ASHIMA, an idol of the Hama- | draste. She is variously represented; thite Samaritans. Whether it was sometimes in a long, sometimes in a the same with the Ashemath of Sama-short habit; sometimes as holding a ria by which the Israelites swore, A-long stick with a cross at the top: mos viii. 14; or the SHAMAIH, or sometimes she is crowned with rays; heavens; or whether it was an idol at other times with a bull's head, shaped as a lion, and signifying the whose horns, according to Sanchonisun; or as a naked goat, or ape, weatho, were emblems of the new moon. are absolutely uncertain, 2 Kings xvii. 30.

Her temple at Aphek in Lebanon was an horrible sink of the most besASHKENAZ, the eldest son of tial lewdness; because there, it was GOMER. Probably the Ascantes, who pretended, Venus had her first interdwelt about the Palus Mæotis; and course with her beloved Adonis, of the ancient Germans, if not also part TAMMUZ. She was probably worof the Phrygians, were descended shipped by the Amorites in the days from him, Gen. x. 3. 1 Chron. i. 6. of Abraham; and gave name to AshASHPENAZ, the governor of Ne-taroth-karnaim, i. e. the Ashtarcth buchadnezzar's eunuchs: he changed with two horns, Gen. xiv. 5. Soon the name of Daniel and his three after the death of Joshua, the Israelcompanions, into such as imported ites began to adore her; and in all relation to the Chaldean idols. He their relapses into idolatry, as under was afraid to allow these Jews to live || Jephthah, Eli, and Solomon, &c. she on pulse, least their leanness should was one of their idols. Jezebel the discover it, and offend the king at wife of Ahab settled her worship in him: but Melzar his inferior steward all the shocking abominations thereallowed them, Dan. i. 3—17. of among the ten tribes; and apASHTAROTH, ASHTORETH, or pointed four hundred priests for her ASTARTE, a famed goddess of the service. Under Manasseh and Amon, Zidonians. Her name, in the Syriac she was with great pomp and care language, signifies ewes whose teats adored in Judah; and the women are full of milk: or it may come from wrought hangings for her residence. ASHERA, a grove; a blessed one. It The remnant of the Jews left with may be in the plural number, because Gedaliah, obstinately clave to her the Phoenicians had sundry she-dei-worship; pretending, that their forties. The Phoenicians about Carthage saking of it under Josiah had been reckoned Ashtaroth the same as Juno the cause of all their subsequent disof the Romans: others will have her asters, Judg. ii. 13. and x. 6. 1 Kings to have been the wife of Ham the fa- xi. 5. and xviii. 19. 2 Kings xxiii. 4, ther of the Canaanites. Lucian thinks, 13. Jer. xliv. and I suppose very justly, that the ASHTAROTH-KARNAIM, a city moon or queen of heaven, was wor-belonging to the half-tribe of Manasshipped under this name. Cicero calls seh, eastward of Jordan. It was about her the 4th Venus of Syria. The six miles from Edrei. Here ChedorPhoenician priests affirmed to Lucian, laomer smote the gigantic Rephaims: that she was Europa, the daughter here was the residence of Og king of of their king Agenor, whom Jupiter Bashan; Gen. xiv. 5. Deut. i. 4.Carried off by force; and who was But the place is long ago dwindled deified by her father's subjects, to into a petty village, called Karnion, comfort him for his loss. Perhaps or Karnia. she is the Aestar or Eostre of the Saxons, from whom our term of Easter is derived; and not far different from the British goddess An-Numb. xxiv. 22, 24.

ASHUR. (1.) The son of Shem, and father of the ASSYRIANS. (2.) Ashur sometimes denotes Assyria Hos. xiv. 3.

When I consider that Eupolemus || duced by the Assyrian or Chaldean says, that David conquered the Assy-conquerors; but, no doubt, part of the rians in Galadene or Gilead; that Ishbosheth was made king over the Ashurites in Gilead; that Ashur was in the alliance with the Ammonites and Moabites against Jehoshaphat; that the Ashurim made benches of ivory to the Tyrians, 2 Sam. ii. 9. Psal. lxxxiii. 8. Ezek. xxvii. 6; I cannot but think that a colony of Assyrians had settled in Arabia-Deserta, perhaps about the time of Cushanrishathaim.

others were subject to the Lydians in their flourishing state. The Persians extended their power over the greater part of it, which made it a scene of disputes between them and the Greeks. About 330 years before our Saviour's birth, the Greeks under Alexander made themselves masters of the whole it. It next fell under the Romans, and partly continued so, till the Saracens and Turks wrested it from the emperors of the east. For 300 years past it hath been wholly subject to the Ottoman Turks, by whose ravage and tyranny this once so glorious country is reduced to a comparative desart, noted for almost nothing but ancient ruins.

No doubt this country was one of those denominated in ancient predictions, The isles of the sea; and here Christianity was almost universally planted in the apostolic age: here, for a long time, were flourishing

ASIA. (1.) One of the four great divisions of the EARTH. (2.) Lesser Asia, Natolia, or the Levant, lying between the Hellespont and Euxine sea on the north, and the east end of the Mediterranean sea on the south. It was about 600 miles in length, and 320 in breadth, and contained the provinces of Mysia, Lydia, Ionia, and Caria on the west; on the east of these, Bithynia, Phrygia, Pisidia, Pamphylia, Lycia; eastward of these were Paphlagonia, Galatia, and Ly-churches; and here the famed councaonia; on the east of which were Pontus and Cappadocia. (3.) Proper Asia, which Attalus bequeathed to the Romans, and, which afterwards constituting one of their provinces, was called the proconsular Asia. It comprehended Phrygia, Mysia, Caria, and Lydia. ASIA is perhaps always used in this sense in the New Testament. Here the seven famed churches stood, Acts xvi. 6. Rev. i. 11. Here Paul, in his first journey northward, was divinely forbidden to preach the gospel; and here a great part of the professed Christians, by means of false apostles, conceived a dislike at him while he lay prisoner at Rome, Acts xvi. 6. 2 Tim. i. 15. Lesser Asia, Lydia, perhaps ex-per way, or from the right course of cepted, was originally peopled by the obedience to God, and of promoting offspring of Japheth; and anciently our own true happiness, Jer. xv. 5. parcelled out into a great many small Psal. xiv. 3. Sovereignties; the kingdoms of Troas, Lydia, Pontus, Cappadocia, and the Grecian states, were the most noted. They do not appear to have been re-(4.)

cils of Nice, Ephesus, Chalcedon, &c. were held. The ravages of the Arabians or Saracens began in the se venth, and continued in the three subsequent centuries; the conquests of the Seljukian Turks in the eleventh; and not long after the marches of the Croisades, and at last the enslaving power of the Ottoman Turks, rendered their church-state exceeding deplorable. At present they have a number of bishops; but these in a very poor and wretched condition, Isa. xlii. 4, 10. Zeph. ii. 11.

ASIDE. (1.) To another part at some distance, 2 Kings iv. 4. Matth. vii. 33. (2.) From off one, John xiii. 4. Heb. xii. 1. (3.) Out of the pro

ASK. (1.) To inquire, Gen. xxxii. 29. (2.) To demand, Gen. xxxiv. 10. (3.) To seek counsel, Isa. xxx. 2. To pray for, John xv. 7. (5.)

ward by the Jewish Maccabees, Amos i. 8. Jer. xlvii. 5-7. Zech. ix. 5.Here a Christian church was planted soon after our Saviour's ascension, and continued for sundry ages. Now, the place is scarce worthy of notice.

To accuse, Psal. xxxv. 10, 11-by the Assyrians; destroyed by the Christ's asking of the Father, imports Chaldeans; rebuilt and taken by Ahis willingness and desire to enjoy ||lexander and the Greeks; and aftereternal life and glory in his manhood; and to a multitude of happy subjects under him, as king in Zion; and his pleading in our nature for favours to these, as the due reward of his obedience unto death, Psal. xxi. 4. and ii. 8. We ask in Christ's name, ASLEEP. (1.) Taking rest in and in faith, when, by the help of his natural SLEEP, John i. 5. (2.) Dead, Spirit, and in a believing dependence Acts vii. 60. (3.) Careless, unconon his person, righteousness, and in-cerned, spiritually drowsy or dead, tercession, we, in obedience to his Song vii. 9. command, plead for, and firmly ex- ASNAPPAR, a famed prince, pect, whatever he hath promised in who, from different places, brought his word, suited to our need, and ca- and settled the original Samaritans pacity of enjoyment, John xiv. 13.-in the country of the ten tribes; but Jam. i. 6. We ask amiss, when we whether he was the same with Shalpray for what God has neither com-manezer, or rather with Esarhaddon, manded nor promised: when we re- or one of his noted generals, we are quest any thing in an ignorant, care- uncertain, Ezra iv. 10. less, unbelieving manner; to seek it ASP, a small poisonous kind of to answer some unworthy and sinful serpent, whose bite gives a quick, end, Jam. iv. 3. The nation that but generally easy death,† as if in a asked not for Christ, and were not sleep. There are reckoned three called by his name, are the Gentiles,kinds of asps; the Chersea, Chelidowho, under the Old Testament, werenia, and Ptyas, the last of whose bite destitute of the knowledge of Christ, is judged the most fatal. Asps are void of desire after him, and made no said to kill by causing sleep, thirst, profession of regard to him, Isa. Ixv. 1. or loss of blood. Immediately after We ask the beasts, fowls, fishes, and the bite, the sight becomes dim, the earth, that they may declare unto us, part swells, and a moderate pain is when we earnestly observe how the felt in the stomach. The bite is said divine power, wisdom, and goodness, to admit of no cure, but by the immeare manifested in their creation,diate cutting off the wounded part. preservation and government, Job What is meant by the asp, (ADDER) xii. 7, 8. stopping her ear at the voice of the ASKELON, a capital city of the charmer: whether some asps be deaf, Philistines on the coast of the Medi-or stop their ears from hearing of huterranean sea, about 16 miles north of Gaza, and 9 south of Ashdod, and about 40 west of Jerusalem. It was With the poison of the asp queen anciently famed for its fine wines, Cleopatra is said to have despatched herand other fruits; and for its templetus, who intended to have carried her capself, and prevented the designs of Augusand fish-pond, sacred to the goddess Derceto. It was the strongest city belonging to the Philistines; but, along with Gaza and Ekron, was wrested from them by the tribe of Judah: under some of the Judges the Philistines recovered it, Judg. i. 18. and xiv. 19. It was taken and plundered

tive to adorn his triumphal entry into Rome. Lord Bacon makes the asp the least painful of all the instruments of death. He supposes it to have an affinity to opium, but to be less disagreeable in its operation.

The ancients had a plaster made of this terrible animal, of which they used againsts pains of the gout, indurations, &c. Eney. art. ASP.

man voices; or whether diviners on- || body, covered with short coarse hair. ly persuaded the vulgar they did so, Asses are generally of a pale dun when unaffected by their charms, we colour, with a black stroke along the know not. It is certain wicked men back, and another across the shoul

are compared to asps for their subtle-ders, and a tail hairy only at the end. ty; their carnal nestling in the earth; The eastern asses are bigger and their gradual, but effectual, murder- more beautiful than ours; and on ing of themselves and others, with the them did even great men, as Abracruel venom, bitter gall, and destruc-ham, Moses, Abdon's and David's tive poison of sin that is in them, and family ride and on them did the always ready to appear in their speech princes of Israel under PEKAH geneand behaviour; and for their obsti-rously send back the Jewish captives nate refusal to regard the engaging that were unfit for travel. Nor had voice of Jesus Christ in the gospel, the captives in their return from BaDeut. xxxii. 33. Job xx. 14, 16. Psal.bylon almost any beasts of burden, beIviii. 4.* sides 6720 asses, Gen. xxii. 3. Exod. iv. 20. Judges xii. 14. 2 Sam. xvi. 2. 2 Chron. xxviii. 17. Neh. vii. 69.There are wild asses, that once were common in Canaan and Arabia, and are still so in Africa; they are extremely beautiful, transversely striped with white, brown, and some

ASPATICUM, (from the Greek importing, "I salute," in ecclesiastic writers,) a place, or apartment, adjoining to the ancient churches, wherein the bishop and presbyters sat, to receive the salutations of the persons who came to visit them, desire their blessing, or consult them on busi-black: they live in desarts and mounness. This is also called aspaticum diaconicum, receptorium, metatorium or mesatorium, and salutatorium; in English, greeting house."

Encycl.

ASS, an animal of the horse kind, with a long head, long ears and round

tains, and are exceeding swift, jealous of their liberty, libidinous, giving to drinking, and usually seen in flocks, Job xi. 12. and xxxix. 5-8. Psal. civ. 11. Jer. xiv. 6. And to them the Ishmaelites are compared, to represent their perpetual freedom, and their lustful, restless, wild, and savage temper, Gen. xvi. 12. Heb. On the

altogether white; and on such the Hebrew princes rode in the days of Deborah, Judg. v. 10.

Under the law asses were unclean, and their firstlings were to be redeem

* The text last quoted refers to an opi-banks of the Euphrates were asses nion, which prevailed very early and universally, of the efficacy of musical sounds in charming serpents; a thing which is represented by Shaw, Bruce and other travellers, who have been in the Levant, as not only possible but frequently seen. Whereas by musick or some other art,ed with the lamb, or to have their necks says Henry on the place, they had a way broken; and are emblems of wicked of charming serpents, so as either to de-men, stupid, impudent, inconstant, stroy them, or at least disable them to do untameable, disposed to feed on vain mischief; there was, according to vulgar imaginations; and who must be retradition, a sort of adder or viper, that deemed by the death of Jesus Christ, would lay one ear to the ground, and stop the other with her tail, so that she could the Lamb of God, or perish forever, not hear the voice of the inchantment, and Exod. xxxiv. 20. Isa. i. 3. Job xi. 12. so defeated the intention of it, and secured Jer. ii. 24. Hos. viii. 9. Of old the herself. The using of this comparison ass was remarkably honoured, in beneither verifies the story, nor, if it were ing miraculously assisted of God to true, justifies the use of this enchantment; for it is only an allusion to the report of rebuke the madness of Balaam, in such a thing, to illustrate the obstinacy of striking her when stopt by the fear of sinners in a sinful way. an angel: nor ought men to ridicule

this story, till they demonstrate the |ness, Isa. i. 13. Acts xix. 32, 39.— incapacity of infinite power to make The solemn assembly of the Jews, was this animal speak; or the improprie- their meetings at their most noted ty of rebuking a proud diviner by festivals, sacrifices, or fasts, Isa. i. 13. such a stupid and contemptible crea-and to be sorrowful for it, was to be ture, Numb. xxii. 2 Pet. ii. 16. But the grieved for the want of these public chief honour of the ass is, that, when ordinances of God, observed in a reit had become most contemptible, gular manner, Zeph. iii. 18. The our adored Saviour thereon made his general assembly of the first born, is triumphant entry into Jerusalem, the harmonious and large meeting of Zech. ix. 9. Matth. xxi. John xii.both Jews and Gentiles in one chrisBoth Jews and Christians were un-tian church; and of all the redeemjustly accused by the Heathen of wor-ed in the heavenly state, Heb. xii. 23. shipping an ass. But it is unworthy They shall come against Aholibah of our notice to observe the occasion with an assembly, with a great army, of this reproach."t to destroy the Jewish nation, Ezek. xxiii. 24.

ASSAULT; to attack violently, Esth. viii. 11.

ASSEMBLE to meet or gather together, Numb. x. 3. Zeph. iii. 8. An ASSEMBLY is a meeting of divers persons to worship God jointly; or to expede civil, or even wicked busi

* From the worship of the golden calf by the people of Israel, the heathens took occasion to spread a gross fiction about the golden head of an ass being worshipped in the temple of Jerusalem. Tacit.

Histor. lib. v. cap. 4.

To ASSENT; to declare agreement in judgment and inclination with some others, Acts xxiv. 9.

ASSIGN; to set apart, or appoint for, Gen. xlvii. 22.

ASSOCIATE; to join together in fellowship or league, Isa. viii. 9. Dan.

xi. 6.

ASSOS, a sea port in the northwest of Lesser Asia, south of Troas, and over against the isle Lesbos. It seems to have been built on a hill.

Near it were famed quarries of the Sarcophagus stone, which consumes Notwithstanding the apparent indiffe- dead bodies, except the teeth in forty rence, sloth, and laziness of the ass, yet days. Here Paul touched, in his when under the influence of love he becomes perfectly furious. Pliny assures us, fourth journey to Jerusalem; but we that when an experiment was made to dis-read of no Christian church in it till cover the strength of maternal affection the 8th century, Acts xx. 13, 14. in a she-ass, she run through the flames in ASSURE; (1.) To make certain; order to come to her colt. The ass smells confirm, Lev. xxvii. 19. (2.) To his master at a distance, searches the pla-embolden, 1 John iii. 19. ces and roads he used to frequent, and easily distinguishes him from the rest of mankind.—If you cover his eyes he will not move another step. Whatever be the pace he is going at, if you push him, he instantly stops.

The ass lives about 30 years-the fe male brings forth in the twelfth month, always one at a time; in seven days after her season returns again.

ASSURANCE; a certainty that renders one bold in adhering to what he has confirmed to him; as, (1.) An assurance of life and property, when these are secured by the solemn law of the land, or by the solemn disposition of the former proprietor, Deut. xxviii. 66. Isa. xxxii. 17. (2.) AssuThe Arabs, Tartars and Romans marlerance of evidence, is full evidence by use of their flesh, and gave it a preference miracles, and by the powerful operato any other food. The ass is found in the tion of the Holy Ghost, Acts xvii. 31. dry and mountainous parts of Great Tartary, southern parts of India, in northern (3.) Assurance of persuasion, which Africa, but Persia is their most usual place is opposite to doubting, as light is to of retirement. Ency. art. Equus. darkness; and the more full the as