130 years before the birth of Christ, Humerus, f* BAB 122 BAB Parthian governor, who was noted as excelling all tyrants in cruelty, exercised great severities on the Babylonians ; and having burned the forum and some of the temples, and destroyed the fairest parts of the city, reduced many of the inhabitants to slavery on the slightest pre- texts, and caused them, together with all their households, to be sent into Media. "They shall remove, they shall depart, both man and beast." The " golden city" thus gradually verged, for centuries, toward poverty and deso- lation. Notwithstanding that Cyrus resided chiefly at Babylon, and sought to reform the government, and remodel the manners of the Babylonians, the succeeding kings of Persia preferred, as the seat of empire, Susa, Persepo- lis, or Ecbatana, situated in their own country : and in like manner the successors of Alexan- der did not attempt to complete his purpose of restoring Babylon to its preeminence and glo- ry ; but, after the subdivision of his mighty em- pire, the very kings of Assyria, during their temporary residence even in Chaldea, deserted Babylon, and dwelt in Seleucia. And thus the foreign inhabitants, first Persians and afterward Greeks, imitating their sovereigns by deserting Babylon, acted as if they verily had said, " For- sake her, and let us go every man unto his own country ; for her judgment is reached unto heaven, and is lifted up even to the skies." 4. But kindred judgments, the issue of com- mon crimes, rested on the land of Chaldea, as well as on its doomed metropolis. " They come from a far country, from the end of the earth, to destroy the whole land. Many nations and great kings shall serve themselves of thee also," &e. The Persians, the Macedonians, the Partliians, the Romans, the Saracens, and the Turks, are the chief of the many nations who have un- scrupulously and unsparingly " served them- selves" of the land of the Chaldeans: and Cyrus and Darius, kings of Persia ; Alexander the Great ; and Seleucus, king of Assyria ; De- metrius and Antiochus the Great ; Tragan, Se- verus, Julian, and Heraclius, emperors of Rome ; the victorious Omar, the successor of Moham- med ; Holagou, and Tamerlane, — are " great kings" who successively subdued or desolated Chaldea, or exacted from it tribute to such an extent, as scarcely any other country ever paid to a single conqueror. And though the names of some of these nations were unknown to the Babylonians, and unheard of in the world at the time of the prophecy, most of these " many nations and great kings" need now but to be named, to show that, in local relation to Chal- dea, "they came from the utmost border, from the coasts of the earth." — " I will punish the land of the Chaldeans, and will make it per- petual desolations ; cut off" the sower from Ba- bylon, and him that handleth the sickle in the time of harvest. A drought is on her waters, and they shall be dried up. Behold the hinder- most of the nations, a dry land and a desert." The land of the Chaldeans was indeed made — perpetual, or long continued, desolation. Ra- vaged and spoiled for ages, the Chaldees' excel- lency finally disappeared, and the land became desolate, as still it remains. RauwolrT, who passed through it in 1574, describes the coun try as bare, and " so dry and barren that it can- not be tilled." And the most recent travellers all concur in describing it in similar terms. On the one side, near to the site of Opis, "the country all around," says Mr. Buckingham, " appears to be one wide desert, of sandy and barren soil, thinly scattered over with brush- wood and tufts of reedy grass." On the other, between Bussorah and Bagdad, " immediately on either bank of the Tigris," observes Mignan, "is the untrodden desert. The absence of all cultivation, the sterile, arid, and wild character of the whole scene, formed a contrast to the rich and delightful accounts delineated in Scrip- ture. The natives, in travelling over these pathless deserts, are compelled to explore their way by the stars." " The whole country be- tween Bagdad and Hillah is a perfectly flat and (with the exception of a few spots as you ap- proach the latter place) uncultivated waste. That it was at some former period in a far different state, is evident from the number of canals by which it is traversed, now dry and neglected ; and the quantity of heaps of earth covered with fragments of brick and broken tiles, which are seen in every direction, the indis- putable traces of former population. At present the only inhabitants of the tract are the Sobeide Arabs. Around, as far as the eye can reach is a trackless desert." — " Her cities are desola- tions." The course of the Tigris through Ba- bylonia, instead of being adorned with cities, is marked with the sites of " ancient ruins." Sitace, Sabata, Narisa, Fuchera, Sendia, "no longer exist." A succession of longitudinal mounds, crcssed at right angles by others, mark the supposed site of Artemita, or Destagered. Its once luxuriant gardens are covered with grass; ana a higher mound distinguishes "the royal residence" from the ancient streets. " Ex- tensive ridges and mountains, (near to Hou- mania,) varying in height and extent, are seen branching ir. every direction." A wall, with sixteen bastions, is the only memorial of Apol- lonia. The once magnificent Seleucia is now a scene of desolation. There is not a single en- tire edifice, but the country is strewed for miles with fragments of decayed buildings. " As far," says Major Keppel, "as the eye could reach, the horizon presented a broken line of mounds; the whole of this place was a desert flat." On the opposite bank of the Tigris, where Ctesiphon its rival stood, beside fragments of walls and broken masses of brick work, and re- mains of vast structures encumbered with heaps of earth, there is one magnificent monument of antiquity "in a remarkably perfect state of preservation," "a large and noble pile of build- ing, the front of which presents to view a wall three hundred feet in length, adorned with four rows of arched recesses, with a central arch, in span eighty-six feet, and above a hundred feet high, supported by walls sixteen feet thick, and leading to a hall which extends to the depth of a hundred and fifty-six feet," the width of the building. A great part of the back wall, and of the roof, is broken down ; but that which | remains " still appears much larger than West, BAB 123 BAB minster Abbey." It is supposed to have been the lofty palace of Chosroes ; but there desola- tion now reigns. " On the site of Ctesiphon," says Mignan, " the smallest insect under heaven would not find a single blade of grass wherein to hide itself, nor one drop of water to allay its thirst." In the rear of the palace, and attach- ed to it, are mounds two miles in circumference, indicating the utter desolation of buildings, formed to minister to luxury. 5. But let us come to the fulfilment of these wonderful prophecies in the present condition of Babylon itself, as described by those who have most recently visited it. " Babylon shall become heaps." Babylon the glory of kingdoms is now the greatest of ruins. " Immense tumuli of temples, palaces, and ha- bitations of every description," arc every where seen, and form "long and varied lines of ruins," which, in some places, says Sir R. K. Porter, "rather resemble natural hills than mounds which cover the remains of great and splendid edifices." These buildings, which were once the labour of slaves and the pride of kings, are now misshapen heaps of rubbish. " The whole face of the country," observes Rich, " is cover- ed with vestiges of building, in some places consisting of brick walls surprisingly fresh, in others, merely a vast succession of mounds of rubbish, of such indeterminate figures, variety, and extent, as to involve the person who should have formed any theory in inextricable confu- sion."— " Let nothing of her be left." " Vast heaps constitute all that now remains of ancient Babylon," says Rich. All its grandeur is de- parted ; all its treasures have been spoiled ; all its excellence has utterly vanished ; the very heaps are searched for bricks, when nothing else can be found ; even these are not lej t, wherever they can be taken away ; and Baby- lon has for ages been " a quarry above ground," ready to the hand of every successive despoiler. Without the most remote allusion to this pro- phecy, Captain Mignan describes a mound at- tached to the palace, ninety yards in breadth by half that height, the whole of which is deeply furrowed, in the same manner as the generality of the mounds. " The ground is extremely soft, and tiresome to walk over* and appears completely exhausted of all its building mate- rials ; nothing now is left, save one towering hill, the earth of which is mixed -with, fragments of broken brick, red varnished pottery, tile, bitumen, mortar, glass, shells, and pieces of mother of pearl," — worthless fragments, of no value to the poorest. " From thence shall she be taken, let nothing of her be left." While the workmen " cast her up as heaps" while ex- cavating for bricks, that they may " take" them " from thence," and that " nothing may be left ;" they labour more than trebly in the fulfil- ment of prophecy : for the numerous and deep excavations form pools of water, on the over- flowing of the Euphrates, and, annually filled, they are not dried up throughout the year. " Deep cavities are also formed by the Arabs, when digging for hidden treasure." Thus " the ground," says Buckingham, "is sometimes covered with pools of water in the hollows." " Sit in the dust, sit on the ground, O dangh ter of the Chaldeans." The surface of the mounds which form all that remains of Baby- lon, consists of decomposed buildings, reduced to dust; and over all the ancient streets and habitations, there is literally nothing but the dust of the ground on which to sit. — "Thy nakedness shall be uncovered." " Our path," says Captain Mignan, " lay through the great mass of ruined heaps on the site of ' shrunken Babylon ;' and I am perfectly incapable of con- veying an adequate idea of the dreary, lonely nakedness that appeared before me." — " Sit thou silent, and get thee into darkness." "There reigns throughout the ruins," says Sir R. K. Porter, " a silence profound as the grave." " Babylon is now a silent scene, a sublime solitude." — " It shall never be inhabited, nor dwelt in from generation to generation." From Rauwolff's testimony it appears that, in the sixteenth century, "there was not a house to be seen." And now "the eye wanders over a barren desert, in which the ruins are nearly the only indication that it had ever been in- habited." "It is impossible," adds Major Keppel, "to behold this scene and not to be reminded how exactly the predictions of Isaiah and Je- remiah have been fulfilled, even in the appear- ance Babylon was doomed to present, that ' she should never be inhabited;' that 'the Arabian should not pitch his tent there ;' that she should ' become heaps ;' that her cities should be ' a desolation, a dry land, and a wilderness.'" "Babylon is spurned alike by the heel of the Ottomans, the Israelites, and the sons of Ish- mael." It is " a tenantlers and desolate me- tropolis," remarks Mignan. " It shall not be Inhabited, but be wholly desolate. Neither shall the Arabian pitch tent there, neither shall the shepherds make their folds there." It was prophesied of Amnion that it should be a stable for camels and a couching place for flocks ; and of Philistia, that it should be cottages for shepherds, and a pasture of flocks. But Baby- lon was to be visited with a far greater desola- tion, and to become unfit or unsuited even for such a purpose ; and that neither a tent would be pitched there, even by an Arab, nor a fold made by a shepherd, implies the last degree of solitude and desolation. "It is common in these parts for shepherds to make use of ruined edifices to shelter their flocks in." But Baby- lon is an exception. Instead of taking the bricks from thence, the shepherd might very readily erect a defence from wild beasts, and make a fold for his flock amidst the heaps of Babylon ; and the Arab who fearlessly traverses it by day, might pitch his tent by night. But neither the one nor the other could now be persuaded to remain a single night among the ruins. The superstitious dread of evil spirits, far more than the natural terror of the wild beasts, effectually prevents them. Captain Mignan was accompanied by six Arabs, com- pletely armed ; but he " could not induce them to remain toward night, from the apprehension of evil spirits. It is impossible to eradicate this idea from the minds of this people, who are very deeply imbued with superstition." BAB 124 BAD " Wild beasts of the deserts shall lie there, and their houses shall be full of doleful crea- tures; and owls shall dwell there, and satyrs (goats) shall dance there," &c. "There are many dens of wild beasts in various parts. And while the lower excavations are often pools of water, in most of the cavities are num- bers of bats and owls." The king of the forest now ranges over the site of that Babylon which Nebuchadnezzar built for his own glory. And the temple of Belus, the greatest work of man, is now like unto a natural den of lions. Two or three majestic lions were seen upon its heights by Sir Robert Ker Porter, as he was approaching it; and "the broad prints of their feet were left plain in the clayey soil." Major Keppel saw there a similar foot-print of a lion. It is also the unmolested retreat of jackalls, hyenas, and other noxious animals. Wild beasts are numerous at the Mujelibe, as well as •on Birs Nimrood. " The mound," says Kinneir, " was full of large holes : we entered some of them, and found them strewed with the car- casses and skeletons of animals recently killed. The ordure of wild beasts was so strong, that prudence got the better of curiosity ; for we had no doubt as to the savage nature of the inhabitants. Our guides, indeed, told us, that all the ruins abounded in lions, and other wild beasts: so literally has the divine prediction been fulfilled, that wild beasts of the deserts should lie there, and their houses be full of doleful creatures ; that the wild beasts of the islands should cry in their desolate houses." "The sea is come upon Babylon. She is covered with the multitude of the waves there- of." The traces of the western bank of the Euphrates are now no longer discernible. The river overflows unrestrained ; and the very ruins, with " every appearance of the embank- ment," have been swept away. "The ground there is low and marshy, and presents not the slightest vestige of former buildings, of any description whatever." " Morasses and ponds," says Porter, "tracked the ground in various parts. For a long time after the general sub- siding of the Euphrates, great part of this plain is little better than a swamp," &c. " The ruins of Babylon are then inundated, so as to render many parts of them inaccessible, by converting the valleys among them into morasses." But while Babylon is thus "covered with the mul- titude of waves, and the waters come upon it;" yet, in striking contrast and seeming contra- diction to such a feature of desolation, (like the formation of " pools of water," from the " casting up of heaps,") are the elevated sun- burnt ruins, which the waters do not overflow, and the "dry waste" and "parched and burn- ing plain," on which the heaps of Babylon lie, equally prove that it is "a desert, a dry land, and a wilderness." One part, even on the western side of the river, is " low and marshy, and another," says Mignan, " an arid desert." Many other striking particulars might be collected ; and we may conclude in the words of Mr. Keith, from whose work on the prophe- cies several of the above particulars have been extracted ; — " Is it possible that there can be any attestation of the truth of prophecy, if it be not witnessed here ? Is there any spot on earth which has undergone a more complete trans, formation ? ' The records of the human race,' it has been said with truth, ' do not present a contrast more striking than that between the primeval magnificence of Babylon and its long desolation.' Its ruins have of late been care- fully and scrupulously examined by different natives of Britain, of unimpeached veracity ; and the result of every research is a more striking demonstration of the literal accom- plishment of every prediction. How few spots are there on earth of which we have so clear and faithful a picture as prophecy gave to fallen Babylon at a time when no spot on earth re- sembled it less than its present desolate solitary site ! or could any prophecies respecting any single place have been more precise, or won- derful, or numerous, or true, or more gradually accomplished throughout many generations ? And when they look at what Babylon was, and what it is, and perceive the minute realization of them all, may not nations learn wisdom, may not tyrants tremble, and may not skeptics think ?" The reasons why prophecies so numerous and particular were recorded concerning Baby- lon, appear to have been, 1. That Babylon was the great oppressor of the Jews. 2. That it was the type of all the powerful persecuting enemies of the church of God, especially of Rome ; and in its fate they may read their own. 3. That the accomplishment of prophecy in the destruction of so eminent an empire might give a solemn testimony to the truth of the Scrip- tures to the whole earth, and to all ages. BACKSLIDING, a falling off, or defection in matters of religion ; an apostasy, Acts xxi, 21 ; 2 Thess. ii, 3 ; 1 Tim. iv, 1. This may be either partial or complete : partial, when it is in the heart, as Prov. xiv, 14 ; complete, as that described in Heb. vi, 4, &c ; x, 6, &c. On the latter passage Chrysostom observes, " When a house has a strong foundation, suppose an arch fall, some of the beams break, or a wall decline, while the foundation is good, these breaches may be repaired ; so in religion, whilst a per- son maintains the true doctrines, and remains on the firm rock, though he fall, true repent- ance may restore him to the favour and image of God : but as in a house, when the foundation is bad, nothing can save the building from ruin ; so when heretical doctrines are admitted for a foundation, nothing can save the professor from destruction." It is important in interpreting these passages to keep it steadfastly in mind, that the apostasy they speak of is not only moral but doctrinal. BADGER, enrv This word in a plural form occurs, Exod. xxv, 5 ; xxvi, 14 ; xxxv, 7, 23 ; xxxvi, 19 ; xxxix, 34 ; Num. iv, 6, 8, 10-12, 14, 25; Ezek. xvi, 10; and is joined with my, skins used for the covering of the tabernacle in the wilderness. The Jewish interpreters are agreed as to its being some animal. Jarchi says it was a beast of many colours, w-hich no more exists. Kimchi holds the same opi- nion. Aben Ezra thinks it some animal of the BAL 125 BAL bovine kind, of whose skins shoes are made; alluding to Ezek. xvi, 10. Most modern inter- preters have taken it to be the badger, and among these our English translators ; but, in the first place, the badger is not an inhabitant of Arabia; and there is nothing in its skin pe- culiarly proper either for covering a tabernacle or making shoes. Hasseus, Michaelis, and others, have laboured to prove that it is the mermaid, or homo marinus, the trichekus of Linnaeus. Faber, Dathe, and Rosenmuller, think that it is the seal, or sea calf, vitulus marinus, the skin of which is both strong and pliable, and was accounted by the ancients as a most proper outer covering for tents, and was also made into shoes, as Rau has clearly shown. Niebuhr says, " A merchant of Abu- shahr called dahash that fish which the cap- tains in English vessels call porpoise, and the Germans, sea hog. In my voyage from Mas- kat to Abushahr, I saw a prodigious quantity together near Ras Mussendom, that were all going the same way, and seemed to swim with great vehemence." Bochart thinks that not an animal, but a colour, was intended, Exodus xxv, 5 ; so that the covering of the tabernacle was to be azure, or sky blue. BAG, a purs3 or pouch, Deut. xxv, 13 ; 1 Sam. xvii, 40 ; Luke xii, 33 ; Job xiv, 17. The money collected in the treasuries of eastern princes was reckoned up in certain equal sums, put into bags and sealed. These are, in some parts of the Levant, called purses, where they estimate great expenses by so many purses. The money collected in the temple in the time of Joash, for its reparation, seems, in like man- ner, to have been told up in bags of equal value ; and these were probably delivered sealed to those who paid the workmen, 2 Kings xii, 10. In the east, in the present day, a bag of money passes, for some time at least, currently from hand to hand, under the authority of a banker's seal, without any examination of its contents. See Tobitix, 5; xi, 16. BAKING BREAD. Abraham directed Sa- rah to bake cakes upon the hearth, for the use of the strangers who had visited him, Genesis xviii, 6. Elijah requests the same of the widow of Zarephath, 1 Kings xvii, 13. Amnon the son of David requests Tamar his sister to come and make cakes in his sight, that he might eat at her hand, 2 Sam. xiii, 6. These and other allu- sions to the preparation of bread will be ex- plained by referring to eastern customs. Rau- wolff observes that travellers frequently bake bread in the deserts of Arabia, on the ground heated for that purpose by fire, covering their cakes of bread with ashes and coals, and turn- ing them several times till they are baked. The eastern bread is made in small thin cakes, and is generally eaten new. Sometimes it was however made to keep several days, as the shew bread ; and a sort of rusks, or bread for travelling, Joshua ix, 12. The eastern ladies of rank often prepare cakes, pastry, &c, in their own apartments. BALAAM, a prophet of the city of Pethor, or Bosor, upon the Euphrates, whose inter- course with Balak, king of the Moabites, who sent for him to curse the Israelites, is recorded at large by Moses, Num. xxii-xxiv. It has been a subject of controversy, whether Balaam was a true prophet or a mere diviner, magician, or fortune teller. Origen says that his whole power consisted in magic and cursing. Theo- doret is of opinion that Balaam did not consult the Lord, but that he was supernaturally in- spired, and constrained to speak against his own inclination. Cyril says that he was a ma- gician, an idolater, and a false prophet, who spoke truth against his will ; and St. Ambrose compares him to Caiaphas, who prophesied without being aware of the import of what he said. Jerom seems to have adopted the opinion of the Hebrews ; which was, that Balaam knew the true God, erected altars to him, and that he was a true prophet, though corrupted by ava- rice, Num. xxii, 18. St. Austin and other com- mentators have inclined to this opinion. Dr. Jortin supposes that Balaam was a worshipper of the true God, and a priest and prophet of great reputation ; and that he was sent for by Balak from a notion which generally prevail- ed, that priests and prophets could sometimes, by prayers and sacrifices duly and skilfully ap- plied, obtain favours from God, and that their imprecations were efficacious. He conceives that the prophet had been accustomed to reve- lations, and that he used to receive them in visions, or in dreams of the night. It cannot be denied that the Scripture expressly calls him a prophet, 2 Pet. ii, 15, and therefore those are probably right who think that he had once been a good man and a true prophet, till, loving the wages of unrighteousness, and prostituting the honour of his office to covetousness, he aposta- tized from God, and, betaking himself to idola- trous practices, fell under the delusion of the devil, of whom he learned all his magical en- chantments ; though at this juncture, when the preservation of his people was concerned, it might be consistent with God's wisdom to ap- pear to him and overrule his mind by the im- pulse of real revelations. As to what passed between him and his ass, when that animal was miraculously enabled to speak to its mas- ter, commentators are divided in their opinions ; whether it really and literally happened as Mo- ses relates it, or whether it be an allegory only, or was the mere imagination or vision of Ba- laam. But St. Peter evidently mentions it as a fact literally and certainly occurring: "the dumb ass, speaking with man's voice, when she forbade the madness of the prophet," 2 Pet. ii, 16. This, it is true, has frequently been made the subject of profane banter by those whose skepticism leads them to scoff at all prodigies. But how absurd is it to subject a miraculous event to the ordinary rules of reasoning I " Say what you will of the formation of the tongue and jaws being unfit for speaking," says Bishop Newton, "yet an adequate cause is assigned for this wonderful event ; for it is expressly said that ' the Lord opened the mouth of the ass ;' and who that believes a God, can doubt his power to do this and much more ? The miracle was by no means needless or superflu- ous ; it was well adapted to convince Balaam BAL 126 BAL that the mouth and tongue were under God's direction, and that the same divine power which caused the dumb ass to speak contrary to its nature, could, in like, manner, make him utter blessings contrary to his inclination. And, accordingly, he was overruled to bless the peo- ple, though he came prepared and disposed to curse them ; which was the greater miracle of the two ; for the ass was merely passive, but Balaam resisted the good motions of God." The prophecy which Balaam delivered con- cerning Israel on this remarkable occasion, and which is contained in Numbers xxiv, 5-9, has been greatly admired by critics. Bishop Lowth, in particular, remarks that he knows nothing in the whole scope of the Hebrew poetry more exquisite or perfect. " It abounds," says he, " in splendid imagery, copied immediately from the tablet of nature ; and is chiefly conspicuous for the glowing elegance of the style, and the form and diversity of the figures." After his predictions, Balaam returned into his own country ; but before he left the land of Moab, as if vexed with his own disappoint- ment in missing the promised reward, and with a purpose of revenging himself on the Israel- ites, as the cause of it, he instructed the Moab- ites and Midianites in a wicked scheme, which was to send their daughters into the camp of the Israelites, in order to draw them first into lewdness, and then into idolatry, the cer- tain means of depriving them of the help of that God who protected them. This artifice succeeded; for as the Israelites lay encamped at Shittim, many of them were deluded by these strange women, not only to commit whoredom with them, but to assist at their sacrifices, and worship their god Baal-Peor, Num. xxv, 1-3 ; xxxi, 16 ; Mic. vi, 5 ; 2 Pet. ii, 15 ; Jude 11 ; Rev. ii, 14 ; Deut. xxiii, 4, 5 ; Joshua xxiv, 9, 10 ; Nch. xiii, 2. God commanded Moses to avenge this crime. He therefore declared war against the Midianites, killed five of their princes, and a great number of other persons without distinc- tion of age or sex, among whom was Balaam himself. Moses says that Balaam consulted the Lord, and calls the Lord his God : " I cannot go be- yond the commandment of the Lord my God," Num. xxii, 18. The reason why Balaam calls Jehovah, " my God" maybe, because he was of the posterity of Shem, who maintained the worship of Jehovah, not only in his own per- son, but among his descendants ; so that while the posterity of Ham fell into idolatry, and the posterity of Japhet were settled at a distance in Europe, the Shemites generally, though not universally, retained the worship of God. BALDNESS is a natural effect of old age, in which period of life the hair of the head, want- ing nourishment, falls oft*, and leaves the head naked. Artificial baldness was used as a token of mourning; it is threatened to the voluptu- ous daughters of Israel, instead of well set hair, Isaiah hi, 24. See Mic. i, 16 ; and instances of it occur, Isaiah xv, 2 ; Jer. xlvii, 5. See Ezek, vii, 18 ; Amos viii, 10. The insult offered to Elisha by the young people of Bethel, improperly rendered " little children," who cried out after him, "Go up, thou bald head," may here be noticed. The town of Bethel was one of the principal nur- series of Ahab's idolatry, and the contempt was offered to Elisha in his public character as a prophet of the Lord. If in the expression, " Go up," there was also a reference to the transla- tion of Elijah, as turning it into jest, this was another aggravation of the sin, to which these young people were probably instigated by their parents. The malediction laid upon them by the prophet was not an act of private resent- ment, but evidently proceeded from prophetic impulse. BALM, ns, Gen. xxxvii, 25 ; xliii, 11 ; Jer. viii, 22 ; xlvi, 11 ; li, 8 ; Ezek. xxvii, 17. Balm, or balsam, is used with us as a common name for many of those oily resinous substances, which flow spontaneously or by incision, from certain trees or plants, and are of considerable use in medicine and surgery. It serves there- fore very properly to express the Hebrew word nx, which the LXX have rendered far'uri, and the ancients have interpreted resin indiscrimi- nately. BALSAM TREE, pb»-"7jw ; in Arabic, abus- cham, that is, "father of scent," sweet-scented. According to Mr. Bruce, the ba'essan, balsam, or balm, is an evergreen shrub, or tree, which grows to about fourteen feet high, spontane- ously and without culture in its native country, Azab, and all along the coast to Babelmandel. There were three kinds of balsam extracted from this tree. The first was called opobalsa- mum, and was most highly esteemed. It was that which flowed spontaneously, or by means of incision, from the trunk or branches of the tree in summer time. The second was carpo- balsamwn, made by expressing the fruit when in maturity. The third, and least esteemed of all, was hylobalsamum, made by a decoction of the buds and small young twigs. The great value' set upon this drug in the east is traced to the earliest ages. The Ishmaelites, or Arabian carriers and merchants, trafficking with the Arabian commodities into Egypt, brought with them ns as a part of their cargo, Gen. xxxvii, 25; xliii, 11. Josephus, in the history of the antiquities of his country, says that a tree of this balsam was brought to Jerusalem by the queen of Saba, and given among other presents to Solomon, who, as we know from Scripture, was very studious of all sorts of plants, and skilful in the description and distinction of them. And here, indeed, it seems to have been cultivated and to have thriven ; so that the place of its origin, through length of time, combined with other reasons, came to be forgotten. Not- withstanding the positive authority of Josephus, and the great probability that attends it, we cannot put it in competition with what we have been told in Scripture, as we have just now seen that the place where it grew, and was sold to merchants, was Gilead in Judea, more than 1730 years before Christ, or 1000 before the queen of Saba ; so that in reading the verse, nothing can be plainer than that it had been transplanted into Judea, flourished, and had become an article of commerce in Gilead, long BAN 127 BAN before the period he mentions. " A company of Ishmaelites came from Gilead with their camels, bearing spicery and balm, and myrrh, going to carry it down to Egypt," Gen. xxxvii, 25. Theophrastus, Dioscorides, Pliny, Strabo, Diodorus Siculus, Tacitus, Justin, Solinus, and Serapion, speaking of its costliness and medi- cinal virtues, all say that this balsam came from Judea. The words of Pliny are, " But to all other odours whatever, the balsam is preferred, produced in no other part but the land of Ju- dea, and even there in two gardens only ; both of them belonging to the king, one no more than twenty acres, the other still smaller." The whole valley of Jericho was once esteemed the most fruitful in Judea ; and the obstinacy with which the Jews fought here to prevent the bal- sam trees from falling into the possession of the Romans, attests- the importance which was attached to them. This tree Pliny describes as peculiar to the vale of Jericho, and as " more like a vine than a myrtle." It was esteemed so precious a rarity, that both Pompey and Ti- tus carried a specimen to Rome in triumph; and the biTlsam, owing to its scarcity, sold for double its weight in silver, till its high price led to the practice of adulteration. Justin makes it the chief source of the national wealth. He describes the country in which it grew, as a valley like a garden, environed with continual hills, and, as it were, enclosed with a wall. "The space of the valley contains 200,000 acres, and is called Jericho. In that valley, there is wood as admirable for its fruitfulness as for its delight, for it is intermingled with palm trees and opobalsamum. The trees of the opobalsamum have a resemblance to fir trees ; but they are lower, and are planted and hus- banded after the manner of vines. On a set season of the year they sweat balsam. The darkness of the place is beside as wonderful as the fruitfulness of it ; for although the sun shines no where hotter in the world, there is naturally a moderate and perpetual gloominess of the air." According to Mr. Buckingham, this description is most accurate. " Both the heat and the gloominess," he says, " were ob- served by us, though darkness would be an im- proper term to apply to this gloom." BANGORIAN CONTROVERSY, a con- troversy that arose with Dr. Hoadly, bishop of Bangor. That prelate, in a sermon preached before George I, asserted that Christ was su- preme in his own kingdom ; that he had not delegated his power, like temporal lawgivers during their absence, to any persons as his vicegerents or deputies ; and that the church of England, as all other national churches, was merely a civil or human institution, esta- blished for the purpose of diffusing and per- petuating the knowledge and belief of Chris- tianity. On the meeting of the convocation, a committee was appointed to examine this pub- lication. A heavy censure was passed against it, as tending to subvert all government and discipline in the church of Christ, to reduce his kingdom to a state of anarchy and confu- sion, and to impugn and impeach the royal supremacy in matters ecclesiastical, and the au- thority of the legislature to enforce obedience in matters of religion, by severe sanction. To these proceedings a sudden stop was put by proroguing the convocation ; but the contro- versy which had been commenced was con. tinued for several years. BANNER, an ensign, or standard, used by armies or caravans on their journeys in the eastern countries. The original *y.n, is ren- dered by lexicographers and translators under this word, as a noun, in which form it often occurs, a standard, banner ; as a verb, once, to set up a banner ; Psalm xx, 5 ; as a participle pahul, vexillatus, one distinguished by a ban- ner, the chief; as a participle niphal, bannered, or with banners. The meaning of the root ia illustrated by the very ingenious and sensible author of " Observations on Divers Passages of Scripture," who shows, from Pitts and Po- cocke, that, " as in Arabia and the neighbouring countries, on account of the intense heat of the sun by day, people generally choose to travel in the night ; so, to prevent confusion in their large caravans, particularly in the annual one to Mecca, each company, of which the cara- van consists, has its distinct portable beacon, which is carried on the top of a pole, and con- sists of several lights, which are somewhat like iron stoves, into which they put short dry wood, with which some of the camels are loaded. Every company has one of these poles belonging to it; some of which have ten, some twelve, of these lights on their tops, more or less; and they are likewise of different figures, as well as numbers ; one, perhaps, in an oval shape ; another, triangular, or in the form of an M, or N, &c, so that by these every one knows his respective company. They are car- ried in the front, and set up in the place where the caravan is to pitch, before that comes up, at some distance from one another. As tra- velling then in the night must be, generally speaking, more agreeable to a great multitude in that desert, we may believe a compassionate God, for the most part, directed Israel to move in the night. And in consequence, must we not rather suppose the standards of the tribes were movable beacons, like those of the Mecca pilgrims, than flags or any thing of that kind ?" This ingenious author seems, however, to for- get, 1. That the pillar of fire was with the Israelites to direct their marches. 2. That the Israelites were not a mere caravan, but an ar- my ; and, as such, for order, required standards as well by day as by night. See Armies. BANQUET. The hospitality of the present day in the east exactly resembles that of the remotest antiquity. The parable of the " great supper" is in those countries literally realized. And such was the hospitality of ancient Greece and Rome. When a person provided an en- tertainment for his friends or neighbours, he sent round a number of servants to invite the guests ; these were called vocatores by the Ro- mans, and x'Sr/Tiipcf by the Greeks. The day when the entertainment is to be given is fixed some considerable time before ; and in the even- ing of the day appointed, a messenger comes to bid the guests to the feast. The custom ia BAN 128 BAN thus introduced in Luke: "A certain man made a great supper, and bade many ; and sent his servant at supper time to say to them that were bidden, Come, for all things are now read)'." They were not now asked for the first time ; but had already accepted the invitation, when the day was appointed, and were there- fore already pledged to attend at the hour when they might be summoned. They were not taken unprepared, and could not in consistency and decency plead any prior engagement. They could not now refuse, without violating their word, and insulting the master of the feast, and, therefore, justly subjected themselves to punishment. The terms of the parable exactly accord with established custom. The Jews did not always follow the same method ; sometimes they sent a number of servants different ways among the friends they meant to invite ; and at other times, a single male domestic. The Persians send a deputation to meet their guests : this deputation are called openers of the way ; and the more distinguished the per- sons sent, and the greater the distance to which they go, so much greater is the honour. So it is proclaimed, "Go forth and behold king So- lomon, with the crown wherewith his mother crowned him." "The bridegroom cometh, go ye forth to meet him." The names of the per- sons to be invited were inscribed upon tablets, and the gate was set open to receive those who had obtained them ; but to prevent any getting in that had no ticket, only one leaf of the door was left open ; and that was strictly guarded by the servants of the family. Those who were admitted had to go along a narrow passage to the room ; and after all who had received tick- ets of admission were assembled, the master of the house rose and shut to the door ; and then the entertainment began. The first ceremony, after the guests arrived at the house of enter- tainment, was the salutation performed by the master of the house, or one appointed in his place. Among the Greeks, this was sometimes done by embracing with arms around ; but the most common salutation was by the conjunc- tion of their right hands, the right hand being reckoned a pledge of fidelity and friendship. Some iimes they kissed the lips, hands, knees, or feet, as the person deserved more or less respect. The Jews welcomed a stranger to their house in the same way ; for our Lord com- plains to Simon, that he had given him no kiss, had welcomed him to his table with none of the accustomed tokens of respect. The custom of reclining was introduced from the nations of the east, and particularly from Persia, where it seems to have been adopted at a very remote period. The Old Testament Scriptures allude to both customs; but they furnish undeniable proofs of the antiquity of sitting. As this is undoubtedly the most natural and dignified posture, so it seems to have been universally adopted by the first ge- nerations of men ; and it was not till after the lapse of many ages, and when degenerate man had lost much of the firmness of his primitive character, that he began to recline. The tables were constructed of three dif- ferent parts or separate tables, making but one in the whole. One was placed at the upper end crossways, and the two others joined to its ends, one on each side, so as to leave an open space between, by which the attendants could readily wait at all the three. Round these tables were placed beds or couches, one to each table; each of these beds was called clinium; and three of these being united, to surround the three tables, made the triclinium. At the end of each clinium was a footstool, for the convenience of mounting up to it. These beds were formed of mattresses, and supported on frames of wood, often high]}- ornamented; the mattresses were covered with cloth or tapestry, according to the quality of the entertainer. At the splendid feast which Ahasuerus made for the nobles of his kingdom, beds of silver and gold were placed round the tables ; according to a custom in the east of naming a thing from its principal ornament, these must have been couches profusely ornamented with the precious metals. Each guest inclined the superior part of his body upon his left arm, the lower part being stretched out at length, or a little bent; his head was raised up, and his back sometimes supported with pillows. In conversation, those who spoke raised themselves almost upright, supported by cushions. When they ate, they raised themselves on their elbow, and made use of the right hand ; which is the reason our Lord mentions the hand of Judas in the singu- lar number: "He that dippeth his hand with me in the dish, the same shall betray me," Matt, xxvi, 23. See Accusation. When a Persian comes into an assembly, and has saluted the house, he then measures with his eye the place to which his degree of rank entitles him ; he straightway wedges himself into the line of guests, without offering any apology for the general disturbance which he produces. It often happens that persons take a higher seat than that to which they are en- titled. The Persian scribes are remarkable for their arrogance in this respect, in which they seem to bear a striking resemblance to the Jews of the same profession in the days of our Lord. The master of the entertainment has, however, the privilege of placing any one as high in the rank of the assembly as he may choose. And Mr. Morier saw an instance of it at a public entertainment to which he was invited. When the assembly was nearly full, the governor of Kashan, a man of humble mien, although of considerable rank, came in and seated himself at the lowest place ; when the master of the house, after numerous ex- pressions of welcome, pointed with his hand to an upper seat in the assembly, to which he de- sired him to move, and which he accordingly did. These circumstances furnish a beautiful and striking illustration of the parable which our Lord uttered, when he saw how those that were invited chose the highest places. Before the Greeks went to an entertainment, they washed and anointed themselves; for it was thought very indecent to appear on such an occasion, defiled -with sweat and du6t; but they who came off a journey were washed, and BAN 129 BAP clothed with suitable apparel, in the house of the entertainer, before they were admitted to the feast. When Telemachus and Pisistratus arrived at the palace of Menelaus, in the course of their wanderings, they were immediately supplied with water to wash, and with oil to anoint, themselves, before they took their seats by the side of the king. The oil used on such occasions, in the palaces of nobles and princes, was perfumed with roses and other odoriferous herbs. They also washed their hands before they sat down to meat. To these customary marks of respect, to which a traveller, or one who had no house of his own, was entitled, our Lord alludes in his defence of Mary : " And he turned to the woman, and said unto Simon, Seest thou this woman ? I entered into thine house ; thou gavest me no water for my feet, but she hath washed my feet with her tears, and wiped them with the hairs of her head. Thou gavest me no kiss ; but this woman, since the time I came in, hath not ceased to kiss my feet. My head with oil thou didst not anoint; but this woman hath anointed my feet with ointment," Luke vii, 44. Homer mentions it as a custom quite common in those days, for daughters to wash and afterward to anoint the feet of their parents. Our Saviour was in the circumstances of a traveller; he had no home to wash and anoint himself in, before he went to Simon's house ; and, therefore, had a right to complain that his entertainer had failed in the respect that was due to him as a stranger, at a distance from the usual place of his resi- dence. The Jews regularly washed their hands and their feet before dinner ; they considered this ceremony as essential, which discovers the reason of their astonishment, when they ob- served the disciples of Christ sit down at table without having observed this ceremony : " Why do thy disciples transgress the tradition of the elders? for they wasli not their hands when they eat bread," Matt, xv, 2. After meals they wasli them again : for, says the evangelist, "the Pharisees and all the Jews, except they wash their hands oft, eat not, holding the tra- dition of the elders," Mark vii, 3, 4. When they washed their hands themselves, they plunged them into the water up to the wrists; but when others performed this office for them, it was done by pouring it upon their hands. The same custom prevailed in Greece, for Homer says, the attendants poured water on the hands of their chiefs. This was a part of the service which Elislia performed for his master Elijah ; and in every instance under the law where water was applied to the body by another, it was done, not by plunging, but by pouring or sprinkling. To wash the feet was a mean and servile office, and, therefore, gene- rally performed by the female servants of the family. It was occasionally performed, how- ever, by females of the highest rank ; for the daughter of Cleobulus, one of the Grecian sagos, and king of Lintlus, a city on the south- east part of Rhodes, was not ashamed to wash the feet of her father's guests. And it was customary for them to kiss the feet of those to whom they thought a more than common 10 respect was due ; for the daughter of Philocleon, in Aristophanes, washed her father, /anointed his feet, and, stooping down, kis"sed them. The towel which was used to wipe the feet after washing, was considered through all the east as a badge of servitude. Suetonius men- tions it as a sure mark of the intolerable pride of Caligula, the Roman emperor, that when at supper he suffered senators of the highest rank, sometimes to stand by his couch, sometimes at his feet, girt with a towel. Hence it appears that this honour was a token of humiliation, which was not, however, absolutely degrading and inconsistent with all regard to rank. Yet our blessed Redeemer did not refuse to give his disciples, and Judas Iscariot himself, that proof of his love and humility. The entertainment was conducted by a sym- ■posiarch, or governor of the feast. He was, says Plutarch, one chosen among the guests, the most pleasant and diverting in the com. pany, that would not get drunk, and yet would drink freely ; he was to rule over the rest, to forbid any disorder, but to encourage their mirth. He observed the temper of the guests, and how the wine worked upon them ; how every one could bear his wine, and to endea- vour accordingly to keep them all in harmony, and in an even composure, that there might be no disquiet nor disturbance. To do this effect- ually, he first proclaimed liberty to every one to drink what he thought proper, and then ob- serving who among them was most ready to be disordered, mixed more water with his wine, to keep him equally sober with the rest of the company; so that this officer took care that none should be forced to drink, and that none, though left to their own choice, should get intoxicated. Such, we have reason to believe, was the governor of the feast at the marriage in Cana of Galilee, which our Lord honoured with his presence. The term apxirpiV-Xiw lite- rally signifies the governor of a place furnished with three beds ; and he acted as one having authority; for he tasted the wine before he distributed it to the company, which, it is uni- versally admitted, was one of the duties of a symposiarch. Neither the name nor the act accords with the character and situation of a guest ; he must, therefore, have been the sym- posiarch, or governor of the feast. The exist, ence of such an officer among the Jews is placed beyond a doubt, by a passage in the apocryphal book of Ecclesiasticus, where his office is thus described : " If thou be made the master of a feast, lift not thyself up, but be among them as one of the rest ; take diligent care of them, and so sit down. And when thou hast done all thine office, take thy place, that thou mayesi be merry with them, and re- ceive a crown for the well-ordering of the feast," Ecclesiasticus xxxii, 1. See Architjuclinus. BAPTISM, from the Greek word pairrfy, is a rite or ceremony by which persons are initiated into the profession of the Christian religion ; or, it is the appointed mode by which a person assumes the profession of Christianity, or is admitted to a participation of the privi- leges belonging to the disciples of Christ. It BAP 130 BAP was by this mode that those who believed the Gospel were to be separated from unbelievers, and joined to the visible Christian church ; and the rite accompanying it, or washing with wa- ter, was probably intended to represent the washing away, or renouncing, the impurities of some former state, viz. the sins that had been committed, and the vicious habits that had been contracted ; and to this purpose it may be observed, that the profession of repent, ance always accompanied, or was understood to accompany, the profession of faith in Christ. That our Lord instituted such an ordinance as baptism, is plain from the commission given to the Apostles after his resurrection, and record- ed in Matt, xxviii, 19, 20. To this rite there is also an allusion in Mark xvi, 16 ; John iii, 5 ; Acts ii, 41 ; viii, 12, 36-38 ; xxii, 16. The de- sign of this institution, which was to express faith in Christ on the part of those who were baptized, and to declare their resolution of openly professing his religion, and cultivating real and universal holiness, appears from Rom. vi, 3, 4 ; 1 Peter iii, 21 ; Ephes. v, 26 ; and Titus iii, 5. We find no account of baptism as a distinct religious rite, before the mission of John, the forerunner of Christ, who was called the " Baptist," on account of his being commanded by God to baptize with water all who should hearken to his invitation to repent. Washing, however, accompanied many of the Jewish rites, and, indeed, was required after contracting any kind of uncleanness. Also, soon after the time of our Saviour, we find it to have been the custom of the Jews solemnly to baptize, as well as to circumcise, all their proselytes. As their writers treat largely of the reasons for this rite, and give no hint of its being a novel institution, it is probable that this had always been the custom antecedent to the time of Moses, whose account of the rite of circumcision, and of the manner of per- forming it, is by no means circumstantial. Or, baptism, after circumcision, might have come into use gradually from the natural propriety of the thing, and its easy conformity to other Jewish customs. For if no Jew could approach the tabernacle, or temple, after the most trifling uncleanness, without washing, much less would it be thought proper to admit a proselyte from a state so impure and unclean as Heathenism was conceived to be, without the same mode of purification. The antiquity of this practice of proselyte baptism among the Jews, has been a subject of considerable debate among divines. It is strenuously maintained by Lightfoot. Dr. John Owen considers the opinion, that Chris- tian baptism came from the Jews, as destitute of all probability. On the other hand, Mr. Wall has made it highly probable, to say the least, from many testimonies of the Jewish writers, who without one dissenting voice allow the fact, that the practice of Jewish baptism ob- tained before and at, as well as after, our Sa- viour's time. There is also a strong intimation, even in the Gospel itself, of such a known prac- tice among the Jews in the time of John the Baptist, John i, 25. The testimonies of the Jewish writers are of the greater weight, be- cause the practice, reported by them to have been of so ancient a date, did still remain among them ; for if it had not been of that antiquity to which it pretends, viz. before the time of Christ, it is not likely that it would ever have become a custom among the Jews afterward. Would they begin to proselyte per- sons to their religion by baptism in imitation of the disciples of Jesus of Nazareth, whom they held accursed ? And yet if this proselyte baptism were adopted by the Jews since the time of Christ, it must have been a mere inno- vation in imitation of Christians, which is not very likely. This ceremony is performed by immersion in the oriental churches. The prac- tice of the western churches is, to sprinkle the water on the head or face of the person to be baptized, except in the church of Milan, in whose ritual it is ordered, that the head of the infant be plunged three times into the water; the minister at the same time pronouncing the words, "/ baptize thee in the name of the Fa- ther, the Son, and the Holy Ghost;" importing that by this ceremony the person baptized is received among the professors of that religion which God, the Father of all, revealed to man- kind by the ministry of his Son, and confirmed by the miracles of his Spirit. 2. It is observable that the baptismal form, above cited from St. Matthew, never occurs in the same words, either in the book of the Acts, or in any of the Epistles. But though the form in St. Matthew never appears elsewhere, the thing intended thereby is always implied- There are many ceremonies delivered by ec- clesiastical writers, as used in baptism, which were introduced after the age of Justin Martyr, but which are now disused ; as the giving milk and honey to the baptized, in the east ; wine and milk, in the west, &c. They also added unction and the imposition of hands. Ter- tullian is the first who mentions the signing with the sign of the cross, but only as used in private, and not in public worship; and he particularly describes the custom of baptizing without it. Indeed, it does not appear to have been used in baptism till the latter end of the fourth or fifth century; at which time great virtue was ascribed to it. Lactantius, who* lived in the beginning of the fourth century, says the devil cannot approach those who have the heavenly mark of the cross upon them as an impregnable fortress to defend them ; but he does not say it was used in baptism. After the council of Nice, Christians added to bap- tism the ceremonies of exorcism and adjuration, to make evil spirits depart from the persons to be baptized. They made several signings with the cross, they used lighted candles, they gave salt to the baptized person to taste, and the priest touched his mouth and ears with spittle, and also blew and spat upon his faee. At that time also baptized persons wore white garments till the Sunday following. They had also va- rious other ceremonies ; some of which are now abolished, though others of them remain in the church of Rome to this day. 3. The Quakers assert, that water baptism was never intended to continue in the church BAP 131 BAP of Christ any longer than while Jewish preju- dices made such an external ceremony neces- sary. They argue from Eph. iv, 5, in which one baptism is spoken of as necessary to Chris- tians, that this must be a baptism of the Spirit. But from comparing the texts that relate to this institution, it will plainly appear that water baptism was instituted by Christ in more general terms than will agree with this expli- cation. That it was administered to all the Gentile converts, and not confined to the Jews, appears from Matt, xxviii, 19, 20, compared with Acts x, 47 ; and that the baptism of the Spirit did not supersede water baptism appears to have been the judgment of Peter and of those that were with him ; so that the one baptism spoken of seems to have been that of water ; the communication of the Holy Spirit being only called baptism in a figurative sense. As far any objection which may be drawn from 1 Cor. i, 17, it is sufficiently answered by the preceding verses, and all the numerous texts, in which, in epistles written long after this, the Apostle speaks of all Christians as baptized ; and argues from the obligation of baptism, in such a manner as we can never imagine he would have done, if he had apprehended it to have been the will of God that it should be discontinued in the church. Compare Rom. vi, 3, &c; Col. ii, 12; Gal. iii, 27. 4. Baptism, in early times, was only admi- nistered at Easter and Whitsuntide, except in cases of necessity. Adult persons were pre- pared for baptism by abstinence, prayer, and other pious exercises. It was to answer for them, says Mosheim, that sponsors, or god- fathers, were first instituted in the second cen- tury, though they were afterward admitted also in the baptism of infants. This, according to M. Daille, was not done till the fourth cen- tury. Wall refers the origin of sponsors, or godfathers, on the authority of Tertullian, to the commencement of the second century ; who were used in the baptism of infants that could not answer for themselves. The catechumens were not forward in coming to baptism; St. Ambrose was not baptized before he was elect- ed bishop of Milan ; and some of the fathers not till the time of their death. Some deferred it out of a tender conscience ; and others out of too much attachment to the world ; it being the prevailing opinion of the primitive times, that baptism, whenever conferred, washed away all antecedent stains and sins. Accord- ingly they deferred this sanctifying rite as long as possible, even till they apprehended they were at the point of death. Cases of this kind occur at the beginning of the third century. Constantine the Great was not baptized till lie was at the last gasp, and in this he was fol- lowed by his son Constantius ; and two of his other sons, Constantine and Constans, were killed before they were baptized. As to the necessity of baptism, we may observe, how- ever, that, though some seem to have laid too great stress upon it, as if k were indispensa- bly necessary in order to salvation ; it must be allowed, that for any person to omit baptism, when he acknowledges it to be an institution of Christ, and that it is the will of Christ that he should submit to it, is an act of disobedience to his authority, which is inconsistent with true faith. 5. The word baptism is frequently taken for sufferings, Mark x, 38; Luke xii, 50; Matt, xx, 22, 23. Of expressions like these we find some traces in the Old Testament also, where waters often denote tribulations, Psalm lxix, 1, 15; cxxiv, 4, 5; and where to be swallowed up by the waters, and to pass through the great waters, signify to be overwhelmed with mise- ries and calamities. 6. St. Paul, endeavouring to prove the re- surrection of the dead, among several other reasons in support of the doctrine, says, '* If the dead rise not at all, what shall they do who are baptized for the dead ?" 1 Cor. xv, 29. Of this phrase various interpretations have been given; three of which only shall be here men- tioned. " It means," say some, '"baptized in the room of the dead just fallen in the cause of Christ, and who are thus supported by a suces- sion of new converts, immediately offering themselves to fill up their places, as ranks of soldieTS who advance to combat in the room of their companions, who have just been slain in their sight.' " Others think it signifies, "In hope of blessings to be received after they are numbered with the dead." Dr. Macknight supplies the words, rrjs avas-dacws, and reads the clause, " Who are baptized for the resurrection of the dead ;" or in consequence of their be- lieving in the doctrine of the resurrection of the dead ; on account of which faith, arid their profession of it, they aro exposed to great suf- ferings, for which they can have no recom pense, if there be no resurrection of the dead, nor any future life at all. 7. As to the subjects of baptism, the anti- poedobaptists hold that believing adults only are proper subjects, because the commission of Christ to baptize appears to them to restrict this ordinance to such only as are taught, or* made disciples ; and that, consequently, infants,1 who cannot be thus taught, ought to be ex- cluded. " It does not appear," say they, " that the Apostles, in executing the commission of Christ, ever baptized any but those who were first instructed in the Christian faith, and pro- fessed their belief of it." They contend that infants can receive no benefit from baptism, and are not capable of faith and repentance, which are to be considered as prerequisites. 8. As to the mode, they observe that the meaning of the Word /Sn^i^w signifies to im- merse or dip, and that only ; that John baptized in Jordan ; that he chose a place where there was much water; that Jesus came up but of the water ; that Philip and the eunuch went down both into the water; that the terms, washing, purifying, burying in baptism, so often mentioned in the Scriptures, allude to this mode ; that immersion only was the practice of the Apostles and the first Christians ; and that it was only laid aside from the love of novelty, and the coldness of climate. These positions, they think, are so clear from Scrip, ture, and the history of the church, that they BAP 132 BAP stand in need of but little argument for their support. Farther, they also insist that all positive institutions depend entirely upon the will and declaration of the institutor ; and that, therefore, reasoning by analogy from previously abrogated rites is to be rejected, and the ex- press command of Christ respecting baptism ought to be our rule. 9. The Paedobaptists, however, are of a dif- ferent opinion. As to the subjects of baptism, they believe that qualified adults, who have not been baptized before, are certainly proper subjects ; but then they think, also, that infants ought not to be excluded. They believe that, as the Abrahamic and Christian covenants are the same, Gen. xvii, 7 ; Heb. viii, 12 ; that as children were admitted under the former ; and that as baptism is now a sign, seal, or confirma- tion of this covenant, infants heve as great a right to it as the children of the Israelites had to the seal of circumcision under the law, Acts ii, 39; Rom. iv, 11. Farther, if children are not to be baptized because there is no positive command for it, for the same reason they say that women should not come to the Lord's Supper ; nor ought we to keep holy the first day of the week ; neither of tliese being ex- pressly commanded. If baptizing infants had been a human invention, they also ask, how such a practice could have been so universal in the first three hundred years of lhe church, and yet no record have remained when it was introduced, nor any dispute or controversy about it have taken place ? Some reduce the matter to a narrower compass; urging, (l.)That God constituted in his church the membership of infants, and admitted them to that privilege by a religious ordinance, Gen. xvii; Gal. iii, 14, 17. (2.) That this right of infants to church membership was never taken away: and this being the case, they argue, that infants must be received, because God has appointed it ; and, since they must be received, it must be either with baptism or without it ; but none must be received without baptism ; therefore, infants must of necessity be baptized. Hence it is clear that, under the Gospel, infants are still continued exactly in the same relation to God and his church in which they were originally placed under former dispensations. That in- fants are to be received into the church, and as such baptized, is also inferred from the fol- lowing passages of Scripture : Gen. xvii ; Isa. xliv, 3; Matt, xix, 13; Luke ix, 47, 48; Acts ii, 38, 39 ; Rom. xi, 17, 21 ; 1 Cor. vii, 14. 10. Though there are no express examples in the New Testament of Christ and his Apos- tles baptizing infants, yet there is no proof that they were excluded. Jesus Christ actually blessed little children ; and it is difficult to be- lieve that such received his blessing, and yet were not to be members of the Gospel church. If Christ received them, and would have us " receive" them, how can we keep them out of the visibks church? Beside, if children were not to be baptized, it is reasonable to expect that they would have been expressly forbidden. As whole households were baptized, it is also probable there were children among them. From the year 400 to 1150, no society of men, in all that period of seven hundred and fifty years, ever pretended to say it was unlawful to baptize infants : and still nearer the time of our Saviour there appears to have been scarcely any one who advised the delay of infant bap- tism. Irenseus, who lived in the second cen- tury, and was well acquainted with Polycarp, who was John's disciple, declares expressly, that the church learned from the Apostles to baptize children. Origen, in the third century, affirms, that the custom of baptizing infants was received from Christ and his Apostles. Cyprian, and a council of ministers, held about the year 254, no less than sixty-six in number, unanimously agreed that children might be baptized as soon as they were born. Ambrose, who wrote about 274 years from the Apostles, declares that the baptism of infants had been practised by the Apostles themselves, and by the church down to that time. "The catho- lic church every where declares," says Chry- sostom, in the fifth century, "that infants should be baptized ;" and Augustine affirmed, that he never heard or read of any Christian, catholic or sectarian, but who always held that infants were to be baptized. They farther be. lieve that there needed no mention in the New Testament of receiving infants into the church, as it had been once appointed and never re- pealed. So far from confining baptism to adults, it must be remembered that there is not a single instance recorded in the New Testa, ment, in which the descendants of Christian parents were baptized in adult years. The objection that infants are not proper subjects for baptism, because they cannot profess faith and repentance, falls with as much weight upon the institution of circumcision as infant baptism ; since they are as capable or are as fit subjects for the one as the other. Finally, it is generally acknowledged, that if infants die, (and a great part of the human race die in their infancy,) they are saved : if this be the case then why refuse them the sign of union with Christ, if they be capable of enjoying the thing signified ? 11. As to the mode, the Paedobaptists deny that the term j3a7rri'£w, which is a derivative of /3dirr», and, consequently, must be something less in its signification, is invariably used in the New Testament to express plunging. It is denied, therefore, that dipping is its only meaning; that Christ absolutely enjoined im- mersion ; and that it is his positive will that no other mode should be used. As the word (ia-nrifa is used to express the various ablutions among the Jews, such as sprinkling, pouring, &c, Heb. ix, 10, for the custom of washing before meals, and the washing of household furniture, pots, &c, it is evident from hence that it does not express the manner of doing a thing, whether by immersion or effusion, but only the thing done ; that is, washing ; or the application of water in some form or other. It no where signifies to dip, but in denoting a mode of, and in order to, washing or cleansing; and the mode or use is only the ceremonial part of a positive institute ; just as in the Lord's BAP 133 BAP Supper, the time of day, the number and pos- ture of the communicants, the quantity and quality of bread and wine, are circumstances not accounted essential by any part of Chris- tians. If in baptism there be an expressive emblem of the descending influence of the Spirit, pouring must be the mode of adminis- tration ; for that is the Scriptural term most commonly and properly used for the commu- nication of divine influences, Matt, iii, 11 ; Mark i, 8, 10; Luke iii, 16-22; John i, 33; Acts i, 5; ii, 38, 39 ; viii, 12, 17; xi, 15, 16. The term sprinkling, also, is made use of in reference to the act of purification, Isa. Iii, 15 ; Ezek. xxxvi, 25 ; Heb. ix, 13, 14 ; and there- fore cannot be inapplicable to baptismal purifi- cation. But, it is observed, that John baptized "ira Jordan:" to this it is replied, To infer always a plunging of the whole body in water from this particle, would, in many instances, be false and absurd. The same Greek preposi- tion, iv, is used when it is said they should be " baptized with fire ;" but few will assert that they should be plunged into it. The Apostle, speaking of Christ, says, he came not, iv, "by water only ;" but, iv, " by water and blood." There the same word, iv, is translated by; and with justice and propriety ; for we know no good sense in which we could say he came in water. It has been remarked that iv is, more than a hundred times, in the New Testament, rendered at; and in a hundred and fifty others it is translated with. If it be rendered so here, John baptized at Jordan, or with the water of Jordan, there is no proof that he plunged his disciples in it. Jesus, it is said, came up out of the water; but this is no proof that he was immersed, as the Greek term, d™, often signifies from : for instance, " Who hath warned you to flee/cow," not out of, "the wrath to come?" with many others that might be mentioned. Again : it is urged that Philip and the eunuch went down both into the water. To this it is answered, that here also is no proof of immersion : for, if the expression of their going down into the water necessarily includes dipping, then Philip was dipped, as well as the eunuch. The pre- position eh, translated into, often signifies no more than to, or unto: see Matt, xv, 24; Rom. x, 10; Acts xxviii, 14; Matt, iii, 11 ; xvii, 27: so that from none of these circumstances can it be proved that there was one person of all the baptized, who went into the water ankle deep. As to the Apostle's expression, " burie*1 with him in baptism," that has no force b* the argument for immersion, since it dr^s not allude to a custom of dipping, any -»iore than our baptismal crucifixion and d^ath has any such reference. It is not tK sign, but the thing signified, that is hem alluded to. As Christ was buried, and rose again to a heavenly life, so we by baptism signify that we are sepa- rated from sin, that we may live a new life of faith and love. To conclude : it is urged, against the mode of immersion, that, as it carries with it too much of the appearance of a burdensome rite for the Gospel dispensation ; as it is too inde- cent for so solemn an ordinance ; as it has a tendency to agitate the spirits, often rendering the subject unfit for the exercise of proper thoughts and affections, and indeed utterly in- capable of them ; as in many cases the immer- sion of the body would, in all probability, be instant death ; as in other situations it would be impracticable, for want of water ; it cannot be considered as necessary to the ordinance of baptism, and there is the strongest improbabil- ity that it was ever practised in the times of the New Testament, or in the earliest periods of the Christian church. BAPTISTS, or ANTIPiEDOBAPTISTS, so called from their rejecting the baptism of infants. The Baptists in England form one of "the three denominations of Protestant Dis- senters." The constitution of their churches, and their modes of worship, are congregational, or independent. They bore a considerable share in the sufferings of the seventeenth and preceding centuries : for there were many among the Lollards and Wickliffites who dis- approved of infant baptism. There were also many of this faith among the Protestants and Reformers abroad. In Holland, Germany, and the north, they went by the names of Anabap- tists and Mennonites; and in Piedmont and the south, they were found among the Albi- genses and Waldenses. The Baptists subsist chiefly under two denominations, — the Particu- lar or Calvinistical, and the General or Armi- nian. The former is by far the most numerous. Some of both denominations, General and Par- ticular, allow of free or mixed communion ; admitting to the Lord's table pious persons who have not been immersed, while others consider that as an essential requisite to communion. These are sometimes called Strict Baptists. Other societies of this denomination observe the seventh day of the week as their Sabbath, apprehending the original law of the Sabbath to remain in force, unaltered and unrepealed. These are called Seventh-day Baptists. A considerable number of the General Baptists have gone into Unitarianism ; in consequence of which, those who maintained the doctrines of the Trinity and atonement, in the latter part of the eighteenth century, formed them, selves into what is caHed "The New Connec- tion," or .Association . These preserve a friendly correspondence with their other brethren in things which concern the general interests of the denomination, but hold no religious com- munion with them. Some congregations of General Baptists admit three distinct orders of church officers : messengers or ministers, elders, and deacons. The Baptists in America, and in the East and West Indies, are chiefly Calvinists ; but most of them admit of free communion. The Scottish Baptists form a distinct denomination, and are distinguished by several peculiarities of church government. " No trace can be found of a Baptist church in Scotland," says Mr. Jones, "excepting one which appears to have been formed out of Cromwell's army, previous to 1765, when a church was settled at Edinburgh, under the pastoral care of Mr. Carmichael and Mr. Archi- BAR 134 BAR bald M'Lean. Others have since been formed at Dundee, Glasgow, and in most of the princi- pal towns of Scotland :" also at London, and in various parts of England. They think that the order of public worship, which uniformly obtained in the Apostolic churches, is clearly set forth in Acts ii, 42-47 ; and therefore they endeavour to follow it out to the utmost of their power. They require a plurality of elders in every church, administer the Lord's Supper, and make contributions for the poor every first day of the week. The prayers and exhortations of the brethren form a part of their church order, under the dicection and control of the elders, to whom it exclusively belongs to pre- side in conducting the worship, to rule in cases of discipline, and to labour in the word and doctrine, in distinction from the brethren ex- horting one another. The elders are all lay- men, generally chosen from among the bre- thren ; but, when circumstances require, are supported by their contributions. They approve also of persons who are properly qualified for it, being appointed by the church to preach the Gospel and baptize, though not vested with any pastoral charge. The discipline and go- vernment of the Scottish Baptists are strictly congregational. BARACHIAS, the father of Zacharias, mentioned Matt, xxiii, 35, as slain between the temple and the altar. There is a great diversity jof opinions concerning the person of this Zacharias, the son of Barachias. Some think him to be Zacharias, the son of Jehoiada, who was killed by the orders of Joash, between the temple and the altar, 2 Chron. xxiv, 21. Camp- bell thinks, with Father Simon, that Jehoiada had two names, Barachias and Jehoiada. See Zacharias. BARAK, son of Abinoam, chosen by God to deliver the Hebrews from that bondage under which they were held by Jabin, king of the Canaanites, Judges iv, 4, 5, &c. He refused to obey the Lord's commands, signified to him by Deborah, the prophetess, unless she con- sented to go with him. Deborah accompanied Barak toward Kedesh of Naphtali ; and, having assembled ten thousand men, they advanced to mount Tabor. Sisera, being informed of this movement, matched with nine hundred cha- riots of war, and encamped near the river Ki- shon. Barak rapidly descended from mount Tabor, and the Lord having spread terror through Sisera's army Barak easily obtained &. complete victory. Sisera was killed by Jael. Barak and Deborah composed a hymn of thanksgiving; and the land had peace forty years from A. M. 2719 to 2759, B. C. 1245. BARBARIAN. The word tj?^ (rendered barbarian ; LXX, (3dp6apos,) in the Hebrew sense of it, signifies a stranger; one who knows neither the hoiy language nor the law. Ac- cording to the notions of the Greeks, all nations who were not Greeks, or not govern- ed by laws like the Greeks, were barbarians. The Persians, Egyptians, Hebrews, Arabians, Gauls, Germans, and even the Romans, were, in their phraseology, barbarians, however learn- ed or polite they might be in themsolves. St. Paul comprehends all mankind under the names of Greeks and barbarians : " I am a debtor both to the Greeks and to the barbari- ans ; to the wise and to the unwise," Rom. i, 14. St. Luke calls the inhabitants of the island of Malta barbarians, Acts xxviii, 2, 4. St. Paul, writing to the Colossians, uses the terms bar- barian and Scythian almost in the same signifi- cation. In 1 Cor. xiv, 11, he says, that if he who speaks a foreign language in an assembly be not understood by those to whom he dis- courses, with respect to them he is a barbarian ; and, reciprocally, if he understand not those who speak to him, they are to him barbarians. Barbarian, therefore, is used for every stranger or foreigner who does not speak our native language, and includes no implication what- ever of savage nature or manners in those re- specting whom it is used. It is most probably derived from berbir, "a shepherd;" whence Barbnry, the country of wandering shepherds; Bedouins, Sceni, Scytkei, as if, wanderers in tents ; therefore barbarians. BAR-JESUS, or, according to some copies, BARrJEU, was a Jewish magician in the island of Crete, Acts xiii, 6. St. Luke calls him Elymas. He was with the pro-consul Ser- gius Paulus, who, sending for Paul and Barna- bas, desired to hear the word of God. Bar- Jesus endeavouring to hinder the pro-consul from embracing Christianity, Paul, filled with the Holy Ghost, M set his eyes upon him, and said, O full of all subtil ty and mischief, thou child of the devil, thou enemy of all righteous- ness, wilt thou not cease to pervert the right ways of the Lord? Behold, the hand of the Lord is upon thee, and thou shalt be blind, not seeing the sun for a season ;" which took place im- mediately. The pro-consul, who saw this miracle, was converted. Origen and Chrysos- tom think that. Elymas, or Bar-Jesus, was con- verted likewise ; and that St. Paul speedily restored his sight. BARLEY, nm Exod. ix, 31 ; Lev. xxvii, 16, &c ; a well-known kind of grain. It de- rives its Hebrew name from the long hairy beard which grows upon the ear. Pliny, on the testimony of Menander, says that barley was the most ancient aliment of mankind. In Palestine the barley was sown about October, and reaped in the end of March, just after the passover. In Egypt the barley harvest was later ; for when the hail fell there, Exodus ix, 31, a few days before the passover, the flax and Wley were bruised and destroyed : for the flax was %t its full growth, and the barley began to form iu green ears ; but the wheat, and more backward cluded from internal evi- dence ; though it may have been written by some other person of the same name. There is also a tract which goes by the name of, "The Gospel of Barnabas," still extant; from which Dr. White, at the end of his Bampton Lectures, has given extracts sufficiently copi- ous to satisfy any impartial mind that it is spu- rious. BARRENNESS. This was looked upon as reproachful among the Greeks and Romans, but more particularly so among the Jews; which may be accounted for by the constant expectation of Messiah, and the hope that every woman had, that she might be the mother of the promised seed. This constant hope of the speedy coming of the great " Seed of the woman" serves also to account for many cir- cumstances in the Old Testament history. "Couple it," says the Rev. J. J. Blunt, "with this consideration, and I see the scheme of revelation, like the physical scheme, proceed- ing with beautiful uniformity: a unity of plan ' connecting,' as it has been well said by Paley, 'the chicken roosting upon its perch with the spheres revolving in the firmament ;' and a unity of plan connecting in like man- ner the meanest accidents of a household with the most illustrious visions of a prophet. Ab- stracted from this consideration, I see in the history of Moses details of actions, some tri- fling, some even offensive, pursued at a length (when compared with the whole) singularly disproportionate ; while things which the an- gels would desire to look into are passed over and forgotten. But this principle once admit- ted, all is consecrated ; all assumes a new as- BAR 136 BAR pect; trifleB, that seem at first not bigger than a man's hand, occupy the heavens ; and where, fore Sarah laughed, for instance, at the pros- pect of a son, and wherefore that laugh was rendered immortal in his name ; and wherefore the sacred historian dwells on a matter so trivial, whilst the world and its vast concerns were lying at his feet, I can fully understand. For then I see the hand of God shaping every thing to his own ends, and in an event thus casual, thus easy, thus unimportant, telling forth his mighty design of salvation to the world, and working it up into the web of his noble prospective counsels, Gen. xxi, 6. I sec that nothing is great or little before Him who can bend to his purposes whatever he willeth, and convert the light-hearted and thoughtless mockery of an aged woman into an instrument of his glory, effectual as the tongue of the seer which he touched with living coals from the altar. Bearing this master-key in my hand, I can interpret the scenes of domestic mirth, of domestic stratagem, or of domestic wickedness, with which the history of Moses abounds. The Seed of the woman, that was to bruise the serpent's head, Gen. iii, 15, however indistinct- ly understood, (and probably it was understood very indistinctly,) was the one thing longed for in the families of old ; was ' the desire of all nations,' as the Prophet Haggai expressly calls it, Hag. ii, 7 ; and, provided they could accom- plish this desire, they (like others, when urged by an overpowering motive) were often reck- less of the means, and rushed upon deeds which they could not defend. Then did the wife for- get her jealousy, and provoke, instead of re- senting, the faithlessness of her husband, Gen. xvi, 2 ; xxx, 3, 9 ; then did the mother forget a parent's part, and teach her own child treach- ery and deceit, Gen. xxv, 23; xxvii, 13; then did daughters turn the instincts of nature back- ward, and deliberately work their own and their father's shame, Gen. xix, 31 ; then did the daughter-in-law veil her face, and court the incestuous bed, , Gen. xxxviii, 14; and to be childless, was to be a by-word, Gen. xvi, 5 ; xxx, 1 ; and to refuse to raise up seed to a brother, was to be spit upon, Gen. xxxviii, 26 ; Deut. xxv, 9; and the prospect of the promise, like the fulfilment of it, did not send peace into families, but a sword ; and three were set against two, and two against three, Gen. xxvii, 41 ; and the elder, who would be promoted unto honour, was set against the younger, whom God would promote, Gen. iv, 5 ; xxvii, 41 ; and national differences were engendered by it, as individuals grew into nations, Gen. xix, 37 ; xxvi, 35 ; and even the foulest of idolatries may be traced, perhaps, to this hallowed source ; for the corruption of the best is the worst corrup- tion of all, Num. xxv, 1, 2, 3. It is upon this principle of interpretation, and I know not upon what other so well, that we may put to silence the ignorance of foolish men, who have made those parts of the Mosaic history a stum- bling-block to many, which, if rightly under- stood, are the very testimony of the covenant ; and a principle which is thus extensive in its application and successful in its results, which explains so much that is difficult, and answers so much that is objected against, has, from this circumstance alone, strong presumption in its favour, strong claims upon our sober regard." BARSABAS. Joseph Barsabas, surnamed Justus, was one of the first disciples of Jesus Christ, and probably one of the seventy. When St. Peter proposed to the disciples to fill up the place of Judas the traitor, by choosing another Apostle, Acts i, 21, Barsabas was nominated along with Matthias ; but the lot fell on Mat- thias, who was therefore numbered with the eleven Apostles. We know nothing farther of the life of this Barsabas. 2. Barsabas was also the surname of Judas, one of the principal disciples mentioned, Acts xv, 22, &c. Barsabas and some others were sent by the Apostles, with Paul and Barnabas, to Antioch. and carried a letter with them from the Apostles, signifying what the council at Jerusalem had decreed. After the reading of the letter to the brethren, which was received with joy, Barsabas and Silas continued here some time longer, instructing and confirming the brethren ; after which Silas and Barsabas returned to Jerusalem. This is all we know of Barsabas Judas. BARTHOLOMEW, one of the twelve Apos- tles, Matt. x, 3, is supposed to be the same per- son who is called Nathanael, one of the first of Christ's disciples. This opinion is founded on the circumstance, that as the evangelist John never mentions Bartholomew in the num- ber of the Apostles, so the other evangelists never mention Nathanael. And as in John i, 45, Philip and Nathanael are mentioned to- gether as coining to Jesus, so in the other evan- gelists Philip and Bartholomew are constantly associated together. The supposition also ac- quires additional probability from considering, that Nathanael is particularly mentioned among the Apostles to whom Christ appeared at the sea of Tiberias, after his resurrection; Simon Peter, Thomas, and Nathanael, of Cana in Galilee; the sons of Zebedee, namely, James and John ; with two other of his disciples, pro- bably Andrew and Philip, John xxi, 2. It is an early tradition, that Bartholomew propa- gated the faith as far as India, and also in the more northern and western parts of Asia, and that he finally suffered martyrdom. But all the particulars respecting the life and labours of the Apostles, not mentioned in the New Testament, are exceedingly uncertain. BARUCH, the son of Neriah, and grandson of Maaseiah, was of illustrious birth, and of the tribe of Judah. He had a brother of the name of Seraiah, who occupied an important station in the court of King Zedekiah ; but he himself adhered to the person of the Prophet Jeremiah, and was hismost steady friend, though his attachment to him drew on himself several persecutions and much ill treatment. He ap- pears to have acted as his secretary during a great part of his life, and never left him till they were parted by death. In the reign of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, A. M. 3398, Jere- miah having been thrown into prison, the Lord commanded him to commit to writing all the BAR 137 BAS prophecies that he had delivered until that time. Ho accordingly sent for Baruch, and dictated them to him by word of mouth. Some time afterward he instructed the latter to go and read them to the people, who were then as- sembled in the temple ; on which Michaiah, who happened to be present, and heard them, instantly gave notice of them to the king's counsellors. The latter immediately sent for Baruch, and commanded him to repeat to them what he had been reading to the people in the temple ; which he accordingly did, to their great astonishment : and, finding that they contained some very unwelcome tidings respecting the fate of the kingdom, they inquired how he came into possession of them ; intimating that their duty to the king required that they should make him acquainted therewith. Baruch was at the same time advised to consult his own safety, and to let no man know where he was to be found ; after which they took from him the roll of his prophecies, and deposited it in the chamber of Elishama, the scribe. They next waited on the king, and told him what had passed. The latter sent Jehudi to fetch the book ; which being brought, Jehoiakim com- manded it to be read in his presence, and in the presence of his nobles who surrounded him. But Jehudi had not proceeded far before the king took the book, cut it with his secre- tary's penknife, and threw it into the fire, where it was consumed before their faces. He at the same time gave orders to have both Baruch and Jeremiah seized; but the hand of Providence concealed them from his fury. Jeremiah was instructed a second time to commit his prophecies to writing ; and Baruch wrote them as before, with the addition of several others which were not contained in the former book. In the fourth year of the reign of Zedekiah, Baruch went to Babylon, carrying with him a long letter from Jeremiah, in which the Prophet foretold the judgments that should come upon Babylon, and promised the Jews, who were then captives in that coun- try, that they should again be restored to their own land. The latter were exceedingly affect- ed at hearing Jeremiah's letter read to them, and returned an answer to their brethren at Jerusalem. After his return to Jerusalem, Ba- ruch continued his constant attendance on Jeremiah ; and when Jerusalem was besieged by Nebuchadnezzar, and Jeremiah thrown into prison, Baruch also was confined with him : but when the city had surrendered, Nebuzarad- dan showed him much kindness, granted him his liberty, and permitted him to go with Jere- miah wherever he chose. The remnant of the people who had been left in Judea under the care of Gedaliah, having adopted the resolution of going into Egypt, and finding that Jeremiah opposed their taking that journey, threw the blame upon Baruch ; insinuating that the latter had influenced the Prophet to declare against it. They were, however, both of them at last compelled to fol- low the people into Egypt, where Jeremiah soon afterward died ; on which Baruch retired to Babylon, where the rabbins say he also died in the twelfth year of the captivity, Jer.xxxvi; xliii. The book of Baruch is justly placed among the apocryphal writings. Grotius thinks it a fiction written by some Hellenistic Jew ; and St. Jerome gives as the reason why he did not write a commentary upon it, that the Jews themselves did not deem it canonical. BASHAN, or BASAN, one of the most fer- tile cantons of Canaan, which was bounded on the west by the river Jordan, on the east by the mountains of Gilead, on the south by the brook of Jabbok, and on the north by the land of Geshur. The whole kingdom took its name from the hill of Bashan, which is situated in the middle of it, and by the Greeks is called Batanaea. It had no less than sixty walled towns in it, beside villages. It afforded an excellent breed of cattle, and stately oaks, and was, in short, a plentiful and populous country. Og, king of the Amorites, possessed this coun- try when Moses made the conquest thereof. In the division of the Holy Land, it was as- signed to the half tribe of Manasseh. Of the present state of this portion of the ancient pos- sessions of the Israelites, Mr. Buckingham, in his Travels, gives the following account : " We ascended the steep on the north side of tho Zerkah, or Jabbok ; and, on reaching the sum- mit, came again on a beautiful plain, of an elevated level, and still covered with a very rich soil. We had now quitted the land of Sihon, king of the Amorites, and entered into that of Og, the king of Bashan, both of them well known to all the readers of the early Scrip- tures. We had quitted too, the districts appor- tioned to the tribes of Reuben and of Gad, and entered that part which was allotted to the half tribe of Manasseh, beyond Jordan east- ward, leaving the land of the children of Am. mon on our right, or to the east of the Jabbok, which, according to the authority before quoted, divided Amnion, or Philadelphia, from Gerasa. The mountains here are called the land of Gilead in the Scriptures, and in Josephus ; and, according to the Roman division, this was the country of the Decapolis, so often spoken of in the New Testament, or the province of Gaulonitis, from the city of Gaulon, its early capital. We continued our way over this ele- vated tract, continuing to behold, with surprise and admiration, a beautiful country on all sides of us : its plains covered with a fertile soil, its hills clothed with forests ; at every new turn presenting the most magnificent landscapes that could be imagined. Among the trees, the oak was frequently seen ; and we know that this territory produced them of old. In enu- merating the sources from which the supplies of Tyre were drawn in the time of her great wealth and naval splendour, the Prophet says. ' Of the oaks of Bashan have they made thine oars,' Ezek. xxvii, 6. Some learned commenta- tors indeed, believing that no oaks grew in these supposed desert regions, have translated the word by ' alders,' to prevent the appearance of inaccuracy in the inspired writer. The ex- pression of 'the fat bulls of Bashan,' which occurs more than once in the Scriptures, seemed to us equally inconsistent, as applied BAT 138 BAX to the beasts of a country generally thought to be a desert, in common with the whole tract which is laid down in our modern maps as such between the Jordan and the Euphrates ; but we could now fully comprehend, not only that the bulls of this luxuriant country might be proverbially fat, but that its possessors, too, might be a race renowned for strength and comeliness of person. The general face of this region improved as we advanced farther in it ; and every new direction of our path opened upon us views which surprised and charmed us by their grandeur and their beauty. Lofty mountains gave an outline of the most magni- ficent character ; flowing beds of secondary hills softened the romantic wildness of the pic- ture; gentle slopes, clothed with wood, gave a rich variety of tints, hardly to be imitated by the pencil ; deep valleys, filled with murmur- ing streams and verdant meadows, offered all the luxuriance of cultivation ; and herds and flocks gave life and animation to scenes as grand, as beautiful, and as highly picturesque as the genius or taste of a Claude could either invent or desire." BASILIDEANS, the followers of Basilides of Alexandria, a gnostic leader of the early part of the second century. See Gnostics. BASTARD, one born out of wedlock. A bastard among the Greeks was despised, and exposed to public scorn, on account of his spurious origin. In Persia the son of a concu- bine is never placed on a footing with the legitimate offspring ; any attempt made by pa- rental fondness to do so would be resented by the relations of the legitimate wife, and out- rage the feelings of a whole tribe. The Jew- ish father bestowed as little attention on the education of his natural children as the Greek : he seems to have resigned them, in a great measure, to their own inclinations ; he neither checked their passions, nor corrected their faults, nor stored their minds with useful know- ledge. This is evidently implied in these words of the Apostle : " If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons ; for what son is he whom the father chasteneth not ? But if ye be without chastisement, whereof all are partakers, then are ye bastards and not sons," Heb. xii, 7, 8. To restrain the licentious de- sires of the heart, Jehovah by an express law fixed a stigma upon the bastard, which was not to be removed till the tenth generation ; and to show that the precept was on no account to be violated, or suffered to fall into disuse, it is emphatically repeated, " A bastard shall not enter into the congregation of the Lord; even to his tenth generation shall he not enter into the congregation of the Lord," Deut. xxiii, 2. BASTINADO, the punishment of beating with sticks. It is also called tympanum, [a drum,] because the patient was beaten like a drum. Upwards of a hundred blows were often inflicted, and sometimes the beating was unto death. St. Paul, Heb. xi, 35, says that some of the saints were tortured, rv/nravlfa, suffered the tympanum, that is, were stretched on an instrument of torture, and beaten to death. BAT, rpuy, Lev. xi, 19 ; Deut. xiv, 18 ; Isaiah ii, 20 ; Baruch vi, 22. The Jewish legislator having enumerated the animals legally un clean as well beasts as birds, closes his catalogue with a creature whose equivocal properties seem to exclude it from both those classes : it is too much a bird to be properly a mouse, and too much a mouse to be properly a bird. The bat is therefore well described in Deut. xiv, 18, 19, as the passage should be read, " More- over the othelaph, and every creeping thing that flielh, is unclean to you: they shall not be eaten." This character is very descriptive, and places this creature at the head of a class of which he is a clear and well-known instance. It has feet or claws growing out of its pinions, and contradicts the general order of nature, by creeping with the instruments of its flight. The Hebrew name of the bat is from bey dark- ness, and D)> to fly, as if it described "the flier in darkness." So the Greeks called the crea- ture vvKTeph, from vi£, night; and the Latins, vespertilio, from vesper, "evening." It is prophesied, Isaiah ii, 20, "In that day shall they cast away their idols to the moles and to the bats ;" that is, they shall carry them into the dark caverns, old ruins, or desolate places, to which they shall fly for refuge, and so shall give them up, and relinquish them to the filthy animals that frequent such places, and have taken possession of them as their proper habi- tation. BATH, a measure of capacity for things liquid, being the same with the ephah, Ezek. xiv, 11, and containing ten homers, or seven gallons and four pints. BATH-KOL, Vip-pa, daughter of the voice. By this name the Jewish writers distinguish what they called a revelation from God, after verbal prophecy had ceased in Israel ; that is, after the prophets Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi. The generality of their traditions and customs are founded on this Bath-Kol. They pretend that God revealed them to their elders, not by prophecy, but by the daughter of the voice. The Bath-Kol, as Dr. Prideaux shows, was a fantastical way of divination, invented by the Jews, like the Sortes Yirgilia- na [divination by the works of Virgil] among the Heathen. For, as with them, the words first opened upon in the works of that poet, was the oracle whereby they prognosticated those future events which they desired to be informed of; so with the Jews when they ap- pealed to Bath-Kol, the next words which they should hear drop from any one's mouth were taken as the desired oracle. With some it is probable that Bath-Kol, the daughter of the voice, was only an elegant personification of tradition. Others, however, more bold, said that it was a voice from heaven, sometimes attended by a clap of thunder. BATTLE. See Armies. BAXTERIANISM, a modification of the Calvin istic doctrine of election advocated by the celebrated Baxter in his treatise of " Uni- versal Redemption," and in his " Methodus TheologitB." The real author of the scheme, at least in a systematized form, was Camero, who taught divinity at Saumur, and it was un., BAX 139 BAX folded and defended by his disciple Amyraldus, whom Curcellseus refuted. Baxter says, in his preface to his " Saint's Rest," " The middle way which Camero, Crocius, Martinius, Amyral- dus, Davenant, with all the divines of Britain and Bremen in the synod of Dort, go, I think is nearest the truth of any that I know who have written on these points." Baxter first differs from the majority of Calvinists, though not from all, in his statement of the doctrine of satisfaction : — "Christ's sufferings were not a, fulfilling of the law's threatening; (though he bore its curse materially;) but a satisfaction for our not ful- filling the precept, and to prevent God's fulfill- ing the threatening on us. Christ paid not, therefore, the idem, but the tantundem, or cequivalens ; not the very debt which we owed and the law required, but the value: (else it were not strictly satisfaction, which is redditio aquivalentis : [the rendering of an equivalent :] and (it being improperly called the paying of a debt, but properly a suffering for the guilty) the idem is nothing but supplicium delinquentis. [The punishment of the guilty individual.] In criminals, dum alius solvet simul aliud sol- Titur. [When another suffers, it is another thing also that is suffered.] The law knoweth no vicarius pmna; [substitute in punishment;] though the law maker may admit it, as he is above law ; else there were no place for par- don, if the proper debt be paid and the laiv not relaxed, but fulfilled. Christ did neither obey nor suffer in any man's stead, by a strict, pro- per representation of his person in point of law ; so as that the laic should take it, as done or suffered by the party himself. But only as a third person, as a mediator, he voluntarily bore what else the sinner should have borne. To assert the contrary (especially as to particular persons considered in actual sin) is to over- throw all Scripture theology, and to introduce all Antinomianism ; to overthrow all possi- bility of pardon, and assert justification before we sinned or were born, and to make ourselves to have satisfied God. Therefore, we must not say that Christ died nostro loco, [in our stead,] so as to personate us, or represent our persons in law sense; but only to bear what else we must have borne." This system explicitly asserts, that Christ made a satisfaction by his death equally for the sins of every man ; and thus Baxter essen- tially differs both from the higher Calvinists, and, also, from the Sublapsarians, who, though they may allow that the reprobate derive some benefits from Christ's death, so that there is a vague sense in which he may be said to have died for all men, yet they, of course, deny to such the benefit of Christ's satisfaction or atonement which Baxter contends for : — "Neither the law, whose curse Christ bore, nor God, as the legislator to be satisfied, did distinguish between men as elect and reprobate, or as believers and unbelievers, de presenti vel de futuro; [with regard to the present or the future ;] and to impose upon Christ, or require from him satisfaction for the sins of one sort more than of another, but for mankind in general. God the Father, and Christ the Me diator, now dealeth with no man upon the mere rigorous terms of the first law ; (obey per- fectly and live, else thou shalt die;) but giveth to all much mercy, which, according to the tenor of that violated law, they could not re- ceive, and calleth them to repentance, in order to their receiving farther mercy offered them. And accordingly he will not judge any at last according to the mere law of works, but as they have obeyed or not obeyed his conditions or terms of grace. It was not the sins of the elect only, but of all mankind fallen, which lay upon Christ satisfying. And to assert the contrary, injuriously diminisheth the honour of his sufferings ; and hath other desperate ill consequences." The benefits derived to all men equally, from the satisfaction of Christ, he thus states : — "All mankind, immediately upon Christ's satisfaction, are redeemed and delivered from that legal necessity of perishing which they were under, (not by remitting sin or punish- ment directly to them, but by giving up God's juspuniendi [right of punishing] into the hands of the Redeemer; nor by giving any right directly to them, but per meram resultantiam [by mere consequence] this happy change is made for them in their relation, upon the said remitting of God's right and advantage of jus- tice against them,) and they are given up to the Redeemer as their owner and ruler, to be dealt with upon terms of mercy which have a tendency to their recovery. God the Father and Christ the Mediator hath freely, without any prerequisite condition on man's part, en- acted a law of grace of universal extent, in regard of its tenor, by which he giveth, as a deed or gift, Christ himself, with all his follow- ing benefits which he bestoweth ; (as benefac- tor and legislator ;) and this to all alike, with- out excluding any ; upon condition they believe and accept the offer. By this law, testament, or covenant, all men ere conditionally pardoned, justified, and reconciled to God already, and no man absolutely ; nor doth it make a difference, nor take notice oi any, till men's performance or non-performance of the condition makes a difference. In the new law Christ hath truly given himself with a conditional pardon, justifi- cation, and conditional right to salvation, to all men in the world, without exception." But the peculiarity of Baxter's scheme will be seen from the following farther extracts : — "Though Christ died equally for all men, in the aforesaid law sense, as he satisfied the offended legislator, and as giving himself to all alike in the conditional covenant; yet he never properly intended or purposed the actual justify- ing and saving of all, nor of any but those that come to be justified and saved ; he did not, therefore, die for all, nor for any that perish, with a decree or resolution to save them, much less did he die for all alike, as to this in- tent. Christ hath given faith to none by his law or testament, though he hath revealed, that to some he will, as benefactor and Domin- us Absolutus, [absolute Lord,] give that grace which shall infallibly produce it; and Go<$ BAX 140 BAX hath given some to Christ that he might pre- vail with them accordingly; yet this is no giving it to the person, nor hath he in himself ever the more title to it, nor can any lay claim to it as their due. It belongeth not to Christ as satisfier, nor yet as legislator, to make wick- ed refusers to become willing, and receive him and the benefits which he offers ; therefore he may do all for them that is fore-expressed, though he cure not their unbelief. Faith is a fruit of the death of Christ, (and so is all the good which we do enjoy,) but not directly, as it is satisfaction to justice; but only remotely, as it proceedeth from that^'us dominii [right of dominion] which Christ has received to send the Spirit in what measure and to whom he will, and to succeed it accordingly ; and as it is necessary to the attainment of the farther ends of his death in the certain gathering and saving of the elect." Thus the whole theory amounts to this, that, although a conditional salvation has been pur- chased by Christ for all men, and is offered to them, and all legal difficulties are removed out of the way of their pardon as sinners by the atonement, yet Christ hath not purchased for any man the gift of faith, or the power of per- forming the condition of salvation required ; but gives this to some, and does not give it to others, by virtue of that absolute dominion over men which he has purchased for himself, so that, as the Calvinists refer the decree of election to the sovereignty of the Father, Baxter refers it to the sovereignty of the Son; one makes the decree of reprobation to issue from the Creator and Judge, the other, from the Redeemer himself. If, however, any one expects to find some- thing in the form of system in Baxter's opinions on the five disputed points, he will be much dis- appointed. The parties to whom he refers as the authors of this supposed "middle way," differ as much among themselves as Baxter oc- casionally does from himself. Bishop Davenant and Dr. S. Ward differed from Amyraut, Mar- tinius, and others of that school, on the topic of baptismal regeneration ; and, as the subjects of baptism, according to the sentiments of the two former, are invested with invisible grace, and are regenerated in virtue of the ordinance when canonically performed, such divines far more easily disposed of their baptized converts in the ranks of strict predestination, than the others could who did not hold those sentiments. But they exhibited much ingenuity in not suf- fering it to " intrench upon the question of perseverance." Their friend Bishop Bedell, however, maintained, that " reprobates coming to years of discretion, after baptism, shall be condemned for original sin ; for their absolu- tion and washing in baptism was but condi- tional and expectative ; which doth truly inte- rest them in all the promises of God, but under the condition of repenting, believing and obey- ing, which they never perform, and therefore never attain the promise." Bishop Overal has also been claimed as a patron of this diversifi- ed " middle system ;" but it will be evident to every one who peruses his productions, that his chief endeavour was to display the doctrines of the English church as identical with those of St. Augustine, yet basing them upon the ante- cedent will of God and conditional decrees. After all the refined distinctions which Baxter employed to render the theory of common and special grace plausible and popular, the real meaning of the inventors was frequently elicit- ed when such a question as this was asked, " Have any men in the world grace sufficient to repent and believe savingly who do not ?" After asserting that he knows nothing about the matter, the reply of Baxter is, "If we may conjecture upon probabilities, it seemeth most likely that there is such a sufficient grace, or power, to repent and believe savingly, in some that use it not, but perish." " This," says one of Baxter's apologists, " seems to me very in- explicable !" and in the same light it will be viewed by all who recollect that this " sufficient grace or power" is that "portion of special grace which never fails to accomplish its de- sign,— the salvation of the individual on whom it is bestowed 1" Baxter's celebrated "Apho- risms of Justification," published in 1649, afforded employment to himself and his theo- logical critics till near the close of his life ; and in the many modifications, concessions, and alterations which were extorted from him by men of different religious tenets, he sometimes incautiously proved himself to be more Calvin- istic than Calvin, and at others more Arminian than Arminius. The following observations, from " Orme's Life of Baxter," are on the whole just and instructive : — " Thus did Baxter, at a very early period of his life, launch into the ocean of controversy, on some of the most interesting subjects that can engage the human mind. The manner in which he began to treat them was little favour- able to arriving at correct and satisfactory con- clusions. Possessed of a mind uncommonly penetrating, he yet seems not to have had the faculty of compressing within narrow limits his own views, or the accounts he was dispos- ed to give of the views of others. All this arose, not from any indisposition to be explicit, but from the peculiar character of his mind. He is perpetually distinguishing things into physi- cal and moral, real and nominal, material and formal. However important these distinctions are, they often render his writings tiresome to the reader, and his reasonings more frequently perplexing than satisfactory. Baxter is gene- rally understood to have pursued a middle course between Calvinism and Arminianism. That he tried to hold and adjust the balance between the two parties, and that he was most anxious to reconcile them, are very certain. But it seems scarcely less evident, that he was much more a Calvinist than he was an Arminian. While this seems to me very apparent, it must be acknowledged, that if certain views which have often been given of Calvinism are neces- sary to constitute a Calvinist, Richard Baxter was no believer in that creed. " While satisfied that among Baxter's senti- ments, no important or vital error will be found, yet in the style and method in which he too generally advocated or defended them, there is BAX 141 BAX much to censure. The wrangling and disputa- tious manner in which he presented many of his views, was calculated to gender an unsanc- tified state of mind in persons who either abet- ted or opposed his sentiments. His scholastic and metaphysical style of arguing is unbefit- ting the simplicity of the Gospel, and cannot fail to injure it wherever such is employed. It not only savours too much of the spirit of the schools, and the philosophy of this world ; but places the truths of revelation on a level with the rudiments of human science. I am not sure whether certain effects which began early in the last century to appear among the Pres- byterian part of the Nonconformists, may not be traced, in some degree, to the speculative and argumentative writings of Baxter. His in- fluence over this class of his brethren was evi- dently very great. He contributed more than any other man to mitigate the harsh and forbid- ding aspect which the Presbyterians presented during the civil wars and the commonwealth. This was well, but he did not stop here. He was inimical to all the existing systems of doc- trine and discipline then contended for, or ever before known in the world; while he did not present any precisely defined system as his own. He opposed Calvinism ; he opposed Arminian- ism ; he would not allow himself to be consider- ed an Episcopalian, in the ordinary acceptation of the word ; he denied that he was a Presby- terian, and scorned to be thought an Independ- ent. He held something in common with them all, and yet he was somewhat different from all. He contended for a system more general, and more liberal, than was then approved ; and, as we have stated, wished to place a variety of the- ological truths on grounds belonging rather to philosophy or metaphysics, than to revelation. " On himself, this species of latitudinarian- ism produced little injurious effect, but I fear it had a baneful influence on others. The re- jection of all human authority and influence in religion, requires to be balanced by a very strong 6ense of the divine authority, to prevent its ge- nerating a state of mind more characterized by pride of intellect, and independence of spirit, than by the humility and diffidence which are essential features in the Christian character. It is a singular fact, that the Presbyterians, though at first more rigid in their doctrinal views, and more exclusive in their spirit and system of church government, than the Independents, became before the death of Baxter the more liberal party. High views began to be ascrib- ed by them to their now moderate brethren ; and, to avoid the charge of Antinomianism, which Baxter was too ready to prefer against such as differed from some of his views, the Presbyterians seem gradually to have sunk into a state of low, moderate orthodoxy, in which there was little of the warmth or vitality of evangelical religion. " In farther illustration of the influence now adverted to, it must be remarked, that the first stage in that process of deterioration which took place among the Presbyterian Dissenters, was generally characterized by the term Bax- terianism ; a word to which it is difficult to attach a definite meaning. It denotes no sepa- rate sect or party, but rather a system of opi- nions on doctrinal points, verging toward Arminianism, and which ultimately passed to Arianism and Socinianism. Even during Bax- ter's own life, while the Presbyterians taxed the Independents with Antinomianism, the latter retorted the charge of Socinianism, or at least of a tendency toward it, in some of the opinions maintained both by Baxter and others of that party. To whatever cause it is to be attribut- ed, it is a melancholy fact, that the declension which began even at this early period in the Presbyterian body, went on slowly, but surely, till, from the most fervid orthodoxy, it finally arrived at the frigid zone of Unitarianism. " I wish not to be understood as stating that Baxter either held any opinions of this descrip- tion, or was conscious of a tendency in his sentiments toward such a fearful consumma- tion ; but, that there was an injurious tendency in his manner of discussing certain important subjects. It was subtle, and full of logomachy ; it tended to unsettle, rather than to fix and de- termine ; it gendered strife, rather than godly edifying. It is not possible to study such books as his ' Methodus,' and his ' Catholic Theology,' without experiencing that we are brought into a different region from Apostolic Christianity ; a region of fierce debate and altercation about words, and names, and opinions ; in which all that can be said for error is largely dwelt upon, as well as what can be said for truth. The am- biguities of language, the diversities of sects, the uncertainties of human perception and ar- gument are urged, till the force of revealed truth is considerably weakened, and confidence in our own judgment of its meaning greatly im- paired. Erroneous language is maintained to be capable of sound meaning, and the most Scriptural phrases to be susceptible of unscrip- tural interpretation, till truth and error almost change places, and the mind is bewildered, confounded, and paralyzed. Into this mode of discussing such subjects, was this most excel- lent man led, partly by the natural constitution of his mind, which has often been adverted to ; partly by his ardent desire of putting an end to the divisions of the Christian world, and pro- ducing universal concord and harmony. He failed where success was impossible, however plausible might have been the means which he employed. He understood the causes of differ- ence and contention better than their remedies ; hence the measures which he used frequently aggravated instead of curing the disease. While a portion of evil, however, probably resulted from Baxter's mode of conducting controversy, and no great light was thrown by him on some of the dark and difficult subjects which he so keenly discussed, I have no doubt he contribut- ed considerably to produce a more moderate spirit toward each other, between Calvinists and Arminians, than had long prevailed. Though he satisfied neither party, he must have con- vinced both, that great difficulties exist on the subjects in debate, if pursued beyond a certain length ; that allowance ought to be made by each, for the weakness or prejudices of the BEA 142 BEA other ; and that genuine religion is compatible with some diversity of opinion respecting one or all of the five points." A similar effect as that which Mr. Orme ascribes to Baxter's writ- ings on the English Presbyterians, followed also, on the continent among the reformed churches. It was the same middle system with its philosophical subtleties, which Camero and Amyraut taught abroad, and which produced in them those effects that have been falsely as- cribed, both in England and abroad, to Armi- nianism. See Amyraut and Cameron. BAY-TREE. rniN. It is mentioned only in Psalm xxxvii, 35, 36: "I have seen the un- godly in great power, and flourishing like a green bay-tree. Yet he passed away, and lo, he was not. Yea, I sought him, but he could not be found." Aben Ezra, Jarchi, Kimchi, Jerom, and some others say that the original may mean only a native tree; a tree growing in its native soil, not having suffered by trans- plantation. Such a tree spreads itself luxu- riantly. The Septuagint and Vulgate render it cedars; but the high Dutch of Luther's Bi- ble, the old Saxon, the French, the Spanish, the Italian of Diodati, and the version of Ains. worth, make it the laurel. BDELLIUM, rv?-o, occurs Gen. ii, 12, and Num. xi, 7. Interpreters seem at a loss to know what to do with this word, and have ren- dered it variously. Many suppose it a mineral production. The Septuagint translates in the first place, urOpd/ca, a carbuncle, and in the second, Kpi?a\>ov, a crystal. The rabbins are followed by Reland in calling it a crystal ; but some, instead of bedolah, read berolah, chang- ing the *i into i, which are not always easily distinguished, and are often mistaken by trans- cribers ; and so render it the beryl, which, say they, is the prime kind of crystal. The bedoleh, in Genesis, is undoubtedly some precious stone ; and its colour, mentioned in Numbers, where the manna is spoken of as of the colour of bdellium, is explained by a reference to Exod. xvi, 14, 31, where it is likened to hoar frost, which being like little fragments of ice, may confirm the opinion that the bdellium is the beryl, perhaps that pellucid kind, called by Dr. Hill the ellipomocrostyla, or beryl crystal. BEAN, Vis, occurs 2 Sam. xvii, 28, and Ezek. iv, 9. A common legume. Those most usually cultivated in Syria are the white horse- bean, faba rotunda, oblonga, and the kidney- bean, pkaseolis minimus, fructu viridi ovato, called by the natives masch. The Arabic ban, the nam? of the coffee berry, corresponds with our bean, and is probably its etymon. BEAR. That bsexs were common in Pales- tine appears from several passages of the Old Testament. Their strength, rapacity, and fierceness, furnish many expressive metaphors to the Hebrew poets. The Hebrew name of this animal is taken from his growling; so Varro deduces his Latin name ursus by an onomatopmia from the noise which he makes : " ursi Lucana origo, vel unde illi, nostri ab ipsius voce :" [the origin of the term ursus (bear) is Lucanian, (whence also the bears them- selves,) from the noise made by the animal.] David had to defend his flock against bears ad well as lions, 1 Sam. xvii, 34. And Dr. Shaw gives us to understand that these rugged anL mals are not peculiar to the bleak regions of the north, being found in Barbary; and "Ihevenot informs us that they inhabit the wilderness ad- joining the Holy Land, and that he saw one near the northern extremities of the Red Sea. The ferocity of the bear, especially when hungry or robbed of its wLcip^, has been mentioned by many authors. The Scripture alludes in three places to this furious disposition. The first is, 2 Sam. xvii, 8, "They be mighty men, and they be chafed in their minds as a bear robbed of her whelps in the field." The second, Prov. xvii, 12, " Let a bear robbed of her whelps meet a man rather than a fool in his folly." And the third, Hosea xiii, 8, " I will meet them as a bear that is bereaved of her whelps, and will rend the caul of their heart." BEARD. The Hebrews wore their beards, but had, doubtless, in common with other Asiatic nations, several fashions in this, as in all other parts of dress. Moses forbids them, Lev. xix, 27, "to cut off entirely the angle, or extremity of their beard ;" that is, to avoid the manner of the Egyptians, who left only a little tuft of beard at the extremity of their chins. The Jews, in some places, at this day suffer a little fillet of hair to grow from below the ears to the chin : where, as well as upon their lower lips, their beards are long. When they mourn- ed, they entirely shaved the hair of their heads and beards, and neglected to trim their beards, to regulate them into neat order, or to remove what grew on their upper lips and cheeks, Jer. xli, 5 ; xlviii, 37. In times of grief and afflic- tion, they plucked away the hair of their heads and beards, a mode of expression common to other nations under great calamities. The king of the Ammonites, designing to insult David in the person of his ambassadors, cut away half of their beards, and half of their clothes ; that is, he cut off all their beard on one side of their faces, 2 Sam. x, 4, 5 ; 1 Chron. xix, 5. To avoid ridicule, David did not wish them to appear at his court till their beards were grown again. When a leper was cured of his leprosy, he washed himself in a bath, and shaved off all the hair of his body ; after which, he returned into the camp, or city ; seven days afterward, he washed himself and his clothes again, shaved off all his hair, and offered the sacrifices appointed for his purifica- tion, Lev. xiv, 9. The Levites, at their con- secration, were purified by bathing, and wash- ing their bodies and clothes ; after which, they shaved off all the hair of their bodies, and then offered the sacrifices appointed for their con- secration, Num. viii, 7. Nothing has been more fluctuating in the different ages of the world and countries than the fashion of wearing the beard. Some have cultivated one part and some another; some have endeavoured to extirpate it entirely, while others have almost idolized it; the revolutions of countries have scarcely been more famous than Die revolutions of beards. It is a great mark of infamy among the Arabs to cut off the BED 143 BEE beard. Many people would prefer death to this kind of treatment. As they would think it a grievous punishment to lose it, they carry things so far as to beg for the sake of it : " By your beard, by the life of your beard, God pre- serve your blessed beard." When they would express their value for any thing, they say, " It is worth more than a man's beard." And hence we may easily learn the magnitude of the offence of the Ammonites in their treat- ment of David's ambassadors, as above men- tioned ; and also the force of the emblem used Ezek. v, 1-5, where the inhabitants of Jerusa- lem are compared to the hair of his head and beard. Though they had been dear to God as the hair of an eastern beard to its owner, they should be taken away and consumed, one part by pestilence and famine, another by the sword, another by the calamities incident on exile. BEASTS. When this word is used in op- position to man, as Psalm xxxvi, 5, any brute creature is signified ; when to creeping things, as Lev. xi, 2, 7 ; xxix, 30, four-footed animals, from the size of the hare and upward, are in- tended ; and when to wild creatures, as Gen. i, 25, cattle, or tame animals, are spoken of. In Isaiah xiii, 21, several wild animals are mentioned as dwelling among the ruins of Babylon: "Wild beasts of the desert," D"*, those of the dry wilderness, as the root of the word implies, " shall dwell there. Their houses shall be full of doleful creatures," criN, marsh animals. " Owls shall dwell there," ostriches, "and satyrs," Qn^tf, shaggy ones, "shall dance there. And the wild beasts of the isl- ands," o^X, oases of the desert, " shall cry in their desolate houses, and dragons," Qijn, cro- codiles, or amphibious animals, " shall be in their desolate places." St. Paul, 1 Cor. xv, 32, speaks of fighting with beasts, &c : by which he does not mean his having been exposed in the ampitheatre to fight as a gladiator, as some have conjectured, but that he had to contend at Ephesus with the fierce uproar of Demetrius and his associates. Ignatius uses the same figure in his Epistle to the Romans : " From Syria even unto Rome I fight with wild beasts, both by sea and land, botli night and day, being bound to ten leopards ;" that is, to a band of soldiers. So Lucian, in like manner, says, " For I am not to fight with ordinary wild beasts, but with men, insolent and hard to be convinced." In Rev. iv, v, vi, mention is made of four beasts, or rather, as the word £2a signifies, living creatures, as in Ezek. i ; and so the word might have been less harshly translated. Wild beasts are used in Scripture as emblems of tyrannical and persecuting pow- ers. The most illustrious conquerors of anti- quity a\so have not a more honourable emblem. BED. Mattresses, or thick cotton quilts folded, wei