cient city of Egypt, Numb. xiii. 7; and somewhere in the lower part of that country not very far from the Mediterranean sea. It was probably the capital for many ages, Isa. xix. 11. and xxx. 4.

ZOAR, or BELA, was one of the five cities that rebelled against, and was reduced by Chedorlaomer, Gen. xiv. It seems to have been in the utmost danger of destruction along with SODOM and the other three but Lot begged, that as it was but small, it might be preserved as a residence for him. His request was granted, and thereafter the place was called Zoar, the little one, Gen. xix. 20, 21, 22. It seems to have stood somewhere about the south end of the Dead sea. Probably numbers of the Moabites fled hither from the ravages of the Assyrian and Chaldean troops, Isa. xv. 5. Jer. xlviii. 34.

ZOBAH, was a kingdom of SyRIA, near about where Damascus stands, and had Rehob and Hadadezer for its kings, 2 Sam. viii.

men to exercise themselves in rolling it, or if the fullers beat their cloth upon it, we know not, 1 Kings i. 9.

ZOPHAR, the Naamathite, one of Job's three uncharitable friends, and who spoke twice against him, Job ii. 11. and xi. 20; and was pardonec by means of Job's prayers, Job xlii. 7—9. Whether Naamath was the name of his ancestor, or of his city, we cannot determine; nor whether he was king of the Mineans, or of the Nomades or wandering Arabs.

ZORAH; a city of the Danites, near the border of Judah. Here Samson was born, Judg. xiii. 2. Its inhabitants are called Zorites and Zorathites, 1 Chron. ii. 54. and iv. 2. Probably this was one of the cities which Rehoboam fortified for the security of his kingdom. 2 Chron. xi. 10.

ZUPH; a Levite, and one of Samuel's ancestors. As he was the chief of the Zuphites, he probably occasioned their territory to be called the land of Zuph, and their city Ra math-zophim, or Ramath of the Zu. phites, 1 Chron. vi. 35. 1 Sam. ix. 5.

ZOHELETH; a noted stone near En-rogel, at which Adonijah held his usurpation-fcast. Whether and i. 1. this stone was used by the young" ZUZIMS. See ZAMZUMMIMS.

FINIS

[THE following was banded in by a friend, with a request that it might be added to the author's Dictionary.-We publish it with much pleasure, and feel confident our subscribers will not be displeased with the room it occupies. The small tract from which the extract is made is extremely scarce, to gratify the friends of Mr. Brown, and those of Christianity, we have lately printed an edition of it.]

AN extract from the Select Remains of the Rev. John Brown, late Minister of the Gospel at Haddington; who died June 19.-1787.

MEMOIRS OF MR. BROWN'S LIFE,

WRITTEN BY HIMSELF TWO OR THREE YEARS BEFORE HE DIED.

THE Rev. John Brown was born in the year 1722, in a little village called Carpou, in the county of Perth, Scotland. The narrative of his experience, which he left is as follows.

The more I consider the dealings between God and my soul, I am the more amazed at his marvellous kindness to me, and my ingratitude and rebeilion against him.

I reflect on it as a great mercy, that I was born in a family which took care of my Christian instruction, and in which I had the previlege of God's worship both morning and evening. This was the case in few families in that corner; and it was the more remarkable, considering that my father had not got any regular instruction in reading.

About the eighth year of my age, I happened in a crowd to push into the church at Abernethy, on a sacrament Sabbath. Then it was common for all but intended communicants to be excluded. Before I was excluded, I heard one or two tables served by a minister, who spake much to the commendation of Christ; this in a sweet and delightful manner captivated my young affections, and has since made me think that children should never be kept out of the church on such occasions. At this period of life my thirst after knowledge was great, and indeed pride often instigated me to diligence. My parents' circumstances were such, that they were not able to afford me any great length of time at school for reading, writing, and arithmetic. I had a particular delight in committing to memory the catechisms published by Vincent, Flavel, and the Westminster assembly, and was much profited by them. One month at school, without my parents' allowance, 1 bestowed upon the Latin.

My father dying about the eleventh year of my age, and my mother soon after, I was left a poor orphan, and had nothing to depend on but the providence of God;--and I must say the Lord hath been the father of the fatherless, and the orphan's stay.

In the thirteenth and fourteenth years of my life, the Lord by his word, read and heard, did often strive with my soul for its good. The perusal of Allan's Alarm to the Unconverted, contributed, in some measure, to awaken my conscience, and to move my affections. However, some of his hints, made worse by my corrupt mind, occasioned my legal covenanting with God, I made much the same use of that excellent book, Guthrie's Trial of a Saving Interest in Christ. Indeed such was the bias of my heart, under her convictions, that I was willing to do any thing rather than flee to Christ, and trust to his free grace alone for my salvation.

I had no small pleasure about this time, in reading religious books, such as the Bible, Rutherford's Letters, Gouge's Directions how to walk with God,

&c. By means of attention to these, I was led into some measure of tenderness in my external behaviour. The impressions which were made on my mind, by the sermons which I heard, and the books which I read, were on certain occasions very great, and sometimes continued for several days. Under these I was much given to prayer, but concealed all my religious exercises to the utmost of my power. Within a few months after my mother's death, I was seized four times with fevers, which succeeded each other rapidly, and which brought me so low, that almost every person who saw me lost all hopes of my recovery: though I did not expect immediate death in those troubles, yet apprehensions of eternity exceedingly affected me. A serious friend told me, after I was recovered, that, when she was praying in my behalf, these words, I will satisfy him with long life, and I will shew him my salvation, were so impressed by God on her heart, that she was perfectly easy under all my distress.

Deprived of my parents, I was obliged to leave a small religious family, and to enter into a larger. This was attended with much practical apostacy from the Lord. My former attainments were lost, and religious exercises were often omitted. Even sweet prayer was not always regularly performed; but I in my folly pleased myself, by making up the number in one day, in which I had been deficient in another.

After many changes in the frame of my heart, Providence again afflicted me with a fever in the nineteenth year of my age: this in some degree awakened my concern about eternal salvation.

After my recovery, I heard a sermon on John vi. 64. There are some of you that believe not. This though delivered by one that was reckoned a general preacher, pierced my conscience, as if almost every sentence had been directed to none but me; and it made me conclude myself one of the greatest unbelievers in the world. My soul was thrown into a sort of agony, and I was made to look on all my former experiences as effects of the common operations of the Holy Ghost. In this manner I viewed them for many years afterwards, till at last God shewed me, that I was wrong in throwing aside all my attainments, as having nothing really gracious in them.

Next day I heard a sermon on Isaiah liii. 4. Surely he hathborne our griefs and carried our sorrows. This enlightened and melted my heart in a way that I had never before felt. I was made as a poor lost sinner, as the chief of sinners, to essay appropriating the Lord Jesus as having done all for me, and as wholly made over to me, in the gospel as the free gift of God; and as my all-sufficient Saviour, answerable to all my folly, ignorance, guilt, filthiness, slavery, and misery. Through this and other ordinances, the pleasure which I had enjoyed in some former years, was not only remarkably returned, but I attained far clearer views of the freedom of God's grace, and the exercise of taking hold of, and pleading the promises of the gospel. I had not been thus much above a year, when I was exercised with a new trial of five years continuance. In consequence of my anxious pursuit after learning, as opportunity was given, and especially by the gracious assistance of God, I had acquired some knowledge of the Latin, Greek, and Hebrew Languages; and was resolved to use them in the service of Christ, if he should open regular door. My learning of these languages without a master except for one month occasioned my obtaining the favour of some, and my meeting with the malice of others. By the last it was represented that I had certainly got my learning in some sinful way; and this groundless calumny spread far and wide. The reproach was exceedingly distressing to me; however God was gracious, for I enjoyed remarkable mixtures of mercy with the affliction.

At the beginning of the trial, these words, The Lord will command his loving kindness in the day-time, and his song shall be with me in the night, and my prayer to the God of my life, were peculiarly sweet to my soul.

The members of the Praying Society, to which I belonged, continued my steady friends, and were more kind to me now than before. My acquaintance with the world being extended, many others also manifested remarkable sympathy. But my chief support under the calumny was the words of truth, which the Lord enabled me to believe.

At Sacramental occasions, at Dunfermline, Burntisland, and Glasgow, he marvellously refreshed my soul, and made these years the most pleasant that ever I had, or perhaps ever shall have on earth.

Discourses on these texts; Heb. x. 37. Yet a little while, and he that shall come will come: Ezek. xxxvii. 12. Behold, O my people, I will open your graves! and Psal. xci. 2. I will say of the Lord he is my refuge : and a Meditation on Psal. v. 1. But as for me, I will come into thy house in the multitude of thy mercy; were peculiarly ravishing-Meanwhile the Lord, by the reproach which was cast on me, led me out to ponder my own heart and way, and made to see myself before him as a devil and much worse.--This excited me to submit to my lot; and kept me from exposing my slanderers. Micah's words much affected my heart, Ch. vii. 8-10. Rejoice not against me, O mine enemy ; when I fall I shall arise : when I sit in darkness the Lord shall be a light unto me, &c. Then and ever since, I have found that the Lord hath most plainly vindicated me when I have made the least carnal struggiing for my own honour. I could not but remark too, that the sting, which I had found in my learning, tended to keep me humble under what I had attained; and the false reproaches which I then met with, have made me all along less credulous of what I have heard charged upon others. On these and other accounts, I have since looked upon that affliction as a kind providence to my soul.--By a wonderful variety of dispensations, the Lord graciously opened a way for my getting some regular instruction in philosophy and divinity; and I was licensed to preach the gospel in the year 1750-I could not be affected, that about this time, if not the same night, in which I was licensed, my primary calumniator was excommunicated by his supporters.Behold, O my soul, the goodness and severity of God-towards him severity, and towards me (perhaps ten thousand times worse) goodness-Let me never be high-minded but fear.

On the morning before I was licensed, that awful text was much impressed on my spirits; Isa. vi. 9, 10. He said go, and tell this people, Hear ye indeed, but understand not; See ye indeed, but perceive not. Make the heart of this people fat, and make their ears heavy, and shut their eyes; lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and convert and be healed. Since I was ordained, at Haddington, I know not how often, it hath been heavy to my heart, to think how much this scripture hath been fulfilled in my ministry. Frequently I have had a desire to be removed by death, from being a plague to my poor congregation. Often, howe ver, I have taxen myself, and have considered this wish as my folly, and begged of the Lord, that if it was not for his glory to remove me by death he would make me successful in my work. As to transportations, I never had a good opinion of the most of them; and I always looked upon it as so far a mercy, that my congregation was small. After all, I dare not but confess, that Christ is the best master I ever served: he hath often laid matter before me, and enabled me with pleasure to deliver his mind. Any little knowledge which I have had of my uncommonly wicked heart, and of the Lord's

dealings with my own soul, hath helped me much in my sermons: and I have observed that I have been apt to deliver that which I had experienced, in a more feeling and earnest manner than other matters.

No sermons that ever I preached were, I think, more sweet to my own soul, than those on the following texts; Psal. cxlii. 7. Ering my soul out of the prison :—Isai. xliv. 5. One shall say I am the Lord's—Chap. xlvi. 5. Even to your old age I am he :-Chap. ix. 20. The days of thy mourning shall be ended:-1 Tim. i. 15, 16. This is a faithful saying and worthy of all accepte tion, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners :-Rev. iii. 21. To him that overcometh will 1 grant to sit with me on my throne :—and John ii. 28. The master is come and calleth for thee.

Now after near forty years preaching of Christ, and his great and sweet salvation; I think that I would rather beg my bread, all the labouring days of the week, for an opportunity of publishing the gospel on the Sabbath, to an assembly of sinful men, than without such a privilege to enjoy the richest possessions on earth.-By the gospel do men live, and in it is the life of my soul-O the kindness of God! Many whose parents have been spared with them for longer than I had mine, are now in deep poverty, or, what is infinitely worse, are abandoned to all manner of wickedness; while by strange means the Lord hath preserved and restrained me.-From low circumstan ces, God hath, by his mere grace, exalted the orphan to the highest state in the church; and I hope hath given some success, not only in preaching and in writing, but also in training up many for the ministry. He chose me to be his servant, and took me from the sheepfold, from following the ewes great with young; he brought me to feed Jacob his people, and Israel his inheritance. Lord what am I, and what is my father's house that thou hast brought me hitherto! Upon a reflection on God's outward providence, I looked upon it as a mercy, that, considering the dreadful pride of my heart, God did not make my talent to lie so properly, in a quick and extensive view of things at first, but rather in a close, persevering and unwearied application, to that in which I was engaged-In the former respect, I was always much inferior to many of my brethren.-I cannot but remark also as a kindness in providence, that though when I commenced a preacher, my imagination sometimes led me to use flighty expressions in my sermons, the Lord made me ashamed of this, as a real robbery from him, to sacrifice to my accursed pride-Since that time, notwithstanding my eager hunting after all the lawful learning, which is known among the sons of men, God hath made me generally to preach, as if I had never read another book but the Bible.-I have essayed to preach scriptural truths in scriptural language.

When I consider my earthly-mindedness, I admire the almighty grace of God, in so disposing my heart, that it has rather been my care, to manage frugally what God provided for me, than greedily to grasp at more.

I think, with respect to my congregation, that I have aimed at seeking them and not theirs; and I am convinced, their charitable belief of this, hath disposed them all along to regard me, and to afford me sufficient subsistence; yet, It was not I, but the grace of God, which did all. I have looked upon it also a gracious over-ruling of my mind; that though I have grudged paying a penny or two for a trifle, the Lord hath enabled me cherfully to bestow as many pounds for pious purposes; and owing to kind Providence, my wealth, instead of being diminished by this means is much increased.— From experience I can testify, that liberality to the Lord is one of the most effectual means of making one rich.--There is that scattereth, and yet increas eth; and there is that withholdeth more than is meet, and it tendeth to poverty,