8. 9 2 BEN 
Weftphalia, and duchy of Berg, where the ele£lor pala¬ 
tine has a,chateau : feven miles eaft of Mulheim. 
BENSERA'DE (Ifaac de), an ingenious French poet 
of five 17th century, born at Lyons. He was known at 
at court by his verfes and his wit, and had the good for¬ 
tune to pleafe the cardinals de Richelieu and Mazarin. 
After the death of Richelieu, he got into favour with the 
duke de P Breze, whom he accompanied in mod of his ex¬ 
peditions ; and when this nobleman died, lie returned to 
court, where his poetry became highly efleemed. He 
wrote, 1. A Earaphrafe upon Jo.b. 2. Verfes for inter¬ 
ludes. 3. Rondeaux upon Ovid. 4. Several Tragedies. 
A fonnet which lie fent to a young lady with his Para- 
phrafe on Job being put in competition with the Urania of 
Voiture, caufed him to be much Ipoken of; for what an 
honour was it to be head of a party again ft this celebrated 
author? Thofe who gave the preference lo Benferade’s 
performance were ftyled the JobiJts, and their antagonifls 
the Uranijls ; and the difpute long divided the whole court 
and the wits. "M. l’Abbe Olivet fays, that Benferade to¬ 
wards the latter end of his life, withdrew from court, and 
made Gentilly the place of his retirement. When he was 
a youth, he-fays it was the cuftom to vilit the remains of 
the ornaments with which Benferade had embelliflied his 
lioufe and gardens, where every thing favoured of his po¬ 
etical genius. The bark of the trees were full of inscrip¬ 
tions : and, amongft others, the fir ft which prefented-itfelf 
was as follows : 
Adieu fortune, honneurs adieu, voiis et les votres, 
Je viens ici vous oublier ; 
Adieu toi-meme amour, bien plus que les autres 
Difficile a congedier. 
Fortune and honours, all adieu, 
And whatfoe’er belongs to you. 
I to this retirement run, 
All your vanities to fiiun. 
Thou too adieu, O powerful love ; 
From thee Tis bar deft to remove. 
Benferade buffered fo much from the (tone, that, not- 
■withftanding his great age, he refolved to fubmit to the 
operation of cutting. But his conflancy was not put to 
this laft proof; for a burgeon letting him blood, by wav of 
precaution, pricked an artery, and, inflead of endeavour¬ 
ing to flop the effufion of blood, ran away. There was but 
juft time enough to call F. Commire, his friend and con- 
feftbr, who came boon enough to fee him die. This ha- 
■pened the 19th of October 1091, in the S2d year of his age. 
BENSHAU'SEN, a town of Germany, in the circle of 
Franconia, and county of Henneburg : feven miles fouth- 
caft of Smalkalden. 
BEN'SHEIM, a.town of Germany, in the circle of the 
Upper Rhine, and archbifhopric of Mayence : twenty 
miles north of Heidelberg, and ten eaft-north-eaftof Worms. 
BEN'SON (George), a learned dilferiting minifter, born 
at Great Salkeld, in Cumberland, in 1699.- His love of 
learning was fo fuccefsful, that, at eleven years of age, 
lie washable to read the Greek Teftament. He afterwards 
ft tidied at Dr. Dixoijls academy at Whitehaven, from whence- 
lie removed to ther univerfity of Glafgpw. In 1731 he was 
elected pallor of a congregation of diffenters at Abingdon 
in Berklhire ; and in 1740, was chofen by the congrega¬ 
tion of Crutched Friars, colleague to. the learned and ju¬ 
dicious Dr. Lardner. The light which Mr. Locke had 
thrown on the obfeureft parts of St. Raul’s epiftles, by 
making him his own expofitor-, encouraged and determined 
Mr. Berifpn to attempt to illuftrate the remaining epiftles 
in the fame manner. In 1731, he publilhed A Paraphrafe 
and Notes on the Epiftle to Philemon, as a lpecimen. 
This was well received, and the author was encouraged 
to proceed in his defign. Mr. Benfon proceeded with 
p-reat diligence to publifti Paraphrafes and Notes on the 
two Epiftles of the Thefialonians, the firft and fecond to 
Timothy, and the Epiftle to Titus ; adding, Dilfertations 
aa feveral important Subjects, particularly on Infpiration, 
BEN 
In 1735, he publilhed Hiftory of the firft Planting of ffhrif- 
tianity, taken from the A6ts of the Apoftles, 2 vols, ato. 
He alfo wrote, The reafonablenefs of the Chriftian .Reli¬ 
gion ; The Hiftory of the Life of Jefus Chrifl; A Para¬ 
phrafe and Notes on the Seven Catholic Epiftles ; and fe- 
veral other works which procured him great reputation. 
One of the univerfities in Scotland fent him a diploma with 
a doctor's degree ; and lie purfued the fame ftudies with 
great application till the time of his death, which happen¬ 
ed in 1762, in the 64th year of his age. 
BENT, f. [from the verb To bend .] The ftate of being 
bent; a ftate of flexure ; curvity.—There are divers fub- 
tle inquiries concerning the ftrength required to the bend¬ 
ings of bows; the force they have in the difeharge, ac¬ 
cording to the feveral bents ; and the ftreiig-th required to 
be in the firing of them. Wilkins. —Declivity : 
A mountain flood, 
Threat’ning from high, and overlook’d the wood ; 
Beneath the low’ring brow, and on a bent, 
The temple flood of Mars armipotent. Drydxn. 
Utmoft power, as of a bent bow : 
Then let thy love be younger than thyfelf, 
Or thy affedlion cannot hold the bent. Shakcfpcare. 
Application of the mind ; ftrain of the mental powers.__ 
The unaerftanding Ihould be brought to the knotty parts 
of knowledge, that try the ftrength of thought, and a full 
bent of the mind, by infenfible degrees. Locke. — Inclina¬ 
tion ; difpPlition towards fomething : 
The golden age was firft ; when man, yet new, 
No rule but uncorrupted reafon knew ; 
And, with a native bent, did good puiTue. Drydcn. 
Determination ; fixed purpofe.—Their unbelief we may 
not impute into infufficiency in the mean which is ufed, 
but to the wilful bent of their obftinate hearts againft it. 
Hooker. —Turn of the temper, or difpofition ; Rape, or 
falhion, fuperinduced by art : 
Then thy ftraight rule fet virtue jn my -fight, 
The crooked line reforming by the right • 
My reafon took the bent of thy command, 
Was form'd and polifli’d by thy Ikilful hand. Drydcn. 
Tendency; flexion; particular direction.—The exercifing 
the underfianding in the feveral ways of reafoning, teaclw 
eth the mind fupplenefs, to apply itfelf more dextroufly 
to bents and turns of the matter, in all its refearches. ■ Locke. 
—A ftalk of. grafs called bent-grafs.—]une is drawn in a 
mantle of dark grafs-green, upon his head a garland of 
bents, king-cups, and maidenhair. Pcacham. 
BEN'TENDORI- JEPI.Il’ZA, a town of Hungary: 
four miles north-eaft of Rofenberg. 
BENT-GRASS, f. in botany. See Agrostis. 
BEN'THAM (Thomas), bilhop of Litchfield and Co¬ 
ventry, was born at Shirburn in Yorkfliire in 1513, and 
educated in Magdalene college, Oxford. He took the 
degree of bachelor of arts in 1543, and in 1546 was admit¬ 
ted perpetual fellow, and proceeded mailer of arts the year 
following. He now threw off the ma(k of popery, which 
during the equivocal reign of Henry VIII. he had worn 
’with reludlance. When Mary came to the crown, bein<->- 
deprived of his fellowlhip by her vi(Itors, he retired to 
Bafil in Switzerland, where for forr.e time he expounded 
the Scriptures to the Englifti exiles in that city ; but, be¬ 
ing folicited by fome Proteftants in England, he returned 
to London before the death of the queen, and was appoint¬ 
ed fuperintendant of a private congregation in that city. 
Immediately on the accefiion of Elizabeth, Bentham was 
preferred in the church, and confecrated bifhop of Litch¬ 
field and Coventry. He died at Ecclefliaii in Stafford- 
lhire in 1570, aged fixty-five. He had the charadler of a 
pious and zealous reformer, and was particularly celebrat¬ 
ed for his knowledge of the Hebrew language. His works 
are, 1. Expofition of the A£ts of the Apoftles; manu- 
feript. 2. A Sermon on Chrift’s Temptation ; London 
