B E N 



23fl 



BEN 



with fruit, vegetables, and water. The fig anJ palm flourish 

 abundantly: the flu-tree, for the most part wild, produces 

 only a small fruit, which never comes to perfecti'm : hut tin- 

 fruit of the palm-tree forms too essential n part of Arab food 

 to allow the natives to neglect any of the necessary pre- 

 cautions for ensuring the growth and ripening of d.it-. 



H.-ngazi occupies the site of the Berenice of the PtotettlM, 

 and of the Hesporis of earlier times, one of tlic Cyren.iic 

 ril'Ci : hut xriy few remains now appear above ground to 

 mark its former importance, and Berenice has disappeared 

 beneath a soil which now only hears a miserable dirty Arab 

 town. Very extensive remains are, however, still found 

 within half a mile around Bcngazi, at the depth of a foot or 

 two Mow the surface ; and whenever a house is intended to 

 he built, the projector has only to send a few men to exca- 

 vate in the neighbourhood to discover the most beautiful 

 specimens of Grecian architecture ; but ns these ore gene- 

 rally too large for the purposes of modern buildings, they 

 are broken up on the spot into small pieces, to be imbedded 

 in the mud which forms the greater portion of the present 

 dwellings. 



Though the walls of Berenice were completely rebuilt 

 by Justinian (Procopius irtpi ururparuv, book vi.), scarcely 

 ft' vestige of them now remains above the ground; but 

 to the north of the town reservoirs may be traced, with 

 troughs of stone, which served either for the reception of 

 rain or other water brought from the springs of sweet 

 water about half a mile to the eastward of the town, 

 where all tlic wells are at present brackish. At the time 

 of the heavy rains, many coins and gems are continually 

 washed down from this spot, where a bank of twenty or 

 thirty feet hag been formed by the rubbish of the antient 

 city." From the nature of the" country immediately around, 

 its likes and swamps, it is probable that Berenice did not 

 extend much beyond the limits of the present town. It is 

 remarkable that in the quarries whence the materials for 

 the antient city were procured, which, when not far from 

 the town, were "usually excavated for tombs, no sepulchral 

 traces could be found : they must, therefore, be sought be- 

 neath the soil with other remains. 



Some of these quarries are sunk perpendicularly down 

 below the plain to a considerable depth, and are not visible 

 till closely approached. Besides these there are some sin- 

 gular chasms of natural formation, whose bottoms present a 

 flat surface of excellent soil, several hundred feet in length, 

 enclosed within steep and for the most part perpendicular 

 sides of solid rock, rising to the height of sixty or seventy 

 feet before they reach the level of the plain. They gene- 

 rally present a scene of the greatest luxuriance ; and in 

 these calm and beautiful retreats the authors from whom we 

 quote appear to recognise the far-fumed gardens of the Hes- 

 perides described by Scylax. (Hudson's Minor Uengr. 

 ol. i.) In support of this hypothesis, they also adduce Pliny 

 (v. 5) and Ptolemy, corroborated by the original name of the 

 town, which was called the town of the Hesperides. 



Some of these chasms have assumed the form of lakes, 

 in most of which the water appears to be very deep, rising 

 in gome nearly to the top, and in others about twenty feet 

 below. There are also several subterranean caves, one of 

 Which, at the depth of about eighty feet below the surface 

 of the plain, contains a large body of froli water, said to run 

 far into the earth, and in some places thirty feet deep. 

 This cave widens out into a spacious chamber, the sides of 

 which have evidently been shaped by the chisel, and it rises 

 to a considerable height. This body of water hns been 

 supposed to be the Let lion or Lndon river of the nntient 

 write: s. The lake at the back of the town may probably lie 

 the Tritonis of Strabo, but the island in it on which stood 

 the Temple of Venus hag disappeared. The neighbourhood 

 of Bengazi still offers much for the research of the intelli- 

 gent traveller. Bengasi Castle lies in 32 7' N. lat., 20 8' 

 R. long. 



(Beci-hcy's Krprdition inti Africa ; Delia Cella'g Nar- 

 ; Pacho's Voyage dan* la Marmariqti'!, la Cyre- 

 na'iqtif, &r. i 



HENGKL. The writings of few German divines have 

 exercised so much intlir-nce upon English Christians as 

 those of Johann Albrecht Bengel. Few have read his 

 works, but many urc influenced by their readers. John 

 "Wesley slates in the preface to his explanatory note* Upon 

 the New Testament, which arc a symbolical book*, or one of 



t.iliri ivmbollci ii thr BUM fit en to eaafmiioni of faith in reneral, ami 

 lo !!>< of the Lutheran church la puUcnUr. 



the standards of the Methodist connexion, and to which 

 every Wesleyan mttlxxli-t preacher has to declare his 

 assent, 'I once designed lo write down barely what oc- 

 curred to my own mind, consulting none but the inspired 

 writers ; but no sooner was I acquainted with that great 

 light of the Christian world (lately gone to his reward) 

 Kongelius, than I entirely changed my design, being tho- 

 roughly convinced it might be of more service to the cause 

 of religion were 1 barely to translate his "Gnomon Novi 

 Tcstamenti," than to write many volumes upon it. Many 

 of his excellent notes I have therefore translated : many 

 more I have abridged ; omitting that part which was |< 

 critical, and giving the substance of the rest. Those va- 

 rious readings likewise which he has showed to have a vast 

 majority of antient copies and translations on their side, I 

 have without scruple incorporated with the text; which, 

 after his manner, I have divided all along (though not 

 omitting the common division into chapters and \i 

 which is of use on various accounts) according to the matter 

 it contains, making a larger or smaller pause, just as tlie 

 sense requires. And even this is such an help in many 

 places, as one who has not tried it can scarcely conceive 



Dr. Adam Clarke, in his Commentary on the Bible, 

 passes a similar encomium upon Bengel. 



Bengel was born on the 24th June, 168", at Winnenden, 

 about fifteen miles from Stuttgord; his father was u Lu- 

 theran clergyman in Winnenden. His first instruction he 

 received from his father, who, contrary to the harsh pi,, 

 of those times, employed an easy and agreeable methcd of 

 teaching. Bengel enjoyed but for a short time the care of 

 his father, who died of an epidemic, which raged in his 

 native town, in the year 1C93: he was in the habit of 

 visiting the meanest habitations of the poor, and thus died 

 in the discharge of his ministerial duties. The arm. 

 Louis XIV. invaded the country a few months al'.i 

 death of Bengel's father, and burned the house which his 

 mother had bought. His father's library was destroyed in 

 the conflagration. From this time Bengel was educated 

 and supported by David Wendel Spindler, a friend of his 

 father's. This gentleman kept a school in the castle at 

 Winnenthal, but was afterwards driven from place to j 

 until he was appointed, in 1099, one of the masters of the 

 grammar school at Stuttgard. He took Bengel with him 

 wherever he went. At Stuttgard, Bengel made very I 

 factory progress in the antient and modern langMgesi but 

 would have been deprived of a university education, h.ul 

 it not been for his mother's marriage, after ten years \\ 

 hood, with Johann Albrecht Gloeckler, who was steward 

 to the convent at Maulbronn. It is to this pious man 

 the church owes the services of Bengel, who was re- 

 ceived in 1703 into the theological college at Tiiliingen. 

 where he studied, for the first year, philosophy and] 

 logy, and afterwards theology. He continued here until 

 1707, when he finished his academical career by a pu hi in 

 disputation, ' De theologiii mysticu,' and then became en- 

 rate in the parish of Mctzingcn. He had nut been there a 

 fortnight, before he discovered his inelliciency to discharge 

 faithfully the duties of a minister of the Gospel, and the 

 general defects of a university education for this purpose. 

 In about a year he was recalled as tutor to his college. He 

 himself states his opinion, ' That it is very desirable, after 

 having acquired in a country parish a practical turn of 

 mind (gustum plelieium et popularem), to return to col- 

 lege to study divinity afresh.' At this time he wrote an 

 essay on the "holiness of God, ' Syntagma de Sanctitate Dei,' 

 in which he especially endeavours to prove that, according 

 to Scripture and reason, all divine attributes are contained 

 in holiness. Soon afterwards he was appointed preceptor 

 of the seminary at Dcnkendorf, where 'he read especially 

 the letters of Cicero with his pupils, among whom he main- 

 tained a mild but strict discipline. Bengel did not destroy 

 the natural playfulness of the youths commill'-d to hi* cans. 

 At a later period of his life he became prelate* in Wiirtem- 

 berg. Though Bengel was so weakly after his birth, that he 

 received private baptism, nevertheless he reached the age of 

 vitty five years. He was several times subject to dangerous 

 disorders, especially in the lattorpartof his life. It became 

 his habit to consider life as a constant tendency to death, and 

 lie endeavoured to familiarize himself with the thoughts of 

 death ; but he did not agree with those divines who consider 

 the whole ol divinity to be nothing more than the art of dying. 



Tin- title prelate In Wurtomberg nearly correinotuli to that of bishop ID 

 England. 



