two paffages, the tranflators have dropped the eastern idiom, and given the fober fenfe by rendering exceeding fair, exceeding great (3). In two others they have retained the figure: God kept Jacob as the apple of his eye; He that toucheth Zion toucheth the apple of the Lord's eye. This laft paffage is addreffed to Jews refident at Babylon, to perfuade them to return to Jerufalem, against which they might urge the defenceless state of Jerufalem, then lying in ruins, and the defolate condition of it contrafted with the ftrength of Babylon owing to its walls, and the beauty of it owing to its gardens and waters. The prophet tells them, the Lord would be a wall of fire round about Jerufalem, the glory in the midst of it, and Zion fhould be the apple of his eye: manifest allufions to the name and the condition of Babylon. On fuch principles David prayed: keep me as the apple of the eye. Some fay, Babylon is a diminutive of Babel, as much as to fay, little Babel: but as Babba is with the Chaldeans and the Talmudifts literally the apple of the eye, fo Bab-al-ain is agreeable to the conftruction of the language (5).

What then, or where is the tower? Nimrod built other cities befide Babylon; one of them is called Calneh (6). The feptuagint version feems to place the tower here, for it makes the king of Affyria fay, Have not I taken Calno, where the tower was built (7)? Bafil, Cyril, Nazianzen, and the Greeks, who followed this verfion, expounded this paffage of the tower mentioned by Mofes. The eastern Rabbies placed the tower at Borfippa, Borfiph, or Bolfiph, for, fay they, there the Lord Balal-fephath confounded the fpeech of the whole earth (8). Some fuppofe Mofes did not mean any particular tower, but that he fpoke in general of a turreted city, a city with turrets on its walls. Such a city compared with the caverns, in which the first men certainly lodged, might well appear a tower with a heavenly top, like the habitations of the Anakims, these being furmounted with natural rocks, peaks, and that with artificial elevations (9). If Nimrod garrifoned his towers with men of various organs, and various tones, captivated in various parts by his tyranny, he might well find an exceeding confusion of speech, and the scheme of dominion by abfolute force impracticable, and he might readily let the fons of the earth go and scatter themselves over the face of the globe, their tones of fpeaking degenerating as they went, and the partition producing a variety of

(3) ACTS vii. 20. ASOS TW JEW.....JONAH iii. 3. Heb. Sept.

(4) DEUT. xxxii. 10...ZECH.. 4-8... PSAL. xvii. 8.

(5) BUXTORF. in verb. 2 pupilla. N♫a, Naa pupilla, Chaldæis et Talmudicis ufitatiffimum.

(6) GEN. X. 10.

(7) ISAI. x. 9. Ou supros wredoundin. Chalanen, ubi turris ædificata eft ?

(8) BOCHARTI Phaleg. Lib. i. Cap. ix. (9) GEN. xi. 4...DEUT. i. 28.

Non cepi regionem, quæ eft fupra Babylonem, et

Turris Babel ubi fuerit.

languages.

languages. Various languages may be accounted for without a miracle, and it is far from clear that Mofes intended to reprefent one. However it were, by a most beautiful figure, he defcribed his notion of towers intended for the keeping of mankind in flavery: he called the tower which fignifies Ballel, literally a confufion, and figuratively a confusion of fight, owing to what is called a blood-fhot or a blemish in the eye (1). The fenfe, then, amounts to this. Nimrod built and peopled a city with willing companions, which was beautiful as the apple of an exceeding fine eye but when he proceeded to fubdue free tribes into flavery, to aim at univerfal empire, and for that purpose erected near the city a tower to keep his captives in awe, Almighty God in love to the freedom and virtue of mankind had fo formed their organs of fpeech as to vary their tones, which produced a confufion happy in its iffue: the captives escaped, and lovers of freedom agreed to call Babylon a blood-fhotten It would be eafy to fhew the credibility of all this by obferving that paffion for freedom, and that impatience of being pent up in a city, which all aboriginal natives of every country have exemplified, and which at this day is fo well known all over America. All fuch men, in all ages, have confidered houfes as incompatible with liberty, and walled cities as prifons difgraceful to the dignity of man. If government originated in force, if Nimrod were the firft who practised this force, if he caught by fraud, or conquered by ftrength, unarmed men, if he put them into his city as into a cage, if he and his affociates invented garrifons to prevent efcape, his tower of confufion was the firft baronial castle built by the furious to keep the fearful in awe, and all fuch buildings like Ballel confufe fociety, and are a blemish, giving, an air of deformity to the most beautiful situations in the world: for what is paradife without freedom.

The dream of Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, and the interpretation of it by Daniel, fuggefted the idea of four great monarchies, of which the Affyrian (for fo the Chaldean is often and not improperly called) was the firft. The other three were the Perfian, the Grecian, and the Roman. There have been other monarchies as great or greater than fome of these, as those of the Tartars, the Saracens, and the Turks: but the first four chiefly regard the hiftory of the Jews to whom the Babylonians bore an inveterate hatred, for which no tolerable reafon can be affigned, except the national averfion of the Jews to a foreign yoke. The Babylonians were the perpetual perfecutors of Jews, and their total deftruction is moft clearly foretold in the prophecies. A late celebrated prelate hath placed the fubject in a juft and ftriking light, and his conclufion in praife of the fourteenth of Ifaiah, which is a

(1) LEV. xxi. 20.

triumphant

triumphant ode upon the fall of Babylon, is the language of the heart of a genuine Briton. His lordfhip fays: It muft afford all readers of an exalted tafle and generous fentiments, all the friends and lovers of liberty, a very fenfible pleasure to hear the prophets exult over fuch tyrants and oppreffors as the kings of Affyria. The ode of Ifaiah reprefents the infernal manfions as moved, and the ghofts of deceafed tyrants as rifing to meet the king of Babylon, and congratulate his coming among them. It is really admirable for the feveral ftrokes of irony, as well as for the fublimeft ftrains of poetry. The Greek poet Alcæus, who is celebrated for his hatred to tyrants, and whofe odes were animated with the spirit of liberty no less than with the fpirit of poetry, we may prefume to fay, never wrote any thing comparable to it.....But not only in this particular, but in the general the fcriptures, though often perverted to the purposes of tyranny, are yet in their own nature calculated to promote the civil as well as the religious liberties of mankind. True religion and virtue, and liberty are more nearly related, and more intimately connected with cach other, than people commonly confider. It is very true, as St. Paul faith, that where the fpirit of the Lord is, there is liberty or as our Saviour himfelf expreffeth it, "If ye continue in my word, then are ye my dif ciples indeed; and ye fhall know the truth, and the truth fhall make you free (1)."

To this devoted fpot, the throne of ancient defpotifm, not now the lady of kingdoms, but a deferted fen, nearly depopulated, lying in ruins, and hafting into eternal oblivion: once above fixty miles in circumference, and containing three or four hundred thousand inhabitants, now. the refidence comparatively of only a few, to this fpot did the apostle of the circumcifion direct his fteps (2). It was the feat of the Jews of the difperfion, the defcendants of those who would not return to Judea at the end of the feventy years captivity. Dr. Lardner, and from him Dr. Benfon, hath produced a good collection of authorities to prove, that there was an infinite multitude of Jews of the ten tribes beyond Euphrates, difperfed all over the Eaft (3). What a field was Babylon for Peter to difplay his powers of demonftration! To a people, who believed the prophecies, and who ftood and beheld with their eyes the accomplishment of them, how forcible the argument from prophecy! Among the ruins of a worldly empire, which had bid faireft of any other to defy, time and chance, how wife muft he appear, who had formed a plan of a kingdom not of this world! It is not aftonishing, then, that Peter fhould

(1) BP. NEWTON on the Prophecies. Vol. i. BABYLON,

(2) GAL. . 7, 8.

(3) DR. LARDNER's Credibility of the Gospel-Hiftory. Part. i.

DR. BENSON'S Notes on the feven Catholick Epijtles. Hift. of St. James. Se&t. iii. ́

congregate a church at Babylon. The wonder is (yet who that knows the Jews can wonder?) that fuch a man, in his old age, fhould fuffer a violent death: but Jefus had foretold it, and although no more is heard of him after his fecond epiftle, yet it is credible the prophecy of Jefus was fulfilled. When thou shalt be old, thou shalt ftretch forth thy hands, and another fall gird thee, and carry thee whither thou wouldst not. This jpake be, fignifying by what death he should glorify God (4).

BEREA. A city of Macedonia. Short as the account of primitive churches is, cach exhibits fome ufeful information. The brief history of the church at Berea ftates in a very clear light the ground of action in religion, and the nature of faith in the first churches, and frees the character of the primitive Chriftians from all fufpicion of credulity.

Paul and Silas fled in the night from the fury of the Jews of Theffalonica to this city. Silas, Silvanus, and, fome fuppofe Tertius, were three names of the one man. They obferve, that Shelafh, or Silas in Hebrew, fignifieth the fame as Tertius in Latin: and they add, that perhaps he might write a good hand, and fo be amanuenfis to the apostles, to write a fair copy of their letters, to be fent to the churches (1). He was a freeman of Rome as well as the apostle Paul, and it fhould feem, the companion of Paul in his labours and travels (2). Into the fynagogue, as ufual, they went, and the noble Bereans, as they are called, received the word with all readiness of mind: that is, they fearched the fcriptures daily whether the pofitions of Paul and Silas were true, and therefore many of them believed. Befide the Jews, many honourable women, who were Greeks, and men not a few, believed. Thefe Bereans proceeded rationally, they neither perfecuted Paul and Silas, nor credited them, but fairly examined the matter, and believed because they were convinced the gofpel was true. The Theffalonian Jews followed Paul to this place, and perfecuted him fo that the church thought it prudent for him to withdraw. He did fo: and Silas and Timothy were left there.

BITHYNIA. This province of Afia is remarkable in the early part of ecclefiaftical hiftory, on account of three genuine hiftorical anecdotes.

Firft: Paul with Timothy would have gone thither in the earlier part of his miniftry but the Spirit fuffered them not. Many ancient versions, as Beza's, the Alexandrian, the Syriac, Ethiopick, and others, read: the

(4) JOHN. xxi. 18, 19.

(1) ACTS xvi. 10... DR. BENSON on the Cathol. Epift. Hift. of Peter.

(2) ACTS xvi. 20...37, 38.....ACTS xv. 22. 27. 34. 40.....xvi. 19...xvii. 4.. .xviii. 5. ....1 Cor. 1. 19.............1 THESS. i. 1. 2.....1 PET. v. 12, &c.

Spirit of Jefus. The paffage ferves to fhew, that the apoftles profeffed to regulate their journies, and to plant churches, either under immediate divine infpiration, or for wife and juft reasons of their own, confiftent with the fpirit and defign of Jefus Chrift (1).

The fecond is: That Peter wrote his epiftles to the Bithynian Chriftians among others of adjacent provinces. It doth not appear, that Peter, James, or John ever addreffed idolatrous Pagans, as Paul did, and it is clear, that judaizing teachers, thofe pefts of the first churches, took advantage of this, and endeavoured to play off Peter and James against Paul. This will be obferved more at large under the article Galatia, Peter and James approved of the conduct of Paul, and the two epiftles of Peter were written by him not to Jews, but to Greeks, who had been idolaters before their converfion. These are called ftrangers of the difperfion, although they were natives. The reafon feems to be this. Jews lived difperfed in all the provinces of Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, the proconfular Afia, and Bithynia. Many native Greeks became profelytes to the Jewish religion, and were confidered in the fynagogues as Strangers within the gates of the Jews. To thefe, after they had become Chriftians, Peter wrote in proof of his approbation, and fent the first epiftle by Silas, the fellow-labourer of Paul, and in the fecond he gave a title to Paul expreffive of his esteem for him and a character of his writings. Peter, in both his epiftles, and particularly in the firft, ftates, explains, and illuftrates the grand point, the equality of the Gentiles to the Jews, and the iniquity of prefuming to exercise lordship over them. Peter wrote the first epiftle at Babylon in the year of Chrift 67, and of Nero 13. And the fecond in the year of Christ 68, and of Nero 14, probably at Babylon, and certainly in his old age, a little before his death.

The third is that in this province an event happened, about forty years after the death of Paul, which produced one of the most authentick, and ufeful monuments of antiquity, that is, the account which Pliny the Roman governour gave the Emperour Trajan of the Christians of the province. This monument hath had the advantage of an accurate and critical investigation by a late learned profeffor of law, one of the first of men, Profeffor Boehmer, who hath proved that the primitive difcipline was not government but Chriftian order: that it was a brotherly confederacy against vice: that indeed the people were believers in Jefus, but that virtue and not any mode of faith was the bond of union: and that there was not, and could not be on the principles of the people any civil coercion, either to compel an entrance into the fociety, or to

(1) ACTS xvi. 7.

(2) BENSON, as before. Sect. ii.

4 G 2

enforce