reeo 

 P 



BEN 



iteiruptcJ by fomc law-fuits in wliith he was engaged for 

 leoveriiig dues that bclon^ijed to the chuich. However, be 

 , ubli(hai, in the fa:iic year "A Spital Sermon;" and in 

 1718, "A Difcourfe of the ever-bl::'(rcd Trinity in Unity, 

 with an examination of Dr. Chuke's Scripture Doclrine of 

 the Trinity." From tliis lime the haralfcd ilale of hi-; mind, 

 and the weight of parochial duties, prevented his undertaking 

 any new work, except "An Hebrew Grammar," p\:blilhtd 

 .It London, in 1716, 8vo. and intended fin- the iif; of fuch 

 as want to h-arn Hebrew witlio\it tiic :'.(Iiitance of a maftcr. 

 He died at London of an apopKxy, in the 56lh year of hi-; 

 ao-c, on tiie i;ih of October 1728, and was buried in his 

 own chureli. Dr. Benntt, though a man of itrong paffi-.ns, 

 and not altogether exempt from the charge of hanghtintfp, 

 was dillliiguilh:-d byhispi-;ty and integrity, by the diligence 

 and zeal with wliieh he devoted himfelf to tlic ftudies and 

 duties of his profelTion, and by his extenlive learning, more 

 cfpccially by tiis flcill in the oriental and other learned lan- 

 guage?. As an acute reafoner and accurate lextuary, he had 

 few equal--. His talents for controverfial writing, which 

 perhap-; he indulged to excefs, gave him a decided advantage, 

 particularly in his ditpntes witli diDTcnters, over incompetent 

 antagonills ; but on fome occaiions they led h:m to recur to 

 di(lin£tions and rcHnements, which would not always bear 

 examination, and which laid him open to the attacks of his 

 adverfarie?. Several of his -Kritingj, as they related to tem- 

 porary controverfies, have been configned to obhvion. Thofe 

 which have excited attention in modern times, are his " Dif- 

 courfe of the Trinity." and iiis " Cafe of Subfcription to 

 the Articles of the Church of England." His explication 

 of the Trinity has b^en charged with inclining to that hete- 

 rodoxy which he wiihed to avoid, and which, without 

 doubt, he tincerely -abhorred : and his defence of fubfcrip- 

 tion has undergone fome fevere ftrlftures by the acute and 

 learned author of the " Confeflional." It redounds much 

 to the honour both of Dr. Bennet and bi(hop Hoadly, v. hen 

 we confider the difparlty of their opinions, that the latter 

 contributed to the preferment of tiie form.cr. Gen. Did. 

 Biog. Brit. 



Ben MET, fferi, \n Botany. See Geum. 



BENNFA"EN.'\GH, in Geography, a large mountain in 

 the northern part of the county of Londonderry, province 

 of Ulfter, Ireland, about 8 miles well of Coleraine. 



BEN-NEVIS. See l!>f.ti-Nevls. 



BENNI, in Ichthyology, a name given by Bofc after Son- 

 r.ini, to the fpecies of Cyprinus which inhabits the river 

 Nile, and is deicribed by Forikal under the fpecific name of 

 hyr.ni. See Bynni. 



BENNINGTON, in GfO^niphv, a county of America, 

 ia thefouth-wed corner of Vermont, boinided by Windliam 

 county on the eaft, the (late of New York on tlie weif , Rut- 

 land county on the north, and the (late of Maffaehufetts 

 on the fouth. It contains 19 townlhips, of which Bennington 

 and Mancheftcr are the chief. It has 12,254 inhabitants, 

 including 16 flavcs. The mountains abound with iron ore, 

 which employs already a furnace and two forges. 



Bennington, the (hire town of the above- county, and 

 the principal town in Vermont, including in the compaA 

 part of the town about 160 houfes, is htuated near the foot 

 of the Green mountain, near the font!i.weft corner of the 

 Uate, 24 miles eailcrly from the jundtion of Hudfon and 

 Mohawk rivtr=, and about 52 miles frum the fouth end of 

 lake Champlain, at the confluence of the eaft and fouth bays ; 

 55 miles from Rutland, 202 north-eaderly from New York, 

 and 300 in the fame dircftion from Philadelphia. N. lat. 

 42° 42'. W. long. 74° 10'. It has a number of elegant 

 houfes, and is a flourjfliing town, cojitaining 2400 inhabit- 



BEN 



ants. Its ;''jbllc buildings are a congregational church, a 

 court-houfe, and gaol. It is the oldeil town in the ilatt, 

 liaving been firft fettled in 1764. Within the townlhip i;i 

 mount Anthony, which rifes to a great height in a conical 

 forT. Tiio defeat of the Biitilh in two battles fought near 

 this town, in 1777, contributed in a great inealurc to the 

 fubfequent furrender of general Burgoyne's army. 



BENNISCH, a town of Silelia, in the principality of 

 Jagerndorf. 



BENOIST, St. a town of France, in the department 

 of the Loiret, and chief place of a canton, in the dillnc^ of 

 Glen ; 6 leagues louth-eaft of Oi leans. 



Benoist, St. (/u Sauh, a town of France, in the de- 

 partment of the Indre, and chief place of a canton, in tlie 

 diftriil of Argenton ; 3I leagues S.S.W. of Argenton. 

 N. lat. 46^ 27'. E. long, r 17'. 



Bknoist, &r. de Seyfu-u, a town of France, in the de- 

 partment of the Ain, and chief place of a canton, in t!;c 

 diKritI of Bclley, i| le-ague fouth-well of Belley. 



BENOIT, or BtNEDiCTVS, Renalus, in Biography, a 

 fan-ious doftor of the Sorbonue, and curate of St. Eultathius 

 at Paris, was born at Sevenieres near Angers ; and being a 

 fccret favourer of the proteffant religion, he publifhcd, for 

 the benefit of the people, a French trauilation of the Bible, 

 which had been made by the reformed minlllers of Geneva ; 

 but as foon as it was publiflicd, it was condemned. Benoit 

 was appointed by Henry IIL in 1587, regius profeffor of 

 divinity in the college of Navarre at Paris ; and fome time 

 before the death of this prince, he publiihed a book, entitled 

 " 'I'he Catholic Apology," the defign of which was to fhew 

 that the proteilant religion, profeffcd by Heniy, was no juft 

 reafon for depriving him of his riglit of fuccejlion to the 

 crown of France. This was followed, in 1590, by a defence 

 of the fame book. Benoit afterwards affilted at the aifem. 

 hly in which Henry IV. abjured the reformed religion ; and 

 he was promoted by the king, in 1597, to the bifhopric of 

 Troves in Champagne ; but he was io obnoxious to the pope, 

 on account of his trarllation of the B;ble, his favour to the 

 protellants, and his ftrenuous aJertion of the liberties of the 

 Galilean church, that he could never obtain his bull, to be 

 inllalled : however, he retained the temporalities till the 

 year 1604, when he refigned the bilhopric. He died at 

 Paris in 1608. He was the author of feveral treatifes, 

 which are now not worth mentioning. Gen. Did. 



Benoit, Elias, a learned French proteltant minifler, 

 was born at Paris in 1640. After the revocation of the 

 edift of Nantes, he fought refuge in Holland, and became 

 pallor in the church at Delft, where he died in 172S. He 

 was patient, timid, fubmilTive, and laborious, and in his do- 

 meflic conneAion he found ample occafion for th.e exercife of 

 the virtues that dUlinguifhed his charader. Of his wife he 

 gives the following account : " I married a wife poflcfled of 

 all the faults that could torment a peaceable hufband ; cove- 

 tous, pert, peevifh, and capricious ; by her unwearied fpirit 

 of ccntradidion, flie plagued, in every poffible way, her 

 wretched mate for the fpace of 47 years." His only relief 

 was inceflant fludy, the fruits of which were the following 

 publications, written in French, viz. " A Hiftory of and 

 Apology for tiie Retreat of the Pallors on account of the 

 Ptrfecution in France," 12mo. 1688; "A Hiftory of the 

 edid of Nantes," 5 vols. 410. Delft. 1693 > ^^^ " Mifcel- 

 laneous Remarks, critical and hiftorical, on Toland's two 

 DifTertations," 8vo. 1712. Nouv. Did. Hlft. 



Benoit, Father, a learned Maronite, whofe Arabic 

 name was Amlarach, was bom at Gufta, in Phoenicia, of a 

 noble family, in 1663. Having ftudied from the age of nine 

 years to twenty-two, in the Maronite college at Rome, he 



returned 



