and the doctrines with which it is connected, some modern divines have
quoted the arguments of St. Augustine against the Manichees, and others
those which he employed against the Pelagians, according to the
discordant views which the combatants severally entertain on these
controverted points. One of them has thus expressed himself, in his
endeavour to reconcile St Augustine with himself:--“The heresy of
Pelagius 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 grace, coöperating in some
measure with those heavenly 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 with
justice judge and condemn 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 coöperation of man is at all exerted to produce the renewal of our
nature; but, when the renewal had been produced, 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 Manichæans, 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
what is commanded! And how unjust it is to condemn him who had not power
to fulfil the commands!_ Yet these unhappy persons [the Manichees] 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?‘
Elsewhere he says, ‘Nothing is more within our power than our own will.
The will is that by which we commit sin, and by which we live
righteously.’ Nothing can be plainer than that the writer of these
passages admitted the liberty of the human will, and the necessity of
our own exertions in conjunction with divine grace. How this is to be
reconciled with his general doctrine, is perhaps indicated in the
following passage from his book _De Gratiâ et lib. Arbitrio, c. 17_.
Speaking of grace he says, ‘That we may _will_ God _works_ 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 doctrinal 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 various
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 contemporaries; and hastily as some of his lucubrations
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 acquired 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 Vandals, and the city of which
he was the bishop besieged. 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 surprised 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 Marcellinus
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, daring 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 Apostolical precept, which forbids
Christians from going to law before Pagan tribunals. In reference to
this employment his biographer, Posidonius, 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 subjects; but looked upon all this as unprofitable occupation,
which drew him aside from that which was better and more agreeable to
himself.”
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 expected 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 literal
meaning; yet the works of this father are not wholly destitute of
remarks and critical interpretations, that are pertinent and judicious:
to such, after a series of extracts from his 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
passages from which it may be perceived, that St. Augustine frequently
compared his copies of the Latin version with those of the Greek
original. Le Clerc himself allows that he sometimes explains Greek words
and phrases in a very felicitous manner. Indeed, the commencement of his
correspondence with St. Jerom proves him to have been no contemptible
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 Septuagint, 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
impartially 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 united in the
character of that illustrious man. A sublime genius, an uninterrupted
and zealous pursuit of truth, an indefatigable application, an
invincible patience, a sincere piety, and a subtle and lively wit,
conspired to establish his fame upon the most lasting foundations.” Such
a testimony as this far outweighs the vituperative remarks and petty
sneers of a thousand infidels. See PELAGIANS and SYNODS.
AUGUSTUS, emperor of Rome, and successor of Julius Cæsar. The battle of
Actium, which he fought with Mark Antony, and which made him master of
the empire, happened fifteen 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 loaded 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 Joseph 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 prosecuted 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.
AVIMS, 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, who 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 Phœnicians 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
Phœnician 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
continued 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 in sunder a
mountain west of Jerusalem, and rolled one half of it over and over to
the distance 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 succeeded him
after his death, which happened in the fifty-second year of his reign,
A. M. 3246. 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 Jerusalem, 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, Phœnicians, Sidonians, Carthaginians,
Babylonians, Chaldeans, and Assyrians. The term _Baal_, which is itself
an appellative, served at first to denote the true God, among those who
adhered to the true religion. Accordingly, the Phœnicians, 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, gradually 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 supposed that the
descendants of Ham first worshipped the sun under the title of Baal, 2
Kings xxiii, 5, 11; and that they afterward ascribed 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, however, that when the custom
prevailed of deifying and worshipping those who were in any respect
distinguished among mankind, the appellation of Baal was not restricted
to the sun, but extended to those eminent persons who were deified, and
who became objects of worship in different nations. The Phœnicians
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 Moloch 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 principal ones just mentioned, were distinguished by
the title of Baal among the Phœnicians, 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 generally placed on eminences: they
were places inclosed by walls, within which was maintained a perpetual
fire; and some of them bad statues or images, called in Scripture
“Chamanim.” Maundrell, in his journey from Aleppo to Jerusalem,
observed, some remains of these enclosures 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 violent 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 Babylonia, and to the
very extremity of western Europe, including the British isles. The
worship 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
neighbourhood is a Druidical temple of eight upright stones, where it is
supposed the fire was kindled. At some distance from this is another
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 they in like manner go round the temple. So deep-rooted is
this Heathenish superstition in the minds of many who reckon themselves
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 the 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 this 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 autumn, on the first day of
November; which being neither at the solstice nor equinox, deserves
attention. It may be accounted for by supposing that the lapse of ages
has removed it from its ancient station, and that the observance is kept
on the same day, nominally, though that be now removed some weeks
backward from its true station. However that may be, in North Wales
especially, this fire is attended 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, 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 Shechemites, 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 Phœnicians, 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 allusion 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 Moabites, 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 extravagant 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 discover 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 believe 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 appellation of
Ἀπόμυιος, _the fly chaser_. Pliny is of opinion, that the name of Achor,
the god invoked 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 Ἀπόμυιος, and by the Romans
_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 probably see the reason
why Ahaziah sent to Beelzebub 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, 15; 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 commentators 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 country, 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
extremity, over against Pihahiroth, or the opening in the mountains
which led from the desert, 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 killed his master
treacherously at the siege of Gibbethon, a city of the Philistines, A.
M. 3051, and usurped the crown, which he possessed twenty-four years, 1
Kings xv, 27, &c. And, to secure himself in his usurpation, he massacred
all the relatives of his predecessor; which barbarous action proved the
accomplishment of the prophecy denounced against the house of Jeroboam
by Ahijah, the prophet, 1 Kings xiv, 1, &c.