and having made a proselyte of a tied into the eternal state; all the concubine of this prince, he was good be rendered happy, and the baď seized and imprisoned, but delivered be cast into everlasting fire, Matt.xiii. at this time, 2 Tim. iv. 16, 17. Ap-47-50. The net of wicked men, pearing before him a second time, wherewith they ensnare others, and he was condemned to be beheaded. draw wealth and power to themAbout 4. D. 65. he caused the city selves, is their crafty plots, and viof Rome to be set on fire, and sung gorously executed purposes of misone of Homer's poems at the view of chief, Psal. ix. 15. Mic. vii. 2. Psal. the flames. To appease the senate, he cxl. 5. Hab. 1, 18. The Jewish rutransferred the blame on the innocent lers and priests were a net, a mean of Christians. Multitudes of them were drawing others into sin and ruin, apprehended; some were sewed up Hos. v. 1. In vain the net is spread in the skins of wild beasts, and torn in the sight of any bird: the fowler to pieces by dogs; others were cru- who spreads his net in the sight of cified; others were burnt in Nero's the bird, loseth his labour; but singardens, as nocturnal illuminations ners are more foolish than the silly to the city, while he with great birds, who, though they are not igpleasure, beheld the spectacle from norant of the mischief which evit his window. Perhaps he was the courses of life will bring upon themmore enraged, that some of his own selves, yet will not take warning, family, and it is said, one of his fa- Prov. i. 17.

vourite concubines, were turned to NETOPHAH, a dropping down the Lord, Phil. iv. 22. In this perse-from the head, or NETOPHATHI: a cution raised by him, probably most city of Judah, between Bethlehem of the apostles were cut off. After and Anathoth, and peopled by the this tyranny and murder had render-posterity of Salma, the father of ed him quite intolerable, the senate Bethlehem. It is said to have been declared him the enemy of the state; noted for olives and artichokes, 1 and he, in despair, fled, and being Chron. ii. 51, 54. Whether it be the sought for to be killed, murdered same as Nephtoah, I know not; but himself, with the assistance of Epa- Maharai, one of David's mighties, phroditus, his freed-man. and Ephai, a captain that submitted'

NEST, (1.) A small lodgment to GEDALIAH, were natives of this where fowls hatch their young, Deut. place, 2 Sam. xxiii. 28. Jer. xl. 8. xxii. 6. (2.) The egg, or young NEW, (1.) What was but lately birds in a nest, Isa. x. 14. Deut. formed, appointed, or begun to be xxxii. 11. (3.) A habitation seem-used, Josh. ix. 13. 1 Kings xi. 29. ingly very secure and undisturbed, (2.) Strange, extraordinary, Numb. Jer. xlix. 16. Obad. 4. Hab. ii. 9. xvi. 30. (3.) What is different A nest in cedars, is houses built of from, or more excellent than, what cedar wood, Jer. xxii. 23. went before. Thus the saints are

NET, DRAG, (1.) An instrument new creatures, and have a new spirit, for catcing fish, birds, or wild a new heart, and all things new; inbeasts, Matt. iv. 18. Isa. li. 20. (2.) stead of the old, corrupt, and carnal Artificial work, wrought or woven views, dispositions, and manner of in the form of a net, 1 Kings vii. 17. life, which they formerly had; they God's net, is the entangling afflictions have spiritual knowledge, holy diswherewith he chastises or punishes positions, and pious lives, springing men, Job xix. 6. or the dispensation from a conscience purified by the of the gospel, whereby many are blood of Christ, and a heart actuated drawn to Christ. This is cast into by his Spirit, and directed to his glothe sea of this world, and many are ry, Gal. vi. 15. 2 Cor. v. 17. Ezek. either really, or in appearance, in- xi. 19. and xxxvi. 26. Rev. xxi. 7. closed in it. At last it will be emp-God created a new thing in the earth, VOL. II. 2 E

when he made the blessed virgin desire to learn of him, Jesus told conceive and bring forth his Son in him, he could not become a true our nature, Jer. xxxi. 22. Christ's member of his church, except he blood opens a new and living way; was born again, and his nature one not afforded by the old cove- wholly renewed. Grossly ignorant nant, but one more excellent, in of regeneration, and of the Old Teswhich life is given to dead sinners, tament oracles relative thereto, NiHeb. x. 20. Jesus Christ promised codemus asked, how one could reto the faithful members of the Phila- enter his mother's womb, and be delphian church, who should over-born again? Jesus asked, if he come all their enemies, that he would was a teacher in Israel, and knew make them pillars in the house of God, not these things? and informed him that they should be as beautiful, as that the new birth he spoke of was useful, and as immoveable as a pillar effected by spiritual influence; and in the church of God. And that he that if he could not believe what would write upon them the name of his was so often experienced on earth, God; that the nature and image of how would he believe information. God should appear visibly upon concerning heavenly and eternal them. And that he would write upon things, known only to the Son of them the name of the city of God :- man, present in heaven as to his digiving them a title to dwell in the vine nature, while his human was New Jerusalem;-and his new name, upon earth? He informed him, that a share in that joy which he entered as the brazen serpent was lifted up into after overcoming all his enemies, in the wilderness for the general Rev. iii. 12. The saints' songs are means of cure to the serpent-bitten called new; they are most sweet, Hebrews, so he himself should be hearty, and excellent, proceeding quickly lifted up on the cross, and from new hearts, and for God's mer- in the gospel, for the salvation of all cies, that are new, fresh, and repeat- the ends of the earth-that God ed every morning, Psal. xl. 3. and in infinite kindness had given him cxlix. Lam. iii. 23. There is nothing to be the Saviour of the world;new under the sun; the same kind of that whosoever believed on him events return from age to age; and, should not perish, but have eternal except in the case of miracles, there life; but whosover believed not, is rarely, if ever, any event but had should be damned:--and added, that its like in former times, Eccl. i. 6, the reason why many believed not 10. and iii. 15. his instructions, was because their NIBHAZ, that fructifies, or that deeds were evil, and ready to be disproduces visions, the idol god of the covered by means thereof, John Avites, who, it is said, was worship-iii. 1. to 21. After this conference, ped in the likeness of a dog. Possi- we hope Nicodemus was a real disbly he is the same with the Egyptian ciple of Jesus Christ, and attended Anubis,or withNebo, 2Kings xvii.31. his ministrations as he had opporNICODEMUS, innocent blood, tunity. When afterwards he sat in or according to the Greek, the vicio- the sanhedrim, and heard the memry of the people, a follower of Jesus bers raging at their officers for not Christ. He was a Jewish Pharisee, apprehending our Saviour, and deand a ruler among his people. At riding the people who believed on first, though he conceived some es-him as ignorant and accursed, he teem for our Saviour, yet he was asked, if it was according to the ashamed to profess it, and so came law, which they pretended to know to him by night for instruction.- so well, to condemn a man before When he had complimented our they heard him? These furious biSaviour with some honorary titles, as gots asked Nicodemus, if he too, an excellent teacher, and hinted his was a Galilean? and bid him read his

NIGH. See NEAR.

Bible, and he would find that never it is thought they continued under a prophet came out of Galilee.the character of Cainites. Poor ignorant creatures! both Jonah NICOPOLIS, a city of victory, and Nahum came out of it.-When a city where Paul informs Titus he our Saviour was crucified, Nicodemus determined to winter; but whether it still more openly avowed himself a was Nicopolis in Epirus, on the AmChristian, and assisted Joseph of Ari- bracian gulf, or if it was Nicopolis mathea to inter the sacred corpse, in Thracia, on the east of Macedonia, John vii. 45-52. and xix. 39, 40. and near the river Nessus, we cannot It is said, that when the other mem-positively determine, though we bers of the sanhedrim heard of Ni-chiefly incline to the latter, Tit. iii. codemus's baptism, they deposed 12. him from his office of senator, and excommunicated him from their sy- NIGHT, (1.) The time when the nagogue; but Gamaliel, his cousin, sun is below our horizon, Ezek. xii. took him to his country-house, where 30. (2.) The time of heathenish he lived the rest of his time, and was ignorance and profaneness, in which, honourably buried near to Stephen what spiritual darkness, sloth, danthe deacon. A spurious gospel, call-ger, and slumbering in sin, abound! ed by some the Acts of Pilate, is Romans xiii. 12. (3.) Adversity, ascribed to Nicodemus; but it is which, as night, is perplexing, complainly marked with forgery. fortless and disagreeable, during the NICOLAS, victory of the people, season of it, Isaiah xxi. 12. Song v. one of the first seven deacons; he 2. (4.) Death, wherein we are laid was a native of Antioch, a proselyte asleep, and are quite inactive, John to the Jewish religion, and lastly, ix. 4. (5.) The season in which a convert to the Christian faith. any thing comes suddenly and unHe was much distinguished for ho-expectedly upon us, 1 Thessalonians liness and zeal, Acts vi. Whether v. 2. Isa. xv. 1. Luke xii 20. (6.) by some imprudent or sinful con- A very short while, Psal. xxx. 6. duct, he gave any occasion to the The day is made dark with night; the rise of the abandoned sect of the sun goes down at noon; and the earth NICOLAITANS; or whether they, is darkness in the clear day; night is knowing his fame for sanctity, screened themselves under his name; or whether the Nicolas who founded that sect was a different person; is not agreed. Perhaps this sect was a part of, or the very same with the Gnostics. It is said, they used their women in common, reckoned adul-16. There shall be no night in the tery, and the use of meats offered to New Jerusalem: during the millenidols, indifferent things; they im- nium, there shall not be such ignoputed their wickedness to God as rance, distress, or wickedness in the the cause; they held a multitude of church, or in the world, as at present: fables concerning the generation of and in heaven there shall be no igangels, and the creation of the world norance, no sin, no distress, Rev. by subordinate powers. They had xxi. 25. a considerable spread in Asia for a NILE, SIHOR, a great river of time. At Ephesus they were de- Africa, and one of the most famous tested; but at Pergamos and Thya- in the world. The rise of this river tira, they were sinfully tolerated by remained long hid from the penetrathe Christians, Rev. ii. It does not tion of the greatest travellers, but appear that they continued long un- the moderns assure us, that it arises der the name of Nicolaitans; but from two sources, which are at the

unto men; and the day dark over the prophets; when all of a sudden prosperity is turned into misery, and even teachers are under the power of delusion, or are so perplexed that they know not what to think or say, Amos v. 8. and viii. 9. Micah iii.

foot of a great mountain in the pro- canals which were cut by the Egyp vince of Goyam, in Abyssinia. These tians in almost all parts of the counsprings, says father Lobo, are about try.-About three days journey from thirty paces from each other, each its source, this river is pretty wide, appearing like an ordinary well. and sufficient to bear boats. After The labours also of Mr. Bruce de- receiving a river called Jama, it clare, that it has its rise from two pursues its courses, westward, about sources in Abyssinia. It is increased 90 miles: it then winds to the east, by numberless rivulets, which run and falls into the large lake of Zaire into it from almost every part of or Dambea; from hence it winds the kingdom: these greatly contri- about to the south-east, and then bute to the enlarging of its stream to the north-west, till it comes withtill it becomes a very considerable in about twenty miles of its source. river. After innumerable turnings It then runs northward; not without and windings, it flows into Egypt, several windings, till at last it falls and thence into the Mediterranean. into Egypt. Perhaps, about Sennar, The cataracts of the Nile have been a long way south of Egypt, it is extravagantly magnified both by an- parted into two branches, the one of cient and modern writers, who have which runs westward through Afriasserted, that at them the water falls ca, and is called the Niger, Nigir, from a prodigious height, with such or Senega river; and the other runs a dreadful noise, that people have northward through Egypt, and is been made deaf by it. Dr. Shaw on called the Nile, i. e. Nahal or Neel the contrary, assures us, they are river, and called the Sihor, or Shionly ordinary falls of water, such as ho, for its blackness, by reason of the we frequently meet with in great black mud which it carries along rivers, where the stream is a little with it; and the river of Egypt, as confined; and that they are naviga- there is none else in that country ble, so that a boat may pass them that deserves the name. Though it safely. The doctor, however, does runs about 1500 miles, and receives not inform us, whether he saw them a great many rivers, especially beat the height of the flood, or when fore it enters Egypt, its stream on the river was low: this circumstance ordinary occasions is not so great as must certainly occasion a great dif- might be expected. Villamont inference. The ancients themselves deed says its width at Cairo is about indeed acknowledge that boats did three miles; but others, of no less sometimes pass them, which makes credit, make it much less. About it very probable they do not fall from 60 or 80 miles before it falls into the such stupendous heights as some Mediterranean Sea, it divides into authors pretend. What confirms two streams, which leave the Delta this opinion is, that the ancients between them; and these two curbrought all their vast pillars and obe- rents divide into others. It appears lisks from the marble rocks in Upper from the scripture and the ancient Egypt upon floats down the Nile. As writers, that it then had seven there seldom falls any rain in Egypt, streams, Isa. xi. 15. How many there this river, which waters the whole are at present is not agreed; some country by its regular overflowings, have reckoned nine, others eleven, supplies that defect, by bringing thi- others fourteen; but it seems there are ther, as a yearly tribute, the rains of but three of any account, viz, the PeAbyssinia. The rains begin to fall lusiac on the east, the Canopic on in April in Abyssinia, and about the the west, and the Pathmetic in the latter end of May the Nile begins to middle. In August, twenty miles rise in Egypt: it continues to rise on either side are covered with watill about the middle of September, ter, and nothing seen except the when the water is conveyed into the houses and trees; but travellers do

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not agree in the height of its rise. It found in them. The waters of Nimis certain, that, as the soil is now rim were desolate when the fishers much higher by the yearly increase therein, or the inhabitants of the city, of mud, perhaps at the rate of a foot were carried into captivity by the in 100 years according to Shaw, it Assyrians and Chaldeans, Isa. xv. 6. requires a much higher rise to fer-Jer. Ixviii. 34. NIMROD, rebellious, apostate, tilize the country than it did of old.] Some travellers will have the rise of the son of Cush. He was a mighty 29 feet perpendicular to be the aver- hunter before the Lord; and either age: but others will have about 36 rendering himself useful by the killor 40 feet to be the height, which lasting of wild beasts; or by violently I suppose, comes nearest the truth. oppressing his neighbours, he proIf the rise of the water be too small cured himself a kingdom. He first the country is not duly fattened with set up for king at Babylon, and the mud. If its rise be too great, it then extended his dominion to Erech, deluges the country, and it goes Accad, and Calneh, in the land of off too late for the sowing of the Shinar. He was no doubt a mighty seed. The overflow is less remark-promoter of the building of Babel; able in Lower Egypt than in the and it seems his tyranny had obliged southern part of that kingdom, per- Asbur, the son of Shem, to leave haps on account of the multitudes of the country, and retire eastward proper ditches and canals, and partly be- to the other side of the Hiddekel cause there is less need of it on ac-or Tigris. There is no count of the frequent rains. In Up- evidence, that Nimrod was the Ninus per Egypt where they have scarcely who founded Nineveh, though he any rain, they retain the water in might be one of the Beluses conlarge cisterns or canals, that they cerned in the building of Babylon. may therewith water their fields at Part of his history, dressed up in pleasure. To prevent excessive in- fable, is contained in the Grecian undations of the country, they digged history of Bacchus, Gen. x. 8the immense lake of Mæris; and 11. NINEVEH, beautiful, agreeable, from it they water the country on proper occasions. They likewise the capital of Assyria, and built by employ about 200,000 oxen in draw-Ashur the son of Shem, Gen. x. 11. ing water out of deep pits and wells, Without doubt, Nineveh was built on to water their fields and gardens. the bank of the river Tigris ; but wheAfter the waters of the Nile are with- ther on the western or eastern, is not drawn, the Egyptians, in October agreed. We suppose it stood on the and November, sow their seed eastern, almost opposite to the preamong the mud, which being tram-sent Mosul. It was one of the largest pled down by the swine, which they cities in the world. In Jonah's time allow to range among it, or covered it was a city of three days' journey by other like careless methods, brings about, or would require him three days to go through it, proclaiming its forth a plentiful crop. NIMRAH, a leopard, rebellion, overthrow. It then had above 120,000, bitterness, change, or BETH-NIMRAH, infants in it, whom we cannot supa city of the Gadites, somewhere pose above the 6th part of the inabout the head of the river Arnon, habitants. Diodorus says, it was Numb. xxxii. 3, 36. If Nimrim 60 miles in circumference; and Strastood where Jerome places Bename-bo says, it was larger than BabyIts wall was 200 feet high, and rium, near the Dead Sea, and a little lon. north-east of Zoar, it must have so thick that three chariots abreast been a different place from Nimrah. might have been driven along the These places seem to have had their top. On the wall were built 1500 names from the plenty of leopards towers, each 200 feet higher than