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October, 1605. His chief works are, 1. Confessio Christianæ fidei, 8vo. 2. De Hæreticis a civili Magistratu puniendis, 8vo. 3. Comedie du Pape Malade, 8vo. 4. Traduction en vers Français des Pseaumes omis par Marot. 5. Histoire de la Mappemonde Papistique, 4to. 6. Le Reveilmatin des François et de leurs voisins, 8vo. 7. De Peste Quæstiones duæ Explicata; una, sit ne Contagiosa? altera, an et Quatenus sit Christianis per Secessionem Vitanda? 8. Histoire Ecclesiastique des Eglises Reformées au Royaume de France, 3 vols. 8vo. 9. Icones Virorum Illustrium, 4to. 10. Tractatio de Repudiis et Divortiis; Accedit Tractatus de Polygamia, 8vo. 11. Epistola Magistri Passavantii ad Petrum. Lysetum. 12. The New Testament translated into Latin, with notes, folio. Beza gave a Greek MS. of the third or fourth century, of the gospels and acts of the apostles, to the University of Cambridge, where a fac-simile of it was published in 1793, in 2 vols. folio.

BEZALEEL, the son of Uri, of the tribe of Judah, an artificer, employed by Moses in erecting the tabernacle, and supposed to have been in some degree inspired for that purpose.

BEZANS, in commerce, cotton cloths which come from Bengal; some are white and others striped with several colors.

BEZANT, round flat pieces of bullion without any impression, supposed to have been the current coin of Byzantium. This coin was probably introduced into coat armour by those who went to the Holy Wars, as in the annexed figure. Ermine on a fess, gules, three bezants. The bezant was of pure gold, but whether it was the same as the Persian bizant, worth about two dinars, each dinar being equal to twenty or twenty-five drachms, is uncertain, as writers are not agreed respecting its value. It had, perhaps, as general a currency as any coin. It was current from the rise of the eastern empire to its fall, in all its provinces; and likewise in those countries which had been provinces of the western empire; and among others in Britain, where they were received in payınents. Dr. Henry (History of England, vol. iv. 275,) estimates its value at 9s. 4 d. of our present money. The gold of fered by the king of England on the altar at the feast of the Epiphany and the Purification, is called besant.

BEZANTLER, the branch of a deer's horns, next below the brow-antler.

BEZEK, 1. A city of Judah, about two miles from Beth-zur, and west of Bethlehem; the capital of Adoni-Bezek's kingdom. 2. A city south of Bethshan west of Jordan.

BEZEL, the stone is fixed. n. s. That part of a ring in which

BE'ZIL. BEZIERS, or BESIERS, an ancient and wellbuilt town of France, in Lower Languedoc, near a canal of that name. It was formerly a bishop's see, and gave birth to the learned Barbeyrac. The neighbourhood is fertile and the site highly salubrious. The valley of the Orbe is bounded by hills, which are covered with vines and olives to the summit of a natural amphitheatre.

The beauty of it, as seen from the town, is increased by the eight sluices of the grand canal, which form as many fine water-falls. There is a cathedral and collegiate church here, several religious houses, and two hospitals; a good trade in wine, oil brandy, almonds, corn, wool, and silk; and manufactures of cotton, fustian, and other stuffs, stockings, earthenware, brandy, and leather. An Academy of Sciences was founded in 1723, and has survived the revolution. stands thirty-eight miles south-west of Montpelier, in lat. 43° 20′ N., and long. 3° 17′ E.

It

BEZOAR. This name, which is derived from a Persian word, implying an antidote to poison, was given to a concretion found in the stomach of an animal of the goat kind. It was, of course, highly valued for this imaginary quality, and the name was thence extended to all concretions found in animals.

According to Fourcroy, Vauquelin, and Berthollet, these are of eight kinds. 1. Superphosphate of lime, which forms concretions in the intestines of many mammalia. 2. Phosphate of magnesia, semitransparent and yellowish, and of spec. grav. 2:160. 3. Phosphate of ammonia and magnesia. A concretion of a gray or brown color, composed of radiations from a centre. It is found in the intestines of herbivorous animals, the elephant, horse, &c. 4. Biliary, color reddish-brown, found frequently in the intestines and gall-bladder of oxen, and used by painters for an orange-yellow pigment. It is inspissated bile. 5. Resinous. The oriental bezoars, procured from unknown animals, belong to this class of concretions. They consist of concentric layers, are fusible, combustible, smooth, soft, and finely polished. They are composed of bile and resin. 6. Fungous, consisting of pieces of the boletus igniarius, swallowed by the animal. 7. Hairy. 8. Ligniform. Bezoars were formerly considered so highly alexipharmic, that other medicines of that kind received the name bezoardics, and so efficacious were they once thought, that they were eagerly bought at immense prices. They were sometimes taken internally, and in other cases worn around the neck, as preservatives: it is said that in Portugal it has been customary to hire them at the price of 10s. per day. This great value of the bezoar gave birth to many fabrications under the name, and various tests were proposed to detect artificial stones. Three bezoars sent to Buonaparte by the king of Persia, were found by Berthollet to be nothing but woody fibre agglomerated.

BEZOARDIC acid, a name given to the acid extracted from the urinary calculi formed in the kidneys or gall-bladder.

BEZOARDICA TERRA, a name used by some authors for a medical earth dug in the pope's territories, and more frequently called terra noceriana.

BEZOAR'DICK, adj. From bezoar. Medicines compounded with bezoar.

The bezoardicks are necessary to promote sweat, and drive forth the putrified particles. Floyer.

BEZOLA, in ichthyology, a truttaceous fish of the albula kind, called by Gesner the albula carula. It resembles the herring in shape, is of a

dusky bluish color, and does not essentially differ from the lavaretus.

B FA, B MI, in solmisation (music), according to the hexachord of Guido Aretinus, this expression denotes, that, when in modulation the interval B-natural is required, the syllable mi should be sung, and the key designated by B-mi, because the half tone falls between the B-natural, and C, and belongs to the hexachord of G, the fourth space bass clef: as,

F

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if, on the contrary, the modulation requires the interval B-flat, then the syllable fa should be sung, and the key designated by B-fa: as, G A B-flat C re mi fa sol la As the gamut of Aretin was composed only of şix notes, namely, ut re mi fa sol la, there was no leading note to the octave, and as they sung by the system of mutation, the name of mi was given to all notes separated only from the one above, by a semi-tone; and the name of fa to every note which was separated from the one below, by a semi-tone; thus the leading note to ut, called mi in solmisation, was designated by the name of B-mi, and the same note descending by one semi-tone, called fa in solmisation, was designated B-fa.

BHADRINATH, VADARINATHA, a town and temple in the province of Serinagur, Northern Hindostan, on the west bank of the Alacananda River, in the centre of a valley. It is built on the sloping bank of the river, and contains only twenty or thirty small houses, for the accommodation of the Brahmins and other attendants on the temple. This is in the form of a cone, with a small cupola, surmounted by a square shelving roof of copper, over which is a golden ball (gilt) and spire. The height of the building is forty or fifty feet, and the era of its foundation is very remote. A warm bath, supplied by a spring of hot water that issues from the mountain, is strongly tainted with a sulphureous smell, and close to it is a cold spring. There are also several other springs in the neighbourhood.

The idol, Bhadrinath (the lord of purity), is a human figure, about three feet high, cut in black stone or marble, dressed in a suit of gold and silver brocade, the head and hands being uncovered. His temple has more beneficed lands attached to it than any sacred Hindoo establishment in this part of India, and is said to possess 700 villages, in different parts of Gurwal or Kemaoon, all under the jurisdiction of the highpriest, who holds an authority nominally independent. The number of pilgrims who visit this place annually is estimated at 50,000, who come from the remotest quarters of India. They generally assemble at Hurdwar.

BHATGAN, or BHATGONG, a town in Northein Hindostan, situated in the valley of Nepaul, eight miles east by south of Catmandoo. Its ancient name was Dhurmaputten, and it is called by the Newars Khopodaise. This town is the favorite residence of the Brahmins of Nepaul, containing many more families of that order than

Catmandoo and Patan together, though in size it is the least considerable of the three; yet its palace and the buildings in general are of a more striking appearance, owing to the excellent quality of the bricks. The former sovereigns of this state possessed but a small share of the valley; but their dominions extended eastward to the banks of the Coosey. Bhatgong is the Benares of the Ghoorkhali dominions, and is said to contain many valuable ancient Sanscrit manuscripts.

BHATTIA, a town in the western extremity of the Gujrat Peninsula, situated a few miles to the east of Oaka. It contains about 500 houses, chiefly inhabited by Aheers, an industrious class of the peasantry, originally herdsmen, but who of late years have applied themselves to the cultivation of land. The country to the north of Bhattia exhibits an appearance of cultivation and prosperity superior in general to the rest of the peninsula. The grain chiefly raised is bajeree.

BHURTPORE, a strongly fortified town of Hindostan, in the province of Agra; the capital of the Jauts. It was erected by a Jaut chief, in the reign of Aurungzebe, who gained considerable power during the civil wars between that prince and his brothers. In the year 1768 his successors had extended their territory within a few miles of Delhi, westward, and their alliance was much courted. On the breaking out of the last Mahratta war, the Jaut rajah, Runjeet Sing, promised to assist the British, but afterwards formed an alliance with Scindea and Holkar, in consequence of which this territory was invaded by Lord Lake; the fortress of Deeg, and several places were taken, but Bhurtpore endured a memorable siege. The British are said to have lost in it more men than by any three pitched battles they ever fought in India. It submitted at last, worn out by our perseverance. At the moment when we write this, despatches from India announce that it has been again besieged by the British, under lord Combermere, and was taken by storm in January, 1826. This tribe is said to be remarkably brave and handsome; and less bigotted to their superstitions than many other of the Hindoos. It stands in long. 77° 28′ E., lat. 27° 13′ N.

BIA, in commerce, a name given by the Siamese to those small shells which are called cowries throughout almost all the other parts of the East Indies. See COWRIES.

BIABACERKIF, a town of Russia, in the government of Kiov.

BIACULEATUS, in ichthyology, a species of balistes, having two ventral spines. This is the piscis cornutus of Willoughby. It is of an elongated form, white, cinereous above, rough to the touch, being covered with very short bristly hairs. It is a native of the East Indies, and is a voracious kind, feeding probably on marine worms and crabs. The Dutch call it hoornvisch; and the French, baliste à deux piquans.

BIÆUM, Brasov, in rhetoric, a kind of counter argument, whereby something alleged for the adversary is retorted against him, and made to conclude a different way: for instance, Occidisti, quia adstitisti interfecto.-Bialov, Immo quia adstiti interfecto, non occidi; nam si id esset, in fugam me conjecissem. You killed the person,

because you were found standing by his body.' Biæum, Rather I did not kill him, because I was found standing by his body; since, if I had, I should have fled away.'

BIEUM, in medicine, a kind of saline or seawine, used by the ancient Greeks in various disorders. It was made of grapes gathered a little before ripe, and dried in the sun; then pressed, the juice put up in casks, and mixed with a large proportion of sea-water. Dioscorides seems to describe it as made of grapes steeped in seawater, and then pressed.

BIAFARA, or BIAFRA, a district of Lower Africa, south-east of Benin, with a capital of the same name, said to be situated about sixty miles up the river Camarones. This river, though broad, is extremely shallow, and the country has been very partially explored.

BIAFARAS, a people who inhabit part of the archipelago of the Bissagos. See BISSAGOS.

BIAFORA, in the customs of the middle age, a form of alarm to arms; on the hearing whereof, the inhabitants of towns or villages were to issue forth, and attend their prince. The word seems originally from Gascony; and the Italians even now, on a sudden insurrection of the people, commonly cry, Via-fora, changing the B into V. BIALÓGOROD, or AKERMAN, a strong town of Bessarabia, in European Turkey, seated on the lake Vidono, near the sea-side.

BIALYSTOCK, or BIALLISTOK, a town of European Russia, in the government of Grodno, and formerly included in the Polish palatinate of Podlachia. It was formerly the capital of this part of the country, and contains a noble castle with extensive gardens. The whole population is about 5000; the greater part of whom are Roman Catholics. Lat. 53° 2′ N., long. 22° 30′ E. BIANA, an ancient city of Hindostan, formerly the capital of Agra; but now belonging to the Jauts. The remains of an extensive fort are to be traced here, and the city contains a number of stone houses. The vicinity produces fine indigo; and there were formerly mines of copper worked here. At the close of the fourteenth century it was the residence of an independent Afghan chief, who assumed the title of king. Lord Lake took it the last Mahratta war. Long. 77° 16′ E., lat. 26° 56′ N.

BIANCHI (Francis), called Il Frari, a painter, born at Modena; master of one of the most esteemed painters that ever appeared, Antonio Corregio. His coloring was delicately fine; his attitudes full of grace; and his invention extremely grand. His works have an astonishing beauty, and are prized almost as highly as those of Corregio. He died in 1520.

BIANCHI (Antonio), a Venetian gondolier and porter of the last century, who raised himself from obscurity by his genius. His most admired work is, Il Davide Re d' Israele, published in folio in 1751. He also wrote a poem, entitled Il Templi ovvero il Salomone, 4to, 1753; a Treatise on Italian Comedy; and an Oratorio, called Elia sur Carmelo.-Biog. Univ.

BIANCHI (John), generally known by the name of James Plancus, was a native of Rimini, and born in 1693. He practised medicine with considerable reputation, and wrote-Lettere In

torno all Cataratta, 4to; Observazioni intorno una Sezione Anatomica, 4to; De Monstris, 4to; Storia Medica d'un Apostema nel lobo destro del Cerebello, 8vo; Discorso sopra il vitto Pitagorico, 8vo; a Treatise on the Baths of Pisa; another respecting a giant; a third on scarce shells; an account of a girl named Cattarina Vizani, &c.; Epistola Anatomica ad Jos. Puteum Bononiensem, 4to; Dissertazione de Vesicatori, 8vo; and Fabii Columnæ Phytobasanos. He was considered very skilful in his profession, and died in 1775..

BIANCHINI (Francis), one of the most learned men of his time, was born at Verona in 1662, of an ancient family. His taste for natural philosophy and mathematics induced him to establish the academy of Altofili, at Verona. He went to Rome in 1684; and was made librarian to cardinal Ottobini, afterwards pope Alexander VIII. He also became canon of St. Mary de la Rotonda, and at length of St. Lawrence in Damaso. He was esteemed by the learned; and was a member of many academies. He published, 1. Three Memoirs on the Comet of 1684. 2. Another on the Comet of 1702. 3. Relazione della linea meridiana orizzontale e della ellissi polare fabricata in Roma. 4. Epistola de Eclipsi Solis, 1724. 5. Hesperi et Phosphori nova Phenomena, sive Observationes circa Planetam Veneris, fol. 6. F. Bianchini Astronomica et Geographicæ Observationes, fol. 7. De Emblemate, nomine atque instituto Alethophilorum, 4to. 8. Istoria Universale Provata con Monumenti e Figurata con Simboli degli antichi, 4to. 9. De Ka lendario et cyclo Cæsaris ac de Paschali canone S. Hippolyti, fol. 10. Camera et Inscrizioni Sepolcrali, fol. 11. Del palazzo de' Cæsari. 12. An edition of Anastasius Bibliothecarius' history of the Popes, fol. 13. Opuscula Varia, 2 vols. 4to. He died in 1729, aged sixty-seven. BIAN'GULATED, adj. From Lat. binus BIAN GULOUS. 3 and angulus. Having two corners or angles.

BIANOR, in entomology, a species of papilio, a native of the East Indies. The wings are black, with five rufous lunules on the posterior pair. It is doubtful whether this is a distinct species from P. Paris; perhaps only a sexual difference.

BIARCHUS, an officer in the court of the emperors of Constantinople, who was intrusted with the care and inspection of the provisions of the soldiers.

BIARUM, in botany, a name by which the people of Egypt at this time call the root of nilufar, or saba Ægyptica, growing on the Nile. BI'AS, v. n. s. adj. & adv. Į Biais, Fr. said BIAS DRAWING, Sto come from bihay, an old Gaulish word, signifying cross or thwart. It is used metaphorically for to turn away from a right, fair, impartial judgment; to prejudice; any thing which turns a man to a particular course, or gives the direction to his measures; propension; inclination; any thing which turns, or is turned, aside.

Every action that hath gone before,
Whereof we have record, trial did draw
Bias and thwart, not answering the aim.

Shakspeare. Troilus and Cressida.

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But nature to her bias drew in that. As for the religion of our poet, he seems to have some little bias towards the opinions of Wickliff.

Dryden. Were I in no more danger to be misled by ignor

ance, than I am to be biassed by interest, I might give a very perfect account. Locke.

A desire leaning to either side biasses the judgment strangely; by indifference for every thing but truth, you will be excited to examine. Watts.

Thus nature gives us, let it check our pride,
The virtue nearest to our vice allied;
Reason the bias turns to good or ill.

Pope

BIAS, a celebrated philosopher, and one of the seven sages of Greece, flourished about A. A. C. 606. He was accustomed to say, 'It is a sickness of mind to wish for impossible things. During the siege of Priene, his native city, being asked why he was the only one who returned from the place without carrying any thing with him, he replied, That he carried his all with him; meaning, that his knowledge and virtue were the only blessings that were peculiarly his own, since they could not be taken from him. He expired while pleading for one of his friends.

BIAS, in entomology, a species of papilio that inhabits Cayenne. The wings are black, glossed with blue; brown beneath, with a white margin.

BIATHANATI, Bialavarois, from Bia, violence, and Javarog, death, the same with suicides. BIATHANATOS, the title of a work of Dr. Donne's, published at London in 1664, 4to. wherein he undertook to prove this paradoxical position, That suicide is not so naturally sin as that it may never be otherwise.' BIB,n.s. & v. BIB'BER, BIBBING,

From the Lat. bibere, to drink. A bib,' according to Skinner, is a cloth stretched over the BIB'ULOUS. breast of an infant, that it may imbibe the overflowing liquid' from its mouth; to bib is to tipple; to sip, to drink frequently; to be a sot; a wine-bibber is a person given to wine, who drinks it to excess.

Chaucer.

This miller hath so wisely bibbed ale, That as a hors he snorteth in his slepe. We'll have a bib for sporting of thy doublet; And a fringed mackender hang at thy girdle; I'll be thy nurse, and get a coral for thee, And a fine ring of bells. Beaumont and Fletcher. He playeth with bibbing mother Meroë, as though so named because she would drink mere wine without Camden. To appease a froward child, they gave him drink as often as he cried; so that he was constantly bibbing, and drank more in twenty-four hours than I did.

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Malvolio, Malvolio, thy wits the heavens restore endeavour thyself to sleep, and leave thy vain bibble. babble. Shakspeare.

BIBERACH, a city of Wirtemberg, the head of an upper bailiwic, in the district of the Danube. It was formerly free and imperial, subject to its own magistrates. It is seated in a pleasant fertile valley on the river Reuss, and has a large manufaclinen, woollen, and cotton goods, and leather; and

ture of fustians. Here are also manufactures of

a considerable trade in salt. It has also some hot tained in its neighbourhood, by the French rebaths. In September, 1796, a victory was obpublican army, over the Austrian general Latour, and in 1802 this city and territory were ceded to Baden, who transferred them in 1806 to the king of Wirtemberg. Population about 4500, of whom two-thirds are Lutherans, and the rest Catholics. It lies eighteen miles S. S. E. of Ulm. Long. 10°. 2′ E., lat. 48° 10′ N.

BIBERACH, is also the name of a neat market town, castle, and lordship, of the Bavarian dominions, in the circle of the Upper Danube and district of Wertingen. It is situated on the river Schmutter, and belonged formerly to the counts of Fugger. It contains about 1200 inhabitants, and is much resorted to by Catholics

on account of a miraculous crucifix said to be

found in one of the churches. Nine miles from Augsburg.

BIBIENA, a territory of Tuscany, situated around a town of the same name, on the banks of the Arno.

BIBIENA (Ferdinand Gall), an excellent painter and architect, born at Bologna in 1657, and surnamed Bibiena from the territory in which his father was born. He acquired such reputation by his skill in architecture, the decorations Parma invited him to his court, and made him of the theatre, and perspective, that the duke of his first painter and architect. Bibiena at length went to Vienna, where he had the same honors

and advantages. He wrote two books of architecture; and died at Bologna, at above eighty the same professions. years of age. His sons followed with success

born of obscure parentage, in 1470. Having BIBIENA (Bernardo da), a Roman cardinal, entered into the service of the family of Medici, and being a man of considerable address, he was very instrumental in securing the election of Leo X. by whom he was made a cardinal, and employed on several missions of importance. His ambition, however, having excited the jealousy of Leo, it was suspected he was poisoned in 1520; but there seems to be no good grounds for this suspicion. Bibiena's comedy, entitled Calandra, is still in esteem among the Italians.

BIBIO, the wine-fly, in entomology, a species of the musca genus, a very small fly, found frequently among empty wine-casks. It is produced from a small, oblong, red worm, very common in the sediments of wine. Fabricius defines the generical character of bibio from the sucker, feelers, and antennæ. The sucker consists of three bristles and a sheath of a single valve; feelers very short; antennæ connected at the base, and pointed at the tip.

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BI'BLE,

BIBLE.

Literally, a book, proBIBLE-BEARING,bably from Bußλoc, or BBBIBLICAL, Aog, an Egyptian plant, of BIB'LICIST. which the ancient papyrus, or material for writing upon, was made. Rolls of these, written upon, were called books, Bibles. It is now pre-eminently, if not exclusively, applied to the Jewish and Christian Scriptures the volume of Divine Revelation. Biblical is applied to any thing that relates to the Bible: thus a critic, who employs his studies in elucidating or explaining the Scriptures, is called a biblical critic. Bible-bearing is a very significant word to denote a hypocrite thus employing himself to be seen of men.'

A saint-seeming and bible-bearing hypocritical puMontagu's Appeal.

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Her studie was but litel on the Bible.

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In questions of natural religion we should confirm and improve, or connect our reasonings by the divine assistance of the bible. Watts.

To make a biblical version faithful and exact, so that it may represent the true text of the original in the best manner, is very different from giving it a shewy and modernised appearance. Archbishop Newcome. Augustine and Jerome corresponded upon biblical subjects infinitely less important. Porson to Travis. Biblicist was an appellation given to the schoolmen of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, who

made the Scriptures the chief subject of their studies, and the text of their lectures, without deriving any succours from reason or philosophy.'

BIBLE, Greek Bißλog, the book; a name applied by way of eminence to the collection of sacred writings, or the Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments; known also by various other appellations, as, the Sacred Books, Holy Writ, Inspired Writings, &c. The Jews styled the Old Testament p (Mikrah), which signifies the lesson or lecture. Christians must of course regard the entire collection of canonical books, belonging to both of the Divine Covenants, as furnishing the basis of all true religion; so that,' as the church of England well expresses it, whatsoever is not read therein, nor may be proved thereby, is not to be required of any man, that it should be believed as an article of faith, or be thought requisite or necessary to salvation.' It is therefore a vulgar, though very common, error to apply the term Bible to the Old Testament exclusively. A writer of the New Testament (St. Peter) leads the way (2 Epist. iii. 16) in ranking its books with ras Novas ypapag, 'the other Scriptures'; and

as early as St Chrysostom's days it seems to have been used thus to designate the whole Inspired Volume. I therefore exhort all of you,' says that eminent father (Col. H. 9, tom. xi. p. 391,) to procure to yourselves Bibles (34ẞria). If you have nothing else, take care to have the New Testament, particularly the Acts of the Apostles and the Gospels, for your constant instructors." And Jerome says (In Is. c. 29, tom. ii. p. 246,) that the Scriptures, being all written by one Spirit, are one book.'

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The Canon of Scripture, or Biblical Canon, is the accredited list of those books which Jews and Christians with regard to the Old Testament, and Christians almost unanimously with regard to the New, agree to hold as authentic and inspired: they are also called canonical in contradistinction from others called deutero-canonical, apocryphal, pseudo-apocryphal, &c. which either are not acknowledged as divine books, or rejected as heretical or spurious. See APOCRYPHAL.

The critical history of the Bible divides itself into 1. The history of the formation and arrange ment of the Jewish canon; 2. The formation of the Christian canon. 3. The history of ancient and modern versions of the Scriptures as a whole, or in part, in various languages.

SECT. 1. OF THE CANON OF THE HEBREW SCRIPTURES.

In endeavouring to arrive at a settled canon of the ancient or Hebrew Scriptures, we have the great advantage of corroborating our researches as Christians by the labors and decisions of eminent Jewish critics; so that whatever may be objected against the authority of the present canon of the Old Testament, either in behalf of any books which are not in it or against any that are, may be sufficiently answered, in most cases, by this single consideration, viz. that we receive the same and no other books than such as were received by the Jewish church in the time of our Saviour; for we can quote lists of them procured by the first Christians, and catalogues which they made of them soon after the destruction of Jerusalem.

It is clear that the Pentateuch, or five books of Moses, were collected shortly after the death of that legislator, for they were deposited together (Deut. xxxi. 24. 26) in the tabernacle, 'in the side of,' or near the ark. Here also were accumulated, according to the invariable tradition of the Jews, the other sacred books as they were produced; and Solomon transferred the whole extant in his time, from the tabernacle to the temple. To Ezra is assigned the honor of having collected together, and perfected, a complete copy of the ancient Scriptures. After having been concealed in the dangerous days of the idolatrous kings of Judah, and particularly in the reigns of Manasseh and Amon, it was found in the days of Josiah, the succeeding prince, by Hilkiah the priest, in the temple. Prideaux supposes, that during the preceding reigns, the book of the Law was so de

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