is one of the most celebrated rivers in the world. The Nile yearly overflows the country, and it is to those regular inundations that the Egyptians are indebted for the fertile produce of their lands. 353 Rhene.

Or Rhenus, one of the largest rivers of Europe, which divides Germany from Gaul. It rises in the Rhetian Alps and falls into the German Ocean. The river Rhine was a long time a barrier between the Romans and the Germans, and on that account its banks were covered with strong castles. J. Cæsar was the first Roman who crossed it to invade Germany. In modern geography the Rhine is known as dividing itself into four large branches, the Waal, Leck, Issel, and the Rhine. That branch which still retains the name of Rhine, loses itself in the sands above modern Leyden; and is afterwards no longer known by its ancient appellation, since the year 860, A. D. when the inundations of the sea destroyed the regularity of its mouth. 355 Danaw when her barbarous sons.

Danubus, a celebrated river, the greatest in Europe, which rises near the town Pyrene, in the country of the Celtae, and after flowing through the greatest part of Europe, falls into the Euxine Sea. The Greeks call it Ister; but the Romans distinguished it by the appellation of the Danube. It falls into the Euxine through seven mouths; but modern travellers speak only of two. The Danube was generally supposed to be the northern boundary of the Roman empire in Europe; and therefore several castles were

B

erected on its banks, to check the incursions of the barbarians.

355 Gibralter.

355

361

Calpe, situated on one of the columns of Hercules. The ancients gave the name of the columns of Hercules, to two mountains, Calpe in Europe, and Abyl in Africa; they considered them as the limits of the world on the west.

Lybia in Africa, is now the eastern part of Tripoli. In Lybia was the celebrated temple of Jupiter Ammon, one of the seven wonders of the world, situated in a fertile valley, in the midst of vast vallies covered with sand.

in heav'nly records now.

Thou hast put out their name for ever and ever, their memorial is perished with them. Ps. ix. 5, 6.

370 Glory of him that made them to transform Oft to the image of a brute, adorned.

And this was evident in a variety of other vices, in which the philosophers of other nations joined with the vulgar, so particularly in the early and almost universal prevalence of idolatry amongst them; by which they changed the glory of the immortal, incorruptible, and eternal God, even all the majestic splendours, in which he shines forth through earth and heaven, into the representing image of mortal and corruptible man; which, how elegantly soever it might be traced, was a great and insufferable degradation, had their folly proceeded no farther; but, not content with this, they set up, as emblems of deity

and objects of worship, brutes and their images birds and four-footed animals, and even such vile reptiles as beetles, and various kinds of serpents which creep on the dust. Romans, i. 2, 3. 388 Within his sanctuary itself their shrines.

Were the altars or temples, of those idols, where the devils were worshipped, even the temple of the true God, was made a repository for idols by Soloman, Manassus, and other kings of Judah.

392 First Moloch.

A king, an idol of the Ammonites, strictly forbidden the Jews. Moloch was a hollow statue of brass, with the hands of a man and the head of an ox. It was made red hot; then the priests threw the sacrifice into its arms, where they were burned to death in a dreadful manner. The Carthagenians offered two hundred children of their nobility to it at one time, and three hundred at another, which induced Darius to send ambassadors to Carthage, with an edict to forbid that inhumanity.

396 Him the Ammonite.

Ammonites, a people who inhabited Syria, and were descended from Ammon, the son of Lot. The history of this people, as it is recorded in scripture, and by Josephus, notices their conquest of a gigantic race, who dwelt in the mountainous regions of Gilead, and the occupation of their territory; the command of God to the Israelites, not to disturb the children of Ammon, or to make any encroachment on their possessions; their demand for the restitution of

part of their territory, long held by the children of Israel and taken from the Ammorites by Moses; their entire defeat by Jephtha; their hostile aggressions, in the time of Saul and David, and their subjection to the kingdom of Israel; their attempts to throw of the yoke, by an alliance with the Moabites, and repeated invasions of the kingdoms of Israel and Judah; their complete discomfiture and second subjection; their dispersion by Nebuchadnezzar, and restoration by Cyrus, after the destruction of Jerusalem, by the Romans, their distinctive appellations lost in the more general denomination of Arabians; and, before the end of the third century, no trace of their name in existence. Thus verifying the prophecy of Ezekial, which declares, that they should "not be remembered among nations." Deut. 2. Judg. 2. Sam. x. 11. Ezek. 25. And Josephus's Antiq. 397 Worshipped in Rabba.

2

The chief city of the Ammonites, on the N E. of Jordan.

398 In Argob.

A large populous country, lying on the east of Jordan, among the mountains.

398 And in Basan.

A fine fruitful country, lying between two ranges of mountains.

399 Of utmost Arnon.

A river of Palestine, which falls into the lake Asphaltites or Dead Sea.

404 The pleasant valley of Hinnon.

Near Jerusalem, also called the valley of Benhinnon, wherein was the Grove of Molock.

404

Tophet thence,

They have built the high places of Tophet, which is in the valley of the son of Hinnon, to burn their sons and their daughters in the fire. Jer. vii. 31.

405 And black Gehenna called,

The land of Hinnon; but our Saviour and others, by it, signify the place of torment. 406 Next Chemos.

Swift, from the swiftness of the sun, which this idol represented; or, hid and obscured, because of the shameful rites of idolatry. And the first-born bare a son, and called his name, Moab; the same is the father of the Moabites, unto this day. Gen. xix. 37...

407 From Aroar.

So Jephtha passed over unto the children of Ammon, to fight against them; and the Lord delivered them into his hands. And he smote them from Aroar, even till thou came to Minnith, even twenty cities, and unto the plain of the vineyards, with a very great slaughter. Thus the children of Ammon were subdued before the children of Israel. Jud. xi. 33.

to Nebo.

A city and mountain of the Moabites, near Mount Pisgah, twenty miles east of Jerusalem. 408 Of southmost Abarim.

408

A province of eastern Palestine

in Hesebon.

For the fields of Heshbon languish, and the vine Sibnah, the lords of the heathen have broken down the principal plants thereof, they are come