ABO 



A B R 



Jible. Tlie grounds around it are fo low, tliat tlie fta ftill 

 covered a part of tliem in the time of Strabo, (lib. xvii. 

 torn. z. p. 1311.) The town, built upon a rock, which 

 fonns a handlomc road for (hipping, was out of the reach of 

 inundations. Abouhtr has been lately (^';z. in 1798..) ren- 

 dered famous by the battle between the Enghih and Trench 

 fleets, in which the Britifli admiral, Nelfon, obtained a 

 fignal viftory, and for which he has been honoured with 

 a peerage. The place itfelf, though well fortified, and 

 vigoroufly defended by the 1'urks, was talien by the French 

 in 1799, and retaken by the Enghlh in 1801. 



ABOUT, in yi-a language, the fituation of a fliip imme- 

 diately after {lie has tacked, or changed her courfe by going 

 o/w?/.' and ftanding on the other tack. About Jh'ip is the order 

 to the Oiip's cre^v for tacking. 



ABOUTIGE, or Abutish, in Geography, a town in 

 Upper Eg^'pt, near ll'.e Nile, where they make the bell 

 opium in the Levant. It was formerly a large, but is now 

 a mean place, though governed by an Emir. It Hands on 

 the fite of Abot'is, mentioned by Stephanus Byzantinus ; the 

 burgh of Settefe, a little above it, reprefents the fmall city 

 of Apollo. N. lat. 26° 50'. 



A BRA, a filver coin in Poland, nearly equivalent to the 

 Englifh fhilling. It is current in feveral parts of Germany, 

 and through the dominions of tlie Grand Seignor, at the 

 value of one fourth of the Holland's dollar or ajlam. See 

 Coins. 



AERABANEL, Abarbanei,, or Avravanel, Ifaac, 

 ir\ Biography, a learned rabbi, faid to be defcended from king 

 David, and born at Lifbon, A. D. 1437. He was obliged to 

 leave Spain with the other Jews, after having been confeffor to 

 Alphonfo V. king of Portugal, and to i'erdinand the Ca- 

 tholic. He refided at Naples, Corfu, and feveral other 

 cities, and died at Venice in 1508, aged 71. Among the 

 Jews he was denominated the fage, the prince, and the 

 great politician. Some writers fay, (SeeAiJt. Lipf. Nov. 

 !686, p. 530.) that, by negotiating bills of exchange, 

 which was the bufmefs he followed at Caftile, after he fled 

 from Lilbon, and by praftiling the feveral arts and frauds of 

 the Jewifh people, he amalfed prodigious wealth ; that he 

 opprefTed the poor ; that he afpired after the moft illuftrious 

 titles, fuch as the nobleft hcufes in Spain could not attain ; 

 and that being a Iworn enemy to the chriftian religion, he 

 was the principal caufe of that ftorm which fell upon him 

 and the reft of his nation in 1492, when they were driven 

 out of the Spanifh dominions. His Commentary on the Old 

 Teftament, which is fcarce, is written in a clear, though 

 dilTufe, ftyle ; and adheres principal!;/ to the literal fenle. 

 Tins book, which confifts of detached parts, corapofed at 

 different times, abounds with fo much rancour againft the 

 chriitians in general, and the Roman Catholics in particular, 

 that father Bartolocci was defirous that the Jews (hould be 

 prohibited the perufal of it ; and they were not allowed to 

 read or keep in their houfes his commentaries on the latter 

 prophets. Biblioth. Rabbin, toni. iii. p. 876. 879. His 

 other works are, A Treatife on the World againft Ariilotle, 

 who maintains its eternity ; a Treatife on the Explication of 

 the Prophecies relating to the Meinah againil the Chviftians; 

 •a Book concerning Articles of Faith ; and fome others of 

 lefs note. The various perfecutions which he, and other 

 Jews fuflered, foiu-ed his temper, and produced an ijnpla- 

 cable hatred againft the chriilians, which he has manifeiled 

 in his writings^ though, in company with them, he behaved 

 tvith great .politenefs, and was chearful in converfation. He 

 was an affiduous ftiulen';, and a very ready writer. 



ABRACADABRA, or Abr AS ADAER A, a magicalword, 

 recommended by Sf.reuus SamOnicus, preceptor to tlie 



younger Gordian, as a charm, or amulet, in curinjr agiien, 

 and preventing other difeafcs, particiJarly the fever called 

 by the j)hyfieians haniiritaiu. See Scren. Samon. de Medio. 

 N- S3- P- '59^' f"'- Mattairc. 



To have this effeft, the word mud be written on paper, 

 and repeated, omitting each time the I.ifl. letter in the former, 

 fo that the whole may form a kind of inverted , 

 cone, (as in the margin,) in which there is ^^''^'^adabia 

 this property, that which way focvcr the let- ^liracadabr 

 ters be taken, beginning from the a}vx and abi-ncadab 

 afcending from tlie left to the right, they at^acada 

 make the fame word, or as fome would have ^ racaa 

 it, the fame fentiracnt, as is found in the firit !i ilea 



whole line. This paper mufl. be fufpcnded \ 



about the neck by a linen thread. Accoid- , 



ing to Julius Africanus, another ancient wri- ^ 



ter, the pronouncing of the word in the fame 

 manner, will do as well. 



Abracadaura is faid to have been the name of a 

 god wordiipped by tlie Tyrians, fo that wearing his name 

 was a kind ot invocation of his aid ; a praftice not more fuper- 

 ftitious than that of fome chriftians, who bear various things 

 about them in expeftation of their operating by fympathy. 



ABRAHAM, in Scripture Hiftory, the celebrated pa- 

 triarch, who was the father and founder of the Jewifh na- 

 tion, though it was never called by his name. He was the 

 fon of Terali, and the loth in lineal fucceffion from Noah 

 by his fecond fon Shem, who lived till Abraham was i ^o 

 years old. He was born 352 years after the flood, and 

 A. M. 2Co8, according to the Hebrew chronology, in Ur 

 of the Chaldees, in the 130th, and not, as fome have fup- 

 pofed, in the 70th year of his father's life, and removed 

 with him, at the age of 70, A. M. 2078, into Haran, 

 where Terah died at the age of 205 years. At the age of 

 75, i. e. 427 years after the flood, A. M. zc.83, he mi- 

 grated into Canaan, in confequence of the divine order and 

 promife, recorded in the tliree firft: verfes of the 1 2tli chap- 

 ter of Genefis. Shuckford (Conn. vol. i. p. 274.) fuppofes, 

 that this promife was made to the patriarch before he dwelt 

 in Haran (fee Afts vii. 2.), and that it was 430 years before 

 the law. (See Gal. iii. 17.) But the interval from the birth 

 of Ifaac to the law was 400 years ; and therefore, he concludes, 

 that the promiie was made at Ur, thirty years before the birth 

 of Ifaac, who was born when Abraham was i co years old, and 

 that it took place much about the time of his removal to Ha- 

 ran. Others (fee Taylor's Scheme of Scripture Divinity, p. 

 250. ) date the promife to Abraham at the time of his removal 

 to Canaan A.M. 2083. A. D. 1921.; and they reckon 430 

 years from this peiiod to the Exodus. Compare Exod. xii. 

 41. with Gal. iii. 17. See Blair's Chronolgy, PI. I. 

 This promife, however, was the foundation of that 

 grand fcheme for preventing the univerfal prevalence of 

 idolatiy, and for preferving among mankind the knowledge 

 and worfhip of the only tnie God, v/hich, under feveral 

 variations and improvements, was to reach to the end of 

 time. For this purpofe Providence felcfted the family of 

 Abraham, which was afterwards formed into a nation, in- 

 ftru6lcd in religious knowledge by God himfelf, and favoured 

 with fuch extraordinary privileges and honours, among all 

 other nations of the earth, as were in their own nature 

 adapted to engage them, by the moft rational motives, to 

 adhere to God and his worllup. The ground of this noble 

 and extenfivc fcheme, and of God's fmgular regard to Abra- 

 ham and his poftcrity, was the Covenant of Grace, the 

 promife or grant of favours and bleffings to mankind in 

 Jefus Chrift our Lord. In the conduct and accom-plifhmcnt 

 of this fcheme, God retiuijcd the patriarch to call himfelf 



G i wholly 



