idolatrous Gentiles. As many of them as believed were afforted and arranged, perhaps in one Chriftian fociety, perhaps in feveral, the word of the Lord was published through all the region, and the new difciples were filled with joy, and with the Holy Ghoft (1). The Jews imitated their brethren in Judea, and having found means to engage fome honourable female devotees, and the chief men of the city on their fide, they raised a perfecution, and expelled Paul and Barnabas out of their coafts. Both Jews and devout Greeks their profelytes joined in this perse

cution.

ARABIA. Hither Paul fled from Damafcus, and here he refided three years. Luke wholly omits this part of the travels of the apoftle, and it cannot be determined, whether he went into only one of the Arabias (for there were three) or into all, or what fuccefs attended his labours (1).

ATHENS. The famous city and univerfity of Athens are fo well known, they need no defcription (1). Athens was called the Eye of Greece, for which two reafons may be affigned. In the primitive eaftern language Aith, Ain fignified an eye or a fountain facred to the fun (2). The word Ain, which primarily fignified the eye being by resemblance a name given to a mountain-fpring, was again given to a book which resembled a fountain-head, by diffufing ideas as rills difperfe the waters of a spring. The Arabick grammar of Khalil al Azdi is entitled Ain, the fountain. Demiri published an hiftory of animals, entitled Haiat al Haivan, the Lives of Animals. Damamini abridged it, and entitled his abridgement Ain al Haiat, a Compendium of the Hiftory of Animals; an allufion to a well-head (3). Perfian and Arabian treatises of logick, medicine, and other fubjects bear the fame title, Ain, which, it fhould feem would be more properly rendered fountain than, as it commonly is, eye (4). Athens was an eye of this kind, a fountain of fcience, from which in torrents

(1) Acts xiii...ver. 48. vox Tarla eft verbum militare, et de afcriptione militum in ordinem, five claffem ufurpatur; atque ita verba reddi poffunt. Vid. GROTIUM..HAMMONDUM.. Jos. MEDUM, &c. in loc.

(1) ACTS ix. 23-25...GAL. i. 17, 18.

ZORNII Differtat. Tom. ii. p. 420. De S. Paulo Petrum Hierofolymis invifente ad illuftrat. Epift. ad Gal. i. 18.

CAPPELLI Hift. Apoft.

VITRINGA Chronol. facr.

WITSII de vita et rebus geftis Pauli Apoft. Prælection. S. iii.

(1) ACTS xvii.....POTTER'S Antiquities of Greece. Vol. is

(2) BRYANT'S Mythology. Vol. i. Radicals. AIT..Ain.

(3) D'HERBELOT. Bib: Orient. in verb. AIN..HAIAT..DEMIRI, &c.

(4) ABUL-PHARAJII. Hift. Dynaft. Edit. EDVARDI POCOCKII. Dyn. x. p. 358. Eviris tempore fuo egregiis fuit Nojmo-ddin Kazwinenfis [Nagmeddin Ali Kaschi al Cazuini. Herbelot] logicus infignis, author libri Al Ain [i oculi] dicti.

through

through the inventive genius of the people, the elegance of their arts, and the witchcraft of their language, proceeded all over the later eastern and the whole western world that flood of eloquent falfehood called Pagan mythology, which overwhelmed reafon and common fense, and which by attenuating every particle of ancient eastern history almost irrecoverably configned it to oblivion. This, the most elegant city, and the moft learned univerfity in the world when Paul went thither, was more than any other given to idolatry (5).

The Jews, zealous retainers of the doctrine of the unity of God, had a fynagogue here, and, as in moft other places, they had Gentile profelytes. In the fynagogue with the Jews and profelytes Paul difputed, and in the publick places of refort with any that fell in company with him. He converfed with the philofophers on Jefus and the refurrection. They did not comprehend what he meant, and, affixing their own ideas to his terms, imagined he fpoke of two foreign deities: the one called Jefus, the other Refurrection. Fond of new difcoveries, they invited him to Areopagus. This was a large femicircle on the fide of a hill fouth of the temple of Thefeus, and not far diftant from the citadel.

It was called Mars-hill: becaufe, fay fome, as in this open spot the Athenians held courts, fo this is faid to be the firft court in Greece that called the fhedders of human blood to account, and took cognizance of what have been fince called capital offences (1). It fhould feem the eastern sounds Ara, Arrah, Hah-rah, are the language of nature, the natural cries of naked timorous men apprehenfive of danger from loud founds or formidable appearances. It is not aftonifhing, therefore, that lions, cataracts, huge mountain timbers fometimes torn up by the wind and tumbled into vallies, tumultuous affemblies of people, the buz of a city, the fhouting of an army, battle and victory, fize, fear, wind, thunder, dominion, and many more, to all which more than ordinary ideas. of ftrength and noife were affixed, fhould obtain in time by various inflections their names from these primitive elements (2). The firft men formed ideas of comparison, and reafoned, no doubt, to a fupreme power. That they called Al, Yah, Al-lah, and affixed the term to the chief of any thing in its kind. The lion, the chief of quadrupeds, was Ar-yel.

(5) DR. RICHARD POCOCKE's Defcription of the Eaft. Vol. ii. Book ii. Chap. x. Of Athens. (1) POTTER as above. Chap. xix. Of the Senate and court of Areopagus.

(2) Prævalidus. Leo. ISAI. xxxiii. 7...2 SAM. xxiii. 20.

8. Cataracta. Gen. vii. 11.

DINININ. Carpfit. Pfal. Ixxx. 13...........Leo. Leones. Dan. ix. 4. vi. 8.....Cedri. PSAL. xxix. 5...Orniis. ISA1. xliv. 14.

p. Clamavit. proclamavit.... occurrit.... prælium, bellum, &c.

ARAB. Caharra: vincere....cahr: victoria....Al-cahira: victrix. Unde nomen urbi Cairo.

Thunder was the chief found, it was the voice of God: a river in a land of rills was a river of God (3). The Greeks, the wifeft of whom even the Egyptian priefts reproached for their ignorance and puerility, perfonified the founds and the fymbols of the Eaft, invented fables, and created a world of deities, and out of the eastern Ara, Char, Charrah, Cahr, Cahar, Caharah, Al-Caharrah the chief power in a contest or a battle, came Ares, or Mars the god of war (4). Whence, except from fuch a natural caufe, could it come to pass that the Arra of the East, the Ares of the Greeks, the M-Ars, and Ma-vors of Etrufcans and Romans, the Guer-ra, and war of the northern nations, the Ares of the favages of Canada fhould coincide in found and fenfe? Father Charlevoix was fo aftonished to find that the Hurons and the Iroquois called the great spirit Ares-koui, or Agrefkou: that Aregouen fignified to make war, and was declined Garego I make war, Sarego thou makeft war, Arego he makes war, that he seemed to himself as if he were arrived at the Mars and the mythology of Homer (5). Let not a ferious Chriftian be shocked at finding fuch a multitude of Gods at a place fo learned as Athens. The common fense of mankind never had more than one fupreme: the first race of men did not know by what name to call him: they thought him chief, and affixed this name to him, and to every chief thing, as a display of his invifible excellence: they meant one fupreme, whofe power appeared chiefly in this creature, or this event, his goodness in that, his wifdom in the other: and fo on. Athens was the place to look for deception and deities, for personification was a fine figure of rhetorick, and the philofophers were fo immersed in it, that no fooner had Paul mentioned a rifing again from the dead but they turned his narration into oratory, and called refurrection a foreign god.

The judges of the court, called Areopagites, were in general filent and grave, wife and just to a proverb: for the wifer Greeks only kept up idolatry to amufe and employ the populace; themselves ftudied truth and practifed virtue. Their fcience was twilight, their virtuous pursuits were puerile in comparison: however, they did purfue what their gods had not exemplified. The cognizance of all affairs relative to the gods belonged to the court, and their treatment of Paul does them honour as civil magiftrates. Some approved, others difapproved, fome halted in opinion: but

(3) ISAI. xxix. 1...PSAL. xxix. 3... ..lxv. 9.

(4) BRYANT'S Mythol. Vol. i. p. 305. Gods of Greece. Ω Σόλων, Σολων, Έλληνες εσε παιδες αει, γερων δε Ελλην ουκ 8569 νεοι τε ψυχας απαλες" Ουδεμίαν γαρ εν εαυτοις εχετε παλαιαν δόξαν, ουδε μάθημα χρόνω πολιον ουδέν.

(5) CHARLEVOIX's Voyage to Canada, and Travels through Canada and Louifiana to theGulf of Mexico, by order of LEWIS xv. London. 1763. Letter 12. pag. 131., The God of war.. the war cry...the war fong, &c.

none

none perfecuted, and he was difmiffed without cenfure. The difcourfe which he addreffed to the Athenians, is very properly understood by Chryfoftom as an expofition of what he wrote to the Corinthians: unto the Jews, I became as a Jew, that I might gain the Jews; to them that are without law, as without law, that I might gain them that are without law. If this were underfood of his conduct, it would neither comport with his hiftory, nor his integrity: but if it be defcriptive of his manner of ftating and recommending his doctrine it illuftrates both. When he addreffed Jews, he reafoned from their prophecies: when he spoke to Pagans he faid nothing of Jewish prophets, but he quoted their own poets, whom they called prophets (1). This was wife, and fhewed how well he was qualified both as a fcholar, and a man of found understanding, to discharge the office of apoftle of the Gentiles.

In the end, certain men, Dionyfius, one of the Areopagites, Damaris, probably a lady of diftinction, and others with them believed, and adhered to the apostle, and of course formed a Christian society.

BABYLON. There is in fcripture a figurative Babylon, which, however,. is fo defcribed as the city that reigned in the time of the writer over the kings of the earth, that it cannot be mistaken. This was Rome. It doth not appear that Peter, who alone mentions the church at Babylon, ever was at Rome. The whole evidence of his being at Rome refts on. the teftimony of Papias, whofe tales even Eufebius had hardly credulity enough to transcribe (1). There was alfo a Babylon in Egypt, the ruins of which are yet feen near Grand Cairo (2). The Babylon, where Peter wrote his epiftle, was, it should feem, the ancient city of this name, fo often mentioned in the Old Teftament, and not quite defolated in the time of Peter. This is the opinion of Dr. Benson, and of most good commentators (3).

There is great reafon to conjecture, either that the copyifts of the eleventh of Genefis have mistaken one letter of the original, or that the vague meaning of one word hath escaped the notice of many readers: and fo that the city of Babylon is confounded with the tower of Babel. It is generally understood that Babel fignified confufion, and that Mofes affigned this name to the tower, because there God confounded the language of the builders. These are the words:

(1) 1 COR. ix. 20, 21..

CHRYSOST. homil. iii. in Ep. ad Tit. i. 12. Πόθεν εχρην αύτοις διαλεχθηναι; Απο προφήτων

Αλλ ουκ αν επιςευσαν.

(1) REV. xvii. 5. 18..

(2) R. PocockE's Defcription of the Eaft. Vol. i. Chap. iv. Grand Cairo. Old Cairo. Babylon, (3) DR. BENSON's Notes on the Seven Catholick Epiftles. London. 1756. 1 Pet. Section iii. DR. GILL. 1 Pet. v. 13.....LE CLERC..ERASMUS..MEDE..VORSTIUS, &C.

Either Balbel is put for Babel, or Babel is put for Balbel: and the latter is moft likely. By altering in the word Babel the fecond Beth into a Lamed, the paffage would read thus: the name of it was called Ballel, because there the Lord did ballel, that is, confound the lip of all the earth: or thus, the name of it was called confufion, because there did the Lord confound the lip of all the earth.

There are feveral reafons to believe that Babylon was a place different from the tower. Mofes had faid that Nimrod built Babel in the land of Shinar, and made it the head or the beginning of his kingdom, probably the capital of his new empire: he fays, the people journied eastward, and after the confufion of tongues, left off to build the city, and were feattered abroad upon the face of all the earth: but it doth not appear that Nimrod left off to build Babylon, or that his affociates were scattered abroad upon the face of all the earth, on the contrary, he made it the feat of empire, and founded a monarchy of amazing extent and duration. Mofes fays, the tower was called Confufion: but if Babel fignified confufion, it is not likely that the inhabitants would have boafted of the name, or that the prophets would have ftyled it the Golden City, the Lady of Kingdoms, the Praife of the whole Earth, the Glory of Kingdoms, the Beauty of the Chaldees Excellency (1). Perhaps the laft of thefe titles may lead to the true name of Babylon, and the name of the city to the true name and hiftory of the tower.

The word Babel feems a contraction of Babbath-al, the apple of God's eye. Bab all over the Eaft literally means the court of a prince (2). It was perfectly confiftent with the genius of the people to affimilate fuch a court to the pupil of a beautiful eye, and the affixing of the name of God to it fignified no more than that they accounted it the most excellent of its kind: it was a divine pupil, the beauty of the excellency of the Chaldees. In the fame ftrain, it is faid, Mofes was fair to God; divinely fair: Niniveh was a city, great to God; divinely great. In thefe

(1) GEN. x. xi.

DAN. iv. 30. Nebuchadnezzar faid: Is not this great Babylon that I have built [repaired and beautified] for the honour of my majesty?....ISAI. xiv. 4.....xlvii. 5.....JER. li. 13..41. ISA1. xiii. 19.

(2) D'HERBELOT Bib. Orient. in verb. BAB.