ΑΝ

Univerfal, Hiftorical and Literary

DICTIONARY.

A

ARON, high priest of the Jews, and brother to Mofes, was by the father's fide great grandfon, and by the mother's grandson of Levi. By God's command, he met Mofes at the foot of Mount Horeb, and they went together into Egypt to deliver the children of Ifrael: he had a great share in all that Mofes did for their deliverance; the fcripture calls him the prophet of Mofes, and he acted in that capacity after the Ifraelites had paffed over the Red Sea. He afcended Mount Sinai with two of his fons, Nadab and Abihu, and seventy elders of the people; but neither he nor they went higher than half way, from whence they faw the glory of God; only Mofes and Joshua went to the top, where they ftay'd forty days. During their abfence, Aaron, overcome by the people's eager entreaties, fet up the golden calf, which the Ifraelites worshipped by his confent. This calf has given rife to various fictions and conjectures. Rabbi Solomon imagines that it became a Corn.à Lapi living animal, and that Aaron, having feen i walk and eat de in Exod. like other calves, was ftruck with astonishment, and erected pag. 605.

'an altar in its honour. Some Rabbies maintain that he did not make the golden calf, but only threw the gold into the fire, to get rid of the importunities of the people, and that certain magicians, who mingled with the Ifraelites at their departure from Egypt, caft this gold into the figure of a calf. Others are of opinion, that Aaron did not make a whole

VOL. I.

B

calf,

calf, but a head only. According to fome authors, the fear of falling a facrifice to the refentment of the people by giving a refufal, made Aaron comply with their defire; and they allege alfo, that he hoped to elude their requeft, by demanding of the women to contribute their ear-rings, imagining they would rather choose to remain without a vifible deity, than be deprived of their perfonal ornaments; but he found Corn. à La- that minds intoxicated with fuperftition and idolatry, will pide com. in facrifice every thing to this paffion. About the beginning of Exod. xxi.4 the feventeenth century, one Monceau or Moncæius pubpag. 605.

lifhed an apology for Aaron, which was condemned by the inquifition of Rome: in this it is fuppofed that Aaron intended to reprefent the fame image which Mofes did fome time after, viz. a Cherubim, and that the Ifraelites fell down and worshipped it contrary to his intention. A doctor of the Sorbonne, canon of Amiens, completely refuted this fuppodition in 1609. Some have afferted, that this calf was only made of gilded wood, but the fcriptures feem not to favour fuch an opinion, for it is exprefsly faid in the thirty-fecond chapter of Exodus, that it was a molten calf, and though we are afterwards told that Mofes burnt and reduced it to powder, yet it does not thence follow that this idol, was formed of combuftible matter; the words may fignify that Mofes melted down the gold again, and divided it into very small particles, which being thrown into the water became imperceptible, like fuch as are faid to be found in the Tagus and Pactolus (a). Some authors are of opinion, that Aaron only

(a) We are told, "that the "tranflated," fo that we are to look powder of the golden calf which on the ftory of the gilded beards as "Mofes ordered to be burnt and matter of fact; as also another of the "mixed with the water to be drunk fame stamp in the abovementioned "by the Iraelites, ftuck to the beards chapter, viz. " that upon Hur's reof fuch as had worshipped it, fofufing to make gods for the If"that they appeared. gilt; which was a diftinguishing mark upon those who had been guilty of this idolatry.". This is recited in the thirty-fecond chapter of Exodus, in a French bible printed at Paris in 1495, by command of Charles VIII. which was afterwards printed with emendations. In the preface we are given to understand that the French tranflator had given nothing but "the genuine truth, and omitted "only what was improper to be nocent, *Jeremiah de Pours, divine melodie, pag. 829. See Salian, vol. II. p. 165. Bocharti Hierozsis, par. I. lib, ii, cap. 34.

"raelites, they fpit upon him with "fo much violence that they stifled "him." The ftory of the gilded beards is not the only fiction which the Rabbies have endeavoured to pass upon the world: they tell us also that the water impregnated with the particles of the golden calf, which Mofes obliged them to drink, had almost the fame effect as the waters of jealousy, raifing tumors and ulcers upon the guilty, and doing no hurt to the in

ordered

ordered the workmen to caft the golden calf, but did not concern himself with it; and that Mofes did not command the Ifraelites to drink the gold duft, but having thrown it into the brook, which was the only place where they could drink, this gave occafion to fay that he obliged them to fwallow the idol they had worshipped. This affair of the See Rivetus golden calf happened in the third month after the Ifraelites on Exod. xxxii. tom. L came out of Egypt. In the firft month of the following p. 1184 year, Aaron was appointed high prieft by God, which office he executed during the time that the children of Ifrael continued in the wilderness. He died in the fortieth year after their departure from Egypt, upon Mount Hor, being then a hundred and twenty-three years old, A. M. 2552.

377

AARSENS (Francis) lord of Someldyck and Spyck, was one of the greatest minifters for negotiation the United Provinces, could ever boaft of. Cornelius Aarfens his father was register to the ftates, and being acquainted with Mr. du Pleffis Mornay at the court of William prince of Orange, he prevailed upon him to take his fon under him, with whom he continued fome years. John Olden Barnevelt, who prefided Du Maurie over the affairs of Holland and all the United Provinces, fent memoirs, p him afterwards agent intoFrance, where he learned to negotiate under thofe profound politicians, Henry IV. Villeroy, Rofny, Silleri, Jeannin, &c. and he acquitted himself fo well as to obtain their approbation. Soon after he was invefted with the character of ambaffador, being the first who was recognized as fuch by the French court, at which time Henry IV. declared that he fhould take precedence next to the Venetian minifter. He refided in France fifteen years, during which time he received great marks of esteem from the king, who created him a knight and baron, and for this reafon he was received amongst the nobles of the province of Holland. How- Ibid ever, he became at length fo odious to the French court, that they defired to have him recalled. He was afterwards deputed to Venice, and to feveral German and Italian princes, occafion of the troubles in Bohemia: this was in 1620, and it is to be obferved (fays Mr. Wicquefort) "that the Wicquefort's "French king ordered the duke of Angouleme, the count baladors, "of Methune, and Abbé des Preaux, his three ambaffadors, tom. 1. p. "not to receive vifits from Mr. Aarfens, who came from 65%. "the ftates of the United Provinces to negotiate with fome "German and Italian princes, upon the fame affairs of "Bohemia, for which the ambaffadors of France had been

upon

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deputed. The order fent for this, purpose, fignified that it

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*was not intended as any indignity to the ftates, with whom the king was defirous to live always in friendship, but entirely upon account of Mr. Aarfens, for his having acted "in a manner inconfiftent with the intereft and dignity of his 26 majefty.” (a) Mr. Aarfens was the first of three extraordinary Wicquefort, amballadors fent to England in 1620, and the fecond in 1641. vol. I. p.650 In this last embaffy his collegues were the lord of Brederode firft ambaffador, and Heemfvliet as third; they were to treat about the marriage of prince William, fon to the prince of Orange. He was alfo ambaffador extraordinary at the Du Maurier, French court in 1624; and cardinal Richlieu having just taken P. 386, the adminiftration into his hands, and knowing he was an able man, made use of him to ferve his own purposes.

and 7.50.

Aarsens died in a very advanced age, and his son, who furvived him, was reputed the wealthieft man in Holland.

He has left very accurate and judicious memoirs of all those embaffies in which he was employed; and it must be observed, that the various inftructions given him by the ftates, and all the credential letters he carried in his later embaffies, were drawn by himself; whence we may conclude, fays Mr. Wicquefort, that he was the ableft person in all that country, Vol. II. p. not only for conducting of negotiations, but for inftructing ambaffadors what to negotiate upon.

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Memoirs, pag. 376.

Du Maurier, in his memoirs, fays, "that he was of a "fpirit the most dangerous which ever arofe in the United Provinces, and the more to be dreaded, as he concealed all "the malevolence and artifice of foreign courts, under the appearance of Dutch bluntnefs and fimplicity; that he was vehement and perfuafive, could advance arguments in favour of the worft caufes, had an intriguing genius, and "had kept a fecret correspondence with fome great men in "France, whofe conduct was not only fufpected, but highly "offenfive to the king, and that having bribed the French "ambaffador's fecretary at the Hague, he thereby discovered "the moft fecret defigns of the French court." By this account we may fee that Aarfens was a man of great abilities, and had an excellent turn for political negotiations: but whilft Du Maurier inveighs fo warmly against this statesman, he lets us into a circumstance, which may teach us not to give too much

credit to his invectives, for he informs us that there was an irreconcileable enmity betwixt his father and Aarfens.

ABBADIE (James) an eminent proteftant divine, born at Hay, in Berne, in the year 1658, as Niceron affirms in his 'hiftory of illuftrious men, though fome fay, he was born in 1654. He ftudied at Saumur, at Paris, and at Sedan, at which laft place he took the degree of doctor in divinity. Thence he went to Holland, and afterwards to Berlin at the defire of count d'Efpenfe, where he was made minister of the French church lately eftablished by the elector of Brandenbourg. He refided in this city for many years, and was always in high favour with the elector. The French congregation at Berlin was at first but thin, but upon the revocation of the edict of Nantes, great numbers retired to Brandenbourg, where they were received with the greatest humanity, fo that Dr. Abbadie had in a little time a great charge, of which he took all poffible care, and by his intereft at court did many fervices to his diftreffed countrymen. The elector dying in 1688, Abbadie accepted of marfhal Schomberg's propofal to go with him firft to Holland, and then to England with the prince of Orange. In the autumn of 1689, he went with the marshal to Ireland, where he continued till after the battle of Boyne in July 1690, in which his great patron was killed; this occafioned his return to London, where he was appointed minister of the French church in the Savoy. Some time after he was promoted to the deanry of Killaloe, in Ireland, which he enjoyed for many years. Having made a tour to Holland in order to publish one of his books, foon after his return, he was taken ill in London, and died at Mary-le-bon, on the 23d of September, 1727. He was ftrongly attached to the cause of king William, as appears by his elaborate defence of the revolution, and his hiftory of the affaffination plot. He had great natural abilities, which he improved by true and useful learning. He was a most zealous defender of the primitive doctrine of the proteftants, as appears by his writings; and that ftrong nervous eloquence, for which he was fo remarkable, enabled him to enforce the doctrines of his profeffion from the pulpit with great spirit and energy (a)..

AB

(a) The account of his writings in on feveral texts of fcripture, 8vo. the order they were published, is as follows:

1. Sermons fur divers textes de l'Ecriture; Leiden, 1680: Sermons

2. Panegyrique de Monfeigneur l'Electeur de Brandebourg; Rotterdam, 1684. A panegyrick on the elector of Brandenbourg. B 3 3. Traité