BAY 



EEA 



and Arminius, and his scheme is called 

 the middle scheme. Although the old 

 adage, that the middle path is the safest, 

 may be true in many thing's relating to 

 the conduct of life, yet, where truthjand 

 religion are concerned, there can be no 

 middle way. There is no medium be- 

 tween what is true and what is erroneous. 

 Baxter taught, that God elected some 

 whom he determined to save, without 

 any foresight of their good works, and 

 that others,to whom the gospel is preach- 

 ed, have the means of salvation put into 

 their hands. He contended that the me- 

 rits of Christ's death, of which he ap- 

 pears to have had no precise idea, are to 

 be applied to believers only, but all men 

 are in a state capable of salvation. Mr. 

 Baxter also assumed, that there may be a 

 certainty of perseverence here; and yet 

 he cannot tell whether a man may not 

 have so weak a degree of saving grace as 

 to lose it again. 



BAYER, (JOHN) in biography, a Ger- 

 man lawyer and astronomer of the latter 

 part of the 16th and beginning of the 17th 

 century, but in what particular year or 

 place he was born is not certainly known: 

 however, his name will be ever memora- 

 ble in the annals of astronomy, on ac- 

 count of that great and excellent work 

 which he first published in the year 1603, 

 under the title of " Uranometria," being 

 a complete celestial atlas, or large folio 

 charts of all the constellations, with a no- 

 menclature collected from all the tables 

 of astronomy, ancient and modern, with 

 the useful invention of denoting the stars 

 in every constellation by the letters of 

 the Greek alphabet, in their order, and 

 according to the order of magnitude of 

 the stars in each constellation. By means 

 of these marks the stars of the heavens 

 may, with as great facility be distinguished 

 and referred to, as the several places of 

 the earth are by means of geographical 

 tables ; and as a proof of the usefulness 

 of this method, our celestial globes and 

 atlasses have ever since retained it ; and 

 hence it is become of general use through 

 all the literary world; astronomers, in 

 speaking of any star in the constellation, 

 denoting it by saying it is marked by 

 Bayer, , or /3, or y, &c. 



Bayer lived many years after the first 

 publication of this work, which he greatly 

 improved and augmented by his constant 

 attention to the study of the stars. At 

 length, in the year 1627, it was republish- 

 cd under a new title, viz. " Coelum Stella- 

 turn Christianum, that is, the Christian 

 Stellated Heaven, or the Starry Heavens 



Christianized;" forin this work the Hea-- 

 then names and characters, or figures of 

 the constellations, were rejected, and 

 others, taken from the scriptures, were 

 inserted in their stead, to circumscribe 

 the respective constellations. But this was 

 considered too great an innovation^ and 

 we find in the latter editions of the work 

 that the ancient figures and names were 

 restored. 



BAYONET, in the military art, a short 

 broad dagger, formerly with a round han- 

 dle fitted for the bore of a firelock, to be 

 fixed there after the soldier had fired; 

 but they are now made with iron han- 

 dles and rings, that go over the muz- 

 zle of the firelock, and are screwed fast, 

 so that the soldier fires with his bayonet 

 on the muzzle of his piece, and is ready 

 to act against horse. 



BAYS, in commerce, a sort of open 

 woollen stuff, having a long knap, some- 

 times frized, and sometimes not. This > 

 stuff is without wale, and is wrought in a 

 loom with two trecldles, like flannel. It 

 is chiefly manufactured at Colchester and 

 Bocking in Essex, where there is a hall 

 called the Dutch hay hall, or raw hall. 



BEACON, a public signal to give 

 warning against rocks, shelves, invasions, 

 &c. 



The corporation of the Trinity-house 

 are empowered to set up beacons wher- 

 ever they shall think necessary, and if 

 any destroy or take them down," he shall 

 forfeit 100/. or be ipso facto out-lawed. 

 There are other beacons put up to give 

 warning of the approach of an enemy ; 

 these are made by putting pitch barrels 

 upon a long pole, to be set upon an emi- 

 nence, so as they may be seen afar off ; 

 for the barrels being fired, the flame in 

 the night time, and the smoke in the day, 

 give notice, and in a few hours may alarm 

 the whole kingdom, upon an approach- 

 ing invasion, &c. 



BEADS, in the arts, are small globules, 

 chiefly used for necklaces, and are made 

 of pearl, steel, garnet, coral, diamond, 

 amber, crystal, paste, glass, &c There 

 is a large trade, chiefly of coral, amber, 

 and glass beads, carried on with the unin- 

 formed inhabitants of the coast of Africa 

 and the East India islands. Roman Ca- 

 tholics make use of beads in rehearsing 

 their prayers, and they are applied to the 

 same use among the dervises and other 

 religious sects in the East. 



BEAD, in architecture, a round mould- 

 ing, commonly made upon the edge of a 

 piece of stuff, in the Corinthian and Ro- 



